Help needed with a hard case!

[Thumpies]

Hi Everyone :wave:,

Its been a while since I have posted on here, however over the past eight weeks I have been reading and lurking alot! :lurker

Today, I really need some help/reassurance/advice about my little boy Thumper. Its a long story so let me bring you up to date quickly.

In the past two months Thumper has gone into GI Stasis four times. Twice I have been able to deal with this at home by myself, syringing simethicone, water, critical care as well as giving tummy massages and keeping him on the heat pad. Two weeks ago he had a really bad episode and I ended up driving to the Vets at three in the morning (our vet is half an hour away) as I thought I was losing him. He came good the following day after being administered gut motility drugs, and pain medication as well as sub q fluids. I took him to a rabbit specialist (over an hour and a half away but the second best one in Australia) the next day for a proper check up. She found that his back teeth have spurs on them and that his front teeth are not good either. He is actually booked in on Tuesday to have an operation to correct this.

However as of this morning Thumps is once again in GI Stasis (I have become a pro at picking up how quickly this comes about now). So he is now sitting next to me on a heat pad and I have syringed him so Metacam and Cisapride to hopefully get things moving and help with the pain. I am also trying to syringe water into him but he really hates that!

I don't want you all to think I am a bad rabbit owner - I love this little guy to death. He is my baby, however I have to wonder if I am doing something wrong?!!?? :?

I am sooooo strict with his diet since this all began. He used to get treats in the form of cherry tomatoes and the occasional slice of apple but now it is strictly greens, oxbow pellets and hay as twice he had episodes of Stasis after having those treats and the vet told me to take them off him all together! He is very fussy and I have noticed the past few days be has not been into his hay as much but he has had a love/hate relationship with hay his whole life so I wasn't too worried about that. The only other thing I can think of - is he eating the wrong greens??
1. Flat parsley
2. Coriander (Cilantro)
3. Baby Pak Choy/Bok Choy/Asian Greens
4. Baby Spinach, rocket and kale mixed leaves
5. Celery leaves

I do also have to add that he does not eat his cecals - ever since he was a baby. It is quite rare for him to eat those!! I have spoken to his Specialists about this and they say he is naughty but lazy.

If anyone can give me some advice, or if you have been through the same thing, please drop me a line. I feel as though I am slowly losing my little guy and fear that one day I will come home from work and he will be dead cause I haven't picked up his Stasis in time. I am hoping this operation to fix his teeth will end these problems but I am worried that I am just opening up another can of worms!!

Thanks for listening...

Emma

P.S. I think I should add that he is going through a molt right now and I just noticed that he did a little bit of wee and its a redish colour! Hmmm....

ETA:
Mini Lop, Four years old, and Weighs 2 kilos.

 

[Pipp]

Stasis is a symptom, the dental issue is probably the cause. The molts always seem to give my guys digestive upsets. I do preventative treatment with canned pumpkin, don't know if you get it there. Maybe pumpkin baby food.

I'd increase, not decrease the diet items. I find kale, different kinds of hay and grasses are good, and I give my guys apple peel instead of apple, stuff like that to make sure they're chewing a variety of textures.

Also try to find extruded pellets, they're manufactured with a different process that give them a longer fibre, not crushed.


sas :clover:

 

[ra7751]

I agree with Pipp....but with one addition. The proper way to address stasis (once your rabbit is there) is by hydration...not motility drugs. I have had rabbits in ileus (total shutdown) and pulled them thru without motility drugs. Vets are beginning to realize the down side of these drugs and the very limited, if any, upside. The contractions they induce are very painful and this can easily compound a balky GI. In some advanced cases, gastric ulcers can form and the contractions can perforate those lesions and the result of that isn't good at all. Oral fluids are better than nothing but infused fluids are much better. Ask your vet to teach you how and when to administer sub-q fluids.

Since pain can induce stasis, I would think those teeth should be addressed as you are doing. And I would talk to the vet during the procedure on the dangers of using motility drugs in rabbits and the advantage of using fluids instead.

Randy

 

[Pipp]

Thumpies wrote:

I just noticed that he did a little bit of wee and its a redish colour! Hmmm...."

The reddish colour probably isn't a concern, although it could be. I more interested in the 'little bit of wee'. If he's urinating smaller amounts than usual or he's at all straining to or peeing in inappropriate places, etc, the dental could be secondary to a urinary tract infection. Did the vet test his urine?

Either way as Randy noted, fluids fluids fluids is again the best course.


sas :clover:

 

[Thumpies]

Thanks guys for your responses. I will have a chat to the vet about the cisapride and metacam. I dont want to cause him other problems... and yes I will most definitely ask about being taught to administer sub-q fluids (if I don't pass out looking at the needle!! Petrified of them!!)

Will check at the shops for canned pumpkin and add to his food. The apple I will most definitely try! Do you think I could give him so now?

Pipp - they didn't check his pee as the red pee has only happened today. He isn't straining but he has not gone to his litter box as he usually does! I will ask them to check his urine on Tuesday. How do they get these infections? And do they reoccur frequently?

Syringing water right now ;-)

 

[Maureen Las]

As stated above the teeth problems are probably the primary reason for the stasis problems; it never hurts to learn what helps a rabbit grind down teeth and all those methods should be utilized , however many teeth issues in rabbits are genetic problems and sometimes only dentistry can really help
For ex if a rabbits molars are not aligned properly there is really no way to for them to be worn down because an upper molar may not meet a lower molar in the right place to grind . I had a rabbit with thoses issues and he ended up having a lot of teeth removed but really had to live on Critical care most of his life as he could not chew.

That is a worse case scenario and there are a lot of "inbetweens" wth rabbit teeth. The insicors can be removedthus removing the issues of filing them frequently ;

Get a vet very skilled with rabbit teeth and he most likely will takedental and head x-rays, look at the tooth roots and formulate a plan.

Molar spurs can be filed frequently and many rabbit owners have this done regularly.
As Pipp stated above different textures in veggies( and Randy advocatesdifferent types of hays and grasses) can really help keep those spurs from developing

Removing molars is sometimes difficult because they can grow back if any fraction of the tooth remains.
Do you know what the vet plans to do with his teeth?
Most of all do not blame yourself for feeding him incorrectly. Teeth issues are very complicated and dealing with them is something that you learn along the way as different things work for different rabbit problems.
Make sure that the pumpkin is not seasoned for a pie filling but contans only pure pumpkin
and yes you can give him a small piece of apple; they usually love apple

 

[tonyshuman]

I would guess that not eating the cecals is also a symptom of the tooth problems.