Ugh….STASIS!

[Morwenna88]

Some background information- my 1.5 year old mini lop, Fatbit, seems to be prone to stasis, especially during molts. He’s not a big fan of drinking enough water, which I think is the main issue of these episodes. His diet consists of high quality timothy/orchard mix that I bought from a local farmer, the day after it was baled, timothy pellets (not sure what brand, I buy it at Murdoch’s), and the occasional lettuce or dandelion leaf.

Right now he’s going through his heavy late summer molt, which he’s really having a hard time with. He had a small episode a couple of weeks ago which I was able to nurse him through and he was better in 8 hours. 

Yesterday at 4:30am, I woke up to give him his breakfast, but he was hunched in his cage and refused food, so I stayed up and nursed him, giving him simethicone and water orally and putting him on a heating pad off and on until I could take him to the vet. The vet took an x-ray, it didn’t reveal any blockages but showed build up in his abdomen, putting pressure on his lungs, which indicated that thing weren’t moving along. He was breathing really fast and his temp was low. She gave him warm subq fluids, metoclopramide, buprenorphine for pain, and a vitamin B shot and kept him for the morning and part of the afternoon with heat therapy to bring his temp back up. She sent me home with a bag of vitamin B fortified lactated Ringer’s solution and two doses of metacam. 

When I brought him home, all he wanted to do was sit hunched at the bottom of his cage. He ate some lettuce with a little coaxing, but didn’t want to drink water, so I force fed him some Critical Care and water. Simethicone every 4 hours and one dose of metacam. He had a decent poop too. 

I checked on him in the middle of the night, still the same, gave him more simethicone and a belly rub. All night he was mopey at the bottom of his cage. At one point, he went to his litterbox and strained, but no luck, and he went back over to his spot with his eyes half closed. 

This morning, I took his temp, 101.4, so that was good. I got 50cc’s of subq in him and took him to the vet for observation and more treatment. At the vet he was curious and moving around. She gave him a shot of cisapride . The tech said he ate a lot of lettuce and pooped a little. At home, all he wants to do is sit at the bottom of his cage and pout. I bought him some bene-bac which I haven’t given him yet. I’m wondering if it’s okay to mix it with water and give it to him as an oral dose instead of on food, I don’t see a reason why not…I also have some metoclopramide syrup I’m supposed to give him every 8 hours for 3 days. 

He’s working a little bit on his fresh parsley/cilantro/romaine salad right now, which is a good sign, but I’m still worried. In the past when he’s had stasis or gas, he bounced back within the day. It’s now been almost two days and he’s still not himself. I could really use some extra advice and encouragement. >_< 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Have you had his teeth checked? That can be a common thing that causes stasis. Dehydration isn’t helpful for a bunny with tummy troubles, but it’s often not the cause-usually they start to get discomfort, stop eating and drinking and thus dehydrate. To encourage water intake you can provide wet veggies. But to get to the bottom of it, I’d get his teeth checked (A good xray will do better than a vet peeking in his mouth) and brush brush brush during molts.

[Morwenna88]

The vet checked his teeth a couple of months ago and they were fine. He’s pretty young and I don’t think you see a lot of teeth problems in younger rabbits. I do think the cause was too much pellets and stress from his molt. I’ll be greatly reducing, if not eliminating pellets from his diet and upping his salads every day.

Now I’m freaking out because I just discovered a rather large ball-like lump on his left forearm. Oh my gosh I hope it’s nothing serious…..

[Morwenna88]

I just found a somewhat mucous-y cecal in his litterbox, but he’s eating, drinking, grooming, and generally acting normal right now. Still I’m in full blown panic attack mode. I need a sedative…

[Bam]

(((((((Fatbit)))))))

Eating, drinking, grooming sounds good.
The lump will of course have to be investigated further, but first things first.

[Morwenna88]

The lump seemed to have shrunk overnight and I just got home and it’s pretty much gone, so I guess it was some fluids from subq that had moved down and didn’t absorb as quickly. He’s still somewhat subdued but eating and drinking well. He’s not really interested in coming out to play, but then again, this is the time of day when he’s usually napping anyway. We’ll see how he’s feeling tonight….

[Bam]

I’m glad the lump was “nothing”.

It may take them a while to get back to their normal selves after a bout of stasis.

[Author]

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