Harper's in emergency surgery

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MyBoyHarper

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Fordoche, Louisiana, USA
Hey guys... a few days ago, I noticed Harper looked a little less active than usual and he wasn't pooping as much. I called the vet, and since Harper has chronic GI problems, we started him on his usual round of Laxatone. However, over the last couple days,the Laxatone has increased, and his activity level and pooping has decreased. This was until last night, when he quit eating and pooping all together. He went back to the vet this morning and they did an x-ray. They saw a blockage in his stomach, and his stomach is swollen twice its normal size because now nothing is even getting into his intestines. Then they gave him some barium lqiuid, waited a while and then did another x-ray. The x-ray showed the white liquid going aroun da large round mass, and not going anywhere pass that point. He said that it showed that nothing is passing past the very top of his stomach, which is why his stomach has swollen up. He said the mass,most likely a hairball, is large and very hard.

They went ahead and decided on surgery and he's in surgery now. They said that they're going to have to open his stomach and his intestines to empty out the blockages, because it appear that he has 3 seperate ones, a large one and two smaller ones behind it. They said he can come home tomorrow, and he'll be on antibiotics and pain medicine. My poor little man!!

The vet originally told me to put Harper from alfalfa based pellets to timothy based ones because he has a chronic slowing moving GI track.This is his 3rd bout with stasis, and his first surgery for it. So,he's now on the timothy complete with 22% fiber. But I am going to switch him to Oxbow which has 30% fiber and hope that we can avoid this in the future, along with extra grooming.

*Sigh* Poor baby, he's been so stressed lately because of all this, and I just know his poor tummy has been hurting so badly.


 
Ohh noo poor Harper!

I have gone through GI Stasis with two of my bunnies..Cassidy and Chocolate Bunny both on seperate times though, Chockie has suffered twice with it, their stomache went as hard as a brick , and their temp dropped,their ears were freezing their whole body justwent cold,i tell ya it's terrifying to see your bunny so sicK.

And yes things can go downhill very fast,when it comes to these guys

They were both rushed of to the vets,and had made a full recovery by the next day..thank god!!!!

I will be keeping Harper in my thoughts :)



cheryl



 
The vet just now called and said that the surgery went good. He said it was a large ball of mostly hair but was wrapped in some type of white cotton/fuzz material. I checked all Harper's toys and couldn't find any with holes where he could've gotten fuzz, but I'll be inspecting them again. They told me he can go home around noon tomorrow, I can't wait to get him back home!


 
Poor Harper, and poor you! I'm glad to hear that he got through the surgery well, lets home that he makes a speedy recover and that you can find out what it was that he ate. I'm off to go remove the soft toys from the rabbit room now - just in case! :shock:


 
Ohh thankgod he is ok!!!!

Looks like Harper might have gotten himself into a bit of mischief ;)



I'm just happy to hear he is ok :D

let us know how he is when he comes home :)



cheryl
 
Does he have access to any blankets or pillows? or under your bed or couch?? that would be soft and fuzzy, if ingested.

Im so happy to hear the surgery went well. Heres hoping for a speedy recovery

Keep us posted!

Haley

PS..just noticed this is in RO forum..Im gonna move it to the infirmary :)
 
No pillows or blankets, he's supervised when he's running the house. He was outside in the yard, but I watch him closely, and I didn't see any fuzz or see him eating anything other than a little grass. He has plenty of plush toys in his cage but they all look fine to me with no holes or anything. I did notice one toy however, a little plush carrot, has a small hole in it. But I don't see where any of the fuzz has been pulled through it. However, I'm going to remove the toy anyways, or sow it up very well.


 
Oh no! Poor Harper! I hope he heals up okay. :pray:

Could the fibers be from carpet? Or pulled off a fleece blanket- you know those little fuzzy balls that always develop.
 
Hey guys, thought I'd pop in with an update. Harper's home today and doing good. I picked him up around 10am and dropped him off at my mom's job just for 45 minutes while I ran to school to explain while I wouldn't be in today or thursday or friday. I came back, and he had done pulled all his stitches out! I had to run him back to the vet, who was already closed but was still there thank goodness. They had to put him back to sleep and this time stapled his incision closed. He's awake now, a little groggy, but doing good. We had to buy one of those collars like you buy for a dog to put around his neck in order to keep him from pulling out his stitches again. He's not a happy camper, but he's already nibbling on his hay, drinking water, and pooping up a storm.

His food and hay has to be drastically decreased for a few days and increased slowly. This is because his stomach had stretched twice its size when he had the impaction and it needs time to heal. He won't be happy about the lack of food, LOL.

He also has to have Laxatone twice a day, 3 days a week for a month to make sure everything stays moving fine. The poor thing is cut from his chest almost down to his manhood. Eek!

I'm just glad this ordeal is over with and never want to go through it again! I skipped classes today to be with him and will be skipping all my classes tomorrow and friday as well to be with him.

That's all for now, lots of healing vibes appreciated for my little dude!
 
I'm so glad to hear Harper is home and doing well.

Sounds like he's well on the way to being his old self again!

Give him kissies for me.

You're such a good bunny mom.


 
Poor little Harper. :hug2:

He must look pretty darn cute with that collar on. Make sure and get us a pic if you can!

Thats great you can stay home for a few days and take care of him. I'll be keeping him in my thoughts and prayers.

Get well soon Harper :clover: :pray:
 
Aww poor little guy,he must be feeling so sore,but at least he is home

and it's good to hear that besides pulling stitches out he is doing fine :)



cheryl
 
Well, he's not so drugged anymore, more like the complete opposite! Now he's just plain mad and sulking because he hates the collar around his neck. I'll grab some pictures in a minute and post them for you guys to see.


 
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