URGENT unwell baby

[BugsLola1411]

Our female rabbit, Lola, who is about 2.5 years old. She is not spayed yet. She was to gwt spayed this week. But suddenly she stopped eating and stopped pooping and lost a lot of weight. We took her to the vet. The vet started with a lot of medication for her. We conducted blood tests and x-ray and did a sonography as well. Initially the doc said there was a swelling in the stomach. Then after the 2nd test the doctor said she has a liver issue and the main cause of this was the pellets she was eating. The pellets were from this company called smart heart. The doctor said that a lot of animals are eating these and they get crazily addicted to these pellets and don't eat anything else.

Our baby stopped eating.......stopoed pooping.....lost a lot of fur around the lower neck..... after a few days she also got an abscess near the rectum......

She is now given the drip everyday. She needs to be fed crushed food (the doctor gave us a formula mix) and water using a feeding syringe.She is on vitamins and laxatives and other meds to clear the intestines like
Flatuna
Duphalac
Moza
Evion200
Perinom
Septran
Liv-vitol
And a few more which were given and stopped.


Have any of you faced a similar issue???
And I just wanted to confirm if giving so many meds will help our baby or will it make matters worse.

Please help

 

[Aki]

I don't know the smart heart brand - from what I just looked up, it looks like garbage, but that's a lot of issues to be caused by pellets. The abscess especially puzzles me. How much were you giving? Was Lola overweight? Also, I'm a bit surprised at the "animals getting addicted' thing. I mean : almost all rabbits will eat pellets rather than hay, but if you give normal quantities, they should have finished the pellets in about 10 to 15mn and they will eat whatever else is available for the rest of the day. I know rabbits who aren't super fond of hay but I've never met real 'pellet junkies'. But then again, I don't know this brand so maybe it's particularly potent.
The emergency here seems to be to treat the stasis. From what you say, I'm guessing you're giving critical care, water, metacam, and emeprid or reglan for that. That's the right treatment. Keep your bunny warm too and try to encourage her to eat on her own by giving a lot of vegetables, lot of wet leaves and of course, a ton of hay.
I have no experience with liver diseases so I can't tell you anything about the treatment - you can look it up on medirabbit, maybe? For abscess, to my knowledge they are sometimes surgically emptied and the rabbit is given antibiotics and pain meds (but then again, Metacam is a given - that's the staple of the sick bunny, considering they really don't do well with pain...).
I hope Lola pulls through and hang in there with the treatment - I've been there a few times and I know treating a sick bunny is nerve-wracking and sometimes really exhausting.

 

[BugsLola1411]

I don't know the smart heart brand - from what I just looked up, it looks like garbage, but that's a lot of issues to be caused by pellets. The abscess especially puzzles me. How much were you giving? Was Lola overweight? Also, I'm a bit surprised at the "animals getting addicted' thing. I mean : almost all rabbits will eat pellets rather than hay, but if you give normal quantities, they should have finished the pellets in about 10 to 15mn and they will eat whatever else is available for the rest of the day. I know rabbits who aren't super fond of hay but I've never met real 'pellet junkies'. But then again, I don't know this brand so maybe it's particularly potent.
The emergency here seems to be to treat the stasis. From what you say, I'm guessing you're giving critical care, water, metacam, and emeprid or reglan for that. That's the right treatment. Keep your bunny warm too and try to encourage her to eat on her own by giving a lot of vegetables, lot of wet leaves and of course, a ton of hay.
I have no experience with liver diseases so I can't tell you anything about the treatment - you can look it up on medirabbit, maybe? For abscess, to my knowledge they are sometimes surgically emptied and the rabbit is given antibiotics and pain meds (but then again, Metacam is a given - that's the staple of the sick bunny, considering they really don't do well with pain...).
I hope Lola pulls through and hang in there with the treatment - I've been there a few times and I know treating a sick bunny is nerve-wracking and sometimes really exhausting.

Hi Aki.....
Both our bunnies loved the pellets.......
They would leave the other food for the pellets. To an extent, our male bunny Bugs would go n sit in his basket till the pellets were not given.

This company smart heart is a Thai based company and here in India it was available easily and had many flavours.

According to the vet, this company also makes food for dogs. She said that a lot of dog owners have also complained about similar health issues with their pet.

My biggest worry is that being a liver issue and not pooping and not eating on her own.......
Will she get better????
Do bunnies who are losing weight and with liver issues get better

 

[RavenousDragon]

In terms of the liver issues, it depends on the actual issue. Livers are very good at regenerating themselves so long as they aren't completely destroyed. Keep force feeding her and treating her as your vet recommended-- good luck! Keep us updated.

 

[BugsLola1411]

Thanks

 

[BugsLola1411]

My baby Lola was showing signs of improvement. She had started pooping......was eating a couple of the holy basil (tulsi) leaves....but was yet on critical care.....
The doc advised to keep her in a diaper for 3 hours (to help the cyst near her rectum dry out......) and then 3 hours open without the diaper......said to do this all day......
We were at the vet yesterday......and she passed a caecotroph 3 times.........
The vet too was sure she was improving.....
Suddenly today 30 mins after giving her the meds.......she urinated properly.....so we went to change the underpads and it was time to make her wear the diaper.
We picked her up to wash her cyst as we have been doing all this while and put the powder and suddenly her head tilted.
We kept her down.....she jumped up.....her eyes buldged.....and we had to hold mid air so that she would not fall to the ground.
And before we could reach the vet today, she passed away.
It's a pathetic feeling to see our baby go like this. The house is just not the same without her. We can see that bugs is also missing her.
Will it affect him a lot even though he did not go too close to her in the past 3 weeks since she has been unwell??? Since her illness.......he has gone close to her just about 2 to 3 times.....
What do I need to do to make sure he does not get too troubled?????