Please Help-Snowed in with Sick Bunny :(

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Jordan

Jordan

Active Member
Joined
Oct 16, 2009
Messages
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Location
Crete, Nebraska, USA
Hello,
My rabbit is sick again and I don't know what I can do to help her. My car is completely snowed in and there's no way I'm going to be able to get it out to get her to a vet. It's been snowing all day. The mayor declared a snow emergency so all of the schools and businesses are closed. I noticed my rabbit was acting a little weird last night. I let her run around my apartment every night and she was fine until about 15 minutes before I put her away. All of a sudden she started hiding from me, which she has never done before. Once I caught her and had her put away all she wanted to do was lay there. I fed her some lettuce to make sure she was eating and she didn't seem too sick or anything so I decided I would check on her when I got up in the morning and went to bed. She seemed fine this morning, she was eating and sitting normally so I thought maybe something had just scared her last night. When I got home from my classes today about a couple hours ago I noticed she was acting weird again and was hiding in her little tunnel in her cage. I never see her laying in there so I knew something was wrong. I took her out to inspect her to make sure she didn't hurt her legs or anything and they seemed fine but when I flipped her around to check her back legs I noticed she had a lot of poo stuck to her butt. I started pulling it off right away and it was all mushy and stuck together. I pulled quite a bit off and she just let me do it which is out of character for her. Usually she'd be kicking and trying to get away if I was holding her like that for that long, she really doesn't like being picked up. Once I got most of it off she started to fight a little bit so I put her back in her cage to give her a little break. Right before I got her back in a lot of liquid came out, I'm pretty sure she just peed but I was really worried that it could have come out of her bottom...I couldn't tell from the way I was holding her.Once I got everything cleaned off I noticed that her butt looked kind of sore/red which I guess is understandable considering she had all of that poo stuck to her. The vet's had her on antibiotics for like three months now. Could this be affecting her GI tract in any way? She had an upper respiratory infection a few months ago and was put on baytril for it. Once her perscription was up she did seem better, but then she started to get sick again and wouldn't eat unless I liquified her food so I took her back to the vet and he just gave me another round of baytril. She did start to get better after that, but I think it is probably more because of the critical care food I bought at the clinic than the baytril...I could be wrong though. I just don't know what to do. I'm really worried about her and I'm snowed in and don't know how to get ahold of a vet at this hour. Does anyone have any ideas of something I could do to help her until the morning? I know I'll be able to call a vet in the morning, I don't know if I'll be able to get her anywhere or not because like I said I'm totally snowed in but I can at least get an opinion. Please, any help would be greatly appreciated.



Location: Crete, Nebraska

- Description (Breed, color., weight)
Female Holland Lop, Broken tort, 3.2 lbs.


- Age
5 months
- spayed/neutered?
not yet
- Notes on Fecal and Urinary Output
- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? no.Her poo is clumping together
- When did they last use their litterbox?like ten minutes ago
- Any unusual behavior? lethargic

- Medical History -- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before?
yes, Was treated for upper respiratory infection and was put back on baytril a couple weeks ago
- Diet - what does your bunny eat? romaine, parsley, pellets, hay
- when and what did s/he eat last? some parsley

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally? no. She'll move when she has to but otherwise just lays in her cage

- are there any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach?
no
- has the rabbit been outdoors?
no
 
The fact that she is lethargic is what really bothers me. Can you get her to drink water at all? It is very important for her to stay hydrated - and sometimes I add a teeny tiny bit of vanilla to the water (a couple of drops to maybe 5 drops in a large water bottle) to make it taste better.

One of the things I've found to be so wonderful for poo like hers is canned pumpkin. Not canned pumpkin pie mix - but canned pumpkin itself. It has both fluids and fibre in it. Do you have any of that on hand?

In fact - I'm going to list some things many of us keep on hand for our rabbits - to see if you have any of these things:


Simethicone - (gas drops for babies)

Pedialyte

Canned Pumpkin

Baby food (I will sometimes add a bit to canned pumpkin to get them to eat it)

Acidophilus (spelling?) - in capsules from the store

Benebac or another brand of pro-biotics

Do you have any of these on hand?
 
No none of it :( I'm a college student and it's finals week. I haven't been to the store in a long time...

