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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A help needed – Don’t know whats wrong

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    • Cinnamix
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        Hi, we are new to the forum but have been here many times reading up on how to care for bunnies ever since we got Cinnamon early this year (2013) She is about a year old and is a dwarf x mini lop. 

        She has had diarrhoea before but it always clears up within a day. But this time she had diarrhoea for four days. We took away her pellets and only gave her hay and water and theres been no change to her environment. On the 4th day the diarrhoea turned all black and thick and blocked her back passage. We couldn’t clean it. We took her to the vet and he cleaned her up and said she was gassy and had a higher than normal temperature. He also said her back end was inflamed and it was probably the pee burning her. He gave her Baytrill syrup and we are to give her some everyday. 

        After a few hours Cinnamon’s physical demeanour changed. She became lethargic and wouldn’t move, just lying pressed up against the wall. We took her to the animal emergency centre as it was quite late and the vet there said to continue Baytrill and gave us Oxbow Critical Care to feed her. 

        But by now she had stopped eating or drinking. She was still eating and drinking during the day (that we took her to the vet) so both vets said that was all good that she still was. But that changed and now we have to force feed her water and Critical Care which she doesn’t like and we can only get a bit in. She does have a bit more energy though but will still lie in pain and gnash her teeth. She gnashes her teeth after we put the food or water in her mouth, does that mean anything? She also just gnashes her teeth while just lying there.

        We took her to the vet the day before yesterday and she hasnt done a poop since. She also stopped peeing but is now peeing again. Her pee was all white and crusty though altho today that has changed back to normal. The white crusty pee was all stuck on her and when we tried to clean her came off like bits of dust? We were too afraid to clean her area thoroughly as she was in pain. The white crusty pee happened after our vet visits as well as the no pooping.

        We think she has Gi Stasis from reading things aline as well as maybe bladder sludge? We are not sure and are worried as the vets may not have diagnosed her properly as these things happened after. She doesn’t drink or feed herself anymore and noses around the hay but doesnt eat. She also shakes. 

        At the moment she is in the living room and biting things. That seems like a good thing, can we give her something, like celery? The vets said hay, water and critical care but if she eats something like a veggie is that better than nothing? 

        We are so worried and its taking a toll on us as well as her. Any advice please? Oh she’s eating the celery! Sorry I’m taking as things happen. Hopefully this is the start of better things.

        Nary & Danielle


      • Roberta
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          Hi N&D,
          Is there another rabbit savvy vet you can go to…. This sounds like a few things happening together…
          It could be any number of issues to primarily parasitic or intestinal infections and tooth issues.
          Some cilantro, basil, mint or parsley wouldn’t hurt in small quantities if she will eat nothing else, it’s also a good way to keep her hydrated if she is not taking enough water.
          I would ask for her poop to be tested for parasites and other nasties….
          I am sure there are other members who have had similar issues and hopefully they will see your post soon… But for now I think a second opinion is needed.


        • Roberta
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            Additionally if you prefer to return to your original vet explain that you are concerned there is more going on and would like him to test further.


          • Deleted User
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              I dunno – that doesn’t sound right? Your description…. I can’t believe your vet seems so calm? I wouldn’t be either (like you). I’d be looking for another vet and not leaving the clinic with her till you can be assured she has been diagnosed correctly and given treatment to fix her illness – not just a try this and see how she goes? She may even have to spend 24 hours for them to monitor with medication before she is allowed home. As I said, based on how you described her – I’d be insisting on it. Wishing your bub good health.


            • Cinnamix
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                Thanks for your replies Roberta and AndHenry. She has been eating lots of celery today, just the stems and has some water. She still hates critical care and if we dip the celery in water she won’t eat it. She has started to lick our hands again so we try and put water on it so she will accidentally lick it too.

                We can’t get her poop tested unfortunately as there is still no poop. She does small puddles of pee tho. There is a rabbit clinic we can go to but they are closed for the holidays and won’t open until next week. She has been moving around today although likes to mainly just lie down until we get her to move.

                We can’t really blame the vet as her symptoms changed after the visit. She was still eating and drinking but it stopped the day we went to the vet. So we had gone there for her black diarrhoea and the emergency visit later that night was because she was lethargic. Everything else we realised later. We will call the vet tomorrow with her new symptoms, is there anything we should insist on? Cinnamon seems more awake and tries to escape from us when we try and put her in her cage, which we take as a good sign. Is celery good for her? Its the only thing she will eat although we will continue to try the critical care. We can usually get a little bit in her.

                Thanks again for the replies


              • Deleted User
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                  Hey Cinnamix – I’m no expert, luckily Henry hasn’t been unwell, I am just going by ‘all’ the forums I have read. And the first thing ‘everyone’ says “if your bun hasn’t pooped….. vet!”. What a shame your rabbit clinic has closed – how dare they take holidays when your bun isn’t well! Look, I feed my bun celery, mostly the leafy part, but some feed all – and I’m a great believer if your Cinnamon isn’t eating but will eat something – go for it! Something is better than nothing. But yes, I would get onto the vet asap. And the only thing I would insist on is that your not leaving this time till you can be reassured she will get better with whatever is necessary as she can’t continue on this way, even if she has to be left at the clinic for a while. Poor Cinnamon. Poor you – you must be sick with worry.


