please help! emergency!

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jacblades

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Feb 19, 2005
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Location
, Alabama, USA
my rabbit is very sick and sadly i cannot affordto take him to the vet. i feel so terrible about this and am trying toscrounge up some cash here and there but he is getting worse veryquickly!



on Christmas eve i noticed that he was tilting his head so i assumed hehad an ear infection. i had healed an ear infection of my own bydropping colloidal silver into my ear so i drove to gnc to find thatthey didnt sell cs anymore. i drove to 2 more health food stores butthey were closed. rabbit was shaking head but still hopping around.(for those of you who don't know, silver is an antibacterial agent andcolloidal silver is just basically tiny (almost microscopic) silverparticles suspended in deionized water. cs is safe for all livinghtings.)

on Christmas morningi could not find my rabbit and was awayfrom my house the majority of the day. i came home at night and foundhim. he was still hopping around and was tilting his head slightly. iput him in a small cage so my cats would not bother him. i mixed upsome oxbow critical care for him and he wouldn't eat it. he wouldn'teat anything.(sometimes they like to suckle on the back ofhis neck for some reason. he doesn't usually seem to mind)

yesterday i woke up and saw that half of his face looked swolen. hewasn't really tilting his head anymore.i assumed it wasdrainage from the ear infection. he also had slightly labored breathingand a runny nose (very wet, liquid wet) i went to the health food storeand got some colloidal silver and some echinacea drops. i put the cs inhis ears and he tried to shake it out. i gave him a few drop orally aswell. about 30 minutes later i gave him 3 drops of echinacea (the humandose is 20 drops, 3 times per day) i gave him 3 more drops of echinacealater in the day. i saw one tiny piece of poop (not the normal roundkind) he did not eat all day. he was drinking though.i hadhonestly expected him to get better as i am always better afterherbal/natural treatments.

this morning he was no better. i gave him the cs and ech. took him overto my mom's house (which is where i have been all day) and put a heaternext to him. he looked a little better and wasn't sniffling as much. imade a mushy food mix from canned pumpkin, banana, canned peas andcarrots, orange juice, cooked oatmeal, honey and critical care. heaccepted a small amount of this by syringe. i heard strange grindingsounds and assumed it was hurting him to chew. the food mix was allmuch though. there isn't anyhting to chew. i put it inthefood processor for a while. have had the heater on him allday. just fed him again. he is accepting the food but has very laboredbreathing when i pick him up or stand him up against my torso. now ihave had him in a laundry basket all day so i can keep an eye on himand because i didnt want the bars on the cage to get too hot from theheater. he has been laying in an unusual position for a while. every sooften he changes positions. i put him on the floor and heput his headdown but then hopped across the floor. it looks like he is havingtrouble balancing.

he seems more and more lethargic and the bump on the side of his faceis huge. does anyone know what is wrong with my rabbit and is thereanything else i can do for him? please help me!

here are some pics i took 20 min ago in my photobucket album.http://photobucket.com/albums/c62/hermieblades/ebayafterxmas/hermione/


 
Your doing everything rightso far but he really needs to se a vet asap, see if you cant work out payments for the rabbit, sounds like an ear infection gone wild, I have not had to deal with HeadTilt nor what ever can cause it . I wishI had more to offer , but Vetting is neededimediately


 
When you go to the vets office ask to speak withthe office manager to set up a payment plan. If that is not an optionand if you have the time some offices will let you pay with volunteerhours ...they always need extra hands to clean/walk the animals etc.

I wouldnt recommend using the herbal remedies on your rabbit. Whilesiver is antimicrobial, it is possibe for your rabbit to allergic andin high enough doses, silver is a neurotoxin.

Also echinacea is not recommended for rabbit use. Their systems are extremely different from ours and much more delicate.

Please get your bunny to the vet ASAP .. I will keep you both in my prayers hoping for all to be well.
 
