Diet during megacolon flare-up?

[Jenk]

I'm wondering what people feed their bunnies who're experiencing a megacolon flare-up? Do you feed their normal diet (completely unchanged)? Do you decrease the amount of certain items fed (e.g., pellets, greens)? Do you feed hay only for a time (and, if yes, for how long)?

My Zoe is undergoing a flare-up after eating a good deal of plastic (off her now-former litter box). I've reduced her amount pellets (from 2 tsp. to about 1/8 tsp.) and parsley (from 1/8 C. to just a few leaves); her gut is really "off." (She is under a vet's care and is currently taking Reglanand Bene-Bac. She was on Flagyl for a few days'; we're awaiting her fecal culture results to determine if further antibiotic treatment is necessary.)

Thank you,

Jenk

 

[SunnyCait]

I'm curious as to what you mean by megacolon... In rats this is a very serious disease that causes a rat to be unable to absorb nutrients due to a genetic condition that affects the intestines... Always resulting in death.

Is this different in rabbits??

 

[Jenk]

SunnyCait wrote:

I'm curious as to what you mean by megacolon... In rats this is a very serious disease that causes a rat to be unable to absorb nutrients due to a genetic condition that affects the intestines... Always resulting in death.

Is this different in rabbits??

It depends upon whom you ask, really.

One person's toldme that it's an early death sentence; another person told me that her megacolonbun lived to be eight years old.

I tend to avoidthe naysayers and remain hopeful. In my bun's case, she passes a tiny amount of mucous whenever her gut gets ultra-upset (in this case, from ingested plastic). I had her passing nearly normal fecals over the previous five months'; so this particular bout has me rather bummed....We were doing so well.

 

[Maureen Las]

For some reason I cannot read this on the computer butI think you can print it out.



http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Mechanical_diseases/megacolon.pdf

It's not fatal in rabbits


Jenk ,

i would do exactly what you are doing with her diet and not change it any more .
Sorry to hear that she 's having a flare ....

 

[SunnyCait]

Ah okay. I read that link and started Googling. It doesn't look to be the same exact type of thing as in rats.

In a way that's nice, because in the rat world you hear "Megacolon" and that's it, there's not a thing you can do. At least with rabbits there are medications and things you can do to help. I think that's amazing.

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

i would do exactly what you are doing with her diet and not change it any more .
Sorry to hear that she 's having a flare ....

I'm calling the vet's office when it opens; Zoe's current treatment enough. Last night, she had another bad gas bout (hard-feeling stomach, pressing her gut to the floor);I found a little mucous on a few fecals this morning.

The vet had put her on Flagyl for three days'; then the initial cultureshowed no overgrowth of the "big-gun" bacteria. Zoe's only been on Bene-Bac since. A second culture was taken for the lab to do a more specific culture reading.I don't think that Zoe can without any antibiotic treatment in the meantime. The vet had said that she didn't want to use anymore antibiotics without knowing what bacteria may be running rampant, but I don't think that Zoe's system can wait.