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DeepSeaGoddess

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Nov 2, 2008
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Location
Glen Allen, Virginia, USA
I need some advice. So, Lucy, approximately 3-4 years old, had showed decreased appetite earlier in the week. I had some metacam on hand, gave it to her, she finally started to eat. I suspected potentially digestive issues. This was Tuesday. I gave her fluids that day through a syringe as well as simethicone. She finally started to eat that day and was acting normal then, Wednesday, it started happening again. So, I took her to the vet that day (a rabbit savvy vet). He did notice a slight mis-alignment in her teeth and a bit of pointedness..due to the misalignment. He also saw her drooling some. He prescribed more metacam and wanted to give it a couple of days to see if it was her teeth or a digestive issue. Each time I'd give the pain meds, she'd eat and act normal. Today, I took her back in because although on pain meds she acted normal, I wanted her rechecked. He is now leaning towards a teeth issue or infection. He prescribed an antibiotic, enrofloxacin twice a day and to keep her on the metacam twice a day to see if this cured it. If not, he would recommend taking her back in to have the teeth filed down. I have given her two doses of the enrofloxacin today and now, she refuses to eat ANYTHING. Before the antibiotic, she would eat fine provided she had the pain medicine...which she's had her doses of that today. I was fine with waiting it out as long as she was eating and acting normal while on the pain meds but now, not eating at all, I'm SCARED!!! It's late Friday night, there is NOT an emergency vet in my area for rabbits this late at night. What can and should I do? The last time I saw her eat was before we took her today....this morning she ate vegetables, some pellets and hay....but since coming back from the vet, and getting the two doses of antibiotic, she refuses to eat anything. I don't know what to do....
 
Do you have any Critical Care on hand? You may need to syringe feed her to keep the gut working. She probably needs a probiotic to get her back on track. Keeping good thoughts for Lucy.
 
No, I don't have any critical care or probiotics. I could probably get some benebac tomorrow at the pet store.....what should I do until then? Is there anything I can give her tonight? thanks.
 
Try making a slurry of warm water and pellets. Does her stomach seem sore or tight? Like she might have gas? Is she sitting hunched up or acting like she can't get comfortable? If so she might need some baby gas drops. Sydney weighs just over 4 lbs and I give her 1mL of the drops and then repeat in an hour when we deal with gut stasis. Tummy massages and warm rice bags can also help relieve gas issues. Lucy might also be really stressed from the vet trip as well. Keep her hydrated, also. I've spent many nights with Sydney dealing with her not wanting to eat, sometimes with hydration and the gas drops, she would start to munch on her grass about 6 hours after not wanting to eat. We now keep medication for gut mobility on hand at all times, as well as the baby gas drops and critical care.
 
Stop the antibiotic until you can talk to the vet tomorrow. And you just need to do what you were doing before when you suspected a stomach upset. Metacam, syringe water if she won't drink, syringe critical care if you have it, if not then you can soak some of her pellets and use a large syringe to feed it to her. You can also syringe plain canned pumpkin(not pie filling). Also see if she'll eat some leafy greens on her own. If she feels cold, give her a warm pack, to help warm her up. Simethicone, tummy massage, and letting her run around may help if she has developed gas. She may not have gas though, and it may be that the baytril has caused her to feel some nausea, since that is a possible side effect. If so, then she should start feeling better as the effects of the baytril start wearing off. My guess would be that it's the nausea since you just barely started giving her the baytril.
 
I didn't even think about green veggies! Thanks!! I was able to get her to eat a few sprigs of parsley. I went ahead and gave her some simethicone just in case it is gas as well as some water through a syringe. Do you think I should still try to get some pellets mixed in water in her or just let it be for now? I do suspect you are right on the nausea as she has only had 2 doses of antibiotics. I will not give anymore...she wouldn't be due for any till tomorrow but, I don't think I'm giving it to her.
 
