The tale of the rabbit n00b who's bunny has GI stasis

Hi there,

I'm sick of animals suffering and of life to be honest. Anyway, I have ended up caring for a few rabbits for various reasons over the years, and even though I don't think I am capable of looking after rabbits as much as I feel they should be, people give them to me, because they get bored of them, or can't look after them anymore, or are rescue rabbits that I unfortunately bonded with before I could give them to an SPCA centre, like the current one I have.

Anyway longish story pretty much not at all shortened, I take care of a small himalayan marked rabbit called Usagi. I bring her in each night after I put her her outside in her run for the day. She always has fresh hay, pallets, and water, and most always has access to grass,vegetables/herbs and mega hugs. She is shedding like crazy at the moment, and I try to brush all the loose fur off her, but it keeps coming, and she eats it when I am not brushing her. She also had a box that was her toy, but then she ate the crap out of the box one day, and I removed it, feeling like an idiot for giving it to her, when she probably needed some apple wood to gnaw on.

1-2 days later (I forget) after the box incident, she stopped eating which she has never done in the 4 years that I have had her, and her behavior changed worryingly. She was continuously lying down, and getting up, and looking very uncomfortable, so I checked with Dr Google and decided to take her to the after hours vet. I live in a small town of 2000 people in the middle of New Zealand, so of course everything and everyone nearby was shut. I persisted and found an after hours vet that I called at 10pm, and he said to meet him in another town, so I drove there, payed $70 for him to say she had a distended stomach, and to keep an eye on her.

Well, we kept and eye on her, and at 12:00am, she started shivering. We couldn't take the suffering and angst anymore, and drove to another town to meet another after hours vet at 1:30am. (who probably hates us now for doing that, but Usagi needed help) The vet there gave her some thing "to get her bowels going", and some painkillers, and said to come in the morning, but first to pay $121.60 .Fair enough. We took her there this afternoon (we have limited transport) and we were told she has stasis, was given sub-q fluids, antibiotics, more stuff to get her bowels moving, and baby food to syringe feed her every hour, and that her prognosis is poor and that there is no point doing x-rays or anything on her. another $45 later, I have fed her every hour and massaged her belly and she has produced small hard fecal pellets for the first time in over 24 hours.

Still not out of the hell hole yet though. She is eating small amounts on her own now, but I am not sure when to stop syringe feeding her at night and when to start in the morning, as I have never done this before. So this is where I turn to the tried and true rabbit experts for advice on what more I can do for Usagi. I feel emotionally wrecked man. I have had some rough times with rabbits and other animals, and was scared to end up with another one and yet here we go again. I am a beneficiary too because I am a loser in society because I am afraid of people to the point that I great difficulty interacting with them, so I have limited money, and me and my sis gave everything we had to try and help Usagi.

I'm aware I still have a lot to learn about Rabbits so any advice would be awesome thanks. I was also wondering, would it be an idea for me to go to a chemist and get some simethicone?

It sounds like your rabbit is on it's way to recovery. Even though her droppings aren't normal, seeing any at all is a good thing, as it indicates she probably doesn't have a complete blockage, which would require surgery to correct. And her wanting to start to eat is also really good. It means that the pain is either gone or starting to diminish. When my rabbit had stasis I adjusted the hand feeding amounts as he started eating more on his own. You just kind of have to estimate how much you should supplement the feedings, based on how much she would normally eat and how much she is now eating. When I was syringe feeding mine, I would feed every 3-4 hours about 3-4cc/lb of recovery food that was a soupy consistancy, then as he ate more on his own, I fed less and at intervals further apart. At this point the best food for her to be eating is her hay and veggies, and very little pellets. The hay and veggies will help get her digestion moving and back to normal better, because of the fiber and moisture, as long as your sure one of the veggies didn't cause this stasis episode, though it does sound like the ingested cardboard may have been the cause. What kind of food are you syringe feeding her exactly? Usually a recovery mix made for rabbits is the best thing to be feeding them if you can get it, usually from the vet. It's also good to have on hand for emergency situations.

