Almost lost her

[HulknEllie]

Hi there,

We have an 8 year old Netherland dwarf bunny named Ellie. She’s had e cuniculi in the past and was on the 28 day treatment and since then (2018) she’s been good as ever.

Yesterday, however she went into stasis. She wouldn’t eat, drink, move. She was shaking and laying weird. I immediately gave Ovol gas drops and massaged her belly and noticed it was rock hard. At just 7am that same morning she was circling my feet begging for her Lettuce and parsley (that’s she had every morning for 8 years no issues). And at 9am she went downhill. By 1pm we had her at the vet. She had iv fluids, cisapride to restart her gut, and metacam for pain.

She’s so much better today. Eating, drinking, pooping TONS, running around and binkying.. But I noticed her stomach is still hard. It’s definitely softer than yesterday but still hard. She doesn’t seem to be in pain but I’m still concerned. Should I just keep at the cisapride twice a day and metacam and hopefully her abdomen will improve? Is there anything else I can do?

Any advice is appreciated 🙂

[Bam]

If she is pooping, things are moving through. There’s not a lot more you can do now, except make sure she moves around and keeps warm. (If she moves around and eats by herself, she will keep warm in normal room temp. Cisapride (a motility drug) and metacam are drugs that are commonly prescribed for rabbits, I’d keep giving those.

You can give 1 ml simethicone baby gas drops, since gas tends to accompany any stomach upset in a rabbit. It’s harmless and not absorbed into the body, it stays and acts locally in the gut until it’s pooped out. It may not help, but it won’t harm, according to both Medirabbit and Dana Krempels.

If you are very worried, you should of course contact your vet again.

It is nowadays believed that EC can affect the gut. You could ask your vet about that, they might think it reasonable foryou to do a course of Panacur again. EC is typically not completely eradicated by the standard 28 day treatment, so this could perhaps be a flare up.

[HulknEllie]

Thank you so much for your amazing reply 🙂

She has now had 4 doses of cisapride, and 3 metacam and quite literally was tripping over my feet this morning. Not to mention her litter box was full of poop!!

I’m hopeful this is a sign things are heading back the right direction. Her stomach is still slightly hard so I’ll try the simethicone and reevaluate on Monday when my vet opens.

Thanks again 🙂

[Bam]

It does sound very promising! Yay for her showing good energy, and yay for lots of poop!

[Author]

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