GI Stasis Recovery

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kouneli

kouneli

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Oct 27, 2012
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Bradley, a 5 year old neutered male mini lop, is currently recovering from GI stasis. He's eating, pooping, peeing, drinking, and acting like his normal self now. I give him 1cc Reglan and .01cc of Flagyl currently twice a day as told to by the vet. Since he's now drinking and eating on his own, I'm not providing him with SQ fluids anymore, nor am I syringe feeding him.
I'll be asking the vet on Monday as to when I should stop the Reglan. Flagyl, I know, needs to be given for 14 days to prevent bacterial resistance. But I was curious as to when you all have stopped medication after GI stasis.
I'm also wondering how I could prevent this from happening again. He gets a full amount of Timothy hay, with a small handful of alfalfa hay as a treat. Bradley's never been one to eat fresh greens, unfortunately, but he does get a small slice of apple almost daily (about 2tbsp worth). I've heard that papaya/pineapple can help, but he won't eat fresh. Does dried papaya/pineapple have the same effect?
He also gets plenty of exercise each night (approximately 4-5 hours before bed), as I know it can help keep his gut moving. But he's been having trouble with going poop in his litter box after he's had the GI stasis. I'm GLAD he's pooping, and don't scold him for it, but ever since then, he seems as if he can't hold it long enough to make it to his litter box anymore. Could this be because of the Reglan?
Last question....
Once a rabbit has GI stasis, do they have a higher chance of getting it again?
 
Thanks so much for the prayers, then :) I'm sure that has also had an effect on his recovery, since myself and almost an entire (though small) church congregation had been praying lol.
 
I can answer a few of your questions. I'm not sure about when to stop the meds. Does your rabbit get any rabbit pellets as well? And do you know what caused the stasis to start with, ex. stress, previous illness, diet too high in carbs and sugars?

I have a rabbit that got GI stasis due to the stress of being in a new place. He got better, but it also made him susceptible to reoccuring bouts with it. So the first time was due to stress, but the nexr two times were due to diet changes in trying to change his pellets. So for now he's on a hay and greens only diet, with daily probiotics to try and help his digestion get back to normal. So yes, it can happen again.

If you don't know the cause, then my guess would be the diet. Some rabbits start having problems handling excess sugars and carbs, and then they develop problems with stasis. I would suggest not giving the apple anymore, as well as any other carbs and sugars, and if he gets pellets you may want to cut back on those. I personally don't believe in using the pinepple/papaya because I don't think the extra sugars are good for stasis problems.

His pooping out of the litter box very well could have to do with the meds, or maybe just from being sick.

Here's a good article on GI stasis.

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
 
No clue what caused it. He had no changes in diet and has always had a small slice of apple almost every day of his life as a treat. But if you think it will help prevent GI stasis, I'll stop with the treat.

He gets 1/8 cup of pellets each morning, though he will pick at it throughout the day..sometimes not even eating the full 1/8 cup. He likes to watch his weight lol. And at 5lbs, he's quite lean. Even the vet remarked on how he was so in shape compared to most fat buns she sees. When I first got him, all he would eat was hay, which was fine, but he needed some extra weight on him, according to the vet. So we slowly got him eating pellets. But that's been 5 years ago.

As for the pineapple/papaya, he never really eats it anyways, but was wondering if it would help. Thanks for clearing that up for me.
 
He never eats greens. I've tried feeding him just about any type of safe greens listed on the rabbit.org list, but he won't eat them. He simply ignores them and they go to waste.

He's been molting a little bit, but it's not as bad as it usually is. I've still been brushing him daily with a regular slicker brush, and weekly with a furminator (though gently).
 
I LOVE the furminator. my lop wants nothing to do with it, but it's amazing for lionhead manes/skirts.

the molt could be the cause of the stasis. if he won't eat fresh pineapple/papaya, you could try oxbow papaya tabs - they're a little better anyway imo since they have extra enzymes added and therefore have a better enzyme to sugar ratio than fresh fruit.

I'd say you can probably continue to give him tiny bits of apple as long as he doesn't have stasis issues again.
 
