Unsual Stasis Problem

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum and have come across it through my extensive research into the STATIS problem that my Rabbit BOLINHA is not going through for 9 days.

I would like to quickly share our problem with you guys to see if anyone has had a similar case as my partner and I are currently lost.

We have admitted Bolinha to one of the best exotic hospitals in London as we previously took him to two vets who didn't have a clue.

He has stopped eating 9 days ago and has been tube for about 1 week now as he is very stressed and difficult to take syringe feeding.

We have done X Rays and Blood test on day 2 of his arrival in the hospital. Nothing has been found.

The stool test has come back today and also nothing has been found and it appears to be normal (today is day 9)

Yesterday he has passed all the gas he had on his cecum (the vet is doing daily ultra-sounds to track the gas movement) and was on high spirit (his best day since being admitted to the hospital) even jumping by himself.

Therefore, yesterday we had high hopes he would start producing more droppings during the night, however he hasn't produced anything. He seem to be on and off pooing (the day before he produced 8 droppings over night).

The underlying cause has not been identified and ours vets are talking all the time about surgery which my partner and I are very reluctant to.

He seem to be stable and I believe that due to the fact that he is a very stressed rabbit and that the hospital environment and the tube and collar are not helping him. The Vet has agreed that we should take him home for 48 hours to see if there is improvement.

He hasn't eating by himself since the 5th march (only tube fed).

What are you opinions?

I don't have any suggestions but want to be supportive. It sounds to me like you are doing everything right. Good luck with Bolinha. Hope someone with more experience chimes in.

Thank you very much! Bolinha will carry on fighting.

Just left the hospital and he wasn't in great shape today in contrast to yesterday when he was his brightest.

I hope someone with a similar story could shed light on his case as maybe we are overlooking something?

GI Status is where the bunny's first stomach becomes clogged. Rabbits cannot vomit. I'm not conversant on how to recover a rabbit from GI Status other than to say, I've read that the vett will sometimes inject enzymes (oral feeding) into the rabbits stomach to try to digest and get the clogged food partially digested and moving.

To prevent GI Status, make sure the rabbits teeth do not become overly lengthy. Rabbits teeth are always growing...getting longer and also developing spurs makes it painful for them to chew and they start swallowing partially chewed food. They also lick their hair...partially chewed food and hair can block their stomach. When all this is taking place they will start loosing weight. Particularly for an older rabbit, have their teeth and weight closely monitored.

Where is Jbun? Jenny is our resident health go-to gal on RO. Once she sees this, she's sure to have some thoughts.

London UK ! He is at home now for 48 hours - he has done over 95 poos in these 48 hours has eaten some veggies with our help. However there is still a lot of pain in the stomach and no appetite whatsoever

Stasis can sometimes take quite some time for rabbits to get over, especially really bad cases. One of my rabbits took about 2 weeks to get over his, and he went up and down repeatedly during this time, from starting to eat and poop to not eating or pooping. When he did get better completely he relapsed again 2 times after that, and it was then that I discovered that he was sensitive to his pelleted feed after noticing a downturn after feeding it to him, and that was causing the stasis to reoccur. Once I stopped all pellets he quickly recovered and never had stasis again. The syringe feeding mix also had to be changed to a hay only mix, as syringe feeding mixes contents are similar to pelleted feed. Thereafter he was kept on a hay, forage, leafy green diet and did fine without the pelleted feed(or other high carb/sugary foods). For him it was the pellets causing the problems, but I also know of rabbits that are intolerant of certain veg or even some types of hay. I'm not necessarily saying that your rabbits problem is also dietary related, but just sharing it as a possibility since none of the tests are showing anything. Especially since the vet is seeing gas present. Dietary issues are a common cause of gas occurring, though continued stasis could also be a cause for gas buildup.

There are also other possible internal issues that could be causing the stasis to continue that are not going to be picked up on any of the tests, such as a kink in the bowel, that only exploratory surgery will find is causing it to continue. I'm assuming that an impacted cecum has already been ruled out?

These situations are extremely difficult and it can be hard to determine what exactly is going on. If you've noticed any improvement, then downturn after feeding, you might want to consider it being a dietary issue and discuss the possibility with your vet.

If you aren't already consulting a rabbit specialist at this point, I would suggest doing so as they are more experienced in dealing with more complicated problems like this, and you have several very good rabbit specialists in your country that could be seen or at least consulted with.

Best of luck and I really hope you and your vet are able to find out the underlying problem, if there is one causing the stasis to continue. And please keep us updated on how your bun is doing and if the cause is found.

eta: One specialist near London I believe, is Mark Rowland at Trinity Vets in Maidstone. There may be one closer to you but I would have to look it up.

Another thing I'll add, is that if there is visible gas that the vet is seeing, has the vet suggested trying giving infacol to help alleviate any continued gas and gas pain? Gas pain alone, which gas is usually from a dietary issue, can cause a rabbit to have continued stasis.

I'm also assuming(and hoping) your vet has him on pain meds as well as these are also essential?

If it were me personally, I would probably make this go at it:

• Treatment in the home with familiar faces to reduce stress caused by a strange hospital and people
• Frequent tummy massages
• If using a water bottle, offer water in a bowl as well
• A gut motility agent such as cisapride or reglan to keep things moving along
• An anti-gas agent designed to reduce gastric pain, which can curb appetite
• A pan medication to reduce the pain further, such as metacam; and should appetite return...
• A diet with as much hay as possible, or pellets forumulated with high grass content for rabbits that are not good hay eaters

I am not sure where the veterinarian community is at yet on this topic, but another possibility could be providing cecetropes from a healthy donor to 're-seed' the GI tract. With people, poop transplants do exactly this and we are finding that the FMT may in fact treat serious conditions.

