Stasis or blockage? Very worried

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Sucha

Member
Joined
Dec 9, 2018
Messages
8
Reaction score
9
Location
France
Hi I hope someone can help me stop worrying myself sick :(

This morning Betty didn’t want breakfast and was very listless. Our rabbit vet is a 2 hour drive away and here in France we are in lockdown. She also really freaks out in the car so I decided to take her to our other nearer vet. She’s pretty good, treats all our other pets and has a lot of rabbit experience but is mainly a cats and dogs vet.

She checked Betty’s temperature, ears, teeth and palpated her abdomen. She said it was her transit and gave her pain relief, prescribed motility drugs, probiotics and critical care.

I gave Betty some baby gas drops too and as she hadn’t eaten by lunchtime we started critical care syringe feeding. It’s now night time and we gave her meds, another 15mls critical care but she’s still not pooped and is really listless, hiding under the sofa.

So I’m terrified that as she’s not pooping she has a blockage. I rang the vet earlier and said I was worried and she assured me there’s no blockage. How long does it take before a rabbit starts pooping if they have stasis? And is it better to give frequent smaller syringe feeding sessions or bigger ones to get things moving?
 
It can take a day or two for the digestion to get moving again. Though that also depends on exactly what's causing the stasis and how long the rabbit hasn't been eating.

How much to feed and how often depends on the rabbit. I prefer to give a normal syringe feed amount every 4 hours, but if you have a particularly difficult rabbit that isn't very cooperative, sometimes more frequent smaller amounts works better. I think you just have to see which way seems to work best for your rabbit.

Lack of appetite and GI stasis, is just a by product of some other health issue. Often it's caused by an upset stomach, but there are more serious health issues that can present the same way. A member on here had a rabbit present with GI stasis, wasn't improving, they got further testing done and discovered the rabbit had developed a liver lobe torsion. So if your rabbit isn't improving, is getting worse and her condition is deteriorating, and/or you are concerned there is something more serous going on, I would get her back to the vet for further testing. Possibly having both blood work and xrays done.
 
Hi I hope someone can help me stop worrying myself sick :(

This morning Betty didn’t want breakfast and was very listless. Our rabbit vet is a 2 hour drive away and here in France we are in lockdown. She also really freaks out in the car so I decided to take her to our other nearer vet. She’s pretty good, treats all our other pets and has a lot of rabbit experience but is mainly a cats and dogs vet.

She checked Betty’s temperature, ears, teeth and palpated her abdomen. She said it was her transit and gave her pain relief, prescribed motility drugs, probiotics and critical care.

I gave Betty some baby gas drops too and as she hadn’t eaten by lunchtime we started critical care syringe feeding. It’s now night time and we gave her meds, another 15mls critical care but she’s still not pooped and is really listless, hiding under the sofa.

So I’m terrified that as she’s not pooping she has a blockage. I rang the vet earlier and said I was worried and she assured me there’s no blockage. How long does it take before a rabbit starts pooping if they have stasis? And is it better to give frequent smaller syringe feeding sessions or bigger ones to get things moving?
Hi, I would try tummy massages and gas drops every 1-2 hours, really good long belly massages when you palpate her stomach really well and after like 10-15 mins it becomes much softer and you can feel problems (hard blockages) and can hear how she is passing gas and movements in her stomach and then she should make pales of poos, maybe it will be small and deformed poos at the beginning, but keep working on it.

That is if she has a blockage. It is hard to diagnose without seeng her and knowing what happened before she fell unwell, and maybe you've noticed changes in her poos, were they nice big and round or were they smaller and deformed, what changes in her diet/environment were made lately etc.

Hope she will be alright.
 
Here's an example how you can massage her belly, I do it differently, holding my rabbits on me belly to belly, but she explains well so you can see.



I agree with JBun that there can be some underlying health issues but what is most important right now is to make her poop, make her gut moving again and producing poos.

As I said, it is hard to diagnose without seeing and palpating, but belly massage won't hurt anyways.
 
Thank you so much for your advice! We did some belly massages and gave her a little more CC in the middle of the night and stoked up the fire to keep her warm. I just went to check on her this morning she’s hopping about, nibbling hay and had a few poops! I’m so relieved and happy my vet although not a bunny specialist knew what she needed.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top