Didn't eat his pellets, wet butt (RESOLVED!)

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degrassi

degrassi

Valerie - Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
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Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
I just woke up and checked on Gimpy. I found him laying down with his head close to his water and food dish. I'd never seen him lay there before. I checked and saw his pellets hadn't been touched over night, he usually eats them all. He also didn't get up when I came close to his cage with got me worried in the first place. I then saw 2 pee spots and wet foot prints around his cage floor. Lately he has been having some litter box issues(see thread in the cage section, since I changed his cage aroun) but he has been better for a week or more now.

I picked him up to check him over and his butt is wet with pee. Not too bad, mostly his feet and stomach, not so much around his tail etc. BUt when I put him back down he went back to laying down. Which is very unlike Gimpy. Usually he is mad when he is handled and goes into his cage, thumps and sits in the corner for a while grooming.

His stomach felt normal to me, pretty soft, not hard or anything.

Do you think I should call the vet just in case?
 
It sounds like he may be in a bit of pain, perhaps due to a urinary tract infection. They usually don't pee on themselves unless they have lost all control of it, or they are in too much pain to go to the literbox. I think he needs to go to the vet soon, especially since the pain is preventing him from eating. Metacam would be ok, but you usually need to have some food in the stomach and the bunny must be well-hydrated if you give that drug, so you could force feed and water him, then give some metacam if you have it, or take him to the vet and they can help with pain and not eating.
 
I made an appointment for 4:30 this afternoon.

I"m going to go to the store to pic up a few things to help Gimpy. Canned pumkin, pedialite, Gas meds(what brand?). Anything else I might need or should have on hand in a "bunny first aid kit"?

Anything I should do to try and get him to eat and drink this afternoon?

Poor Gimpy. He looks so sad :(
 
Any gas meds should be fine, but the baby liquid gas drops are the best. There's usually a generic form available. It should have simethicone as the active ingredient.

Another thing that helps in a first aid kit is a probiotic. These seem hard to come by in Canada, as things like Bene-Bac and Probios aren't usually available. Human acidophilus capsules are ok.

A warm water bottle, heating pad, or rice sock can help with gas pains.

Bunnies can also be given aspririn or ibuprofen, but only if they really need a pain med and you can't get bunny meds. Baby aspirin (80-some mg) will work, and ibuprofen is available in a liquid form for babies as well. I'd stick with aspirin, though, since it's not as hard on the stomach as ibuprofen. If these are given, make sure there's food in the stomach and the bunny's well hydrated. Never use tylenol (acetaminophen/peracetamol).

My bunnies love a drop of grenadine in their pedialyte or water to encourage them to drink, but other flavorings are preferred by other bunnies too.

I'm glad you got him a vet appt. I wouldn't worry too much about eating and drinking this afternoon--you don't want to stress him out too much. Keeping him hydrated is the most important thing, so try to match his urine output with force feeding water, if needed. Eating will come later, I think.
 
Ok thanks

I was just worried about the eating since I know rabbits aren't supposed to go too long without eating. The last time I saw Gimpy eat was last night, I saw him eat a bit of orchard grass.
 
I just got home from work and seeing this now.

When you see the Vet, have them teach you how to sub-Q a bunny if you have to do it later. Claire says keeping a bunny hydrated is just as important as having themeat. The vet might provide some Critical Care if he really needs to eat.

I will be going to the Shelter this afternoon. I can drop off some things to encourage Gimpy to eat. I have Alfalfa hay, timothy hay and some other hays (varieties that might tempt him to eat more.) I can give you some Nutrical, and oats if you want to try that.
 
Thanks for the offer Stan. I"ll let you know if I need them, I have quite a few types of hay here at home. I also know how to give sub Q fluids, so I'll ask the vet for some fluids and some critical care if they have it.

So far I have offered him timothy hay, oat hay, orchard grass, botanical and brome. I also gave him some lettuce and some banana(banana is his absolutae fav!) and he didn't look interested. He got up and move away from them.

He moved over to his water dish about an hour ago and laid down with his head kind of propped up on it. He kind of dipped his mouth into the water a few times and I think he drank a bit. He's now back in the other corner.

:(


 
OK just got back home about 45mins ago. Gimpy is looking a bit better. He was sitting up and cleaning himself when I came in and came over to the bar when he noticed me. I also saw him drinking some. Then when I came back to write this(my computer is right next to his cage) he was eating some pellets!!!! I'm also giving him some oat hay as I type this and he's eating that too!!!

Its weird to see him go from looking so terrible this morning, barely moving, breathing hard, head shaking(i think from breathing so hard), wet butt, laying down and not getting up. To now he looks almost normal.

