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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post GI surgery – Any advice?

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    • MythreeBunnies
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        Hi guys I’m new here and I’m hoping someone has some advice on my bunny Romeo. He’s a very handsome New Zealand White . Sorry in advance for the long post, he’s been through quite a lot.

        Anyways, Thursday evening he had been playing in the living room like normal when I noticed he looked kind of stressed out. I saw that he had broken a claw. It stopped bleeding almost immediately, but because he looked stressed I put him in his X-pen to calm him down a little. Two hours later he suddenly looked really bad. Lying on his side, and not fighting at all when I picked him up. My husband rushed him straight to our bunny emergency vet. I had assumed injury from over exertion and so did they. He was treated for shock and put immediately on fluids and put in an incubator to get his temp up so that they could give him pain meds. Later that night they did an xray to see what the damage was and low and behold they found a foreign body lodged just above his cecum. No injuries after all. They gave him pain meds and Reglan but told us he would have to have it removed surgically by our regular vet.

        So the next day we took him to our usual vet who had hoped within the few hours that had passed, the foreign body would have moved and he could just perform an enema. Of course it hadn’t so he described the surgery and all the risks involved. I was crying by now and he was even choking up, and I kissed Romeo goodbye for what I thought would be the last time 

        Luckily my Romeo pulled through. The foreign body was removed successfully. He stayed on fluids and was put on Buprenorphine for pain, SMZ/TMP in case of infection and Cisapride to get his GI tract moving again. That night we transferred him back to the emergency vet so that he could remain on fluids, be force fed and watched all night. The next morning we transferred him back to our regular vet. (The ER is only open during hours regular vets are not). By now Romeo looked pretty depressed and was lying with all four feet splayed to the sides. This has to be uncomfortable because he’s a whopping 10 pounds.

        After being observed all day, our vet released him to come home with lots of special instructions. I force fed him every 1-2 hours day and night for the first two days home. Now he’s eating and drinking on his own and starting to put up a fight with his meds which I like better than him just lying there and taking them. My worry is that he still is lying with his legs splayed out. When he moves, he kind of shuffles on his chest along the floor. He can stand however. several times throughout the day he stretches up on all four feet, stands for a few seconds then lies back down again in the same way. 

        Have any of you seen this before after surgery? Do you think he’ll be able to move normally again? I’m very worried that this will become permanent, but I’m not really sure if there is anything I can do. Any advice??? Thanks!!

         


      • Sarita
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          Vibes to Romeo! I love the NZW rabbits.

          I have not heard of this – have you contacted the vet about this? I think I would call and discuss this with him. That does not sound normal at all to me.


        • MythreeBunnies
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            He is a tough bunny . I have discussed this with my vet however because the risk of complications from surgery was so high, he wants to wait and allow him to recover before we explore his legs. It’s bothering me a lot tho, because I worry that the longer we wait, the more chance of it becoming permanent. It’s mostly his front legs, which are both shaved from having an IV.


          • Deleted User
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              I’m so sorry about Romeo! Vibes! I hope he gets better. Do you have a back up vet that you could call and ask them what they think of the leg problem? Maybe they would have an idea of what to do to help the situation. I really do hope he gets better.


            • LittlePuffyTail
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                I`m so sorry to hear about Romeo`s situation. While I don`t have any experience in this area, I just want to offer my vibes and well wishes. If he`s the bun in your avatar, he`s beautiful. And certainly a tough little bun since he made it through the surgery.

                Please keep us updated.

                ((((((Get Better Soon Romeo)))))


              • tobyluv
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                  I don’t have any advice for you, but I hope that Romeo will completely recover soon.


                • MythreeBunnies
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                    Thank you everybody for sending him the good vibes. He is the bunny in my avatar, I took that picture the day that he came home from surgery.

                    Unfortunately yesterday he started passing really small poops, then really big mushy ones, then none at all. My vet felt that he was getting too much cisapride, so told me to stop giving it to him. He went back to the emergency vet for the night for more fluids and because still no poops. This morning however my regular vet had the day off and so I got to go to another local bunny vet. I probably should have gone to her first. She said she thinks she could have avoided the surgery. I’m trying really hard not to linger on that fact…..trying….not succeeding. Anyways she said that the pain meds he’s on are contradicting the cisapride by slowing him down. We switched pain meds, she took another xray which showed lots and lots of gas but luckily no fluid is leaking from the incision site inside. Also found a stone in his kidney :/ She said we’ll deal with that later. But the big news is I found out why he’s lying splayed out like he is. Apparently the incision site needs pressure on it at all times to heal right. She says he’s got very good bunny instincts and that it won’t be permanent. Phew. He’s home now and I’m force feeding again, and still keeping up with his meds. Still no poops but I’ve got my fingers crossed they come soon. I never thought I’d be so excited to see poop!

                    Looks like I made it long again, sorry about that. But thanks for all the positive energy!


                  • LittlePuffyTail
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                      (((((More Healing Vibes for Romeo))))))


                    • Sarita
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                        More vibes for Romeo. So glad you’ve found a vet you can trust too.


