Odd behavior with ear yeast? (Updated: dealing with stasis)

[toujours_melissa]

First off: Lucille and I went to the vet this morning and they said that she has a yeast infection in her ears and gave us drops. This is good information and treatment, buuuut the reason I called the vet was some behavior that really freaked me and my husband out. 

Last night Lucille was closed in her condo for bedtime and started shaking and breathing hard. When we went to pet her to calm her down, she laid down and stretched out. Still shaking and breathing heavily, and with her chin/dewlap in her water bowl. We opened up the door to let her out in case she felt confined, but she stayed there. I eventually pulled her out so we could either try to calm her or see if something seemed injured/hurt, and she hopped to her favorite spot in our living room where she sat shaking and breathing hard while we pet her. Eventually she seemed to calm down, and she went bedtime very nicely for us. 

This morning when we got up, she hadn’t pooped a lot, but was excited for her breakfast salad, which she mostly inhaled (she abandoned some romaine). Next thing we know, she’s shaking and breathing hard. Same thing with lying down and stretching out when pet, and not coming out when we opened her condo door. She probably shook and breathed quickly for an hour and a half, but calmed down (still lying there). Wasn’t interested in her pellets, and while she responded to our touch, she allowed us to do things she (and most rabbits) wouldn’t normally let us do: touch her belly, feet, and even lift/move her tail and legs to get a peek at her belly/genitals. She got up when I called her to get in her carrier for the vet, and drank some water then. She turned her nose up at the treats I offered for getting in her carrier, but eventually ate them at the vet. 

Could the ear yeast just be bothering her enough to cause these symptoms? Her vet said that might be it, but I’m still kind of worried. I’m glad to be treating the ear infection, but her behavior is scary because it feels so out of character for her and for any rabbit. We’ve only had her for 3 weeks, so we’re still learning her behaviors and what’s normal and okay for her, and she IS a rescue and kind of nervous in general. Thanks for any thoughts you have on this behavior that might help this anxious bunny mamma out! 

(Also, I should mention that I like our vet’s office and I think they are good, but I learned today that they don’t treat stasis and that there is a true “rabbit vet” (exotic animal hospital) 45 minutes away that they would refer us to if we had a bunny with stasis, so I’ll be considering switching.) 

[Mocha]

I would switch vets. Stasis is pretty commin in rabbits and I would have a vet that does treat it.
Has she been better? Less shaking, eating, pooping normally?
If she hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, it’s an emergency and you need to go to the vet immedietly. Rabbits rarely show any signs of illness, so when they do, you need to take it seriously.
My rabbits are rescues but they’ve never really been terrified, just a little nervous.

[Tessie]

I’d definitely switch vets. I went to a nice vet, but they referred me to an exotic animal hospital once and I never went back to the old vet, the treatment and advice available there is just so much better.

Hope your bun is okay! Keep offering favourite treats, anything she wants to eat, and maybe try tummy rubs.

[LittlePuffyTail]

How is your bunny doing now?

[toujours_melissa]

Thanks for the replies and for checking back in! I’ve been pretty distracted, because Lucille didn’t use her litterbox at all after we got up at 6am and refused all food after that breakfast salad I mentioned she inhaled. We went to the emergency vet and they were fantastic – we will be taking our bunnies to them now that we know they exist! (It’s a university teaching vet and the vets we saw are not exotics experts, but were much more knowledgeable than other vets we’ve seen and they were also able to consult with an exotics vet who was on call.)

We’ve been feeding critical care, giving painkillers and a motility drug, and subcutaneous fluids since Saturday morning. She needs a lot of critical care, so we’ve been doing it every 2 hours. She pooped last night (YAY! – and again today, though not much) and has urinated a good amount. She is pretty hesitant to eat, though, so we are still offering greens and making hay available. Little bites and nibbles of hay, but not any serious hay eating yet. I really want her to start eating on her own, but I know that takes time. Hoping maybe tonight/tomorrow will do it!

Wasn’t expecting stasis just from her behavior, even with the ear infection, but I feel like maybe now we know her warning signs.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m glad you found a vet you like.

And glad to hear she is eating some and pooping. Did the vet give any indication as to what they think is causing it? Did they feel for a blockage or suggest x-rays? Keep us updated. ((((Lucille)))))

[toujours_melissa]

No indication as to what’s causing this. They did x-rays and saw that her stomach was distended with gas (and had some food in it), and no blockage. I’m wondering if her ear yeast REALLY started bothering her? She’s also lived with us for just 3 weeks, so I suppose the change in diet (more fresh veggies, treats), the bonding sessions with Thumper, or just the stress of the move and new home could have done it too.

Lucille still doesn’t want to eat, although she seems to be getting stronger (fights more with us about the critical care, is more alert/active during her sub-q fluids) and she’s a little bit more active than she has been. I suspect she still isn’t feeling great though since she turns away from food.

This is our 2nd time dealing with stasis (Thumper had it last year, unexplained) and it’s just the most heartwrenching thing. He was pretty angry with us once we started force feeding him though, and would run as soon as we approached him, and she seems to be okay with us approaching her still. Not sure if that means she gets that we are trying to help her, if she’s just a zen bunny rabbit, or if she still feels so poorly that she doesn’t care enough to run.

[JackRabbit]

I can feel your pain. I have one that went into GI stasis from bonding stress. We’re taking a long bonding break and trying a different approach next time.

Hope your bun snaps out of this soon. {{{{Lucille}}}}

[toujours_melissa]

Thank you JackRabbit! What were you doing that stressed your bun out so much? Regardless of whether it was the bonding stress that caused this, we probably shouldn’t have started bonding until she had lived here for longer. We were just so excited to introduce them!

