Am I spazzing?

[EveryPossibleWorld]

Well, Ringo has made me a nervous wreck for the past hour! Thank God he seems to be acting like himself now but would like to know what you guys think about this:

We adopted Ringo in March and since then there has been @ 3 different times (not consecutively) when it has been breakfast/dinner time and he has refused his food for a little while. He always runs after his food plate and on these occasions he just lies there listlessly and refuses even when I coax him by placing parsley, etc.. right next to his mouth. Usually I freak out for a little while and then before long he is energetically chomping his food like normal….

 

Tonight was another one of those occasions. He refused his food and instead hopped away and flopped out on his tummy. Each time I would begin bugging him to eat he would once again hop away and flop onto his tummy. At one point he even flopped next to the wall and kept stretching his hind legs out (causing his nails to scratch the wall and make an awful noise) and this stressed me out even more! The way he was laying down was not abnormal, it was just that he chose to lay in that exact position about 4 different times in a row…..

 

He let me massage the sides of his tummy (he doesn’t like being picked up so we stopped trying — can’t say I blame him) ! Luckily within an hour he once again decided to finally eat and perked up. When this happened I noticed that he had not used his box from noon (when I changed them) until 5:00 when I checked them once he began acting funny. He has finally began eating and I made sure to pile on the fresh parsley to help relieve any gas…he also just hopped into his box and made @ 20 poops – mostly normal sized poops but a few of them smaller than usual but nothing real alarming looking.

 

Now that he has eaten/pooped I am relieved. However, I want to make sure this doesn’t progress into anything serious since he scared the daylights out of me just now.

 

Jason (who was also freaking out) ran out and got some Ox Bo Critical Care, Simethicone 20mg drops, a fresh papaya, and fresh pineapple. What are your suggestions to relieve any gas Ringo may be having? Should I try some papaya/pineapple first and see if that helps before moving onto the drops/critical care? Like I said, he seems much more normal now, has eaten/pooped but I don’t want to risk it since he is still acting a bit lazy….

 

 

Also, I have never had to use the drops or critical care…. any side effects/dangers to using them? How do I use them in case I ever need to in the future?

I just want to nip this in bud and make sure he doesn’t feel icky/gassy…. Thanks guys!

[EveryPossibleWorld]

Well, he just pooped again and has been eating a good amount of hay (he is always a great hay eater). I went ahead and fed him a few very small pieces from a pineapple chunk (to which he walked on his hind legs an usually far distance to get lol). All in all he is acting very normal again and even began nibbling on my contracts book (I would be worried if he didn’t).

Still would like to know someone’s opinion on when to/when to not go ahead and feed critical care/simithicone drops. I mean he had me preparing his carrier in case we had to go to emergency vet I was so scared!

[Jessi]

Ive had a similar problem a few months ago with marley. She wasnt eating normally adn wasnt pooping as much. I ended up taking her to the vet and and was prescribed critical care and some other medication. From wat i remember any gas/blockage that she may have had would be relieved by the medication and that critical care is just a food supplement since she wasnt eating. Honestly giving it to him will not hurt at all. Marley was better probably the next day.

Sorry i dont have any other experience with other products. If your really worried the best thing to do is to take him too the vet to be sure about whats going on.

[Monkeybun]

I’d say if he’s acting normal, i wouldn’t bother with the critical care or simethicone. I think the big thing would be to figure out what triggers it. Does he have a consistent diet? Any changes when he’s done this?

[EveryPossibleWorld]

Thanks for the awesome quick responses! He has a pretty normal diet of all veggies – I always use romaine and parsley for the bulk of his salads and then throw in at least 2 other veggies (all of which he has had on a consistent week to week basis) mainly, kale (not to often though), swiss chard, radicchio, cilantro, green leaf and watercress. The college town I live in is small w/ strange grocery stores all of which have crappy produce. So recently we have been limited to mainly romaine, parsely, kale, swiss chard and cilantro. I stopped at a grocery store in a different town earlier in the week and took the opportunity to get my veggies then and snatched up the radicchio since we haven’t had it in a little while… also the swiss chard, which is another that he loves but is hard to find around here.

Do you think the radicchio/chard could have played these tummy tricks even though he has always been fine while eating them in the past? I always feed him at the same times of day – 9am breakfast salad and 5pm dinner salad with a banana treat/small carrot or 2 thrown in the mix for treats. He has always been fine w/ the treats too and come to think of it, he didn’t have any today. He always eats plenty of timothy too….

Thanks again for the help guys, I love this place!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Ditto Monkey.
No real side effects or concern overdosing with semethicone; some swear by it and some don’t think it does anything-I’d say it’s in the category of ‘cant’ hurt might help’.
As for critical care-I wouldn’t say there are any side effects, however it can stress them a little being syringe fed. It is a fantastic thing to feed to a bunny refusing food-it’s complete and has fibre but I wouldn’t trouble your bun if he’s eating.

And the fruit-same-can’t hurt might help but remember they can only have a tiny amount-a few teaspoons. If you aren’t going to eat the fruit you can chop it up into useable flesh (clean the skin etc away) and then freeze it in some sugar water. When you want to use it just put it in a strainer and run cold water on it to dethaw and get the syrup off. Worked great for me-one papaya yeilded treats all winter!

[Michelle&Lolli]

How long is it before he starts eating again?

Lolli doesn’t start eating her lettuce right away sometimes. Or she’ll come up and sniff around and maybe eat a piece or two and then hop off. She has never really sat there and ate all her lettuce at once. Eddie was the same way.

I’m not trying to discount your concerns, but if it’s just a matter of up to…say 15 – 30 minutes before he comes around to eat, he sounds like he’s fine but just not hungry when you feed him sometimes.

[EveryPossibleWorld]

I know what you mean and occasionally he will be very interested in something and will eat his salad in mini “shifts”. But, this involves him not even attempting to eat a bite (even of a fave treat) for @ 30+ mins. Tonight, it was at least an hour that I couldn’t get him to eat and I am sure he had a tummy issue judging by the way he kept laying flat on his tummy and shifting around with his back legs. I gave him a little tummy massage and then he perked up pretty quick to some wet parsely and then to his salad as usual. He also didn’t poop for 5 hrs (which I do not think is terribly odd since he normally naps during the say). But, after he finally atre tonight he made quite a few healthy poops now.

I gave him just a drop of seminthicone on tiny bit of pineapple- figured better safe than sorry . He seems fine but I am going to take him to the vet tomorrow if he doesn’t continue acting normally now. Hoping it was just a bout of gas!

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