Layla is getting spayed this week

[Haley]

Im glad you were able to get her the meds and get it cleaned out. That mustve been pretty funny to see all of you going to so much trouble for this little bunny They can be a terror when they want to be!

For feeding, I think the apples are alright as a treat, but I would make sure shes getting some fiber down. This will help her poops as well. Have you tried mushing up the pellets and mixing some apple/banana/pumpkin in for flavor? You may have to syringe feed her if she will let you. Im no expert, but I think she needs something with some more nutrition in it, especially if her poops are dry. Pedialyte will work too to replenish her if shes not drinking much.I think the last thing you need right now is to have her go into stasis!

I hope she can forgive you for all this. I think sometimes they associate all this pain and discomfort with us, and we bear the brunt of the blame. Myboyharper is going through the same thing with Harper right now being mean after his surgery. I think that with time and healing she will forgive you.

I'll be praying for your little one ray:

Haley

 

[Eve]

Haley, you are awesome! I just ground up some pellets and mixed them with a bit of apple, and she is munching on it right now. Thank you!

I will get some Pedialyte as she hasn't been drinking much too.

Poor myboyharper, I have just read that thread. I really hope both of our bunnies come around and forgive us as they get better.

Thank you for all your advice, it has helped me out so much.

 

[f_j]

Eve, I'm so sorry to hear that poor Layla isn't well. Thank goodness you have a great vet who checked her health before the spay! Your description of the four of you trying to clean her wound reminded me of a memory from my childhood. My grandmother's cat was very ill and she fought tooth and nail not to take her medication. It took my grandmother, grandfather and mother to get that darn medicine into her! The things we do for our beloved but cranky pets! It is all worth it though. I hope Layla recovers very quickly.

 

[Haley]

Thats great news if shes eating pellets! Her mouth is probably still sore from the surgery, so you may have to do this fora few days until she starts to heal a bit. You can add abit of water to create a slurry if you think that might be easier for her to get down.The pain meds should help with the eating as well.

I hope she continues to improve!

 

[Eve]

Hi f_j, Thank you for the get well wishes, I hope Layla recovers quickly too. Your childhood memory sounds like it would have been quite a sight! I am sure it would be much harder to administer medication to a cranky cat than a bunny. I am so glad bunnies don't have sharp claws.

Haley, I am so pleased she is eating her pellets too. She has been grinding her teeth so she must be pretty sore right now. The vet prescribed 0.4ml of metacam for the pain, but she still looks like she is hurting a lot. I will definately keep up with the ground up pellets,and will add some water to see if it makes it easier for herto eat like you said. I also put her veggies through a food processor and she's had a bit of a nibble of that. Thank you for the advice.


Edit: I just tried putting some pellets in a coffee bean grinder and they turned to dust in seconds! I have the smoothest pellet slurry possible, it's great!

 

[JimD]

Hi Eve,

Sounds like things are going in the right direction.
Good idea using the "Tag Team" approach with the meds and cleaning!!

You might consider giving her come baby asprin for the pain. Here's a link to the dosage chart
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html

Prayers and good thoughts continue to be sent your way.

jim

 

[Eve]

Hi JimD,

Thank you so much for the link. Is it ok to give her the baby asprin when she is already on metacam? Also, she has an open wound which is bleeding a bit, would asprin thin her blood and make her bleed more?

Thank you so much for the prayers and good thoughts.

I have just tried to clean her wound but it wasn'tvery sucessful. She bit my mum and I didn't get much time to clean it well,so I might try again later. I just don't know how to do all of this without making Layla stressed as she is so hard to catch.

 

[JimD]

Oooops! I missed the fact that she's on metacam. The metacam should be enough.
Forget that I mentioned asprin...k?

The treatments have got to be stressful on all of you.

We were told to clean Binkie's twice a day, but we ended up doing it only once because she fought so hard with us.
I got to the point where I just accepted the fact that I would get bit at least once each time.
There were a couple of times that it was pretty clean, so I just sqirted some saline on it. The anti-bac salve seemed to make it more difficult to clean, and would get all kinds of hay and stuff stuck to it. Then Binkie would go nuts trying to lick it off, but she couldn't because of the collar. And so on, and so on.
Worst part is that it will get all healed, and when we take the collar off she chews herself up again and again.
(just noticed this morning that she's done it again...not too bad, but still!!).


Is there any way that you could get the 4 of you together at least once a day?
Hopefully it will start to heal soon.

ray:
jim

 

[Eve]

Hi JimD,

Thank you for telling me about Binkie. She sounds like quite a handful!

