Pain med for possible stasis/gas

[Merlin]

My six year old bunny Merlin has had 7 or 8 episodes of stasis in the past 5.5 years. His most recent one was this Wed. night/Thursday. I took him in to the vet where he was given fluids and meloxicam and some Critical Care.

By 5:00 pm he started eating again and was eating and pooping normally since then. So all together he had stopped eating for about 24 hours.

Last night (Saturday) he ate his usual nightly greens and ate hay all day. This morning, (Sunday) he refused his pellets and a banana with simethicone on it. He is hunched, moving frequently, and has ground his teeth a few times.

We gave him simethicone by syringe and haven't seen any improvement yet. I'll give him another dose. I'd like to give him some meloxicam, but the emergency vet can't okay it because they haven't seen him before. Since it's Easter Sunday, I'm not sure that I can get a hold of my regular vet. I have some meloxicam that was prescribed for our other rabbit (same size) so I just wanted to double check the dose before I gave it to him.

I'm trying to avoid the hour plus trip to emergency vet that I think we would all find very stressful. I can take him in on Monday if he's not better by then.

 

[missyscove]

The published dose for meloxicam for rabbits in the most recent edition of Quesenberry & Carpenter's Ferrets, Rabbits, & Rodents is 0.3-0.5 mg/kg every 24 hours. However, I don't know the concentration of the meloxicam you have on hand or the weight of your rabbit so I can't get more specific. Some vets may use a different dose and some may recommend more frequent dosing.

 

[Merlin]

Ooh! He's hopping around the room and just a few bites of banana and an entire stalk of Italian parsley!

The meloxicam strength is 1.5mg/ml and Merlin weighs about 4 lbs. 4 oz. I had the brilliant idea of calling MY vet, even though they're not open today. The doctor on call was the same who saw Merlin on Thursday! She had me give him 0.25 ml of Meloxicam. She also let me know that the other on call doctor will be checking on patients around 6:00 pm so we have the option of taking him in for sub. fluids. Which I don't think he'll need since I'm watching him drink water right now!

Nothing like watching a sick bunny start to feel better!