*RESOLVED* Snowy isn't eating...

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mouse_chalk

mouse_chalk

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Snowy (a spayed, almost 4 year old REW dwarf lop) hasn't eaten her dinner. And she failed the treat test.

They were only fed at 7pm, which was 3 hours ago, but it's VERY unlike her to not eat straightaway, and she never ever leaves food this long. She was eating fine this morning when they had veggies, and she's been eating hay today and pooing.

When I fed them, I shooed them into their cage (they'd been out all day) and she went straight into the corner and stayed there.

She's hopping about ok, and I've checked her over and can't find any injuries, lumps/bumps etc. She had peed while she was lying in her cage and her underside is yellow, but that's all I can see. She nearly always uses her litter tray so it's odd for her to pee like this, but I have seen her do it before when she had tooth issues and pain from that etc.

As for health issues, none except for she's susceptible to molar spurs, which were last done in April (I think?) and at her last vet visit a couple of months ago the vet said they were looking ok, but I guess they could be a problem again. She had an eye infection/abrasion a couple of months ago, but that was fine within a couple of days and has been since.

I've given her 1ml of Infacol/Simeticone- the most I could get her to swallow, and tummy rubs in a warm towel in case it's gas. I have Metacam here and I'm wondering if I should give some in case her teeth are bothering her?

I know it's only been a couple of hours but Snowy is usually jumping up and knocking the dinner out of our hands- this is VERY unlike her! :(
 
I tend to give my buns Metacam when they act like this. Her problem sounds possibly pain related or urinary tract related, and both would benefit from Metacam in my eyes, however, I know some people are not sure about giving Metacam if the gut is slow and the rabbit is potentially dehydrated.

I would also say give her a SnuggleSafe or a rice sock if you have one.

And obviously vets tomorrow for a spurs check.
 
Thanks for the reply Tracy,

I haven't given her the Metacam yet, because I've lost the label our vet gave us with the dosage on it for her, stupidly. She's about 3.2kg/7lbs and I have both the 1.5mg/ml and 0.5mg/ml Metacam here- can anyone tell me what dosage I should give her- if I should give it at all?

I don't honestly know how dehydrated she might be- all of my buns rarely drink water as they get freshly washed greens twice a day and they get most of their moisture from them. I've not seen her drink today, but that's not out of the norm at all.

I put the snugglesafe down (once I'd borrowed it back from the hedgehog lol) but she's sitting in front of the TV right now :?

And yes, we'll be calling the vets ASAP tomorrow of course!


 
tonyshuman wrote:
I think you're doing the right thing. I too would give some metacam. Here's the dosage: (meloxicam=Metacam)
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm

3.2kg * 0.2mg/kg=0.64mg
That would be 0.13mL of the 0.5 mg/mL or 0.03mL of the 1.5mg/mL. That seems kind of low to me, and it's on the low end of the dosage scale.
Click to expand...
That does sound like a very low dose! I've just found a label on the 1.5mg/ml that was written up for Dotty that says Dotty (who at the time was 5.5kg) should have 1.5mls. Could I go by that and reduce it accordingly do you think, or should I go with the lower dose to play it safe?

Oh, and she's just had a long drink for her water bowl, and started nibbling on some parsley stalks. Hurrah! Not a lot though- and I'm still keen to get some pain relief into her in case it is her teeth, although I really hope it's just gas!
 
tonyshuman wrote:
I think you're doing the right thing. I too would give some metacam. Here's the dosage: (meloxicam=Metacam)
http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm

3.2kg * 0.2mg/kg=0.64mg
That would be 0.13mL of the 0.5 mg/mL or 0.03mL of the 1.5mg/mL. That seems kind of low to me, and it's on the low end of the dosage scale.
Click to expand...
Is the dosage calculated by weight in KG x dosage / drug strength? If so, I'm getting a result of 0.42ml of the 1.5mg/ml suspension- which would fit more with the dose that Dotty was prescribed (the only thing I have to go on here at this time of night), whilst still being at the lower end of the scale...

Then again it is gone midnight here and I am pretty sick atm... :?
 
No, you're right! My calculation was wrong, sorry. I don't know what I did to get 0.13mL... I'd go ahead and give her at least 0.42mL. I know we gave Benjamin 0.3mL after his neuter, I think of the 0.5mg/mL soln, and he's tiny--maybe 1kg.
 
Phew! I did lots of reading whilst I was waiting for a response and decided to go ahead and give her 0.4ml, which I did.

It's a low dose but hopefully enough to help her a bit- she can't be that bad, since she was fine all afternoon, and in fact the past 40mins/hour she's been hopping about and acting quite bright and curious- nudging our feet, putting her front paws on the edge of the sofa, etc.

She's nibbled a bit more- some spring greens and more parsley. I think I will give her another dose of Infacol now, and get some sleep, and call the vet in the morning.


