Sick?

[BridgetsFlame]

Luther is a cashmere lop, approximately two and a half years old. He lives free range and eats a diet of oxbow pellets, and oaten/wheaten hay with small amounts of veggies. He's always had tummy problems and we've just gotten used to them though the oxbow pellets have vastly improved things. Everytime stasis has started he's visibly looked in pain, sitting hunched and you just have to look at him to know his stomach is hurting. He's very aggressive even though he is neutered and we've gotten used to giving him a lot of space, only catching him when he starts to moult and trimming him back. His moult has just started.

Today though, I hadn't looked at him specifically as I'd been busy but he had food and fresh water and was in 'his' room as usual. I noticed tonight though that he was really really quiet. So quiet that he didn't care about being picked up. He was lying stretched out though, not hunched and he's showing no signs of pain. Ears are clear, eyes are clear, nose is clear. His bum is clean. I felt his stomach and it seemed doughy and normal.

I did notice he was very dehydrated so I started syringing water in, got 100ml in easily enough. But after I'd given him the water I felt his stomach again and there was a giant lump, and I mean giant. Hard as a rock and a good 4 inches across in all directions, on his left side just behind is rib cage.

I've no idea if he is pooing, he's sitting in his litter trays and I'm just about to go and empty them so I can check that. I'm a bit panicky though, I'm used to him having the 'usual' problems but this is different. The vets aren't fond of seeing him either, someone always ends up bitten.

 

[BridgetsFlame]

Oops forgot to add, I haven't seen him eat or drink at all. And I've tried every tempting thing I could. Lu normally adores fresh clean cold bowls of water but nothing. Nor did he want carrot, or parsley or grass.

Litter trays are cleaned out and he's lying in one still looking down.

He is alert, he looks at you as you walk past and he sniffs a bit. Normally though if you walk past he attacks, and if you held food out to him he'd bite your hand and then eat the food.

 

[BridgetsFlame]

And just as quickly as the giant lump appeared, it's gone. His stomach has gone back to being doughy and I just got bitten....

Now if he could just poop and eat I'll relax. But I'm still totally confused...

 

[Imbrium]

Luther is a cashmere lop, approximately two and a half years old. He lives free range and eats a diet of oxbow pellets, and oaten/wheaten hay with small amounts of veggies.

if you're feeding oat/wheat hays, are you picking the oats or w/e (ie seed heads) out of it? if not, those contain a LOT of extra carbs that can contribute to stasis problems.

if he's not eating/pooping and is turning down his favorite treats, that sounds like the start of GI stasis, which means it's time to start tackling the problem with home remedies and then call the vet when they open and see if you can get him in today.

you can buy a syringe at any grocery store. if you have critical care food (comes from vets), you can syringe feed that. if you don't, you can make a pellet slurry - take some pellets and add water or pedialyte; microwave. let sit for 5-10 mins so the pellets can "fluff", then mix together (breaking up the pellets as much as possible); add more liquid if needed to get it to a good pudding-like consistency for syringe feeding. critical care will work with a syringe as-is but with the DIY slurry, you may find it necessary to cut the tip of the syringe off to make the opening larger.

you can also offer a little bit of canned pumpkin (PLAIN stuff, not the pie filling kind) and/or some fruit or squash flavored baby food... not a whole lot, as these foods are sugary - maybe 2 tsp or so. if he won't eat the pumpkin on his own, you'll need to water it down with water or pedialyte in order to easily syringe feed it. these things could also be mixed into the pellet slurry or critical care to make it tastier.

you should syringe water or pedialite if you're worried he might not be drinking enough and/or if you're feeding pellet slurry/critical care. I find it easier (especially with liquids) to have the bunny wrapped in a towel, as things can get pretty messy.

you can also offer pain meds to make your bunny more comfortable - not being hunched up in pain doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have a tummy ache. metacam/meloxicam if you have it (bunny painkillers); baby aspirin or low-dose aspirin if you don't. this website has dosing info for pain meds - http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Analgesics/safe_analgesics.htm (don't forget to mention to the vet if you dose him with a painkiller)

simethicone (any brand of over the counter baby gas medicine) can also be given. it may or may not help depending on the cause of the GI stasis, but it's *incredibly* safe for rabbits so it definitely can't hurt. you can give 1-2 cc every hour for 3h, then 1 cc every 3-8h as needed if it seems to be helping.