[JackRabbit]

We did things like sit right there with them, etc. that prolonged things and kept them from working things out on there own. After reading Tanlover’s bonding website (wheekwheekthump.com) we figured out what our problems were. By that time, my two girl buns wanted each other “gone”. So, we’re on a long bonding break to help all of us recover emotionally.

[toujours_melissa]

Thanks JackRabbit Good luck! I hope it all works out!

Lucille is pretty chill about the syringe feeding by now, which makes it easier on us, but she is really NOT interested in eating food on her own I was hoping she’d be eating a little on her own by now.

[JackRabbit]

Glad to hear she’s doing better with the syringe. Kieko would have no part of it – such fight for a little bunny. It took two of us to get any in her. I think I wore more than she ate.

Have you tried hand-feeding hay? All of ours think that hand-fed hay is “special” hay, just like hand-fed salad is better than what’s is the bowl, etc.

[toujours_melissa]

She turns away from anything we offer her, unfortunately. Doesn’t seem to matter if it’s in our hands, left on her plate or in her bowl, etc. And while she is okay with syringe feeding, we have to try pretty hard to get her to chew!

We are planning to call the vet with questions again today (I’m waiting until my husband gets home). She seems to still be in pain/uncomfortable (some tooth grinding, some heavier/noisier breathing occasionally – unclear to us if that’s her telling us she doesn’t feel well or if it’s a symptom of another problem), she seems to be straining/uncomfortable when she does use her litterbox (which is kind of rarely…but then again, all she eats is critical care!), and while she isn’t as lethargic as she was, she might be getting a little bit more lethargic again.

On the bright side, she’s barely messing with her ears. I assume that’s because the drops are making them less itchy…although I have also considered that it could be because she doesn’t feel well. :/

[Sarita]

Are you still doing sub-q fluids?

[toujours_melissa]

Sarita , yes, we are still doing the sub-q fluids. We did reduce them a little bit (after asking the vet) as she was on a lot (400ml/day) and didn’t seem to be absorbing it all.

The vet said it sounds like she is still in pain, so they decided to give her tramadol (they said we could try children’s motrin instead of the metacam, and we did one dose, but decided to go ahead and do the tramadol in hopes that it would help her feel much better.) She just had her 2nd dose of that this morning, so I’m hoping that she’ll seem less lethargic than yesterday!

Lucille has been eating a few nibbles of hay and veggies, but we’re talking just one bite here or there. Progress, though, as we don’t think she had anything by mouth (beyond critical care and meds) Saturday or Sunday (or Monday?)!

Our girl has been having lots of mushy poops, though, and has a very sticky messy tush. I think we’re going to have to resort to putting her in some warm water :/ Warm wet washcloths and wiping/pulling/cutting hair aren’t doing the job.

[LittlePuffyTail]

How is she doing today?

You could try putting a small amount of warm water in the sink and just giving her bum a little dunk. That’s what I do when Bindi has messy poos.

[toujours_melissa]

Thanks for checking on us! 

Lucille clearly feels MUCH better. She’s not crazy active, but she’s definitely more alert and not lethargic. The tramadol seems to be doing the trick. She’s nibbling here and there (my husband made a run to the grocery store last night to get her sage when she ate 3 leaves in a row and then we were out! Naturally then she didn’t want any more, haha. ) We just wish that she would EAT. 

Poor kiddo with her messy tush, though – we tried dunking her and really stressed her out (but she ended up much cleaner…for about 20 minutes…until it happened again….) but this evening we held her over an empty litter box and poured water and she was good about it. Her fur is a disaster – so stained, but I think all the poo chunks are gone! 

Tomorrow is her follow-up at the vet. I’m hoping that they will have good ideas on where to go from here. 

I may have said this before, but we are continually impressed by what a sweet, sweet girl we brought home 3.5 weeks ago. When our boy had stasis, he’d lived with us for a year and he fought us HARD with the critical care and ran from us anytime we went near him because he thought we’d pick him up for a feeding (this broke my heart). Lucille doesn’t love being picked up, but we wrap her in a towel and barely have to restrain her to give her her meds and critical care, and even immediately after an hour of being restrained for meds/food/fluids, she’ll sit and let us pet her. I fully expected her to hate our guts and take forever to trust us instead of letting us love on her. (She is bossy, though – if I’m petting her side she doesn’t hesitate to make sure I know I’m supposed to be rubbing her face!)

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m glad to hear she is eating some. A less stressful way to tidy up her bum is to use cornstarch. It won’t remove the stains but it will help dry out the moosh and you can work it out easier and it will absorb the smell.

Good luck at your appointment!

[toujours_melissa]

Vet follow-up was great! They got a tiny poo swab and examined it and found that Lucille has some dysbiosis (overgrowth of some of the normal bacterial flora in the gut). This is probably why she has the mushy poops. They also looked at her x-rays from last week and saw that she had a lot of gas in her cecum, which was irritating it. So she has a medication to help even out the flora and to help any inflammation in her gut. We’re cutting down on the critical care to hopefully encourage her to eat (they want her to only eat hay and pellets, no veggies for now, which is different from what we did with our other bunny previously), but we will still feed her critical care. She’ll keep taking the tramadol until it’s gone, but no more sub-q fluids and no more cisapride. Of course, this is all hoping that she (a) continues to poop and (b) will start eating more on her own.

The vets we saw today seemed to think that maybe the whole new home, new people, new bunny friend, just stressed her out to the point of stasis. We’ll let her get good and healthy and then try bonding again. Unfortunately, I’ll be back at work in a month (I teach) and we were hoping they’d be bonded and able to keep each other company during the day by then. Oh well!

LittlePuffyTail – we’d tried the cornstarch on our other bunny a long time ago and just made a huge mess. Any tips for trying that route?

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