Should no treatment work or should Bolinha reach a point where his will to fight is no more, there's no shame in helping the little guy die as that last act of compassion. Based on everything you typed, I just know that Bolinha knows just how much you love him and how lucky he is to be with someone who has so much love to give.

How's BOLINHA doing? I am picking up my rabbit from the hospital today. We are going through the same thing. She won't eat, her feet are sore and bandaged. I will be caring for her at home. I will be giving her pain meds and antibotics. I will also have to syringe feed her. I don't know what else to do. The doctors can't find out what's wrong. Anyone who has any other ideas, I'd take any.

Huffl, unfirtunately my little angel didnt resist. He was killed in the hospital and didnt die of the stasis in the end. To sum up, i will start legal proccedings against this hospital.

Urgent - has your rabbit been tube fed?

This is what killed bolinha - an infection caused by tube feeding, wrong anti biotic prescreption after discharging him and utter lack of care in getting back to us in our concerns via telephone and emails + his Vet was "off" on saturday enjoying her beer in a pub and did not want to attend on his emergency.

Best thing is taking your rabbit back home if the problem is identified in early stages and look after him by yourself.

I am so sorry to hear that Bolinha has passed away. This is truly heartbreaking.

Annabell has not been tube feed. It has been all hand feeding at the hospital. My husband and picked her up Thursday night. We gave her her antibiotic and pain medicine. The reason she was in the hospital was because her four feet have sores on them from siting in her pee or poop from the litter box and also our cage has metal flooring. The eating and pooping was bad because she was in pain. They have all four feet wrapped but she got one off.

She is starting to eat on her own and isn't just laying flat like she isn't going to make it. We can't get her to poop. She peeps a little. She is scheduled to get her feet re-wrapped this week.

Anything else you might suggest, I'd gladly listen to at this point. She just turned 3 the day before we had to go to the emergency room here. We live in United States.

Thank you. We are very sad and had to go away for a few weeks. Things are no longer the same at home without him.

Are you giving him the meds for guts? There are 3 you can give at the same time and that have helped bolinha poo again.

Mediclopromite, raniditine and cisapride. You can also give him probiotics.

Bolinha has succumbed to an infection which he had at the same time as the stasis. Make sure the anti biotics are strong enough for the infection he has on his paws and keep a close eye on this.

It will be very drainy and time consuming but dont give up on him and he will make it.

Don't trust your vet as you are the one who know your rabbit better. Ask the questions you have to ask and if they dont answer askagain.

Be careful with the infection. Give it the same weight as the statis.

Bolinha, I am so very sorry that you lost your bunny. I also tend not to trust hospital care of rabbits , maybe for an emergency day or 2 but not extended periods of time. You did everything in your power to save him so you must remember that; he may not have made it anyway. It sounds like the hospital was forthcoming in telling you the cause of death which at least is one positive thing. Once again I am so very sorry for such a terrible loss in such a manner

Huffl,

Why don"t you start a thread of your own on your bunny? You may get more assistance that way. It is very important to get his feet off the metal bottom and onto something soft and dry . Might want to read in the RO library on suggestions.

Bolinha said:

Hi Everyone,

I am new to the forum and have come across it through my extensive research into the STATIS problem that my Rabbit BOLINHA is not going through for 9 days.

I would like to quickly share our problem with you guys to see if anyone has had a similar case as my partner and I are currently lost.

We have admitted Bolinha to one of the best exotic hospitals in London as we previously took him to two vets who didn't have a clue.

He has stopped eating 9 days ago and has been tube for about 1 week now as he is very stressed and difficult to take syringe feeding.

We have done X Rays and Blood test on day 2 of his arrival in the hospital. Nothing has been found.

The stool test has come back today and also nothing has been found and it appears to be normal (today is day 9)

Yesterday he has passed all the gas he had on his cecum (the vet is doing daily ultra-sounds to track the gas movement) and was on high spirit (his best day since being admitted to the hospital) even jumping by himself.

Therefore, yesterday we had high hopes he would start producing more droppings during the night, however he hasn't produced anything. He seem to be on and off pooing (the day before he produced 8 droppings over night).

The underlying cause has not been identified and ours vets are talking all the time about surgery which my partner and I are very reluctant to.

He seem to be stable and I believe that due to the fact that he is a very stressed rabbit and that the hospital environment and the tube and collar are not helping him. The Vet has agreed that we should take him home for 48 hours to see if there is improvement.

He hasn't eating by himself since the 5th march (only tube fed).

What are you opinions?

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(Reply)
My male Lion Head (now aged 2 1/2) developed GI STATIS at just under 1 year of age. The reason was his teeth. Not only were his 2 upper front teeth bowed, but one of his rear (back of the jaw) teeth had grown too long. His weight eventually dropped from 2.7kg to 1.7kg. Solution: Get "Critical Care" powder and mix it 1 part to 3 parts warm water in a plastic bottle. Shake well. Pour the mixture into a mug or small bowl. Get a large plastic syringe - I use the type for refilling printer ink. Place your rabbit on your lap (with a small table to one side). Place one hand under the rabbit's belly and with the other hand feed the GI solution. Note: You can mix some pineapple juice OR some condensed milk with the GI solution, which I find makes it more acceptable to the rabbit. While administering the GI solution, gently massage the rabbit's belly (for a few minutes) until he accepts 2 syringes of the GI solution. I followed this procedure for a full 2 weeks until he recovered.
OTHER TIPS: 1. Chop the rabbit's vegetables very small (or dice them); I have even taken to blending them up into a paste!. Soak the rabbit pellets in soya milk in a saucer; don't use cows milk, so they are easier to chew and swallow. Put a drop of pineapple juice in the rabbit's water; good for the stomach. Finally - and I expect you do this - monitor your rabbit regularly to make sure it is eating and drinking.