Stasis

[Hazel]

So I haven't posted here in awhile, but I was just hoping for any tips and good bunny thoughts.

Last night I came home from the HP premiere and was checking on the buns before I went to sleep and noticed Flopsy had not eaten ANY of her food. She had eaten some of her hay, but hadn't drunk much either.

I proceeded to offer her some apple and she ignored it... I freaked out. I put some apple, more hay, fresh everything in her cage and spread some new litter to check poops and went to bed(although I laid in bed for a long time watching her shadow hoping to see her eat).

This morning I woke up and nothing had changed. She hadn't moved the apple, had eaten a little hay and that was it. I went to work and called the vet when I got there. She only had an opening for 10 or 11, so I called my boss and told him I had to leave.

We went to the vet and she said Flopsy looks very healthy otherwise, healthy teeth, healthy coat, etc, so she would need to do an xray to check her stomach to see exactly what was going on, but she knew what treatment to do for her even if we couldn't do the xray yet. Well I don't get paid till next week, so I could not afford to do the xray (>.< GAH if I had ANY idea she would get sick, I could have put other money spenders off till next week instead >.<] but we started treatment for her.

She got pain meds there, along with a mobility drug and appetite stimulant. She got a little bit of slurry, but was mainly spitting it out. They said to let the drugs settle more into her system and let her calm down at home, and then try again.

I do 5mg(or .5?) of baytril every 12 hours, the oxbow critical care slurry 4x a day, and pain meds every 24 hours(until she's eating normally) after I start them tonight at 7.

I was wondering if anyone that has been through this had any tips for me... I am so worried about her. >.<

 

[Maureen Las]

Much of the treatment for stasis you can do yourself as getting fluids into her per syringe is vital to her coming out of it.
things you need to buy

1) Baby infant liquid gas drops with the only active ingredient being simethicone. Some brand names are Mylicon infant gas dropsliquid gas X for infants. You can give 1cc initially for gas and then repeat 2 more doses1 hour apart if your rabbit still seems uncomfortable. Rabbits whose GI systems aresluggish usually have gas build up

2) Fresh pinespple juice. I mean fresh and not concentrate or canned . You can squeeze a fresh pineapple yourself or sometimes stores have pineapple already cut and cored that is fresh. Give about 5 cc juice several times per day. Give small amounts frequently if your rabbit doesn't want to take it. or you can mix it with pedialyte which is #3

3) infant electrolyte drink like pedialyte or a generic brand.syringe feed your rabbit as much as she will take . Small amounts frquently if she doesn't like it.

4) A probiotic like benebac (petstore) or Probios (sold at feed or farm stores) Give 1 dose

5) Canned pure pumpkin ( no pie seasoning),,it has lots of fiber and can be syringed easily ...several ccs at a time


you can also syringe critical care if you have it or vegetable baby food if you cannot get pumpkin.

You do not want the gut to shut down.

When rabbits stop eating or drinking you cannot wait for them to start. You have to actively treat them. 24 hrs without fluids and food and there is liver damage.


I don't know why your vet gave baytril ? Maybe because he fears clostridium overgrowth in the intestines.
No vet should ever administer a gut stimulant without an x-rays as the gut /stomach could rupture if there is a true blockage ??
let us know how it goes.....

 

[Maureen Las]

Also wanted to add to give the above care treatment throughout the day and not all at once.
Also encourage your rabbit to run about as movement will stimulate the GI tract

 

[Hazel]

The vet gave me critical care to syringe to her, so I've been doing that. She said 4x a day, but I'm wondering how far apart I should space that. She said with the critical care there was no reason to do the pumpkin(I asked her about pumpkin when I was there bc I remembered it from here) with the critical care.

I'm going to get pedialyte tonight, but I'm wondering how I give it to her. I mean, with the critical care I just syringe some in her mouth bit by bit and wait for her to swallow it down. Is it the same for a liquid? I assume the simethicone works the same.

