Quality of life question:
My 6 year old rabbit had a seizure caused by an EC flare up in August, lost function in hind legs temporarily but regained mobility. He was treated with Panacur. During that time, his vet also found that he had a cecum impaction which we started to treat with fluids and trimebutine to get it moving. He now has a huge mass around his midsection and his xrays and ultrasounds showed the mass is actually his cecum that is now basically occupying his entire abdominal cavity and displacing his organs. The vet gave him an injection of Metoclopromide and sent some home with us since the trimebutine wasn’t working. She said the injection should start moving his Cecum within 8hrs but it’s now been 3 days and the mass is getting bigger.
Oh yes, and he’s also on round 2 of Panacur because he started to get hind leg weakness again last week.
He has no appetite but will eat a little bit sometimes. The vet said the pressure on his stomach is possibly making him not want to eat. I’ve been giving critical care and sub-q fluids for 2 months and tummy massages everyday and not only is there no improvement, he’s getting worse. At this point, he has dental disease (abscesses in jaw), kidney failure (X-ray showed possible cancer as well), month 2 of an EC flare, and now this extreme cecal impaction (he looks pregnant and waaaay overdue). He’s peeing constantly because the cecum is pushing on his bladder. He’s also able to poop a little bit (they’re tiny) so the cecum is not completely blocked.
He doesn’t seem to be in pain (I know rabbits hide pain but he’s not good at that) but he’s on a high dose of Meloxicam and Gabapentin so that could be masking the pain. He has moments when he seems to be his normal self and will take a treat but I feel like I’m literally keeping him alive with syringe feedings and pain medication.
The vet has said there is nothing left to try if the new medication does not start working to empty his cecum, and it’s not. He will not survive surgery.
I don’t want to euthanize too soon because he seems okay sometimes but I don’t want to wait until it’s too late and have him suffer a painful death (if the mass starts to displace his lungs and he can’t breathe).
He’s also gained weight and not from eating, his cecum is just heavy.
What would you do?
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