Well, just took his temperature and it's up to 104.2...whereas while he was sick it was around 101-102. He's doing everything normally, but just wondering if this would call for trying to cool him down. I know that heat can help the belly, so I've turned off my fans. It's only 70*F in the room, with a ceiling fan going now.
I'm wanting to put a frozen water bottle in there, but I'm afraid that it will affect his recovery.
 
The key to keeping the stasis from reoccuring, is to try and figure out why he got it in the first place. There's a reason why he got it that first time, so you just need to figure out what were the contributing factors. I had one rabbit die from it this summer. If I had understood GI stasis better at the time, she probably would have never got it, because it was me not recognizing the signs that lead to me inadvertantly contributing to the problem. Her poops hadn't been quite right when I got her a few months before, but I didn't understand how serious that symptom was, and I didn't understand that it meant she had digestive problems. So I innocently fed her a very small treat each day and that was what caused her to get a complete blockage and die. I would suggest you read up on GI stasis, so that you understand as much as you can about it. Because I had read so much about it after my rabbit died, when one of my other rabbit's started showing signs of having it, I knew what to look for and what to do, and that helped save his life. Because his started from stress, I couldn't stop it from happening, but I knew what to do once it did.

With your rabbit having a mostly hay diet, I think it is unlikely that injesting hair caused the stasis, especially since you said he wasn't molting that badly, and hay is supposed to be the best thing for molting because of all the fiber the rabbit is getting from the hay. It seems more likely to me that it was the sugars from the fruit. I've read several peoples stories here on RO, where they had fed their rabbit a certain way for years and it had been fine, but later in life the rabbit developed stasis problems because of that same diet that they had always been accustomed to. So even though your rabbit has been fine with this diet for maybe, his whole life, it can still be what caused his illness now. I don't know if the apple was the cause, but not knowing your rabbit except from what I've read, that would be my guess as to the cause. With me, having my rabbit go through stasis was so stressful and horrible, I never want to go through it again. The tastiest treats my rabbit gets are leafy greens and his probiotic gel. He'll probably never get a sugary treat for the rest of his life. He may be perfectly fine if I did give him a treat, but after all I've been through with him, I'm just simply not willing to risk it anymore.
 
Ok. No more fruit for my "aging" bunny then.

I have done lots of research on GI stasis before, as I lost one to it just before I got Bradley. Victor was only 2 years old, and a previous lab bunny. He had likely gotten GI stasis due to the large amount of broccoli stalks that my mom had given him a few nights before I noticed it. Unfortunately, I noticed it too late as he had stopped eating his hay and pellets, but up until the day I noticed, he would still eat his treat every night. We then took him to an emergency vet that CLAIMED to know rabbits. His temp was 105 when we brought him in, spiked to 107 while he was there (and they did NOTHING to cool him down), and he ended up with brain damage that caused him to balance on his nose instead of his front feet. With a week's worth of massaging the tummy, SQ fluids, Reglan, Baytril, Tramadol, and syringe feeding, he unfortunately passed away. What I don't get is that we were able to get his temperature down to 103 with cold wash cloths over his body. If I had taken the time, energy, and money to sue the animal hospital, I would've won. Nothing was written in the medical records about cooling methods (and they even admitted verbally that they didn't do anything to get his temperature down). Anyways, knowing what happened with Victor allowed me to notice Bradley's "beginning stages" of GI stasis.
 
It's a hard thing to go through, for us and the rabbits. I'm sure you knowing about stasis, saved your rabbits life. I'm kind of paranoid about stasis problems now because of all I've had to deal with, so when people have these problems with their buns here on RO, I tend to over explain everything because a lot of people don't understand much about stasis. That's good that you do, and I'm glad you were able to help your bun because of what you've learned.

104 is slightly elevated. Stress can be a factor, or it can be the beginning of an infection. 105 is considered high and is an emergency. 101-103 is considered normal. If you think he is too warm, that frozen bottle can help bring the temp down. It would be good to monitor his temp until it goes back down.
 
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