Feeding a pellet mash, just depends on how long you think it's been since she last ate. If you think it's been more than 12 hours, I would go ahead and try and feed her some, unless you can manage to get a few more greens in her. You just don't want her going too long without food or you'll start risking a gut slowdown.
 
probiotics should *definitely* be given with antibiotics - they can help prevent the upset tummy antibiotics sometimes cause.

petsmart doesn't sell them last I checked, but petco does (online, at least) - http://www.petco.com/product/14786/...Beneficial-Bacteria.aspx?CoreCat=OnSiteSearch. you might be able to find it at a feed store if you can't find it at petco. failing that, I sell some on my website (the downside is having to wait for it to come in the mail) - http://www.hurricanesleucisticfriends.com/first-aid-supplies.html
 
Thank you guys so much. I'm headed to Petco first thing this morning when they open to get some. They open at 9 and it is almost 7 now. I slept for about 4 hours hoping by the time I got up she would have eaten. Nope...poor thing. I just gave her metacam (it was about time for pain medicine) and some water. She ate a few more parsley sprigs about 5 hours ago but I don't think she has eaten anything since. I may try to go ahead and get some pellet mash in her till then.

How much bene bac should I give her? She weighs 8.3 pounds. She's on .4 cc of baytril every twelve hours (which of course I'm not giving her today and calling the vet first thing this morning too).

On a side note, I definitely want to keep some critical care on hand....where can I get critical care?
 
the feed store I go to sells critical care, so you might check there... as a note, get the apple/banana flavor, because a lot of bunnies (mine included) LOATHE the anise kind.

the benebac is 1 gram for animals up to 10 lbs... the kind petco sells, each little tube is 1 gram so you'll give her an entire tube. the little tubes think you should give one every week... the 15 gram syringe kind (which is the same stuff, just the "bulk" version of bene-bac says to do 2 doses, three days apart. I would dose her now and three days from now. there's really no need to use it weekly unless she's experiencing tummy troubles on a regular basis.
 
Update....she's eaten some parsley and a few leaves of baby romaine. A couple of tiny small pieces of hay. I have a call into the vet...he's there today was just in with another customer. NONE of our Petcos around here have bene bac liquid. They have powder...will that work with mixing with water through a syringe?
 
Off to the vet we go for 11:40 appt. Also got some bene-bac in her plus found a store that sold some critical care....the apple-banana. Will hopefully know more after vet appt.
 
Back from the Vet. She is drooling more than she was before..this is why he thought originally it is tooth related or an infection (still could be) but, he said although he's not seen it happen very much the antibiotics could have caused an upset to her tummy. He felt around for a long time on her belly and when he touched a certain spot she did get a little fidgety. So, he is thinking that although she may have an infection or something but, it seems more digestive related now. It definitely does to me too now. So, he gave her more subcutaneous fluids, as well as has put her on metoclopraminde which he said may help get her gut moving better plus may help the nausea if that is what it is. And, he said not to give her the antibiotics for now. At least I found the critical care!! I'm going to give her some in a few hours if she hasn't started to eat on her own. She did eat some parsley and baby romaine this morning so she has had some food. And she has plenty of fluids in her now. I'll keep you guys posted.
 
Bene-bac powder is fine if you're already syringing her stuff. Many bunnies will eat the gel voluntarily but syringing the powder (resuspended in liquid) is fine. Bene-Bac also has probiotics in it. I agree that this antibiotic is not for her--some bunnies react more strongly to different antibiotics. I would think she needs to have a vet experienced in rabbit dental care take a look at her teeth because it sounds like they're in pretty bad shape from your descriptions. Some pain meds may also help her until that time. There could be infection in the tooth roots, but it sounds like she may need a serious dental procedure perhaps including tooth extraction. Dental x-rays are also a good idea. I hope she keeps eating. Sometimes veggies are easier to eat, and some bunnies will eat critical care out of a dish or pellets that have been wetted to make them easier to chew. Canned pumpkin can be an easy way to get some fiber and liquid into her as well.
 
The vet I'm going to is well known in this area (Richmond, VA) for rabbits..Dr. Kitterman. He seems to want to be conservative with this. He did say her teeth had some points but, were not that bad and didn't look like they were to the point where they would be bad. I'm getting the impression he doesn't think it is necessary to file them down. It is frustrating...I dunno.

She WAS fine with pain meds until yesterday when we started antibiotics so, I definitely think that caused some issues.