That is awful how she keeps chewing at herself after it has all healed up, it must beso frustrating for you. What was the initial injury she had? I really hope she stops chewing at herself.

I can get the 4 of us together on weekends and evenings only. My parents leave for work at 6am so I will have to somehow medicate and clean Layla on my own in the mornings.

Today all 4 of us tried to get her cleaned up this evening, but even with 4 people she managed to wriggle out of the towel, bite my mumand get away. I wish I wasn't so bad at handling her.

And as for the healing, the vet said the drainage hole is supposed to stay open for quite some time and that it is a bad thing if it closes over soon. I am seeing the vet for a check up on Monday so I will get her to explain this to me further as I'm not 100% sure what she meant by that.

 

[Eve]

I had a very sucessful treatment session this morning, despite being bitten.

I used nic grids to block off hard to get to sections of her cage, so that she had no where to run away to. It was much quicker catching her this way,and it would have been less stressful for her as it was all over fairly quickly.

The whole family helped again and I flushed the hole, cleaned it really well this timeand gave her the metacam. During the cleaning she dug her teeth into my knuckle and held on which hurt like hell.How Iwish she was calm like Rodney, she scares me. Trying toapproach the area under her chin is like puttingyour fingersin a paper shredder.

But the most important thing is everything got done very thoroughly today which I am so pleased about.

 

[SOOOSKA]

Can you wear a pair of leather gloves when you are cleaning her? Maybe that will help if she bites.

My husband & I use to use oven mits when we had to do things for Wilbur & Jackie when they were younger.



Susan:apollo:

 

[Eve]

Hi Soooska,

Thank you for the suggestion.

I have tried wearing gloves, but because her chin is so tiny and I need to inject medicine into the wound, I find it really difficult doing it with gloves on my hands. They kind of get in the way and make me clumsy.

I might try just wearing one glove to hold her face up anduse abare hand to seperate all the fur andtreat her.

Thank you again for the advice.

 

[Eve]

I am really worried Layla is going into stasis. She won't eat anything by herself and hasn't been drinking.

I have tried giving her everything that she usually loves and she isn't touching anything today. I have tried vanilla in her water, diluted cranberry juice, she just won't drink it.

She ate a little bit yesterday, and had small poops. Today she has only eaten what I have managed to force feed her, and she has had very minimal poops. She is peeing a lot though, which is strange as I havn't seen her drinking today.

I have tried to syringe feed her pellet slurry and liquids a few timesa daybut she hasn't eaten very much of it. She gets so angry when in the towel that even my dad said he can't hold her still.She goes absolutely nuts and is so strong she always manages to wriggle out even withmum and dad bot hholding her.Then she charges and attacks everyone.

I am taking her to the vet tomorrow morning to put her on some fluids and help with the feeding.

If she has eaten and pooped only avery smallamount,will she be ok till morning when I can get her to my vet? She is so angry right now I don't think I can syringe feed her anymore. Everyone has also gone to bed so I have no chance of doing it on my own. :cry2

 

[JimD]

Hi Eve,

It's late evening by you.?..I think:??

She should be ok until morning, as long as there's an indication that her GI tract is still working.

Do you have any Nutrical?

Let us know how it goes at the vet.

ray:
jim

 

[naturestee]

Did she just recently stop eating, or had she stopped eating before? Metacam causes issues in some buns but when my Fey did she would start appearing ill about an hour after each dose. Are you giving the Metacam with food?

ray:

 

[Eve]

Hi JimD, Yes it was late evening when I posted,so luckily I didn't have long to wait till I could get her to the vet.I havn't heard of Nurtical, but the vet has given me some Critical Care which I am assuming does the same thing.

Hi Naturestee, Layla was eating the whole weekend but only very little,and she was eating less and pooping less as time went by on Sunday. I have been giving her the metacam after feeding her some pellet slurry.The vet has said she has most likely not been eating as she was still in lots of pain (she has been grinding her teeth andwas lying with hereyes closed this morning).

The vet was absolutely wonderful today. She saw Layla for free without charging me for the consultation too.

She said Layla's wound is looking very good and clean. She gave it a good flush and clean in the clinic to save me having todo it again at home today.

She also gave Layla a gut mobility medicine, and prescribed a second painkiller called Tramadol to give twice a day.She also injected her with fluids on both of her sides to keep herhydrated. Ialso have someapple and banana critical care to feed her 4 times a day, which she saidwill bemuch more nutritious forLaylathan the pellet slurry I have been feeding her (as the pellets in Australia are not very good).