                • Sarita
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                    Did the vet do an x-ray? That would show a blockage and/or bladder sludge. Usually bladder sludge is something that occurs in older rabbits but it’s not unheard of in younger rabbits.

                    I would suggest an x-ray and maybe if you suspect an urinary infection doing a urine test.


                  • Roberta
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                      Hi Cinnamix,
                      Any updates on your bun ?


                    • Cinnamix
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                        Hi everyone,

                        Sorry, I tried to update earlier but was so tired I couldn’t finish and there didn’t seem to be a draft button.

                        We took Cinnamon to another vet on the 2nd and had xrays and blood tests done. The vet said that her stomach felt funny and the xrays showed that she had fluid in her uterus and it was like two long balloons on either side of her. This caused her her internal organs to become squished in the middle. Poor Cinnamon must of been in so much pain. We really wished we had taken her here instead of our usual vet but they weren’t open until the 2nd anyway.

                        The Xray also showed that Cinnamons kidneys had moved a fair amount from where they were supposed to be, and that she had a bigger layer of fat than she should have. The blood tests also revealed this fat as the tests should have come up clear but hers were milky. Because of this they can’t see how her liver is functioning. They had to try and take blood out of both her legs as they couldnt really see the vein. I don’t know if this was because of her fat or not.

                        Apparently we have been feeding Cinnamon all wrong. Pellets especially australian ones were full of sugars and so are carrots. And she loved sultanas. Cinnamon had a sweet tooth and I guess we couldn’t say no to what she liked. Obviously this is going to change. But for now the vet said to give her what she wants, as when we removed everything except hay and water when she had diahrea Cinnamon instead of bouncing back as she used to, went into starvation mode. I guess this had to do with the pain from the fluid in her uterus.

                        She is going into surgery to remove her uterus on Wednesday. Letting her eat all that she wants is to get her gut going so she doesn’t go into Stasis on top of everything else. Diarrhoea at this point is better than nothing at all. Anyway they gave her the sub q and showed us how to give her critical care as we had heaps of trouble as she hated it. We had to give it every 2-4 hours as she wasn’t eating or drinking by herself and once she started to eat and drink herself switch it to 4-6 hours. By diarrhoea i mean the smeared soft deformed cecals as the vet told us rabbits don’t really get diarrhoea it just looks like it.

                        We were given a medication to get her gut moving again. She seems to like it, but then again it has a peppermint taste. We tried mixing the critical care with baby food but she still didn’t like it.

                        The next day we took her back for another subq and they said she was looking so much better. She was reverting back to the old Cinnamon and in the vets words were giving them ‘attitude’

                        Its been a few days now and she is eating by herself although we are still giving her critical care. Her poos are back, tiny black ones and soft squishy ones and its a very welcome sight. She is also peeing more and drinking water. She is still in pain and we can her the grinding of her teeth sometimes, and she still prefers to lie down instead of investigating and playing.

                        We will be calling the vet tomorrow as we have a few concerns. One is that we stopped giving her the gut medicine…rantidine? as we were told to stop if her tummy goes hard and to call them. It went hard last night, and they were closed today so we couldn’t call. Her tummy has gone back to being soft again but as a precaution we decided to not give it today.

                        Our other concern was the surgery was happening too quickly. Like should we wait until Cinnamon is a lot better? Build up her strength? Or waiting too long would make it worse? We hate that our little girl is in pain but we want her to have the best chance of surgery. Speaking of which, we want to know her chances. Its been an emotional couple of weeks and I know I will be in tears as i hand her over.

                        Does anyone know what this fluid in uterus thing is? I usually only read about cancer in the uterus. How does the fluid get there? Did we do something wrong? Was it her diet? We tried looking it up but couldn’t find anything. Possibly because we don’t know what its called. Has anyone had the same problem and offer advice? She was so happy on Christmas. We got her a tunnel to play in and she was up all night playing (the tunnel had a bell so we could hear her). Everything happened so fast

                        Thanks for caring and reading guys


                      • Bam
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                          Fluid in the uterus may be a sign of pyometra, an infection of the uterus. It’s not uncommon in female dogs and surgery is often the treatment of choice. Milder cases can be treated with antibiotics.

                          When my bridge dog got pyometra, her only symtoms were increased thirst and frequent urination. The symtoms may vary a lot.

                          I googled pyometra rabbit and found this:
                          http://www.petmd.com/rabbit/conditions/reproductive/c_rb_pyometra#.Usl5P7RjJX8

                          but there were lots more hits.

                          I hope you figure out what’s wrong and how to help her. Best of luck to both of you!


                        • Cinnamix
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                            Thanks for the info Bam, I looked it up and it sounds like what she has although Cinnamon doesn’t seem to have an infection. We went to the vets yesterday to ask questions about todays spay and she will do a bloodtest to make sure something about Cinnamons kidney levels are down or they won’t risk spaying her today. We’ve been pretty nervous but the talk helped alleviate some of that and the vet seems to know what she’s doing. We can’t leave it too long or she might get sick again.

                            Few more hours before the vet opens. I hope it all goes well and Cinnamon feels better and back to her usual self

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                        Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A help needed – Don’t know whats wrong