Oooh, she's just eaten some pellets! Hurrah! :D
 
And she just pooped, peed, ate some hay, and now she's munching on some lettuce.



A hunger strike for attention? Give your mum a heart attack? That's just low, Snowy. Low! :nonono:


(I'm still calling the vets in the morning so they can look at her teeth though)
 
Actually the dosing is quite high. The dosing of .4cc (actual calculation is .42cc)of the 1.5mg/ml would be considered a "loading dose". This is a one time dose to get blood levels up as quickly as possible. The following doses (usually no more then 3) would be at standard dosing which would be half the loading dose. The dosing listed on Medirabbit would be very stressful to the liver. I don't know of any vets that would be comfortable with any level of dosing about .1mg/kg (which is the dosing as labeled) especially when used long term. Remember there is always a price to pay for using drugs....the key is to know if the possible benefit outweighs the known risks.....and in the case of NSAID, the consideration is primarily for the liver. Her follow up dosing should be no more than .21cc once a day.

Randy
 
OIC. What would be a better dose for maintenance, rather than a loading dose, then?

I'm glad she's feeling better, though!
 
Metacam can kick in quickly so looking at your post times, it could have easily made a difference to her in those times.

For my buns, with the 1.5mg Metacam, on the first day they get 2 drops (out of the bottle) per 0.5kg, and then after the first day that is halved, and they get 1 drop per 0.5kg (which is really easy to calculate, even in the middle of the night). That sounds like it fits with Randy's post too.

How is she this morning?

How are you?
 
Randy, that's interesting to know! For the life of me I can't remember what our vets normally dose, but I read a few different sites/articles that said 0.2 mg/kg was an ok dose before I went ahead with it. When I see the vet I'll get her to write down the dosage for me and I WILL keep that safe.

Snowy is doing absolutely fine this morning- Steve fed them whilst I slept in and she was apparently jumping around for breakfast and tucked in as usual. She's currently running about the living room through their tunnels and boxes etc and acting like nothing's wrong.

Since both me and Steve are still sick today, and she seems fine, we've got a vets appointment tomorrow morning to have her teeth looked at. The other bonus of this is that we get to see Vikki, who is the nicest and most rabbit-savvy vet there is there.

Flashy- I only gave her the Metacam about 5 minutes before I posted that I had last night, and she had started running about before then too. In the past when Mouse had a bout of gas, it took a couple of hours for the Infacol to kick in, so I guess it could either be that, or perhaps the Metacam did work pretty quickly!

I'm guessing if it was the Metacam, it might wear off soon enough, so I'll look out for that and give her a smaller dose if necessary.



Thanks for all the help and advice guys! :)
 
I'm glad she is doing well. I would keep her dosed with Metacam today, so, unless she appears to need it earlier, give it to her 24 hours after the first dose.

I have found with my dental bunnies that after about 10 mins of Metacam they are happy to eat again, but with some pains the Metacam takes longer to have effect. Hopefully the Infacol helps too (on a side note, Gripe Water can also provide relief against gas, and also seems to provide some sort of warming feeling apparently-just an FYI in case it becomes relevant in the future).

I hope you both feel better today and that Snowy stays perky.
 
Glad to hear that Snowy is eating, and doing all the right things again. Pumpkin and Whiskers have both had similar episodes....scares the life right out of a bunny slave! Hope things continue to go well!
 
Thanks guys!

Snowy is doing great still. Steve took her to the vets this morning- I couldn't go with them as I had a doctor's appointment that overran, but I gave him instructions on what to ask lol.

The vet said that Snowy's teeth look fine at the moment- on the left side, she does have a very slight spur forming but she said it's not likely to be causing her any issues at the moment, and certainly isn't worth the aneasthetic just yet, although they will need doing at some point in the future. Shee thinks it was likely just a bit of gas or a mildly upset tummy. Apparently when Steve mentioned the Infacol she said 'yes, I've heard that works' lol- it was probably when she was treating Dotty for stasis and we asked her about it!

Anyway, Snowy is absolutely fine still- stuffing her face, etc etc. She was very good at the vets apparently and the receptionist and vet both said she was very pretty. :)


Oh, and Steve got her to write down a Metacam dosage for us- she said that she'd prefer us to use this only if there was an issue where we felt pain relief was needed and it was out of hours etc, other than that she'd prefer to see the rabbit to assess the pain levels and prescribe accordingly. But she said that a one-off dosage if we needed it would be fine. She wrote down 0.2cc per kg of the Dog Metacam (1.5mg/ml solution) and 0.6cc per kg of the Cat Metacam (0.5mg/ml solution)


I'll mark this resolved! :)
 
I just wanted to add how to calculate dosages:

(dose in mg/kg)*(weight of rabbit in kg)/(concentration of solution in mg/mL)=amount to give in mL

I'm glad she's doing better!
 
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