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Well-Known Member
So we had our first real scare with our beloved Kimchi last week. It's been a busy week for us so I am just now getting around to writing up our experience!
Last Friday morning, I noticed that Kimchi had not finished his greens from the night before. I threw them out and gave him fresh ones on Friday morning. I noticed that he hadn't eaten his hay overnight as he often does (or very early in the morning). I refreshed his hay and water, and went to clean his litter box but discovered that I was out of the "Yesterday's News" pellet litter that we use for him. I made a mental note to buy some on the way home.
That evening I arrived back and found Kimchi to be sitting kind of funny near his litter box. He had not touched his greens from the morning time; it had been warm that day and they were wilted, so I threw them out. I petted him and noticed that his nose was wet around the nostrils, and that he seemed to have some urine on one of his back feet. He then promptly hopped into his litter box (pretty normal), and then laid over / plopped over in the litter (very unusual for him). Since I was about to clean the litter box, I tried to pick him up to shift him out of there to my surprise, he didnt move at all and allowed me to pick him up highly unusual! He just lay there draped across my hands, almost lifeless.
I should mention here that we did observe him have a small sneezing spell the night before maybe five tiny sneezes in a row.
I set him down outside the X-pen and went about the business of cleaning the cage/litter box. It was well populated with poops, but since it had been almost 5 days it was hard to say if there were any new ones.
After an hour or so I noticed that Kimchi had not moved an inch from where I had set him down. He also hadnt changed positions. Now I began to worry. When my wife came home, and we carefully observed him will sitting with him for an hour or so. He would shift around a little, like he was trying to get comfortable. We noticed he was kind of pressing his stomach down ... hard to explain.
Finally we called the vet. I followed the instructions for afterhours emergencies and our vet himself called back. I cannot emphasize how awesome that was, to have the doctor himself call us back at 8:30 on a Friday night. I told him that Kimchi hadnt eaten or drank during the time I was home by now, that had been several hours and that he was listless and allowed me to pick him up, etc. He recommended that we get him into an urgent care kind of place.
We ended up traveling a bit to get to a place that could see us at 10 pm. What a Friday night after a very long week, let me tell you! The vet over there felt him and said he was not distended in the belly, and that stasis was unlikely (he had been fine the day before). We were concerned about this anyway, since a few days prior we noticed that he had managed to find his way from the couch to a high end table where we have (had!) some candles, from which he sampled a decent amount of wax. We had been concerned about this possibly causing a sudden onset of stasis (even bringing the candles to the vet to show how much had been consumed).
We opted for the recommended x-rays I will post them here later if I can manage to do so from work and thankfully the x-rays showed clean GI tract, no kidney stones or signs of sludgy urine (he had been on alfalfa hay up to about a week before, we recently switched him to real hay).
They ended up giving him IV (subcutaneous) water, and hes on a 14-day Orbax antibiotic, and they also gave him pain medicine orally, as well as a feeding of Critical Care. Im not sure if he was just dehydrated, or had suffered from a fever, or both, but even on the way home from the emergency visit, he seemed to start to pep back up. I stayed up very late with him that night and he even went back to his usual exploring and running around.
He seems to have made a good comeback, and he is back to his usual antics this week. Were going to finish out the antibiotics per the emergency vets recommendation, as confirmed with our local vet. Were still not 100% sure but it seems that he had an upper respiratory infection that really affected him.
This is our first rabbit and it sure put a scare into us, as we love him dearly. Hopefully the next time I wont freak out as much, but he was so unlike himself that I was scared we might lose him.
Has anyone here had a similar experience? How did you react? How long would you wait before you took your bun to the vet, if they were listless and not eating/drinking/moving around?
Last Friday morning, I noticed that Kimchi had not finished his greens from the night before. I threw them out and gave him fresh ones on Friday morning. I noticed that he hadn't eaten his hay overnight as he often does (or very early in the morning). I refreshed his hay and water, and went to clean his litter box but discovered that I was out of the "Yesterday's News" pellet litter that we use for him. I made a mental note to buy some on the way home.
That evening I arrived back and found Kimchi to be sitting kind of funny near his litter box. He had not touched his greens from the morning time; it had been warm that day and they were wilted, so I threw them out. I petted him and noticed that his nose was wet around the nostrils, and that he seemed to have some urine on one of his back feet. He then promptly hopped into his litter box (pretty normal), and then laid over / plopped over in the litter (very unusual for him). Since I was about to clean the litter box, I tried to pick him up to shift him out of there to my surprise, he didnt move at all and allowed me to pick him up highly unusual! He just lay there draped across my hands, almost lifeless.
I should mention here that we did observe him have a small sneezing spell the night before maybe five tiny sneezes in a row.
I set him down outside the X-pen and went about the business of cleaning the cage/litter box. It was well populated with poops, but since it had been almost 5 days it was hard to say if there were any new ones.
After an hour or so I noticed that Kimchi had not moved an inch from where I had set him down. He also hadnt changed positions. Now I began to worry. When my wife came home, and we carefully observed him will sitting with him for an hour or so. He would shift around a little, like he was trying to get comfortable. We noticed he was kind of pressing his stomach down ... hard to explain.
Finally we called the vet. I followed the instructions for afterhours emergencies and our vet himself called back. I cannot emphasize how awesome that was, to have the doctor himself call us back at 8:30 on a Friday night. I told him that Kimchi hadnt eaten or drank during the time I was home by now, that had been several hours and that he was listless and allowed me to pick him up, etc. He recommended that we get him into an urgent care kind of place.
We ended up traveling a bit to get to a place that could see us at 10 pm. What a Friday night after a very long week, let me tell you! The vet over there felt him and said he was not distended in the belly, and that stasis was unlikely (he had been fine the day before). We were concerned about this anyway, since a few days prior we noticed that he had managed to find his way from the couch to a high end table where we have (had!) some candles, from which he sampled a decent amount of wax. We had been concerned about this possibly causing a sudden onset of stasis (even bringing the candles to the vet to show how much had been consumed).
We opted for the recommended x-rays I will post them here later if I can manage to do so from work and thankfully the x-rays showed clean GI tract, no kidney stones or signs of sludgy urine (he had been on alfalfa hay up to about a week before, we recently switched him to real hay).
They ended up giving him IV (subcutaneous) water, and hes on a 14-day Orbax antibiotic, and they also gave him pain medicine orally, as well as a feeding of Critical Care. Im not sure if he was just dehydrated, or had suffered from a fever, or both, but even on the way home from the emergency visit, he seemed to start to pep back up. I stayed up very late with him that night and he even went back to his usual exploring and running around.
He seems to have made a good comeback, and he is back to his usual antics this week. Were going to finish out the antibiotics per the emergency vets recommendation, as confirmed with our local vet. Were still not 100% sure but it seems that he had an upper respiratory infection that really affected him.
This is our first rabbit and it sure put a scare into us, as we love him dearly. Hopefully the next time I wont freak out as much, but he was so unlike himself that I was scared we might lose him.
Has anyone here had a similar experience? How did you react? How long would you wait before you took your bun to the vet, if they were listless and not eating/drinking/moving around?
In fact, their responses told me that they had seen people probably far more eccentric than my wife and I, even with rabbits. 