Couldn't you take him to a vet and ask if youcould pay the vet a small amount monthly. Or call around and see if youcould find a vet that would allow you to do that.It isn'tright to treat himself because you don't know what you are treating.I'm afraid that your rabbit is suffering and that he will die if hedoesn't get the correct diagnosis
 
thanks. i guess i will try to work something outwith a vet in the morning. the emergency vet here does not doexotic animals. but is there anyhting else i can do now? he is lookingmore terrible by the minute. is keeping the heater on him the rightthing to do? is a rabbit's normal body temperature higher than ours,like a cat's?

what about his runny nose and labored breathing? is there something ican do about that? also, how much of the mush food should he be eating?he is a small rabbit. i assume he weighs between 5-8 lbs.
 
When my boy was so sick I put him on a heating pad....but had enough space that he could get off it if he got to warm.

As for the syringe feeding, as much as you can get down him..the morethe better..Would also get water down him this way as well. I did soevery 2 hours with Corky...day and nite.

Good luck and your and your bun are in my thoughts and prayers.
 
If you brought your rabbit to the emergency place is there a way they could page your vet to come in?

I know with mine if its that severe of an emergency they can page herat any time to come in, especially since there is not always an exoticsvet working at the emergency hospital.

And allthough they may not be stated as exotic vets, many of them stillhave everyday experience with small mammals but just will not performsurgery.

I would take the chance and bring the bunny to the ER at worst they can refer you to someone who can help.

Their temp. is higher than our and i dont think heat would necessarily be good.

Do you have any NutriCal on hand? Its a high calorie suppement and willboost your bunny's appetite and you would have to forse feed less thanthe slurry. That is if your bun will eat on their own.
 
Petergeekgirl...isn't it dangerous to syringefeed him if his breathing is labored? I think that he should go to anemergency vet tonite as he is suffering
 
You don't want to over heat him either as this is also very dangerous.

Do you have a humidifer? Place a humidifier in the same room he is. It may help with the congestion.

You are going to have to start syringing fuids into him. Youcan't let him get dehydrate. If you can get some Pedialyte it will help.

That grinding noise, is it possible it was his stomach you werehearing. If so you can give simethicone (infant gas drops). They won'thurt him if he doesn't have gas and can only help. Or you can try andsyringe him a weak solution, unsweetened,of mint tea.

Be ever so careful syringing him anything. With his breathingalready compromised you don't want to make things worse. Just goslow.

I will be praying for your little one.

Tina


 
ohh .. i totallly forgot to mention, if youthink this is an ear infection, and the swelling is that bad itspossible for the swelling to eventually block his trachea. If healready has labored breathing, get him in immediately.
 
It sounds like he needs to be on an antibioticand pain meds IV right away. Can you call the emergency vetand see if they can at least handle giving him an IV with a rabbitappropriate antibiotic and pain med? Even if they don't doexotics, they should be able to do an IV and possibly call a rabbitsavvy vet for additional help. Some vets also have onluneresources with their veterinary college that are available 24/7.

Good luck
 
It's already been said, but your little love needs to see the vet ASAP :(

Definetley take him into emergency if you haven't already, even if theycan't get to an exotics vet, they should have some knowledge and willbe able to help.

Also alot of vet offices do allow payment plans, where you pay a littlea month. Check into that :)

Sending prayers to your little one, good luck
 
Poor little guy. My heart goes out to both ofyou. As noted, I don't believe there's anything that we can advise thatwould help your little mon.

I do hope you can get to a vet.

My thoughts and prayers are with you both.

-Carolyn
 
Sending best wishes for you and yourbunny.I know the feeling of not being able to see a vet. Ilive in China where I have not been able to find a rabbit vet. When myQingqing was sick four weeks ago, I searched the Net (well, mainly thissite) for help. I found the answer that worked for me, but I would havepreffered to see a knowledgeable vet. I'd also like for her to bespayed, but I don't think it's possible here. Anyhow, I wanted to sendmy best wishes for the bun's recovery.

Nancy
 
It sounds like he has an infection/abcess, couldbe teeth spurs that caused and ulcer that got infected in the mouth,could be almost anything. The labored breathing is notgood. This is not something you can treat yourself, you haveto see a vet.

Ed
 
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