How long to recover from GI stasis?

[kaelyx]

Hi everyone.

For those who have bunnies who went through GI stasis, how long did it take for them to recover?

My precious Shadow (a beautiful female Havana) is currently suffering through GI stasis, and has been for over a month now.

I suspected something was wrong last month when she did not get excited after hearing the crinkling of a plastic bag, a sign that she was about to get her veggies. When she refused to eat any of them, I KNEW something was wrong, so I took her to the vet the next day.

The vet diagnosed her with GI stasis. To make a long story short, Shadow and I were in and out of the vet since that day. They prescribed her Meloxicam, Reglan, Lactulose, and Mylicon, which she takes with her Critical Care (mixed with finely minced apple, so she eats it voluntarily instead of being force fed), twice a day. She's also been eating 1/4 cup of timothy hay pellets (before the stasis, she was on a no-pellet diet). During the course of these vet visits, they also found out she had molar spurs, and those were filed down on March 4.

I had hoped she'd show improvement after her teeth were filed down. She's certainly a lot better than she was the first three days she had the GI stasis, though. On those first three days, she just kept to herself in her cage, never coming out and hardly ever moving. Eventually, she started coming out of her cage. Some days, she would run over to me and put her head down (her way of saying she wants to be petted). She started moving around more.

The reason I'm worried is because she is still not eating her veggies. I give them to her at night right after I eat my dinner, and in the morning before I head to work, hoping she'll eat them. Unfortunately, I wake up or come home from work disappointed because I find that she has not eaten her veggies. I also still hear her tummy grumbling. After she takes her meds/Critical Care/minced apple mix, or after eating a few pellets, she plops down on the ground, I'm guessing due to gas pain.

I'm sorry if my post is convoluted. My mind is just all over the place right now. I'm just worried about my little bunny. She's given me so much joy throughout all these years that I've had her, and I can't stand the thought of her suffering like this.

The vet said it can take up to a month for rabbits to recover from GI stasis, but I'd like to know if I should be seeing signs of improvement at least.

 

[kaelyx]

Sorry, I forgot about this part:

IMMEDIATE INFORMATION:

Location: South Bay, CA

Description (Breed, color, weight): Havana, black, ~6 lbs

Age: ~8 years old

Sex: female

Concise Summary of the Rabbit's Condition:

Vet diagnosed her with GI stasis, possibly caused by molar spurs. Molar spurs were filed down. She still has a gassy stomach.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / CHECK LIST: (Please fill in relevant info).

Fecal and Urinary Output

- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? Yes
- when did they last use their litterbox? Within the last 12 hours
- any unusual behavior? straining to pee? unusual litter habits? she seems to have a hard time pooping
- what litter and/or bedding do you use? aspen

Medical History

- spayed/neutered? spayed
- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before? no, only to get spayed
- is s/he on any medications? currently on Meloxicam, Reglan, Lactulose, and Mylicon; taking them twice a day

Diet

- what specifically does your bunny eat? before the GI stasis: hay and approximately 2 cups of veggies; post GI stasis diagnosis: 50 cc Critical Care and 1/4 cup timothy hay pellets
- when and what did s/he eat last? 25 cc Critical Care, about 2 hours ago
- any changes in the way s/he eats? (ie: not eating a particular food, odd chewing motions, etc) not eating veggies (she used to inhale them!)


Other

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally? nothing unusual, just less frequent movements
- is the rabbit molting? no molting
- any weight loss? this it the weird part: she slightly gained some weight each time we went back to the vet
- any sign of drooling? wet face? no drooling, no wet face
- runny eyes? no runny eyes
- wet nose? coughing? sneezing? no wet nose, coughing, or sneezing
- is s/he breathing normally ? earlier on, she would occassionally look like she has trouble breathing, but that has not happened in over a week

Additional

- any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach? none
- has the rabbit been outdoors? no
- any other pets? if so, have they been ill? no other pets

 

[Maureen Las]

The GI stasis would really only begin to resolveafter the problem creating it was resolved... if the reason behind the stasis was dental issues then she really is recovering from March 4th
What was done to her teeth?
is she eating hay ?

Did she have her molars filed? Did the teeth penetrate her gums?

if she is eating critical care on her own thatat least is postive

 

[Kipcha]

Wow, this must be just wearing you both down...

I've only had one case, which was Willow. However, this was only mild. The stasis itself only lasted a day or so (We got him to the vet just as it started, we were lucky) and all it took was some antibiotics, painkiller and some injected fluids and he was over it pretty quick.

Good luck!

 

[Sweetie]

How did your vet determine that Shadow has GI stasis?

Shadow is possibly experiencing gas pain, which you can treat with simethicone(infant gas meds).

I am not real sure how long GI stasis can take to clear up.

 

[kaelyx]

Thank you so much for your responses.

angieluv wrote:

What was done to her teeth?

Did she  have her molars filed?

Her molars were filed down.

angieluv wrote:

Did the teeth penetrate her gums?

The only details the vet gave was that he had to file down more teeth than he initially though he needed to. He made no mention of her teeth penetrating her gums.

angieluv wrote:

is she eating hay ?

She currently isn't eating hay

A day after her molars were filed, I noticed her trying to eat some a few times. She would eat a couple of strands and then just stop. After a few days of doing that, she stopped trying on her own. Sometimes, I'll try to entice her by waving a strand on her mouth. She'd begin to eat, but eventually cuts the strand short and stop.

 

[kaelyx]

Sweetie wrote:

How did your vet determine that Shadow has GI stasis?

Shadow is possibly experiencing gas pain, which you can treat with simethicone(infant gas meds).

