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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Help – Problematic Caecum

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    • A.cowan182
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        Hi all I have a 3 1/2 year old lion head bunny! After adopting her and her sister 7 months ago she has had real problems settling in. Every other week she would start sneezing and stop eating so then I would have to take her to the vets where she would stay overnight and come back good as new. She is incredibly difficult to give critical care to (even the nurses really struggled) so I had to bring her in pretty quickly.

        She’s been on Zantac and metoclopimide pretty consistently the whole time I’ve had her. At first we thought it was all down to stress I.e. New house, building works going on in the building etc. But now I’ve noticed a pattern in her behaviour that I think may be the key especially as her sister has settled in perfectly with no problems.

        If she is going to take a downturn she will start to sneeze and repeatedly groom around her bottom and try to eat a cecotrope, if she doesn’t produce/manage to eat one she will continue to sneeze, shuffle, not eat and generally look very unhappy. Now that I’m pretty sure she has some sort of problem with her caecum I’m not clear on what the next step should be for long term care. Our vet has been fantastic but we’re all a bit stumped on why this is happening and how to get it under control. I’ve even been using the pet remedy spray and giving her rescue remedy if I think she’s stressed…to be honest if someone told me to run round in circles with a funny hat on would help I would do it!

        Her downturns have been less frequent than they were at the start,maybe every other month? But her last one a few weeks ago was the worst I’ve seen and was very aggressive I.e. needing a feeding tube with an impacted caecum in 2 days.

        Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this or have any tips?


      • jerseygirl
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          Welcome!
          I’m sorry she’s been having so much trouble.

          I was actually reading about impacted caecum yesterday. From memory, it’s usually due to inappropriate fibre. Meaning, high intake of the wrong type of fibre. So if a rabbit eats too much cardboard or paper based litter for instance.

          Does she have a tendency to do that? What are her hay eating habits like?

          2 things I’d ask your vet to add to the therapy when she has these episodes are
          1) subcutaneous fluids- this is something you can continue at home and even get her on at onset, prior to vet visit.
          2) NSAID such at meloxicam or carprofen. The latter might be better for her.

          sneeze and repeatedly groom around her bottom and try to eat a cecotrope, if she doesn’t produce/manage to eat one she will continue to sneeze, shuffle, not eat and generally look very unhappy.

          It’s likely she experiencing some tummy pain. Getting on top of pain is key.

          As to cause of these episodes, sneezing might be the first thing to investigate. Is she producing any discharge? Sneezing can often be attributed to dental issues like root overgrowth. If she does go for inappropriate fibre, I’d suspect dental issues even more. The other thing with sneezing is there may be swelling in nasal passages. So this makes it more difficult for them to breath. That makes eating & drinking even more tricky. An NSAID can help reduce swelling.

          Do you notice if she sneezes more when the weather warms up? Keeping temps cooler and humidity higher can help keep the nasal passages open.

          Xrays may be worthwhile to check tooth roots and upper jaw and nasal bone structure. Chronic infection can cause changes in the bone structure – both thickening and bone loss. My rabbit that sneezes a lot (no discharge) recently presented with a facial abscess. It caused bone loss to part of his ear and end of his jaw.

          {{{Vibes}}} for your bun. I hope you can get to the bottom of why this is happening.


        • jerseygirl
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            Just wanted to add, if these episodes cannot be attributed to her eating habits/dental/URI, then possibly there is a toxin(s) effecting the nerves in the gut.

            The fusus coli (Part of the gut that controls when & what type of faeces pass through the gut) is controlled by hormones. So this may be another avenue to investigate. There are a lot of nerves to this part of the intestine.


          • A.cowan182
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              Thanks so much for your detailed reply I really appreciate it!

              Her hay eating habits were not great so to try and encourage her to eat more I have cut her pellets in half, gotten better quality timothy hay & added a second litter tray. This does seem to have improved her hay eating, I also give her a scoop of fibre pellets and leave fibre sticks out. In regards to inappropriate fibre she is one for a bit of bunstruction, I do have a couple of cardboard boxes out for them but I’m not sure whether shes eating more than shes tearing off? Next time I see her at it I’ll pay more attention!

              Ah yes I have heard of those fluids, can you administer those yourself at home? The vet was talking about a more long term stomach med I can’t quite remember the name but I’ll definitely ask next time Im in!

              The weird thing about the sneezing is that theres never any discharge, when she was in the vets a few weeks ago they Xrayed her and there was some tiny spurs (which they drilled off) but the vet said they were too small to cause any trouble for a normal rabbit but clearly my rolo is a sensitive soul! I’m so sorry to hear about your rabbit I hope he recovers quickly!

              There was a theory we had that when I first got her she was on a long course of Baytril (over a month) as the vet originally thought it was pasturella causing the sneezing and not eating that may have caused an imbalance in her gut. Do you know of anything else I could do to promote the production of more healthy bacteria?

              Again thanks so much for your help, you start to feel a bit helpless with all this plus people can be dismissive saying its ‘only a rabbit’ but we know exactly how important they are!


            • jerseygirl
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              22338 posts Send Private Message

                There was a theory we had that when I first got her she was on a long course of Baytril (over a month) as the vet originally thought it was pasturella causing the sneezing and not eating that may have caused an imbalance in her gut. Do you know of anything else I could do to promote the production of more healthy bacteria?

                You could try some probiotics. Some of us had a recent conversation about these in this thread.
                https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/145391/afnp/471329/Default.aspx

                Has she been tested for intestinal parasites?

                 

                I’m curious, were the girls spayed long before you adopted them? Or did you have this done after adopting? I’m just wondering if the spay and scar tissue could have anything to do with her problems. I realise that doesn’t explain the sneezing…maybe that occurring at same time is coincidental? 

                If you live in the part of the world where natural forage is in abundance, collect some of that for her. Rabbits that have gut problems do really well on natural forage diets. Hawthorn, willow, bramble, hazel, dandelion, plantain, blackberry, apple wood and leaves, roses (petals and stems and leaves). All great fibre and may interest her more then hay.Though, she needs to eat her hay… Rolo? Eat your hay Honey!

                I’m so sorry to hear about your rabbit I hope he recovers quickly!

                Thank you! He’s doing well.

                EDIT TO ADD: Some additional reading on disorders of the caecum, if you haven’t read it before. 

                There is a part in there about giving IV fluids for caecal impaction. I forgot to answer your question earlier about sub-cutaneous fluids. Yes, you can give these at home. You could get your vet to show you how and purchase supplies from them. For IV fluids however, this would be done at the clinic and the rabbit likely be in for a hospital stay.


              • Bam
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                  I just want to add that a bunny absolutely can be affected by really tiny molar spurs. My bunny Yohio had the tiniest spurs so my vet didn’t think they were a problem. His refusal to eat didn’t improve so after 3 weeks, the vet decided to have them burred just in case. And that did the trick, a couple of days later (when the mouth-soreness after the burr had subsided) my bunny started eating again, he was just back to his old self again.

                  If they can’t chew their food properly, their stomachs suffer, so you often get gas-pain and sticky poop etc. If you suspect gas pain you can give baby gas drops (simethicone), it helps breaking up gas bubbles and Medirabbit and rabbit vets Dana Krempel and Molly Varga independently says it can be used on suspicion of gas and won’t harm. 

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              Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Help – Problematic Caecum