PLEASE HELP

[Annabelle's mommy]

I am in full panic mode, any advice would be appreciated!!!

My 1 1/2 year holland lop is not eating.  Refusing everything, even her treats.  She hasn’t pooped in 6 hours (approx.).  She was acting lethargic, and eyes were droopy.  I’m worried shes stressed and in GI stasis as a few days ago we came to stay with my parents for the holiday, however she was very happy up until now.  

My family cat is ill and had some metacam here which I administered to anna.  It is 0.5mg/ml and I gave her approx.., 0.5 which sadly is all I can give as my cat still needs some.

Bun is moving , and jumped up on my bed.  I’ve been trying to chase her to increase movement.  She flops and lays down for only a few seconds before getting back up and sitting upright.  

It is late where I live, and tomorrow is a holiday (thanksgiving).  I can’t take her to a vet now even if there was one open, as I have no access to a car. My parents also live in a small town, I don’t know if theres even a rabbit vet around, and her normal vet is 2 hours away.

With me I have:

pellets, kale, berries, pear juice (no pineapple), apples, chamomile tea, apple sauce

That is essentially all I have to work with, unless there is something you can think of that could be in the house.  I have probiotic capsules but I’m not sure that would help at the moment.

 I refuse to lose this battle, I love her to death and will do whatever I have to to help.

Thank you bun community for your continued support.  Any ideas which don’t involve the vet or critical care or baby gas drops would be appreciated.  Tomorrow morning I’ll try and get to a vet but for now what is my best course of action?

[ThorBunny]

Is there a pharmacy near you that you can get to? If so, you can give her infant gas drops (Simethicone) for gas pain, which is often the cause of or associated with stasis.

Usually it’s recommended to give 1ml every hour for for 3 hours. It’s non-toxic, as the medication passes right through the GI tract, so there’s little chance of harm.

Other than that, keep her warm and try to offer wet greens and hay if she will take it. Others can chime in if it’s a good idea to force feed. It might be harmful if she has a blockage, but it’s important to keep food moving through them. If you don’t have critical care you can substitute mashed up pellets in warm water or unsweetened canned pumpkin.

Good luck! I know how stressful this can be as I’ve just been through it. (((Vibes for bun bun))))

[Annabelle's mommy]

 I went to the pharmacy and got rantidine and baby gas drops.  I gave her a mL or more of the baby gas drops, I heard some gas bubbles moving, but right now silent.  I’m massaging and keeping her warm, but shes very very lethargic.  She can still run and jump (away from me when i try to force feed her), but she doesnt want to move otherwise.

I’ve tried everything I can think of. Is letting her sleep a bad idea? She seems to want to so badly, but I’m so scared she wont wake up.

*sigh* 

thanks for your reply, anna and I appreciate the help

[Bam]

How is she doing now? It seems you have been doing what can be done at home.

[BuddyBun]

How is she doing? I hope she’s okay! Once you get a chance, though, I would take her to the vet, as you probably know or have thought of.

[Annabelle's mommy]

hi everyone, heres an update on my little loaf;
this morning I woke up to her grinding her teeth in pain and I couldn’t take it anymore so I got my parents (staying with them over the holiday), to take us to the emergency vet, as its a holiday here. On the car ride there she pooped maybe 8 little misshapen poops and nibbled on some hay. The vet seemed to think that there was no blockage, as her tummy felt like dough, and her blood sugar was normal (apparently if theres a blockage the blood sugar will skyrocket according to recent studies/this vet). However, she said anna was very bloated, and that her intestines felt empty. She got some subQ fluids, a metacam injection, and some motility drugs. In total I went home with metacam, critical care, ranitidine, and two others which im blanking on. Annas energy is a lot better, shes flopping, rolling, standing up, etc., however I can still tell shes still feeling unwell. Shes eating a substantial amount of hay and some apples/kale, but no poops as of yet..How long should I expect to wait to see poops?Im worried there are none, however she is still eating. I also don’t think shes drinking, but I wonder if that is because of all the fluid she received at the vet? And her body is hydrated enough?