Yes, I was reading the stasis info and worried about the blockage/motility thing... but she is a rabbit vet, so I'm hoping that she knows something I didn't or she didn't mention it to me when I saw her.

I will get a probiotic for her tomorrow, I used to have some "just in case" and cannot find it now that it's the case... >.<

I have her out and about moving around, she's still acting quite social and curious, so I'm hoping that's a good sign. I made my roommates turn on the heat for her so it will be about 70-72 in here since she gets cold easily.

Thank you so much for the extra tips.

 

[Maureen Las]

You give a liquid the same way as a solid ..
place the syringe sideways behind her teeth, shoot in a little liquid and watch her swallow then you can give her a little more.

Tune into her feelings while you are syringing her.

if the bun is very stressed and trying to get away I often will do small amounts at once ; I truly feel that a person can accidentally create a worse situation by force feeding a very nervous rabbit.

Pretend like she is a baby ..talk to her , stroke her , try to calm her and give her small amounts if she is reallys stressed.

The actual amount is less important than that some fluids and food are going in ; fluids are way more important than food right now

you don't need pumpkin if you have critical care and actually there are probiotics in Critical care but I would get benebac anyway.
Keep us updated....

 

[Hazel]

Thank you for the extra information. I just gave her the pain meds an hour 1/2 ago and her antibiotics and I'm waiting a bit to give her more critical care. She seems a little drugged after the meds which I'm hoping is the whole pain meds/druggy feeling thing.

She won't run around much, she'll explore some but then settle in. I hate this. I am so worried I did something to cause this >.< That I stressed her out in some way. The vet says her diet sounds great, so that doesn't seem to be it. She sits next to a TV(not being used) that got moved a day or 2 before she got sick... but would that really affect her? She wasn't out on the day she stopped eating, so she didn't ingest something bad, and the day before she was supervised while having play time. I mean her coat is coming in, so she's been shedding, so we worried it might be that, but I can't do the xray until next week, so I'm hoping she will either get better before then or at least hold out until then for me.

This is really worrisome though. I have her chilling on the bed with me since we did the pain meds so she can be nestled in the blankets with me, but I'm slightly freaking out, but trying to be calm around her.

When my bf gets home from work, we're going to head out to the store for the pedialyte and gas stuff. I'm hoping the gas stuff will help a lot. I'm scared to do any kind of tummy rubs though.

As I'm typing this though, a motorcycle went by super loud and she perked up and is now proceeding to dig the fabric of the blankets and mouth it and move stuff around, so any movement is better than just sitting there. *sigh*

 

[Hazel]

Also, I just put her back in her cage and searched the blankets for poops. I found a bunch of small ones, and the fresher ones were a little bigger!! Oh man, time for the happy poop dance!:litterfew: :wiggle

Edit: And she peed... ah well, my fault. I don't even care, I'm happy to have BOTH.

 

[Maureen Las]

I would get the gas meds anyway and give a dose and also pedialyte ; keep getting fluids in her and even if she is not pooping a lot it will keep her from being dehydrated.

keep up the treatment even though she is pooping; if she starts eating on her own that will be a good sign.
you did not do anything worng; we all go through this with our rabbits periodically... that's why we can give you advice

it is hard on the owner to go through stasis with a bun; very stressful :hug:

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with angieluv. It is great that you have gotten her to poop again. I would keep up the stasis protocol until she is eating on her own again.

 

[Hazel]

Well I gave her the .3 recommended dosage of the infant gas drops before going to bed tonight. I also gave her pedialyte as well. I'm going to do some more pedialyte first thing in the morning as well. No poops this time sadly, but I'm hoping to find some in the morning.

Questions: How often should I be giving her critical care. It says 4x a day, but should I be aiming for a certain hour timelimit that she goes without having something in her system?

And how often should I give her the gas drops? It says up to 12 times a day...

I offered apple and parsley tonight, with a full thing of hay. It's a tiny piece of apple and a bit of parsley bc I'm going to leave it there all night. I'll be up again early to feed her again... I worry about her not having something in her system for too long...

