Ulcer/Melena

I have shared this on a couple of other sites and I wanted to share it here in case anyone had a similar experiences.

I wanted to share my bunny George's experience. George is 1.5 years old holland lop and pretty high strung and stress out pretty easily, gets a runny nose going to the vet. My vet is almost positive it is stress related.

Anyway for the month of May I was having some house work done and it was pretty loud. The finished by May 30th. June 1st I notice during George's normal bed time he was pretty stressed out and would not go to bed.
The following Tuesday I was noticing mushy cecals so I called my vet to check about putting him on an all hay diet thinking it was another bout of stasis (he had had one in January). She thought it was a good idea. By Thursday I had seen no cecals. So I started by introducing an oxbow barley biscuit with some bene-bac and a booster x supplement since he has had upper respiratory problems. In the mean time he was eating tons and tons of hay.

Friday and Saturday I noticed a return of the cecals, they were well formed, but he would eat them if I pointed him to them. I was going out Sunday morning before I left George was continuing to eat hay like a horse.

I get back Sunday I notice George and Gracie (bonded friend) getting ready to sleep. I watched George and saw the cecals so I turned him around hoping he would eat them. He refused, So I got a little piece of hay which loves to eat, again he would not eat. Finally tried a piece of his favorite treat, refused to eat it. I knew something was wrong so I called the emergency vet luckily they exiotic specialist on staff. Go to the vet about 3pm. They looked at him, and said they felt no gas and his stomach was in no pain so they did not think it was stasis. They suggested I check with my normal vet on Monday morning. I gave him some critical care about 8pm and nothing the only thing he wanted to do was sleep in the corner.
So I take him back toe the emergency vet this time they decided they needed to observe him because he dehydrated.

I leave him there Monday get a call saying that there was not change his temperature was good and his gut was just not moving. At this time they gave him some med just in case he had ulcers. Monday afternoon no change I ask for blood work. Get a call in the evening that George is blood work looked bleak. His red blood cell count was at 11% and he was showing signs of liver failure. They immediately considered coccidia lymphoma or a possible torsion, but he had no pain so they we pretty sure it was not a torsion. The vet also told me she understood why George only wanted to sleep. They gave him pretty much every medicine they could in case it was an infection.

I did not sleep much Monday, Tuesday morning comes around George is stable temperature is good, his gut is slowly starting to move.
Tuesday morning his red blood cells were up to 13% so the vet felt a little better that they had stopped whatever bleeding was going on. More over he had 4 poops .The vets told me after getting his history, that they suspect he had a stress ulcer and he had been bleeding they said that they though this had been going on for some time just no one noticed. I honestly never saw any blood in his stools and I check them pretty regularly..

Anyway today is Wednesday, and he is doing pretty well, this morning his red blood count was up to 18% they will only be measuring it once a day, and he is nibbling on some lettuce and he is defecating on his own.

They suspect that the cecals I was seeing was related to Melena. The body digesting the blood.

He still has a long way to go, but in all my searching I have not found a similar story on the internet, and I wanted to share.

quick update, George is doing well. They did do a barium swallow and the saw a lesion about the size of a silver dollar about 38 mm. It could be a tumor but the vet feel at his age more likely a ulcer. The rest of He is currently on Sucralfate and a antacid.

His rd blood cell count is in the mid to low 30 percent range.

I am just happy he is doing well, but bunny parent should be mindful that if they are seeing repeated GI stasis, there is likely some underlying issue.

That's good😊 hope he has a full recovery

Thank you for sharing your story, and I hope George continues to do well!

I have horses as well, and new research is showing a crazy high prevalence of ulcers in horses, young and old, performance pleasure or pasture puff.... they're found in them all. I'm sure rabbits have many of the same issues, especially if they do not receive proper care (NOT saying you did not provide proper care... it sounds like you were a godsend to George!!); however if they were in less than ideal conditions before going to a shelter then adopted out, ulcers may still be present. Many ulcers will not heal without intervention either. Rabbits, like horses, are meant to graze all day long, and when this isn't possible, or fortified food intake is too high, sugars in the diet are too high, etc, ulcers can easily form. My horse developed ulcers from pain meds that were a necessity. I don't know enough about the pain meds used in rabbits, but perhaps they can cause ulceration as well?? It will be interesting to see if more research is done on it, as I had never heard of ulcers in rabbits before, but it makes sense!

It sounds like George is in the best possible hands and is on his way to a full recovery

George is doing pretty well, still has a bit of a poopy butt, but I imagine it might be pretty painful cleaning down there if your stomach hurts. He has a vet appointment on Monday. To check him and to do his blood works.

Yup pain meds, NSAIDs, can cause ulcers that is why I have heard some vet giving something like zantac to rabbits on high doses or rabbits who are on pain med for a long time.

George is on sucralfate and cimetidine. It is currently believed that only about 7% of rabbits develop ulcers. Causes are believed to be linked to chronic stasis and sometimes stress.

George looked like he was going through stasis except his stomach was good and not too much gas. It was no until the blood work was done that we knew there was something really wrong. George is really good at hiding his illness I guess.

I have not seen too much discussion about ulcers except on the UK forums.

Stress can cause ulcers in humans, so it would make sense (to me) to be able to cause them in other animals too. I am so glad you found out what was ailing your baby and are able to treat him now, and thank you so much for sharing with us! I hope George recovers well and avoids future ulcers!