                      • Deleted User
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                          (((((Healing Vibes for Romeo)))))) Good to hear he has great bunny instincts. =]


                        • Snowytoshi
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                            Sending my loves and healing vibes <3


                          • BinkyBunny
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                              Wow so the vet with the latest info (sounds promising) was another local vet? Sounds like she knows quite a great deal.

                              How is your bunny doing now?


                            • MythreeBunnies
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                                Yes. There are 6 vets within 20 minutes from my house that see rabbits so I guess that I’m very lucky. However it gets confusing when they all have very different things to say!

                                Romeo is recovering very slowly. He hates the force feeding…not that I blame him much! He just won’t eat on his own at all. His poops are still so small. It seems like we’ve started on a long road and the vets won’t give him more than a guarded prognosis. Its like a horrible roller coaster. 


                              • MimzMum
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                                  I’m sorry to hear you and your bunny have been through so much. (((((((((((((((((((((healing vibes)))))))))))))))))))))))
                                  Everything I have read about GI surgery on rabbits tells about how it is very risky and recovery is difficult. I’m glad to see he is soldiering on and hope he will recover completely and soon.
                                  I was going to say, I can imagine anything that disturbed or cut the abdominal muscles and membranes would make it hard for him to move afterwards. I know people are different, but I recently moved something heavy enough to separate my abdominal muscles for about a week or two. It’s been almost impossible to move/get out of bed/bend or straighten without intense pain or finding myself unable to do it at all. Considering how bunnies must use their gut muscles for so much movement, if those are compromised a bunny can probably do little other than waddle around on it’s tummy.
                                  I’m glad you have a better vet to rely on for him. It’ll probably take a while for him to be his old self again, so just take it slow and if anything looks unusual of course you know to call your vet right away. Bunny gut problems can go so wrong so quickly.
                                  What was the foreign object, btw, if you don’t mind my asking, I didn’t see it in your posts. It’s amazing what they’ll get into when we’re not looking and sometimes when we are! Mine have eaten cardboard, cloth, paper towels and once my minirex got hold of the metallic fabric covering on my thermal blanket and nommed a few bits off it…I found that coming out the other end for about a week in his poo. 0_0

                                  I’ll keep you and Romeo in my prayers. Hang in there, you’re doing a great job with him.


                                • bunnygirl
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                                    I would also like to know what that foreign object was!
                                    (((((More vibes)))))


                                  • MythreeBunnies
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                                      The foreign body was by far the weirdest part of this whole process. In the xray it was very dense. So dense that they believed it was metal, which was why we went straight to surgery when it hadn’t moved. What they removed was more like compacted sand and hair. They couldn’t believe that it caused so much of a problem so they xrayed again to make sure that it was in fact the blockage. The vet gave it to me in a little vile and the ER vet, the first vet and my newest vet aren’t quite sure what it is or why it built up like that. The most reasonable explanation was that maybe it was sand from the hay that I purchase, which is bulk timothy hay.


                                    • MythreeBunnies
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                                        Just wanted to give everybody an update on Romeo. He had his stitches out last Tuesday and then the outer incision site started to come open. I have never seen that happen after the stitches come out. He got stitched back up on Friday, but there was a strange little lump under the skin which appeared to be pushing on the previous incision site. By Friday night the lump was really large and felt very strange so we went back to the emergency vet. It turns out that there was a very small hole between his internal sutures and his small intestine had fallen through. He had to have emergency surgery again. When she opened him up there was necrosis in his small intestine. After exploratory surgery she located it and removed a large portion of the intestine, not before it burst though! She stitched him up, making sure to leave no openings between stitches. He’s been hospitalized ever since then, but he’s active AND eating and pooping! I just wanted to share this incredible story with you all because everything out there suggests none of this can be done successfully on a rabbit. Well Romeo is proof that it can!


                                      • Sarita
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                                          Continued vibes to Romeo – he’s been through so much!


                                        • meatballandnoodle
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                                            Awww, sending Romeo healing vibes. I wish him a speedy recovery.


                                          • LittlePuffyTail
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                                              That poor little darling…makes me so sad that he has to go through so much. He’s lucky to have you by his side through it all.

                                              (((((Get Well Soon Romeo))))))


                                            • MythreeBunnies
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                                                Thanks guys! He has been through SO much. I’m really hoping for a happy ending!! This is the one day that his vet is out of the office and of course he started chewing his stitches!!!! I am REALLY, REALLY trying to avoid yet another trip to the emergency vet so I put a dog t-shirt around his middle to prevent him doing damage. Has anyone ever done this before? He doesn’t like it at all, but I’m thinking it’s much better than the alternatives. This won’t hurt his stitches will it?

                                                 


                                              • MythreeBunnies
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                                                • LittlePuffyTail
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                                                    Awwww….he looks so adorable. Poor little angel. Sending him many many ((((Well Wishes for a very Speedy Recovery)))))).

                                                    I don’t assume it would hurt the stitches, but I would check with your vet. You certainly don’t want any additional problems to deal with. And, of course, make sure to check the incision at least once a day.


                                                  • Sarita
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                                                      What a sweetie – I think that is a very good alternative. More vibes for Romeo.

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                                                  Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post GI surgery – Any advice?