I'm not sure. I talked to her about about Shadow's symptoms, and she told me that it's GI stasis.

One of the meds she's taking right now is simethicone. Mylicon is the brand name. I give 1 cc every time she gets Critical Care.

 

[Sweetie]

Ok. An xray will show if she has GI stasis. Sweetie had a mild case of GI stasis along with gas pain.

Freshly squeezed pineapple juice will also help if she does have GI stasis, it will break the blockage down so that the fiber can push it through the GI tract.

 

[Maureen Las]

Usually a molar trim will causea bun to have some discomfort for several days afterwards ; the rabbit may avoid familar foods and/or food altogether and may need a mild pain med and force feeding.
I am unsure why your rabbit would still have issues eating after 10 days . Does she appear to WANT to eat hay and greens and is having problems so just gives up. ?

A usual molar trim shuldn't cause problems for this long....

I had a rabbit who had gum disease and also infected molars. This resulted in him having many of his molars pulledover a period of several years ... because of the loss of his back grinding teeth he could not eat hay or veggies and actually ate critical care (on his own as his sole source of norusihment for his entire life. .

I am not suggesting that this will happen to your girl at all but just relating my own experience.

If Shadow is contorting her mouth or trying to paw at her mouth there could still be a dental issue

Ipersonally would not like to see my bun on lactulose and gut motility drugs and even simethicone for this length of time.

I doubt that she is eating so much CC that she has no appetite.


Try giving her a very very small amount of alfalfa hay( as a test) just to see if she will eat that .
If this doesn't resolve soon I would suggest a 2nd opinion

 

[Bassetluv]

Reading what you wrote about your bunny and her symptoms, my gut feeling (not based on experience so much as just *gut*...I will never admit to knowing a lot about medical treatment of any animals ) is that you need another vet visit and opinion. I don't know...to me it sounds more of a dental issue than anything else. Did she ever have her teeth x-rayed to see if there's more going on than molar spurs? Perhaps an abscess or root issue, or even bone/jaw problems. The fact that you say she starts to eat some hay and then stops suggests to me that a dental issue should be ruled out entirely.

As for stasis, I do have a rabbit who has gone into the beginning stages of GI stasis maybe 3 or 4 times in the past; with him I found that the biggest factors in bringing him out of it have been dealing with the gas and the associated gas pain, and getting him eating. I give simethicone (the liquid from one adult Gas-X pill cut open; he's a big bunny and the baby simethicone just doesn't seem to do enough), a slurry of warm water mixed with pure pumpkin, and pain meds. And lots of soothing tummy massages. Treating him this way, he seems to come out of it within anywhere from one to three hours or so.

Sorry I can't offer more...and ray: for your little girl's full recovery...

 

[kaelyx]

Again, for all your replies. I'm sorry I couldn't respond any sooner.

Bassetluv wrote:

Reading what you wrote about your bunny and her symptoms, my gut feeling (not based on experience so much as just *gut*...I will never admit to knowing a lot about medical treatment of any animals ) is that you need another vet visit and opinion. I don't know...to me it sounds more of a dental issue than anything else.

I took her to a different vet. This vet was recommended by the lady that runs the rabbit shelter near my house. If I'm going to trust anyone's advice about which rabbit vet to visit, it would be her (I just wish I met her sooner).

This new vet did not suspect GI stasis at all. Just based on what I told him, he suspected dental issues. He took a look inside Shadow's mouth with some tube with a magnifying glass (I don't know what it's called...) and confirmed that she has uneven molars, and even some sharp points. This totally shocked me, because the other vet supposedly had taken care of her teeth.

This new vet then worked on her teeth the next day. He also took an x-ray of her mouth and confirmed no abscesses. He told us to discontinue the meloxicam, lactulose, and simethicone, but told us to keep using the reglan.

After all this, I can say that her condition has improved a lot. She is moving around a lot again. She even does a binky from time to time. She now eats most, if not all, of the veggies I give her.

But, we're not out of the woods just yet... She's still not eating her hay. I've tried giving her a variety (she gets timothy, oat, orchard grass, and mountain grass). I even tried giving some alfalfa just out of curiosity, but she'll eat only a few strands of it. I've had some good luck grinding some hay in a coffee grinder and mushing a little bit of banana into it to make a little "hay cracker"; she'll eat it most of the time, but a few times she didn't want it. And even if this does work, I don't want to give her too much banana.

In the meantime, she's still getting Critical Care (about 30 cc twice a day).

angieluv wrote:

If Shadow is contorting her mouth or trying to paw at her mouth there could still be a dental issue

I did not notice anything like this. I do watch her very closely, but I never thought of keeping a lookout for something like this. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.



I can't thank you all enough for your replies. You've all been very helpful to me and to Shadow.

 

[Bassetluv]

I'm wondering, have you tried hay cubes? Something like this:

http://www.petco.com/product/4537/Kaytee-Natural-Timothy-Hay-Cubes-for-Rabbits-And-Small-Animals.aspx

(Sorry, I tried to post an image and it's not working on this computer at work.)

 

[kaelyx]

Yes, I've tried hay cubes. Shadow won't touch them.

My other bunny, Graham, loves them though.

 

[tonyshuman]

It can take a while for a bunny's system to get back to normal after a complete shutdown. My Tony had an adverse reaction to ivermectin and totally shut down for several days. We had to keep him on gut motility drugs (metoclopramide) for 2-3 days after he had totally regained the rest of his function. I also had to keep him and his bond-mate separate during feeding because she would eat her share and his in a few minutes, and he'd take about an hour to finish his meals.