 

[BridgetsFlame]

It's not the start of stasis, have seen that in this bunny many times. I can't see how his reaction to something would change so drastically. I have done my usual protocol though, stuff him with water and then leave him and see how he goes. I do have critta care and simethicone and metacam, but have found for him he's best being given a lot of water and then made to run. It's usually enough to loosen it. Simethicone has never done a thing, nor has metacam changed anything and Lu has to be really really ill to willingly swallow Critta Care, I can't even force him to eat that, he just holds it in his mouth till he gets a chance to drool it all out again.

However like I said this isn't stasis. As I said in my first post I've already syringe fed 100ml of water (actually 200ml but according to the scale he only swallowed 100ml). He has now started pooping, so he's not blocked.

I'm a tad more worried about the appearing/disappearing lump.

Yes all the seed heads are removed from his hay, he's been on Oxbow Timothy hay for a bit. I'm in Australia (and its midnight here so we won't be going to the vets right now) as I won a big raffle of the stuff, the pigs won't eat it but Lu when nuts for it so he's had that for awhile and a few weeks ago I switched him back to his usual hay (there is no way I'm paying $40 for an itty bitty bag of hay, his pellets are $30 for 2kg as is).

So I know the left side is where his stomach is, but I wouldn't expect a lot of water to make it go rockhard? It's been very hot here and maybe he just stopped drinking water? got dehydrated, and then my syringing water made his stomach go hard?

He's growling at me and lunging so he's clearly feeling better.

 

[Imbrium]

stasis can present differently depending on what the cause is... and simethicone *only* works if it's gas, so just because it hasn't worked in the past doesn't necessarily mean much. it's possible that the lump you felt was a gas bubble, and if it is/was, then the simethicone would actually help in this situation. if he's not eating, that always means stasis; stasis doesn't always go hand-in-hand with a blockage - he could be blockage free and therefore pooping fine and still have an upset tummy that's causing him not to eat.

 

[JBun]

GI stasis is a slowdown of the gut. It is often caused by pain from an imbalance in the gut flora that results in gas. The pain causes the rabbit to stop eating and then stop pooping. This gut slowdown can then result in a blockage. Unless there is an underlying health problem causing the rabbit pain, most often stasis is caused by the pain from gas. The simethicone and metacam may not have worked if given in insufficient amounts to affect the gas bubbles or control the pain.

I have a rabbit that kept getting GI stasis. It seemed like the pellets were the cause of the stasis episodes, so I took him off pellets and he hasn't had stasis since then. He gets only hay and veggies. I avoid ALL sugary treats and carbs, so he gets no fruit, starches(like carrots), grains, or carbs of any kind. I also only give him leafy greens and veggies that aren't going to cause gas problems. I tried recently to see if I could put him back on pellets, but I could tell he was starting to feel uncomfortable again. His poops were very irregular shaped, and he was laying down with his belly pressed to the ground and his butt pushed up, and he was squinting like he was in pain. So I stopped the pellets and his poops got better and he isn't looking like he is uncomfortable anymore.

You could give no pellets a try to see if it helps your rabbit. I've also heard of some peoples rabbits having problems with veggies causing their stasis problems, so that is a possibility as well. You may also want to try to find a different grass hay besides oat hay. Oat hay is a pretty sweet hay and you would have to make sure there were absolutely no oats in it or that could cause the stasis problems in your rabbit as well. You don't have to feed timothy. Any horse quality grass hay, besides the grain hays, would be just fine. And who knows, maybe if he's feeling better he won't feel so grumpy! I speak from experience as I have a few grumpy buns of my own

 

[BridgetsFlame]

He gets wheaten and grassy hay as well, none of the hays make any difference to his problems. We did an elimination diet and he went two months without pellets with no difference, then two months without veggies. No veggies made a difference so he only gets a very small amount of those.

The nippiness and aggressiveness isn't grumpiness, it's the result of severe abuse and the fact that he's deaf with limited sight. We've tried different vets as well as behaviorists and it's just a part of Lu. If it wasn't for him being a cashmere we would've built him a giant aviary where he could live happily without being scared every two minutes by us walking past. But since he is a longhair and needs grooming he lives in the house and we try to make things as easy as possible for him. He binkies a lot so I 'think' he's happy, he just doesn't want people near him. Though he occasionally decides we aren't too bad and comes and licks us and snuggles.

He perked up about an hour after my last post and is racing around happily again. Eating, drinking, pooping, peeing and binkying. So I've no clue what was wrong but at least he's okay now.

 

[tonyshuman]

I bet the hard lump was his stomach full of water, unless you were giving it to him sub-q?