Ongoing digestive slowdown...

[Jenk]

In mid-July, our 3-year-old Mini Rex, Emma, stoppeddrinking water for six days; Isyringed her water (flavored with a little Critical Care), gettingat least60 mL in her per day. Then she began drinking her water with gusto the following week. Toward the end of the second week, her fecal size began to decrease noticeably. After four days of decreasing in size, they turned bone-dry. I then gave her sub-Q's and took her to the vet, who had me continue sub-Q's for the next 2.5 days.

Emma is stillpassing fecals 1/3 - 1/4 the size of her normal ones. She's on Cisapride and Metoclopramide (along with a few other things), due to lackluster cecum sounds. Tomorrow is day #7 since starting the motility drugs; I'd expected improved fecal size by now.

I've been giving Emma a small amount of Critical Care in 10-20 mL of water (twice daily), which she readily drinks. She's drinking almost half her water dish (about 100 mL). And she's receiving her normal amount of greens, which is small because she gets gas from a large amount. She's also getting Probi to help balance her gut flora.

Is there anything else I could/should try to help her gut function?

Thank you,

Jenk

 

[Maureen Las]

Iknow that you are trying your best and I know that we have talked about this previously but a rabbit's body can become accustomed to a gut motility drug in a similar manner that a human can become dependent on laxatives.
Possibly continue what you are doing without the use of the motility drugs.
I know that often you are in a postion of doing all the 'right ' things without positive results. You have rabbits with difficult medical issues. :hug:

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

Iknow that you are trying your best and I know that we have talked about this previously but a rabbit's body can become accustomed to a gut motility drug in a similar manner that a human can become dependent on laxatives.
Possibly continue what you are doing without the use of the motility drugs.

I know about the dependency issue. None of my crew has taken motility drugs long-term. The Cisapride ends after one dose today, and the Reglan started to be tapered off yesterday. So the total length of time for Reglan will be 12 days, which is not really considered long-term by rabbit-savvy vets.

At this point, I don't want to just stop everything on a dime. But I will continue giving Emma other supportive things--namely Probi, watery Critical Care, and a small piece of dried papaya (one daily).

I know that often you are in a postion of doing all the 'right ' things without positive results. You have rabbits with difficult medical issues. :hug:

I didn't want to resort to motility drugs, but Emma had a horrible digestive bout around this time last year; so it was my intent to help her gut surpass the same issue. She's not yet flopped around in pain and ignored her food. I guess I should look at that as success. :expressionless