She is also importing Oxbow pellets to sell in her clinic, which is an absolute dream come true. It costs $21 for 2kg, butI will definately be swapping over to them regardless of cost.

I absolutely love my new vet, she is so rabbit savy andwonderful. She is really taking top care of my fur babies.I am booked in to see her again on Thursday to see how Layla is going.

This is going to be such a long week in terms of medicating Layla. I need to give her metacam, Tramadol, critical care, flush the wound and wash the wound every morning. Then I need to feed her critical care two more times during the day. And then at night I need toclean her wound again, give her Tramadol and the critical care.I have found it near impossible just to clean and medicate her twice a day, so I don't know how I will go with all these new things I need to be giving her now.

Thank you all so much for your ongoing thoughts and support, you are all so wonderful. Ihave been so stressed about Layla lately,and you have always been so helpful and have always made me feel so much better about everything. :kiss:

 

[JimD]

Eve wrote:

Thank you all so much for your ongoing thoughts and support, you are all so wonderful. Ihave been so stressed about Layla lately, and you have always been so helpful and have always made me feel so much better about everything. :kiss:

• Syringe Feeding
  Mix with warm water. Spoon into back of syringe and serve.

• Soft-Serve
  Mix with less warm water. Form into balls or feed directly from a spoon.

• Top Dressing
  Sprinkle dry powder on misted hay or fresh greens to stimulate appetite"

S'more actually like some things, like simethicone for example.I could give it to her without having to pick her up,however she had to be burritoed for the rest.

Binkie had to be a burrito for EVERYTHING. And it seemed like she canturn in her own skin....twisting and fighting until she gets her backto me. I got pretty good at swaddling her in a heavy towel.

ray:

jim

 

[naturestee]

Ooh, the big guns! I hope the Tramadol works. My hubby takes it for his fibromyalgia. It's a mild opiate (mild for opiates, that is).

:hug2:

 

[Eve]

Hi JimD, Unfortunately Layla won't take any of the stuff willingly, even the Critical Care. I have been having trouble feeding it to her as she will keep it in her mouth and refusues to swallow it. I can't put any more in her mouth because she just lets it dribble out, and I don't want her to choke on it. I have had to make it more watery and divide it into a few syringes as she swallows more ofit in liquid form.

Thank you so much for the information you posted from the Oxbow site, I really appreciate your help. I have tried the different methods of feeding the critical care, but the syringe feeding method is the only one that works for me as she won't eat it on her own. I havehowever tried putting it on her paws when I can no longer hold her in the towel, and she eats some of it by grooming herself.


JimD wrote:

Binkie had to be a burrito for EVERYTHING. And it seemed like she canturn in her own skin....twisting and fighting until she gets her backto me.

That sounds exactly like Layla. She seems tobe able to turn her headright aroundto bit me in the bunny burrito. She also growls and almost spits at me. I feel so awfulfor her, but she still isn't eating so it has to be done.

Hi Naturestee, thank you for the message. The Tramadol seems to be helping her a lot. She isn't grinding her teeth anymore and is moving around a little bit. She isn't eating on her own yet, but she has started pooping a little bit so I am very happy.

I am sorry to hear your husband suffers from fibromyalgia.Is he onthe pain killers for long term, if you don't mind me asking?

 

[JimD]

Eve wrote:

I have been having trouble feeding it to her as she will keep it in her mouth and refusues to swallow it. I can't put any more in her mouth because she just lets it dribble out, and I don't want her to choke on it. I have had to make it more watery and divide it into a few syringes as she swallows more ofit in liquid form.

S'more would hold everything in her cheek, too.
I had to put the syringe in the side of her mouth...syringe a little at a time...and then move the tip of the syringe around to make her move her mouth and then she would swallow. It took FOREVER, but it was the only way I could get her to take a beneficial amount.
She also had problems swallowing if I held her on her back. I had to kind of sit her up with her butt on my thigh and cradling her in the crook of my arm. Luckily she never bites.




Eve also wrote:

She seems tobe able to turn her headright aroundto bit me in the bunny burrito. She also growls and almost spits at me. I feel so awful for her, but she still isn't eating so it has to be done.

Binkie....unlike S'more....would bite me any chance she gets.
Fortunately her collar also acted as a shield and I usually emerged with only superficial wounds. Wearing a heavy long sleeve denim shirt added to my body armor.

Hang in there!!!

ray:

jim