Multiple issues

[Bucktooth]

I was given three orphan rabbits, only one had its eyes open but the other two opened within the first three days of having them, so if that made them about 10 days, they would be 6.5 weeks old now. One died last week, now I have two. One is big and strong and quite frankly turning into a big butthead!. It weighed 504grams on Friday. The small one only weighed 246 grams.

The small rabbit has wooly course fur. It kind of feels like steel wool. It had soft cecotropes after I weaned, so like a week ago, and then a minor rectal prolapse. We did a fecal and it was negative.

Problems: intermittent soft cecotropes (seems to have cleared up actually )

It's back is so bony, I can feel it's spine, hips and ribs sticking up, but it's tummy is full, it eats well but the litter mate has a lot of padding over its bones..

Minor rectal prolapse

It seems quieter than it did a week or two ago

It's ears and body always feel cold, it's litter mate always feels warm.

It's on meloxicam for any pain and inflammation (prolapse) I give it 0.4mg/kg BID. I put lube from the vet on its little bum, just tonight I gave it some critical care because I don't like how bony it feels. I'm not sure if CC will cause further digestive upset or not.

It eats oxbow alfalfa hay UNLIMITED, mixed grass hay (not as much they don't care for it as much obviously) and unlimited oxbow pellets although I haven't seen it eating pellets in awhile but it probably does because I fill the bowl once a day.

Any ideas? I'm afraid this little guy will pass away too. .I'm going to take it to another vet this week or the same one for a recheck it just depends which day I bring them, I'm not sure what else I can do.

 

[JBun]

Has it been checked for hepatic coccidiosis? Wasting along the back and hindquarters with a pot belly appearance, retarded growth, and dull coat are all typical signs. Poop abnormalities and the rectal prolapse could also be connected. It's not likely to show up on a fecal float, though a blood test showing liver abnormalities can be an indicator. It's what I would highly suspect and would probably want to treat for based on symptoms presenting, using either albon/sulfa antibiotic, or baycox/toltrazuril. Baycox would be the most effective, though it can be a harsher treatment.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Protozoal_diseases/Cocc_en.htm (has medical photos)
http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Parasitic/Hepatic_coccidiosis_rabbits.htm

If that doesn't fix it, I would try a deworming course with fenbendazole, 10 days, 20mg/kg once a day treatment.

 

[Bucktooth]

Thank you so much! I knew you would have good ideas. We were looking for coccidia but I didn't specifically know about hepatic coccidiosis. The vet did mention we may need to use sulpha drugs. She was going away and book marked the exotics book with the drug dosages in it in case the fecal came back with coccidia. We did a float and then direct smears on two different days. We also sent a sample to idexx. I'm not sure about getting blood out of that tiny thing it's the size of a hamster currently.

Today it looks great, the critical care seems to have agreed with it and even it's little bum is looking better. Tomorrow the Dr is back and I can show her this and see if we can treat based on symptoms

Thank you very much! Ps i call it, it because I don't know the sex but we generally pretend that it's a girl and her name is Erin Glazier

 

[Bucktooth]

So good news kind of? No more soft cecotropes, I think it's grown a bit, we are reweighing again today. It doesn't seem to eat pellets hardly at all. It eats alfalfa hay quite well in my opinion but it's poops are tiny! They are not big round balls like it's litter mate. This is it's poop beside it's litter mates. Granted the litter mate is literally double the size of this bunny. I'm also giving it critical care with some probiotics in it for the last few days to see if I can get it's poops bigger. Maybe we will have to do an x-ray

 

[Bucktooth]

Better news, panacur for the win we've done 4 fecals, floats and direct smears, I've sent to idexx laboratories and well as looked myself and nothing. Done the baycox, critical care, metacam and the poos got small again, critical care and first dose of panacur and it's running around and playing for the first time in over a month! It's poops are big now, it's eating well. I know it could crash again (we are only on day 4 of panacur) but this is the most promising the poor little thing has looked. It's about 400 grams, it's litter mate is a kilo haahaaa

 

[JBun]

That's fantastic! I wasn't sure if fenbendazole(panacur) would be applicable as your bunnies symptoms matched more with the cocci, but thought I should mention it just in case. I have a friend that also had an underweight slow growing baby bunny, and she decided to try the fenbendazole treatment first, and it worked. The baby started gaining again and caught up in size to it's siblings. I'm glad you decided to try it and that it's worked. With your baby bun doing well after 4 days on it, I'm guessing that you've hit on the correct treatment and the baby will continue to feel better and improve.

I don't know if you plan on doing the whole 10 days. It's not really the recommended treatment for worms, but I do the 10 days because it's also a recommended preventative treatment for e. cuniculi(to prevent infection when a rabbit has already been exposed to it), so I just extend the 5 day recommended pinworm deworming treatment to 10 days to cover both possible parasite issues. So if you didn't want to go 10 whole days, I would at least do one more dose to have the 5 days of treatment recommended in some places for pinworms in rabbits. Then in another 10-14 days from the last dose given, I would give just one more dose(just one day), as parasites have a life cycle and it's recommended to retreat with one dose of fenbendazole after 10-14 days of the initial/last dose given.

Please keep us updated on your baby buns progress. I'm very interested in seeing how it continues to do.

 

[Bucktooth]

Thank you for all the advice, I will probably just do the 5 days and then redose in 14 or so.

Clinically the bunny (we call her Erin, but it may be a boy haahaaa) is doing a lot better. It's started growing, it's natty fur is shedding out to smooth fur, it's eating hay and pellets well and it's running and running and doing binkys and it hasn't done that in at least 5 weeks I bet...but then last night I walked in to this ..and I realize there is nothing for scale but this poop is at the very least 3" long, probably closer to 4"!!!!!!!! I wish I inspected it more but I was so horrified I threw it out, and quickly swept and mopped the room (steam mom not chemicals) it was a cecotrope. There were two of them super long like that , and then some crushed cecotropes that had been trampled in the morning. It looks very happy and bouncy still this morning so I don't know