The big hurdle I’m now facing is getting her to take her meds. She loved her metacam post spay but now she REFUSES to take anything from a syringe. It requires me to grab her head and life her lips up very fast and inject it, however this takes multiple tries, and she gets very stressed and angry.

Do you think it’s better to force feed/medicate her, or try to avoid upsetting her (i.e., try only once then wait a period of time and try again)

Thank you all so much for your replies, it’s extremely comforting to have this community and the support. I’ll take any advice/if you had experience with GI stasis what it was like for your bun. xx

[Meg]

It’s great that you took her to the vet and that the didn’t find a blockage. She sounds strong so don’t freak out too much — my money’s on she will be fine, with your help.

I have totally felt that torn feeling of not wanting to stress them, but they really do need the medicine and feedings until they’re eating well again. Do you do the bunny burrito? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmZ4qprSY_A My bunnies hated and forcefully rejected any oral syringes if they were sitting normally, but once in burrito mode they were more cooperative (relatively). Then I’d offer a small drop of the medicine, and usually they’d then lick the rest of it from the syringe voluntarily once they realized it was the stuff they liked. What I’d do is:

1) Bring the bunny to the couch and make sure she doesn’t jump off, and bring a towel
2) Give the bunny a minute to investigate, dig at the towel, etc. to vent any nervous energy
3) Wrap the bunny in the towel to make the bunny burrito
4) Do the oral syringe stuff until the bunny is finished, or until she tries hard to wrestle free — if that happens, release her from the towel and repeat steps 2-4 until everything’s finished
5) If you have subQ fluids or injections, I do it at the end so that I don’t accidentally squeeze any out during the burrito time
6) Place the bunny carefully back down on the floor with lots of praise and hopefully enjoy a good bunny stomp! Then give the bunny extra space for an hour or so while they work on cleaning all those gross human smells off, and calm themselves back down.

I’ve heard people say that the fluid in the Critical Care can be enough for a while, and I also like offering a little bit of water from an oral syringe in case the bunny feels like drinking it. You just have to be careful to gently offer a little from the side of the teeth and not squirt it in head-on, because you really want to avoid aspiration (the bunny breathing it in by mistake). This has never happened to me, but I’ve heard it’s pretty bad. Our new vet gives me a subQ fluid kit to use at home, and I’ve found that really helpful (it seems to help them recover more quickly, and I also stress out less). BTW, I just discovered that my bunnies like the Fine Grind version of Critical Care better and are more willing to eat it.

Side note: while you want to tempt them to eat, you also want to avoid too much sugar (e.g. in fruit), so it doesn’t encourage too much of the bad bacteria to grow while they’re in stasis. Kale is high in calcium and can cause kidney stones over the long term, so you want to really limit it normally (I give mine like 2 square inches a day – a really small piece of one leaf). A bit more for a few days should be OK though I would think.

I’ve been through GI stasis with my two bunnies many a time, and they do pull through as long as you keep up the medicine and feeding schedule till they’re better. Sometimes I stopped early hoping they could do the rest on their own, but that usually caused them to backslide. I know it’s hard to stress them out, but with luck this spell will pass quickly.

[Annabelle's mommy]

ah thank you so much Meg!! Anna and I appreciate it!

I just tried giving her metacam before bed but she is absolutely not having it, wont even sit still enough for me to bunny burrito her.  I’m going to stay up, wait a bit for her to forget the little wrestling match we just had and then try again, fingers crossed.

also thanks for the notes about the kale! I did not know that, I’ll switch her to a new leafy green. 

She definitely is not lethargic now, and seems to be happy (when im not around witha syringe), she ate and pooped, so I’m going to just be gentle now I think with the meds, obviously still give them to her, but just space it out a lot and try to get her to relax.

Ugh, just frustrating when they begin to stress out because youre trying to give them the medicine they need lol, making themselves worse, and then needing te medication even more.

[ThorBunny]

I’m very glad that you were able to get her to a vet and she’s got her proper medication now!

