Hi everyone,
A couple of months ago we nursed our rabbit Bean through a bad bout of stasis. We've only had her a few months -- she was a neglect/abuse case we found on the side of the road over the summer. We don't know her history but it's clear she's been through a lot. She is at least middle aged if not older and she has two compromised hind legs -- one is completely lame, the other partially, but she's been able to get around until just recently (the legs apparently were broken at some point and never treated).
Basically we thought we had finally recovered from the stasis through the use of gut drugs, metacam, removing pellets from her diet, and lots of hay and greens and TLC. The one problem was the weight loss. She lost a scary amount of weight over the course of the slow recovery from stasis. We have a wonderful rabbit savvy vet who has been helping us monitor this and we were working on starting to try to bulk her back up a bit.
So this brings us to our current problem. The other day I came inside and found her basically unable to use her hind legs efficiently anymore. It seems that due to the weight loss, the "worse" leg just folds completely under her now and she gets stuck. Her urine also was suddenly a very dark rust color which I understand can be normal OR not. We took her to our wonderful vet as I suspected shock and they began supportive care which helped. Unfortunately they are not 24 hours so we had to transfer her to an overnight place where they are less savvy. She spent two nights there being warmed, hydrated, etc. She responded well in the sense that she has been bright and alert and interested in food, urine cleared up, stools have been soft but copious. They discharged her to us last night saying her temps were normal, but she still doesn't seem to be able to maintain the temp without external heat.
We brought her home and have continued intensive supportive care, basically treating her for presumed shock/stasis. We have her bundled in to a nice little bed with a warm water bottle, towels, etc and we are changing everything out every few hours. She is eating greens and hay with gusto and taking her fluids and meds via syringe no problem, etc. We are keeping her with us in the bedroom at night.
So here is my question -- is this seeming borderline paralysis situation something that can result from shock or is there likely some other underlying issue? It seems she has an awful amount of weakness in her limbs now -- in all four, though the hind ones are worse.
Our vet isn't in today and I don't trust those people at the emergency place so we have to wait 24 hours to talk to someone skilled and/or even think about putting her through the stress of diagnostics. They couldn't do any bloodwork while she was hospitalized because her veins were "blown" from the shock/hypothermia.
I am PRAYING that this is just weakness and that there's hope of her regaining her strength. I love her and would do anything for her but I don't want to prolong suffering either. I don't think she feels too terrible as she's enjoying her food and treats, but I feel awful that she has to sit in her own waste despite us cleaning her up and changing everything every few hours. Also I am 36 weeks pregnant and terrified that the baby will come before she is well and we will not be able to care for her ourselves while I am at the hospital delivering.
Please advise on the weight loss, limb weakness, etc... Really I welcome any and all opinions or help. We are desperate yet hopeful. She is a very special bun.
THANK YOU!
A couple of months ago we nursed our rabbit Bean through a bad bout of stasis. We've only had her a few months -- she was a neglect/abuse case we found on the side of the road over the summer. We don't know her history but it's clear she's been through a lot. She is at least middle aged if not older and she has two compromised hind legs -- one is completely lame, the other partially, but she's been able to get around until just recently (the legs apparently were broken at some point and never treated).
Basically we thought we had finally recovered from the stasis through the use of gut drugs, metacam, removing pellets from her diet, and lots of hay and greens and TLC. The one problem was the weight loss. She lost a scary amount of weight over the course of the slow recovery from stasis. We have a wonderful rabbit savvy vet who has been helping us monitor this and we were working on starting to try to bulk her back up a bit.
So this brings us to our current problem. The other day I came inside and found her basically unable to use her hind legs efficiently anymore. It seems that due to the weight loss, the "worse" leg just folds completely under her now and she gets stuck. Her urine also was suddenly a very dark rust color which I understand can be normal OR not. We took her to our wonderful vet as I suspected shock and they began supportive care which helped. Unfortunately they are not 24 hours so we had to transfer her to an overnight place where they are less savvy. She spent two nights there being warmed, hydrated, etc. She responded well in the sense that she has been bright and alert and interested in food, urine cleared up, stools have been soft but copious. They discharged her to us last night saying her temps were normal, but she still doesn't seem to be able to maintain the temp without external heat.
We brought her home and have continued intensive supportive care, basically treating her for presumed shock/stasis. We have her bundled in to a nice little bed with a warm water bottle, towels, etc and we are changing everything out every few hours. She is eating greens and hay with gusto and taking her fluids and meds via syringe no problem, etc. We are keeping her with us in the bedroom at night.
So here is my question -- is this seeming borderline paralysis situation something that can result from shock or is there likely some other underlying issue? It seems she has an awful amount of weakness in her limbs now -- in all four, though the hind ones are worse.
Our vet isn't in today and I don't trust those people at the emergency place so we have to wait 24 hours to talk to someone skilled and/or even think about putting her through the stress of diagnostics. They couldn't do any bloodwork while she was hospitalized because her veins were "blown" from the shock/hypothermia.
I am PRAYING that this is just weakness and that there's hope of her regaining her strength. I love her and would do anything for her but I don't want to prolong suffering either. I don't think she feels too terrible as she's enjoying her food and treats, but I feel awful that she has to sit in her own waste despite us cleaning her up and changing everything every few hours. Also I am 36 weeks pregnant and terrified that the baby will come before she is well and we will not be able to care for her ourselves while I am at the hospital delivering.
Please advise on the weight loss, limb weakness, etc... Really I welcome any and all opinions or help. We are desperate yet hopeful. She is a very special bun.
THANK YOU!