Earlier I noticed that she hadn't eaten very much of her pellets so I mixed some with water so they were really mushy, almost a liquid, and she has been eating that so I'm not too concerned about her being dehydrated because I know she's getting quite a bit of water from that.

If the things on that list could help her I can figure out a way to get them. There's a walmart a few miles from my house and I'm almost positive that they aren't closed. I could walk there if I needed to. I'll probably try getting some canned pumpkin and see if that will make her feel any better. Thank you :)
 
Canned pumpkin, also get some Gas-X for infants or berry-flavored tablets. Other things to get: pedialyte infant rehydration drink (unflavored if possible), baby food.

If you can't find pedialyte, and at least for tonight if you can't get to the store, syringe feed her water. There are also some recipes for Oral Rehydration Therapy, which is basically the same thing, although it may have a bit too much sugar so I'd cut that down. I'll hunt a recipe down in a minute.
 
http://www.pamf.org/patients/ors.html

There's a pretty good ORS recipe. Omit salt substitute if you don't have it, and cut the sugar at least in half.

Make sure all the food she has access to is water, pedialyte/ORS, and hay. Try to limit sugary foods to an absolute minimum.

Another thing that could help is some probiotic. We like to give Bene-Bac or Probios, but those are only found at pet stores and farm stores, so you probably don't have them. Do you have any human acidophilus supplements? Not yogurt--the lactose in it isn't good for the gut--but pills containing acidophilus? Sometimes they sell these in the human vitamin/mineral section, probably have them at Walmart. I wonder if bread yeast would cut it...

I too am snowed in so I know where you're coming from!

I would actually take away the pellet/water solution and replace it with critical care/water (if you have it). If you take away the pellets/water, will she eat hay? That would be optimal. She will need extra water, so please give at least 8oz of water or ORS.
 
How is she this morning?

Her preference for mushy foods makes me wonder if there's a dental problem going on. Did the vet ever check that out? I'm also a bit concerned that he's using Baytril long-term instead of looking for a more effective antibiotic. A culture and sensitivity test would show the best options. That's something to bring up when you can get in to the vet.

If you're feeding Critical Care, make sure to use extra water and let it soak the water up for 30 minutes or so before feeding. IMO it needs a lot more water than the package directions say, especially since your bun should be getting plenty of water anyway.

I'm snowed in too. Stay safe!
 
I would not use that rehydration formula. Water is the best for oral hydration.Pedialyte is OKtoo.Baking soda is an antacid and will change the pH in the gut to a more alkaline climate. The GI needs an acidic climate to be stable.

Randy
 
She is about the same this morning. I did make it to the store last night, someone picked me up on the way so I didn't have to walk to whole way which was good because it was still snowing haha. I got the pumpkin, baby food, and pedialyte but they only had the fruit punch kind. I got her to eat as much of the pumpkin as I could last night which was only about a tablespoon. I don't think she likes it much because she will still eat lettuce just fine but didn't seem to want the pumpkin. I had to go take a final this morning but I left her with just about anyting a bunny could ever want: pellets, lettuce, parsley, pellets mixed with water to make them all mushy, water, water with a little pedialyte added, and the canned pumpkin. All she ate while I was gone was the lettuce and parsley though. I'm going to try to get ahold of a different vet today. I feel like the people I have been taking her to just keep going in circles. Everytime I go back it's just another perscription for antibiotics. I'll get the gas x today and give that to her. How should I do that? Are they tablets that I can just break up? I live in a small town and like I said before it's totally covered in snow but I'm hoping that some of it will melt soon so I can get up to a pet store in a bigger town and get some probiotics. Hopefully that will help her. Thank you all so much for your help :)
 
I would suggest giving her a heat source too, like a rice sock, in case she is cold.

I'm not sure how the gas meds come where you are, sorry, but ours are like a syrup and I give it by using a syringe.

I hope you manage to get to a different vet soon, and I hope the snow melts a bit and that she keeps fighting.

Please keep us updated :)
 
The easiest way to give the Gas X is to get the baby kind that's a liquid. There's also a brand called Mylicon that's the same thing in the US. If they don't have that, the tablets are ok, we'd just have to figure out the correct dose as I dont' know it off the top of my head. The dose for the liquid is 1mL and it can be repeated every hour for 3 hrs in a row.