The vet appointment is in 1 hour. I'm still taking him to make sure everything is ok. He scared the crap out of me this morning!
 
Sounds like maybe the pain passed. I'd double check his litterbox before you go to make sure there aren't any bladder stones in there--one of them passing could have caused the troubles. Good luck at the vet's--hope they can figure out what made him feel so poorly.

It's ok if he doesn't eat for a little bit--I'm hesitant to force feed bunnies unless it's been 24 hours since they ate. First of all, there's often no way for me to keep track of if they're eating hay while I'm not looking. Second, Gimpy sounded so miserable that forcing him to eat could have stressed him out more. Hydration is always the most important thing to keep them healthy and the gut moving--getting some food in there is secondary. With a bunny in distress, it's much better to get the water in than the food.
 
It's ok if he doesn't eat for a little bit--I'm hesitant to force feed bunnies unless it's been 24 hours since they ate. First of all, there's often no way for me to keep track of if they're eating hay while I'm not looking. Second, Gimpy sounded so miserable that forcing him to eat could have stressed him out more. Hydration is always the most important thing to keep them healthy and the gut moving--getting some food in there is secondary. With a bunny in distress, it's much better to get the water in than the food.
Click to expand...


Gimpy started eating on his own. I just had all the food/hay out in his cage for him.

He's maybe eaten a tablespoon of his pellets and a little bit of oat hay so far, and I've seen him drink 3 different times now. So far so good!

I leave in 15mins for the vet.
 
OK vet checked him out and said he was looking ok. His tummy was soft and sounded good. His butt area looked a lot better now that it was dry and gimpy had cleaned it up(I had also cleaned it up a bit this morning).

The vet thought it might be a bladder stone or something that was causing pain but passed, since gimpy was so sick this morning but got better so quickly. He said he could do some tests but since Gimpy was doing better that we should probably just watch him over night and see how it goes. If he stops eating again or looks sick i'm to bring him right back. The vet is going to call back tomorrow to check on him.

So I guess its wait and see if he continues to improve and keeps eating.
 
Don't you know it, just as you get to the Doctor, Gimpy is fine. :bunnydance:

So glad there wasn't anything more serious, and that he continues to eat and drink. How is his poop and pee?
 
I cleaned out his litter box when I got back from the vet so I have a clean slate to check for things tonight. The stuff in his box looked mostly normal. There was a bit of soft "melty" looking poos stuck to the litter box grate, maybe 2-4 of them. But the rest looked normal and there was urine, I didn't see and crystals or any really calcium concentration looking urine, it looked normal. The urine on the cage floor this morning did look very whitish, not his normal orange, or dark orange.

Since I added him back to the cage I noticed he was on his litter box so I'll check it before bed tonight, as I'm about to leave to go to a concert.

I have my dad on bunny sitting duty while I'm out for the night. Just so someone is checking in on him every so often to make sure he isn't getting worse again.

Thanks for listening to me today. I was really worried and just needed someone to tell this to.
 
Glad to hear he got a clean bill of health. I hope it was just a single stone or something. Keep an eye on him, of course, though! So glad you were able to get him to the vet today.
 
Gimpy seems to be doing better today. He ate the rest of his pellets over night and the rest of the handful of oat hay. He came for a hand scratch when I opened the cage and started eating right away when I put some new oat hay down.

He seems to be back to normal. Thank god

Thanks for everyone's help. It sure is scary when one of your babies is sick
 
degrassi wrote:
Gimpy seems to be doing better today. He ate the rest of his pellets over night and the rest of the handful of oat hay. He came for a hand scratch when I opened the cage and started eating right away when I put some new oat hay down.

He seems to be back to normal. Thank god

Thanks for everyone's help. It sure is scary when one of your babies is sick
Click to expand...
dietary issues...i worry more about my buns getting enough timothy hay than i do the pellets,,but if the small amount of pellets they get daily don,t disappear,,i then focus on the individual rabbit,,and i look at the fruit tree branchs to see if there is any new chewing//try to head off any illness/-gimpy might have passed a stone/wow,,i bet that hurt,,he is so cute,,keep the good work...sincerely james waller:wave:
 
He's continuing to do better. Eating lots of hay, his pellets and drinking normal. He's also using the litter box normally, no peeing on the floor or wet butt.

Still not sure what happened to cause Gimpy to be so sick that morning but I'm sure glad he is acting normal and seems to be feeling better.

A big thanks to everyone that was so quick to help out and listen! Gimpy thanks you too!
 
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