Help: Bunny in stasis? (resolved!)

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l.lai

l.lai

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Hi there,

My poor bunny seems to have ingested a bit more fur than usual, lately i've been grooming him a lot but despite this, it seems the last two weeks when i go to clean out his play pen and litter tray, i am finding quite a few of his poops connected together by hair.

Now i used to find this occasionally but he'd be fine.

He almost always eats all his hay and goes through all his veggies and pellets frequently (Oxbow T Bunny Basics).

Lately hes eating less, not touching hay and he regularly has pellets left over.

He seems to still eat his favourites (dill, mint, carrots and carrot tops), but the celery is not all eaten and he doesnt seem to eat his pellets or hay.

I'm worried he's getting backed up in his guts.

I bought some Oxbow Critical Care for Herbivors, i heard this is good for them to eat as it'll help him pass any remaining fur he has backed up inside of him.

I'll be sure to brush him more this week as he seems to be shedding a bit more lately than usual.

I also read pineapple juice is good for disolving the hair in his stomach, how true is this?
 
Do you have simethicone? It is the ingredient in baby gas drops. Try giving them to him if you think that he may have gas and hopefully it will help him pass it. Also tummy rubs could make the blockage move.
 
Cool, im just not sure how i can coerce him to let me give him a tummy rub without his kicking all over the place!

I have also observed his poops are a lot smaller and much darker.

The used to be larger, more round, grassier in colour/texture, now they're dark, hard and small.
 
Papaya is a very common remedy for hair blockage. Papaya contain enzymes that help digest the material that hold hair together in the stomach, thus preventing harmfull hairballs. Papaya can be given fresh in small amounts or as tablet crumbled up and fed with daily pellets. Pineapple can have the same affect, but it isn't as strong nor as nutritionallybeneficial as papaya is.

Apple pulp is rich in pectin as is applesauce. It helps treat diarrhea and constipation as it acts as a gentle stool softener. It's an amphoteric, which means that it can work in either direction, plugging up the bowels when loos or loosening them if constipated. Do not allow rabbits to eat the seeds from apples as they can eventually build up as poisons in the rabbit's stomach.

Comfreyis also usedto help digestion. It's also very good in helping to aid the passage of hairballs or wool blocks. In large doses it can cause severy diarrhea and dehydration.

Hope these remedies help!

www.inlerabbitry.webs.com
 
Hopefully an infirmary mod will come along soon. If it was me, I would try to push hay and water to get everything moving through. Sometimes I notice with my buns if I put hay in a different spot, sometimes just a pile in the middle of their room they think it is so cool and go crazy eating it. If your rabbit won't eat the hay I would do critical care but make sure you soak it really well. It will soak up a lot of water. More then the package says. You want to make sure it soaks up as much water as possible so it doesn't take fluids from your buns stomach. How is he drinking? He needs to be gettng lots of fluids.
 
Racer (my bunny) has never really been a big drinker, i cleaned his cage yesterday and have noticed he's peed a few times already, soaking the corner of his litter tray so its a good sign he's drinking if he's peeing i guess!

So with critical care you suggest soaking it with more water than the pack says?

Has anyone had any experience with critical care?

Will the substance look like a paste or a soup?

Can i put it in his regular feeding bowl as i dont have a feeding syringe..
 
I'm not an infirmary mod, but I have dealt with a bit of what you're facing with my bunny Toby. Amy has given you some good advice regarding critical care. I personally have never fed it, so I don't know how it should look like, but perhaps it is not so dire yet. What you are describing appears to be a gut slowdown, not a fullblown episode of GI stasis yet.

Whether or not papaya/pineapple enzymes work... I don't really know. Some people swear by it, but I don't think it's been clinically proven to help breakdown blockages.

At this point what I would try to get a hold of some probiotics to help the bunny work the food and fur through the gut on its own. You can purchase probiotics often at pet stores or from feed stores. It would be the same stuff used for small animals and horses. In the US we have a brand called Bene Bac.

Hydration is also an important component to head off a case of stasis. Fresh pineapple juice would be great here. Water it down a little so the bun drinks more liquid. Or some Pedialyte would also work. Plain old water would be fine too, but it's harder to entice a bun who already has a lousy appetite to drink plain unflavored water.
 
The most important thing is to get fluids into him...

You can get an electrolyte drink like pedialyte (which some rabbits like) and syringe it( as much as the rabbit will take) ; I have dissoved a chewable papaya tablet in pedialyte and syringed that but I often use fresh squeezed pineapple juice ( not canned has to be fresh) either mixed with pedialyte or a few ccs given alone several times per day.