I too worry about it being a tooth issue. Does she have runny eyes and nose? What color discharge?

Sorry about the ORS recipe. I thought it was better than the others I found, which were just salt and sugar in water. Is that what is better, Randy? At least in a pinch?

Glad you were able to get some stuff and get some food into her. Please keep us updated on how she's doing.
 
I asked the vet to look at her teeth when I took her in last time because that was the first thing I thought of too. He checked them, but only the front ones which didn't really help me any haha. Her eyes were a little runny after her first round of antibiotics was up, but I didn't really think anything of it because there was hardly anything there at all. The vet just put her on more antibiotics when he didn't find anything with her teeth. He said we probably just didn't get all of the bacteria knocked out and she was back to normal after a few days of the antibiotics until now.The vet didn't give me anything to help her system while she was on the baytril. I was wondering if maybe I started giving her some probiotics if that would solve the problem. She's been on them for about three months now, and I'm sure that's probably not good for the good bacteria in rabbits.

I just went and checked on her and she seems to be feeling much better. She's moving around her cage and was willing to take some more of the pumpkin from a syringe. She finished off all of the greens I left her too.
 
Did the vet check to see if the tear ducts are plugged? Even without an infection, plugged tear ducts will cause watery eyes.

Is there a different rabbit vet you could go to? I'd want someone to take a good look at her molars both visually (with a scope) and with an xray. She's awfully young to have overgrown tooth roots interfering with her eyes or tear ducts but it could happen.

It's great that she's moving around and eating some more. If you don't have gas meds yet, you can help move gas out of her system with gentle tummy rubs and by encouraging her to be more active.
 
I don't know about another vet. I've been looking for a good rabbit vet for months now and haven't been able to find any. The clinic I am currently taking her to was recommended to me by 12 other clinics that I called and asked if they knew any good rabbit vets in the area. I live in Nebraska and I haven't been able to find any listings online for any in my state. I did find one in Iowa which wouldn't be too bad. I can take her there if I need to, the final I took today was my last one for the semester so I'll have the time to get her there now, I just don't really want to make her ride in a car for hours unless I have to.
 
A lot of times the state college will have a good vet school. I'm not sure about Nebraska, but I would think their vet school is pretty up-to-date on rabbit vet care. In Nebraska you do run the risk of having the vets be more focused on commercial rabbit care, which focuses on containing the illness within a large group of rabbits and lowest cost rather than saving each individual rabbit's life.

I would think that the vet could at least use a tool like a small speculum that goes in the mouth to look at the teeth, even if they don't have an endoscope. They should be able to do the x-rays too.
 
There isn't a vet school in Nebraska, but I could try calling the animal science department at the University of Nebraska. Last time I was there they focused mostly on horses, but I will try. That's a good idea haha. Yes, I did notice the commercial rabbit care problem with the first vet I took her to.

I know. I thought the same thing, but he said that since she was so young it was very unlikely that anything was messed up with her back teeth. Still he should have checked tough.

It's hard having a sick rabbit without a vet you can trust. I feel like I have to figure out what's wrong with her myself before I take her to a vet because really they just go off of whatever I think is going on. If I don't have an idea as to what's going on it seems like they don' t either. The first vet I took her to was so behind in rabbit health that he pretty much just let me write my own prescription. He tried to give me amoxicillin and I told him I didn't want that because it was known to cause problems with rabbits and he basically just let me pick which other antibiotic I wanted... It's a little scary sometimes lol.
 
While you are looking for a decent vet you can go head and give her a probiotic like benebac which is sold in petstores in either small tubes for small mammals or else in a powdered form which also can be used for rabbits.
Do not use the avian benebac but the type marketed for dogs/cats is fine.
if you live near a tractor supply or farm/fleet or some other farm supply store you can also use probios which comes in a large tube and is meant for horses but is fine for rabbits

Nothing can be determined about a rabbit's dental issues from a visual exam except if the peg teeth or front teeth are misaligned or overgrown. Nothing can be determined really except by an x-ray or possibly examing the mouth under anesthesia ...both should really be done.


 
Okay. I will definately try to call some of those people. The first listing on that linked page, the All Feline Hospital, only treats ferrets and cats. I called them last time she was sick because I found their name listed in a magazine of rabbit vets and they had no idea how it could have been put in there lol.
 
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