I really understand how difficult it is to dose a bun. For me, the bunny burrito thing never worked, but I’ve had success with a technique that our forum leader Wick taught me. She shared a video a while back but I can’t find it right now. Basically you kneel with the bun between your legs, facing out. Then you carefully place your hand around their head, resting on their colarbone. They can’t back up because of your legs, and if they try to go forward you can gently resist them (w/o choking or tightening your hand, just hold back firmly) Then you have more control over their head, slip the syringe into the corner of their mouth towards the back and depress the plunger slowly making sure they get it all.

You’ll certainly get a big thump after but I found it was easier to control my bun without a towel for them to slip through. It can also help to have an extra set of hands if one of your parents is willing to stand by and hand you syringes.

Feel better (((Anna))))!

[ThorBunny]

I found the video, here it is:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N12eJ5vdo4w&feature=youtu.be

[Q8bunny]

Bunnies ALWAYS wait until a weekend or holiday to feel poorly. In Canada and worldwide But seriously, I’m really glad she’s on the mend. And EXTRA glad that you came across a rabbit savvy vet in the ER (that’s a rare occurrence in my experience).

[Annabelle's mommy]

Annabelle is currently doing everything she can to avoid medication, shes charging every time I go near her face I tried the video technique, to little avail. Still I’ve managed to get some meds into her, mostly by spilling it onto her dewlap, and her licking it up.

I am still worried though… She appears fine, no signs of pain, shes eating lots of hay and whatever greens or apples I give her, however I have not seen her drink her water since coming home. She drinks from a bowl and its water level has not changed. I’ve tried to give her water in a syringe but of course she runs as soon as she sees me with it.

She loves the smell of her critical care, and tries to eat the packaging, climbing all over me for it. However the second I give her any (I give it as a sludge consistency) she turns her head. She’ll lick some of the powder up but thats about it.

I’m just so worried that she’s still suffering and becoming dehydrated and just hiding her symptoms… her poops are still small but round and more frequent, although she did not eat the poops shes supposed to eat (the soft ones, forget the name). I’ve wracked my brain on what to do

as always, thanks for the your help bun parents!

[Meg]

It sounds like you’re doing great!  I wouldn’t worry too much about the hydration — keep her greens nice and wet and she’ll get some from that too.  

You could also try putting the Critical Care mush in a little dish for her in case you’re lucky enough to have her accepting it that way!  

Neither of my bunnies have ever been very aggressive, but FWIW, here’s exactly what I’ve done to burrito them.  Some bunny folks would probably frown on this but it’s worked best for us…

1) Follow the steps above to let the bunny get its aggression out while on the couch (or whatever space your bunny would interpret as “the human has me here now and I can’t really escape”)
2) Get into position on the couch (or a chair?) with your feet on a nearby coffee table or another chair, so that your knees are bent and pointing up.  Spread a towel over your thighs with about a foot hanging off each side (so, a big hand towel, or the short side of a beach towel).
3) Pick up the bunny and hold her on your chest, facing you, for a half second (important to wear a shirt with a high neckline for scratching protection
4) Holding the bunny by the shoulders, like you would a newborn baby, gently but firmly lower her back so that she’s in between your legs, with her head up by your knees.  
5) Holding the bunny in place around her chest with one hand, use the other hand to quickly swaddle her with one side of the towel and then the other, so that she’s nice and firmly in there.  The free end of the towel should get tucked behind her and then you hold her around the shoulders outside the towel, so she’s pretty snug and all her feet are tucked in there fairly tight.  You also want to make sure that the towel is close enough to her around the neck that she can’t burrow her nose into it (of course not choking her). 

6) Now you have a swaddled bunny facing you.  If they’re still really struggling, make sure they’re secure and snug (very gently squeezed between your knees) and gently place a hand on one side of their head so they don’t turn too far away from you.  Then use the other hand to get the oral syringe into the side of their mouth.  If you’re lucky, they’ll relax a little and start licking up the medicine voluntarily once they realize they actually like it.

I guess I’ve focused mainly on keeping the bunny as calm as possible.  But again mine have never been very aggressive so I don’t know if this will work for Annabelle!  

Best of luck!!

[Q8bunny]

As long as she’s eating and pooping… Sometimes buns can get all the hydration they need just from freshies, so don’t be too worried about the water bowl as long as she’s nomming her wet greens

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