Another option is to learn to give subqutaneous fluids ( the vet or vet tech could teach you )

Canned pure pumpkin (without seasoning) has lots of fiber and some bunnies like the taste. It is easy to syringe pumpkin.
I have started to give benebac (a probiotic) when my buns get a slowdown and it seems to also help
Simethicone (infant gas drops) also helps when the bun is not comfortable from gas
1 cc at a time

One of my rabbits who has severe dental disease needs to eat Critical care as the mainstay of his diet.

he hasan acquired taste for it but I am not sure that other bunnies do

it needs to be mixed with water and allowed to sit for about 1/2 hour . You will probably find you need to mix in even more water and keep stirring and maybe even more water until you have a gruel . If you do not mix enough water in it and let it sit and soak up the water it will actually draw water from the stomach contents and this is exactly what you do not want.

it sounds like you have caught this early and most likely if you intervene he will not go into total stasis
You could also try feeding some parlsey which most rabbits like and is good for digestion,
 
Critical care does have some "Lactobacillus acidophilus" which is a probiotic. So maybe it is a good idea to go ahead and feed it now if you can't get a hold of the probiotic on its own.
 
I don't ever force feed a bunny unless they aren't eating on their own.

There are a couple of things that can make a bunny eat less and the gut slow down. I wonder if he has any tooth issues--they would certainly make him stop eating pellets and hay, but still eat his favorite, less crunchy veggies.

The best way to get a bunny's gut moving is hydration. Second best is a probiotic. I would do both--give something like pedialyte (dioralyte somewhere) in a bowl flavored with something he likes. I try to get the unflavored infant rehydration drink and add a few drops of grenadine--they love it and will drink it right up. I also would give some probiotic. Can you get Bene-Bac or ProBios?

He isn't actually in stasis until he stops eating or pooping or both.

If the pedialyte and probioitic don't work, time to go to the vet for a tooth check and some more hydration.
 
Sweet, awesome advice, i've already just went and bought some pinapple juice and already have the Critical care:

As he's currently eating his treats still, and definately pooping and peeing, i'll do this for now:

- Mix pinapple juice with water to get him drinking
- Critical care mixed with plenty of water (mix it with suggested water amount, leave it for half an hour, mix a bit more water into it).

I'll leave it for him to eat, if he doesnt eat it, i read i can mash a little banana into it to entice him.

Until then he'll be on hay and water.

I'll keep you all posted, thanks for your tips.
 
I've gone through stasis with a few rabbits. As long as he is still eating, drinking and pooping, you are still in a REALLY good place!

The best things at this point that you can do are lots of hay and water. Make sure he is eating his pellets. If he usually gets oats, take those away, they can make the situation worse.

I'm pretty shocked that no one mentioned canned pumpkin. Not the kind that has anything added, just pure pumpkin. It's super high in fiber and is always good to give. I give it about once a week routinely. Plus, most rabbits LOVE it!

If he stops eating, then you will want the simethicone. (Dissolving 1/2 a Tums is almost as good. I find that rabbits like the pink ones. LOL) You can give that every 4-6 hours. At that point you will also want to try to orally syringe water and a pellet slurry mix into him, again, this is only if he stops eating.

Best of luck!
 
Haha yeah Angi suggested canned pumpkin, thats next after pineapple juice and Critical care!

For my reference:

How much canned pumpkin? As in canned pumpkin soup?
 
If you re going toplace it down for him to eat on his own just place a large spoonful of it in a bowl..you may want to heat it a little in the microwave ..and add a tiny piece of banana to flavor it. make sure there is no seasoning in it
if you are going to syringe it you should have at least a 20 cc syringe or a small animal feeding syringe . I sometimes give about 40 cc at time .


Claire is right that you don't have to syringe feed yet....
 
Not pumpkln soup; the can will say pure pumpkin on the back even though it is sold in the pie filling area .. you have to read the back to make sure there is no seasoning
 
Parsley is a good diuretic.

A veterinarian did some experiments with blockages removed from rabbit's stomachs and found that the common enzymes purported to break up hair blockages did absolutely nothing to degrade the mass nor did the enzymes have any effect on breaking down the mucus. You can do a simple experiment by soaking hair in pineapple juice - it has absolutely no effect on the hair.You can also try the experiment with a mucus plug or mucus coated cecalif you find it in a litter pan.




 
I wouldnt be feeding your bun carrots to much.. When I had my girl, I would be feeding her carrots and spinach and she died an 30 min.
 
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