We bought our bunny a new cage on Friday. We put her in it and she seemed ok. Saturday she seemed timid and even bit me (some he thing she never does). Yesterday she was very lethargic, has not eaten or drank anything except for some fresh greens. She was even not even moving to her litter box to deficate, just laying there in it not moving. Her ears on the outside were cool to the touch, but not ice cold. They were warm inside. Gums are pink. But she appears to either be making a strange noise or has a strange noise coming from her. I took her out cleaned her up with baby wipes and held her close to me wrapped in a towel. Fed her some pedialite through a syringe. She did finally get tired of that and jumped on to the couch and was almost whining when I tried to grab her. Tried taking her to our local emergency vet, and no one in our area deals with "exotic" pets. When we got home we went ahead and put her back in her old cage. She seemed to do better but is lethargic again. Any suggestions or clues as to what this might be?
bunny shock?
- Thread starter kar
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At this point she really needs to be seen by a rabbit vet, in fact it would be classed as an emergency, especially since she is also showing signs of distress with the whining. The vet will need to rule out a gut blockage and try and find what might have caused this lack of appetite to occur in the first place. Your bunny in the least needs sub q fluids, pain meds, gut motility meds, and may also need other medications, tests, and treatment.
http://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
It's hard to know if it might have been the stress of the new cage that caused this, or maybe a toxic substance as a coating in the new cage?, or maybe something entirely unrelated caused this and it was just a coincidence that this happened the same time as moving her to the new cage.
If there is absolutely no vet that you can get her to be seen by, you could attempt syringe feeding, but be aware that this may not help at all, or could even make her worse since it is unknown what is causing her illness and could even lead to her death more rapidly. Rabbits can decline rapidly, so there is real urgency in getting her the needed help. Also, rabbits become hypothermic easily when ill, so active measures need to be taken to keep your rabbit warm with warm packs, warm towels, etc.
Here's some info that might be helpful.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.pdf
http://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
It's hard to know if it might have been the stress of the new cage that caused this, or maybe a toxic substance as a coating in the new cage?, or maybe something entirely unrelated caused this and it was just a coincidence that this happened the same time as moving her to the new cage.
If there is absolutely no vet that you can get her to be seen by, you could attempt syringe feeding, but be aware that this may not help at all, or could even make her worse since it is unknown what is causing her illness and could even lead to her death more rapidly. Rabbits can decline rapidly, so there is real urgency in getting her the needed help. Also, rabbits become hypothermic easily when ill, so active measures need to be taken to keep your rabbit warm with warm packs, warm towels, etc.
Here's some info that might be helpful.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.pdf
The list was helpful to call more vets, however not accuratr. Non of them see rabbits. So I took her to the local feed store, they referred me to a local breeder and 4 Hauser leader. She figured out she did have some sort of blockage and inflamation. So she had some bunny antibiotics, we mixed with pedialite. I have been hydrating her about every 2 hours. We have limited her diet to only Timothy hay and oatmeal for the next week. She is now eating hay on her own but is not drinking yet. But she is moving around and is not lethargic. Not sure if she is not drinking g simply because I am keeping her hydrated or because she does not want to drink.
It's very hard to tell. An x-ray is normally needed to check there is no blockage before force-feeding. Hydrating is good, as long as you do it with a very tiny syringe, being very careful not to drown your rabbit. You have to massage her stomach every four hours (you'll find videos on the internet) to help the guts moving. You haven't said if she poops or not, that is what will tell you if there is a blockage or not. Normally, antibiotics aren't really recommended for a GI stasis problem. Oatmeal doesn't sound like a great idea to me either. Any vet should be able to sell you critical care to force feed her if she isn't eating enough on her own (but you need to know if she is eliminating - if she isn't, force-feeding her will only build the blockage). She should take something for the pain to recover. All the vets sell metacam. And, in the end, she will need to see a vet. Stasis or blockage is an effect, not a cause. You need to determine what caused it. It can be a dental problem, a big stress (if you're lucky), something that is hurting her...
Thake the rabbit to the vet. The noise it makes might mean that it is in pain. Ir she is not eating you have to sryinge feed her critical care ir you DONT have it at home THEN TAKE her food and try to mealt it in warm watter till it makes a mass that looks like a baby food and feed it to the rabbit. You have to get medical help because if the rabbit is in pain it wont eat and they DONT TAKE PAIN WELL.