She had a first dose of metoclopraminde at noon today at the vet. .5cc. When we got home, I let her be for a few hours. I went in her room and she did eat some hay from my as I was offering it to her by hand. I also went ahead and gave her some critical care...I figure at this point it can only help! She was NOT happy about getting that.....she wouldn't eat it freely so I fed it mixed in water through a syringe.

I gave her second pain meds for today about an hour ago, went up to scoop litter box, and gave her fresh hay just now. She took a bit of an interest in it and ate a few bites. Right now, she seems more tired than anything! Maybe all the stress of vet visits the past 2 days, and medicine/force feeding have just worn her out. Poor girl but, I'm only doing this because I refuse to give up on her....it HAD to be the antibiotics! Anyway, she's due for the second dose of metroclopraminde in a half hour. After that, I"m going to let her be for a while since she had some hay earlier today and some critical care. Before bed, I'll probably give her some more critical care.

Does all this sound like I'm taking the right approach and doing things right?

Thanks so much.
 
Did the vet check her back teeth? If her teeth are pointy and messed up, they might have to put her under anesthesia and file her back teeth. Bad teeth can make a rabbit not want to eat.

If you need to syringe feed pellets, I found that to get the pellets fine enough to go through the syringe I had to put the pellets and water in a blender. Try seeing if she'll lick it off a spoon force, then syringe feed if you have to.

I have a rabbit named Lucy too. The day after I got her spayed, she sat in her litter box being grumpy and not eating. She made me spoon-feed her pellets. It was kind of funny in a way...
 
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Yep, he's looked at her teeth and had said the same thing...that they might have to put her under and file them but, he said they just don't look that bad! So, hence why he's being conservative...sigh. She does have a recheck appt with him on Wednesday.

:) Lucy is a good name! On a positive note, she's becoming a little more animated now....she's been eating hay and I just saw she was in her litterbox eating and hopefully pooping. Going to go check shortly.

I have two bunnies, her and Kanga. They never completely bonded so we keep them in a bedroom with a gate between them. The bedroom is pretty good size for bunnies! :) Each night, we let them out of the bedroom to run around up and down the hall and interact together....they do pretty well but have to be supervised, They do seem to enjoy each other through the gate when they are in the bedroom. We have a webcam set up in their room where, when we are not home or not in the room, we can watch them. I've been watching almost nonstop while I"m awake to see what she does. Kanga is fine and you can tell he is worried about her. When he saw her starting to wander around some, he got excited and ran over to the gate....they are now laying beside each other on opposite sides of the gate. :) They love each other...just can't be trusted together non supervised as they've never worked out the dominance.

Ok, that was long and non related to the illness. Hopefully she continues to progress....she's definitely becoming back to her normal self now! He did want me to stop the pain medicine Monday or Tuesday to see if she is still ok. I'm VERY nervous about that. But, if she's not ok, guess the next step is filing the teeth.
 
If she isn't eating normal by tomorrow, you will probalby want to keep her on the metacam, as it will only make her gut issues worse. That's good that she is at least eating something. The critical care can be difficult to feed if a rabbit doesn't want to cooperate. Amount wise, just make sure that you are feeding enough to make up for the lake of food. When my rabbit had stasis, I was feeding about 6cc for a 3 lb rabbit, every 3-4 hours. As my rabbit started eating more on his own, I adjusted the amount I fed him. It took my rabbit about 2 days before he started pooping again. Hopefully by tomorrow she will be doing even better.
 
Thanks very much! She's doing better today! She's eating better and I have seen a lot of her normal self today and especially tonight. She's pooping although not her normal amount but she's still pooping! A good sign. And tonight when I went in to scoop the litter boxes and put out fresh hay, she ran out and went right to the hay basket....that is what she normally does! Of course she's still on metacam and metoclopramide. I agree with JBun in that I'm keeping her on the metacam until she's 100% acting normal and pooping like she normally does. Although I'm probably going to run out of metacam before her Wednesday vet appt. She's currently on .7cc twice a day...I wonder if I should decrease the dosage which would probably give me enough till Wednesday?

I gave her one feeding of critical care today and it really wasn't that much of it but, at least it allowed me to get some additional fluids in her.

But, yep, right now she's acting normal except for the poop amount but that has increased more than yesterday.

Thanks everybody for the concerns and well wishes. I'll continue to update as she improves.
 
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