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Katrina

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Ihad decided not to post for a bit and just read because I did not want to cause problems. However, I have a serious problem right now and I need help ASAP.

Katrina was spayed yesterday and everything seemed okay. She came home groggy and not really wanting to move and stilldoesn't eally want to move but she is more.She's cleaning herself as best she can, she's drinking her water, but she will not eat. I already called the vet about it and she gave me some metacam and something called "critical care for herbivores". The problem is, I can't seem to get the critical care ground up enough to put much in a syringe at a time. I'm supposed to use it 6 times a day and give her 14 ml each time but I can hardly give her any. The vet wants me to call back if she is not eating by tonight but I'm just so worried right now. She is doing everything pretty much normal (not moving as much as she normally does but still moving.. I've ever heard her dig a little bit) but she will not eat. To top it all off she has some poo stuck to her bottom and I've tried to clean it off but she tries to run (yes, she is actually trying to run) and she'll actually try to climb the bars of her cage and pull away from me when I do this. I don't want to risk her ripping out the stitches. What should I do?
 
Keep trying to syringe her the Critical Care. Can you use a heavy glass or something similar to grind it up? Sorry, I've never used it before. Is it like pellets?

Is she drinking a good amount of water? If not, I'd syringe that, too. Just make sure you go really slowly, so she doesn't aspirate any of it.

The pain meds may be what's affecting her appetite.
 
I have tried breaking up the critical care as much as I can and it will not go fine enough. She has drank less water than normal but still a pretty good amount. She usually only uses her water bottle but I didn't want to worry about her stretching to get it so I put a bowl of water in her cage as well. She's been drinking from both and has probably had a quarter of the water bowl (and has been home for almost 24 hours). Normally by now I would say she would probably drink about half of the bowl but, like I said, she has had some of her bottle as well.

I asked about giving her a pellet mush because I have read about it on here and they said that I should only give the critical care but if I can't get that in her I'm thinking I willjust go ahead with the pellet mush so that I can hopefully get some sort of food in her.Good idea/ bad idea?

I have also tried to tempt her with her yogurt drops that she loves and she took maybe two tiny bites out of one this morning and that is it.

I'm really worried about her.. I know we will end up back at the vets tonight but even picking her up seems to be a distress for her. I just want my baby to be healthy again.
 
JadeIcing wrote:
I had to add more water and get a bigger syringe.
Click to expand...

When using critical care? Where did you get the syringe from?
I've tried adding more water but it'snt liquidity enough to go in the syringe. Asyringe with a bigger whole would reallyhelp.
 
That's odd. I haven't heard of problems syringing Critical Care before. That's what it's made for. Have you tried adding extra water to it, and letting it soak for a bit before syringing it? Also, what size syringe are you using? The tiny ones for meds like Metacam are too small for mushy solids. I use the baby medicine syringes that you can get in pharmacies (and Walmart).

You can also make a pellet mush, it should work the same as the Critical Care. Except it would taste like the food she's used to. Some rabbits like the taste of Critical Care, others don't.

I agree with the Nutri-Cal too. It's made for cats and dogs and you can find it in most pet stores. You can mix a little into the Critical Care or pellet mush or put a little on her paw so she has to lick it off. It provides extra energy as well as Vitamin E (soothes the intestines) and B Vitamins (encourages the appetite).
 
I have always cut the tips off the syringe because I never was able to get a pellet mush or critical care thin enough to draw up.
 
thank you for all the help so far guys. I will go out in about 30 minutes to get the nutrical. If you can think of ANYTHING else that I should buy or can do to get her feeling better and eating please let me know.

I haven't even eaten all day. I've been so worried about her.. crazy how attached you can get to animals. Losing her would just kill me.
 
Can you tempt her with her absolute favorite things?

Jordi would only eat hand fed alfalfa hay for about 36 hours after her spay.

Another dose of pain meds will help too.
 
Snuggys Mom wrote:
Tempt her with her favorite veggies. Wet them really good and she'll get a little extra water.
Click to expand...
She has not started eating veggies yet so I don't want to give her any for the first time when she is so delicate. I have tried to give her her favourite foods though.. nothing really happened.
 
naturestee wrote:
I use the baby medicine syringes that you can get in pharmacies (and Walmart).

You can also make a pellet mush, it should work the same as the Critical Care. Except it would taste like the food she's used to. Some rabbits like the taste of Critical Care, others don't.

I agree with the Nutri-Cal too. It's made for cats and dogs and you can find it in most pet stores. You can mix a little into the Critical Care or pellet mush or put a little on her paw so she has to lick it off. It provides extra energy as well as Vitamin E (soothes the intestines) and B Vitamins (encourages the appetite).
Click to expand...

Ditto to all three!!

I asked the vet for a large syringe and they more than happy to give me one.
I aslo picked up the ones at CVS for baby meds.
Having more than one syringe will make things go smoother if you need to give her different stuff...easier than stopping to clean and refill the one.

A pellet mush might be the ticket....and I hadn't thought of adding some Critical Care to the mush....GREAT IDEA Angela!!!

Nutrical....a wonderful thing!! Mine hated the taste so I smeared it on their front paws. Smear it on real good so she can't flick it off!

~Jim

 
k, I'm out to get the nutrical and a bigger syringe. I tried to do her second feeding and it's still too thick to get in the syringe.. I got it in by putting it in the end and than sticking the top back on but than I have to press REALLY hard to get it back out and it shoots everywhere (not really what I want to have happen in Katrina's mouth). I tried cutting the end off but still no good.. wish me luck.
 
Did you try giving it to her on a spoon? I had trouble getting it to come out of the syringe so I put it on a spoon and Max ate it that way. Or you could mix it with some pumpkin and put it on a spoon or plate..
 
I tried giving it on the spoon and nothing. I just spent 30 minutes trying to find nutrical and a bigger syringe and found nothing. She is only pooing cecal type poos now (I think that's how you spell it). I called the vet back again and told them what was going on and my vet has decided that Katrina should spend the night there so they can keep an eye on her. I am just waiting for my mom to get home because she is in such distress. I want someone to be able to hold now while she's in the car.

My final conclusion is that I should not have spayed her.
 
I think you did the right thing spaying her. It will save her from the possibility of very painful cancer in a couple years.

At the vets office, will there be staff there over night?

When Wildfire was spayed, I just used mushed up pellets. If you can get mushed up pellets into her, I would do so.

If you have a small syringe, the size you're supposed to use for metacam, you could cut the bottom right off so it's just an open tube with a plunger. It should be small enough to get in her mouth but big enough to push the mush out.

I have a large arrangement of syringes at home. I just asked for them from the vets office and they gave me tons.

--Dawn
 
Thank you again guys. I have tried everything that I can to get her to eat and it just was not happening. She is now back at the vets and they will keep her for whatever length of time they need to (I may have her back tonight but I'm highly doubting it).Right now I'm just trying to do everything I would normally do and not think about it so much because I know I'll just drive myself crazy if I do. I'm really positive now that the vet has her. They do have a person who stays overnight with the animals and I'm pretty optimistic that the vet will be successful in some way. I have already paid $200 dollars for the spay and medication. I have another about $150 at the moment so hopefully this won't get too high.

Thank you for the well wishes. I will let you know when she comes home safe (she has so much attitude, she can't let this kill her spirit).
 
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