 

[maxysmummy]

stomach massage! when my baby stopped eating (hadnt eaten all day) i massaged his belly for about 10 or 15 minutes, then for a few minutes every hour or so and he eventually started eating.

we also replaced his water bottle with fresh juice to encourage him to get SOME nutrients. i've read that an electric vibrating massarger can work really well too

 

[Hazel]

So how exactly do tummy rubs work? Do I flip her? Just rub from above?

About to administer more critical care, gas drops, and pedialyte. She's grooming herself, and looks like she's eating cecals *hopes hopes hopes* So I'm waiting till she settles down again.

 

[Hazel]

The feeding went awesome, she fought me, but ate pretty much all of it. I was excited to have her fighting me. She took her drops and pedialyte well. I gave her like 2ml of pedialyte and then left some in her bowl.

I still want to know about the tummy rubs to try them. However, her tummy seems less swollen than before. Also! She ran when I went to pick her up off the floor. I had to put her cage down, so she could run into it, since she wouldn't let me pick her up. So with her running, that made me happy. We had poops last night as well. She seems to be more bitchy like normal, but now I just want her to eat on her own.

 

[jujub793]

sounds like youre doing a good job and she's coming around

 

[Maureen Las]

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

Dana Krempels explains a tummy massage in this article.

WhenI do itI usually leave my bun on the floor and very gently (gently!!) stroke down the sides of the abdomen toward the tail .
Ido not use battery operated massagers as they scare my rabbits too much.
you have too use your own judgement.

the point of this is to gently manipulate the abdominal area so gas that is trapped may move through.

never do it if your rabbit has a hard tummy and never do it too firmly

 

[Hazel]

AHHHHH!!! She is eating hay right now and throwing her toilet paper tube around... Oh man... best sight ever! She also ate a slice of banana!!! I got the benebac today... the only thing I'm worried about is that I'll give it to her and then give her the antibiotic and it'll just kill the benebac... should I just stop the antibiotic? I'm wondering if I should call randy and ask...

Also, the benebac comes in a 1g tube... 1 tube for up to 10 lbs... should I give her 1/3-1/2 of it since she's only 3.7lbs?

Also, her tummy has gotten less swollen so I'm going to try the tummy rub tonight. It isn't hard at all, so I figure it can't hurt...

I am worried I've been giving her too much infant gas stuff though... I was doing the dosage for newborns which is .3ml whereas the one thing I found on the forums said .1ml? Should I be worried about this?

Sorry I'm posting so much, but I'm just so nervous about this whole thing. She is my first bunny and my little one, so I'm just really freaking out a bit about this whole thing. She's the one that never gets sick >.<

 

[Hazel]

So reading that makes me think about what happened to start this. I'm wondering if it has to do with the construction going on outside of the apartment. It's been a pain in everyone's butts, but the article mentioned construction, but maybe it just meant in the apt. Also, Im wondering if it would be her favorite toy. I get her sisal chew balls... anyone know if there's anything bad with sisal and rabbits?

 

[Maureen Las]

0.1 ml or 0.3 ml is not enough you can give 1.0 ml at a time ..won't hurt her it is not absorbed by the body but just breaks up gas bubbles.

You can also give the whole little tube of benebac. I know this because I used to give 1/2 tube and Randy said to give the whole thing.
sisal is safe

If you want to give 0.5 ml at time of simethicone that should be fine as she is small rabbit but it would be still be safe to give 1 ml

 

[Maureen Las]

don't give benebac at the same time as the antibiotic
If you give the antibiotic 2 times per day give the probiotic in the middle of the day between doses.

 

[Hazel]

Yeah, I gave the benebac asap and now I'm going to hold off a bit before giving her the antibiotic, so it'll be like 5 hours or so.

I'm going to give her more gas drops then, bc she obviously hasn't been getting enough if that's how much she can get.