At this point simethicone probably wouldn't be helpful as she seems to be doing better, but for future occurrences it's good to have on hand, as is some metacam for the pain, as it's the pain that stops them eating.

You've done a good job with her and got her the vet help that she needed, which isn't always easy to find a vet experienced enough with rabbits to know what to do to help them. You may find these links on stasis helpful as well.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
http://www.veterinarypartner.com/Content.plx?P=A&S=0&C=0&A=484#.UZ8FPbx7LTo.twitter

Hey thanks for reading my rant and for your help, i really appreciate it. Yeah i'm thinking it was the cardboard too but there may be a reason why she ate it like that such as her teeth needing wearing down. I'm going to get her teeth looked at when i have more money, but for now just trying to get her to eat. thanks again

Oh sorry, yes, the food I am syringe feeding is a baby food that they gave me that is made up of fruit and grains: apple, mango, peach and apricot and oats, barley and quinoa. I also received another one with apple blueberry and yoghurt as they said rabbits can eat yoghurt, but I have read a lot of conflicting things on this :/

I am sorry you are having to go through this. I know how frustrating and upsetting it can be when dealing with poor health in rabbits. I also know how frustrating it can be when you take in what should have been someone else's responsibility.

I am glad to hear that you seem to have found a good vet and were given the right meds and that she is at least pooping some and eating. Hopefully now she will med quickly.

Rabbits teeth can grow quite a lot each year so they do need plenty to chew on. Often times their food especially hay is enough but some buns do like to chew more than others. You could try providing her with some bunny safe chewing options since she eats the cardboard.

Probiotics are good for rabbits, but they can't digest lactose. If you can find acidophilus or lactobacillus in a veterinary or human preparation without dairy, that may help. Yogurt is usually made from dairy so it is not ok for rabbits.

It really does sound like she's starting to turn around and is doing better. You can stop force feeding once she's eating maybe half as much as normal? I would want to keep up with simethicone until she's eating normally on her own (I personally would go ahead and add it now), and if the vet had given you gut motility meds and pain meds, you'd want to keep them up 2-3 days after she was back to eating normally. If she stops improving, you may want to ask the vet to give you those meds.

Wanted to add this link:
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/f22/bloat-gas-10385/
It can be hard to tell what is bloat and what is gas without an x-ray, and bloat is pretty much fatal, whereas gas can be treated. I had an emergency vet tell me my bun had bloat, and then I took him to another vet who said he had gas, did the x-ray to be sure, and treated him.

I don't know if you can get Oxbow Critical Care food mix or something like it, from your vet. It would be a lot better than using sugary baby food, which isn't really a good thing to be giving when a rabbit is dealing with stasis. Unless she's pretty much eating on her own now, then you don't have to worry about it.

@ PaGal, thanks for your words. I will get her some chew toys, I found a nice little wood block house shelter thing called fiddlesticks that is for rabbits

@ tonyshuman, thanks for your reply, and for the link. Yeah I wasn't digging the lactose, the vet said rabbits can eat dairy but..... :/ She has been doing small hard fecal pallets and then she did a large smelly cecotrope(?) today :S at least something is coming out....? She has been eating a lot more than yesterday and is not wanting to be force feed like before, so I've reduced the feeding times to every 4 hours. The vet said 10mls(2 teaspoons) every hour initially if she is not eating, and then didn't say anything else but I'm gonna take her to the vet tomorrow just to follow up with any medications and so on. Unfortunately, I looked everywhere to try and find simethicone but apparently it's not sold in New Zealand chemists and supermarkets anymore so I will have to ask the vet if they have any, or buy it online.

@ JBun, Ok thanks, I will be fully prepared if it ever returns next time which I really hope it doesn't. I'm going to buy some critical care online as I couldn't find it anywhere here. Timothy hay doesn't exist in the southern hemisphere either apparently, so I may as well stick to the meadow hay.

Thanks everyone.

Hello just updating, thanks for helping through the last few days, I have learnt a lot about rabbits from this site. It looks like Usagi pulled through, she is back to normal and seems really happy again, running around outside: