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I’m currently not the with bunnies, my husband is with them at his parents house, and he woke up to Moose sitting hunched in his box, not rushing over to eat his veggies.
It’s so strange… I woke up with a worried feeling about them…
He gave him critical care (which he ate with gusto off a plate… so that’s good), and hand fed him dandelions, which he ate when they were put in front of him. He would also eat pellets if hand-fed.
He gave him pain meds (Metacam) that we had left from his last dental, and just went to the store to get simthicone. We had some but it somehow got lost in the evacuation….
He’s been keeping him moving, giving him critical care periodically, and encouraging some movement. He says he’s doing better than when he woke up, but def not 100%.
He is pooping, and my husband is monitoring closely. He said his tummy felt like it might be a bit gassy.
Right now he is on the way to the pharmacy to get gas drops. Next plan will be to see if those help and take his temperature…
Then we’ll make the call as to whether we should go to the emergency clinic. Right now he eats his CC hungrily, is pooping OK, and his ears don’t feel cold, so I think he is stable for now…. but I am SO WORRIED and I wish I was there….
This is so out of the blue, we can’t ID anything in his diet that was new, and they’ve been at his parents’ house for about 2 weeks now, so it wasn’t a sudden change.
We need to decide whether to go the emergency clinic route, go to a different vet tomorrow in San Diego, or just drive straight back to Santa Barbara to see out regular vet. I worry about making that drive with a bunny that is doing poorly…. but I also trust our vet 100% and if he does need a dental I want them to do it….
. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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I’m sorry Moose is poorly and it must be very frustrating to be away from him. It seems your husband is doing an excellent job though. Hopefully the simethicone will help further. Sometimes a bun gets gassy “for no reason”, and it can be resolved with simethicone. It’s when it happens frequently or if it doesn’t go away that you need to look for an underlying cause. Like teeth or sth in the diet that doesn’t agree with him -well, I know you know all that.
Since he’s eating, drinking and pooping and he isn’t cold or lethargic, chances are good the baby gas drops will help. It doesn’t really sound like a case for an ER vet at this point, imho. You have to weigh the stress of a trip to the vet against the severity of his symptoms (you know that too of course). Try giving one ml simethicone, wait 1 hour and give him 0.5 to 1 ml, same after yet another hour. By then you should see improvement. Sometimes the bun even farts audibly
Sometimes there’s a little splurt of semi-liquid cecotropes.
((((Moose)))) -
Happy to report he’s back to normal this morning!
What a brat, scaring us like that!
Tom is the real winner, I think he must be a tummy rub master
. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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Well, unfortunately Moose is doing poorly again.
As of Friday, his hay consumption slowed way down, so I made an appointment for a dental for him. We’ve been giving him critical care, and until today he was still eating veggies and pellets normally. But now he is looking very uncomfortable (squinting, sitting with head slightly cocked), and will not eat his veggies (haven’t tried pellets yet). He did eat a good portion of critical care on his own (but slowly…), and is pooping (thank goodness). We’ve been giving him metacam since Friday, and I just gave him some simethicone and a belly rub just to cover our bases.
He’s moving around a bit, drinking water (which has been a symptom his teeth hurt in the past), but this is probably the most uncomfortable I’ve seen him (aside from his gas episode.. which I now suspect was brought on by reduced hay consumption if his teeth were starting to bother him). He’s also started this new behavior, where instead of just drinking from the bowl, he dips his paws in and then licks the water off his paws….it must be related somehow but it is strange.
Poor guy, this sucks with the holiday tomorrow. I know our vet will try to see him ASAP since it seems like he’s taken a sharp decline, but tomorrow is a holiday, and I don’t know what else I can do to help him until then….
If he stops eating the critical care on his own, not sure if I should force feed him? Always paranoid about a blockage, but he is pooping (and they look OK so long as he gets enough CC)…. so idk.
I’ve never seen him snub veggies, so this is really scary.
Part of me wants to give him a Penicillin injection in case he as a tooth infection … but I don’t want to do that without consulting the vet, in case there is something else going on.
Any thoughts or vibes appreciated….
. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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I can’t believe I’m writing this, but Moose passed away this morning around 6:30 am. We are heartbroken and in disbelief.
I woke up around 6 am to check on him and syringe feed him again, and actually woke up to the sound of him moving around a lot, which I thought was an improvement. But instead I realized he moving around because he was very agitated, was gasping for air (making a rattling sound that at first I thought was a frog outside), and one of his eyes was basically bulging from his head.
We decided we needed to do something, so we were going to give him a penicillin shot and another dose of metacam, in case he had some infection that was progressing rapidly. When I went to pick him up to give him the shot, he bolted away from me, and then had what looked to be a heart attack.
We were so blindsided by this… and have no idea what could have caused such a rapid onset. And so angry that the closest ER that see’s rabbits is over an hour away (and we know that he would not have survived the car ride in his condition). We feel like we failed him. He was in so much pain…
We are so sorry Moose.
. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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Oh, Dana, I’m so sorry… it couldn’t have been only gastric distress if poor Moose took such a sudden and awful turn. You guys sound like good and loving parents, who did all they could given the circumstances… but it’s understandibly heartbraking that poor Moose’s last moments were so upsetting. Like others have said, at least he is no longer in pain now.
Please don’t think you failed him… he must have known how loved he was. (((Binky free, sweet Moose))) -
Thank you everyone for the kind words. On New Years Eve we were starting to realize he must have probably had much more serious going on than a bad tooth… so it’s good to hear that suspicion confirmed. He was just so young to have so many problems, barely a year.
I was thinking back about his time with us, and even at his healthiest, he never binkied, and I only ever saw him “mega flop” once, so I wonder if he was always living with some sort of pain.
We still haven’t told anyone except you guys… but now I need to call and cancel his vet appointment.
Bertha is doing OK. She groomed him intensely in the hours before he passed, and had a burst of energy minutes before he passed, which is exactly what she did with Bunston…. I am sure she knew what was going to happen long before we did. She laid with him for several hours after. I am so sad for her to loose another partner…unfortunately she is no stranger to loss.
We have been giving her lots of snuggles, and I am thankful that my husband often works from home, so she won’t be completely alone very much. . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
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Poor Bertha
I feel so sad for her. I hope she is able to grieve and find comfort from you and your hubby. Of course I hope Bertha can comfort you two as well. My heart breaks for you all, it really does. I know Moose was too young to pass but at least he is out of pain now and away from his health issues. He’s probably munching on carrots up there with a happy little bunny grin xxx
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