Diarrhea - seven hours until vet opens

[sidney_bunny]

hello,

I have a 7-8 year old rabbit with a long history of stomach issues. He is on an all hay diet because he can not tolerate greens or pellets for the past few years. He has been relatively stable.

Lately he has been molting and our regular hay supplier ran out of 2nd cut Timothy hay. He’s been eating more orchard grass than normal although he has access to other Timothy hay. His old gas/pain problem came back likely due both of these events tonight.

Tonight he’s had stomach pain and instead of passing after an hour (like normal) he started defecating while laying down. While some may have been cecotrophes I think it was also diarrhea 30 minutes later.

Is there anything I can do between now and the next seven hours when the vet opens?

Thank you. I am panicked. He’s acting like he’s not going to make it.

 

[Popsicles]

Make sure you keep him hydrated!! The main thing with diarrhoea is the loss of fluids and electrolytes, so try and syringe feed water if he hasn’t drunk very much.
As I’m sure you know, rabbit diarrhoea is a medical emergency so get there as soon as that vet opens.
Good luck x

 

[sidney_bunny]

Thank you very much for the reply. Since I was operating without a lot of sleep, I did not realize that what I was seeing was a massively excessive amount of cecotrophes and not diarrhea. For better or worse, that's something we know how to deal with for this particular rabbit. The amount of cecotrophes was equivalent to perhaps an entire week's worth all in about a one hour timespan. The extra bad smell is a dead giveaway and I didn't factor that in during a moment of panic. When I saw it coming out while he was laying down and the one round of near pure liquid cecotropes, I freaked out.

For anyone else searching this later, I used smithecone three times in the evening. I tried to massage his stomach as much as he would let me. Otherwise, I probably spent 3-4 hours rubbing his nose and ears almost non-stop to try and comfort him. He tried to run away and hide in another room but I followed him.

Once he passed the majority of the cecotrophes, he perked up and started eating hay right away. I had some canned pumpkin already out and he stopped ignoring it. He was pooping normally about 6 hours in. This was the last sign I was waiting for.

For me, I've only dealt with this on a smaller time scale as well. Normally, he is clearly having stomach pain, pressing it against the floor, and I'll hear gurgling. But, after the smithecone, the gas/whatever passes after 1-2 hours. 5 hours is a record for us.

I'm also starting him on some Bene-Bac and of course eliminating Orchard Grass for now. He'll need to eat only Timothy hay since that's literally the only food he can tolerate. His annual exam / chem panel 6 months ago show no side effects to this hay only diet. It's just a matter of finding high quality hay, which is so hard to do.

 

[Thumperina]

I am glad he is doing better!
How much simethicone do we need to give in case of stomach gas? I am also using it but never known what a good amount would be. I know you can't overdose it, so I usually give about 1.5 ml to my 3.5kg rabbit

 

[sidney_bunny]

I use .5ml for a 2000g rabbit. I think our vet said we could use double that but I've opted for less so I can use it more often.