Another (weird) statis scare this morning

[LittlePuffyTail]

Okay, seriously my rabbits had better stop making me worry or I’m gonna lose it!!

Stormy is known to get a bout of G.I. Statis once in a while. It’s usually pretty mild and I take care of him and he’s usually up and running again in a few hours.  He gave me a good scare this morning though.

I fed him at like 6:00 a.m., he ate all his food, and then I went back to bed till about 11:00 (hey, it’s Sunday!). When I went in the bunny room he was laying on his side, breathing very rapidly and wouldn’t even look at me. I was so upset. I gave him a mix of pineapple/mineral oil (which is what I usually give him and it always works) and for the first time I tried simethicone. I gave him about 0.5 ml. He was very lethargic, just sitting on his potty with his tail in the air. When he gets GI he usually isnt this lethargic.

Anyhow about 10 minutes later he was eating parsley and looking for hay. It’s now 8:00 pm and he’s been fine since. His poops are a bit weird shaped but there is a fair amount of them.

I just thought it was really weird how quick he recovered from how bad he looked (although I was obviously very relieved). Do you think it was gas and the simethicone relieved it?

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hmm, it is hard to say, did you feel his stomach at all to see if it felt bloated or doughey? It could have been gas though since he recovered so quickly, it usually takes a few days’ time to recover from stasis. Glad to hear Stormy is OK. Whew, what a scare!

[MimzMum]

For future reference Scarlet, when you say doughy (I only have experience with making pizza dough) what exactly are we feeling for? Is the abdomen tense, taut, springy, or what? I always want to be careful that Mim and Pip don’t get this, but I can’t really tell what is meant by this term.

My pizza dough feels about like a baby’s bottom, but I kinda think that’s not what I’m looking for. :-/

[Scarlet_Rose]

It would feel like pizza dough – squishy.

[babybunsmum]

yup… squishy.  if bloated their tums feel like a little balloon pushing against their ribs.

[LittlePuffyTail]

His tummy was very doughy yesterday morning while he was sick. What does that mean? Gas makes bloat right?

[Scarlet_Rose]

Yes, gas makes the stomach bloat.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Well we went through this yet again last night.

He was fine, ate his supper and then all of a sudden didn’t want to eat which is always a sign of trouble with him. He just sat in his house all hunched and his tummy was gurgling very loudly. I let him out for a quick binky cuz I know exercise is good for GI upset, waited a bit and then gave him 0.5 of simethicone and about 10 minutes later he was eating the rest of his supper. I wish he would stop doing this. Anyone ever hear of anything similar?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

??? I don’t know…I’m glad the semethicone is working…You didn’t change his diet at all? How is he now?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Well right now he’s in his cage all binkied out from his run. He’s been fine all day. Poor guy’s probably sick of seeing me, I’ve been checking on him non-stop.

His diet has been the same forever. The only thing about him right now is he is shedding quite bad.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hmm, that’s odd. Have you tried brushing him to get most of the fur out? It sounds like happens very quickly. I think I’m going to have to do a little research.

[Spacehopper]

I have recently (the last couple of week’s since being at home) found Fibreplex is a wonderful thing to sort any tummy troubles..it comes in a big syringe type thing and the buns absolutely LOVE it. Phewf for it’s carroty goodness!! Just a teeny bit each day and it soon shifts any blockage or bloaty belly. Thankfully Brian has stopped shedding – for now at least – as Bettie was grooming him and becoming ingested..i’ve never seen poops so small… and after using this weird gritty stuff whoa i’d never seen a poop as the one she’d left me on Monday morning!!

[Spacehopper]

After grooming Bettie Bean yesterday we decided to give her a “haircut” as i was concerned about fur injestion as she has started to moult and Brian always seems to be doing so. I had the shock of my life to suddenly feel all her ribs under the mass of fluff she has. She had been eating a little but refused parsley the last day which is very unlike her, and i then noticed she was preferring to avoid Brian and sitting in a ball in the corner under the bed. So before I went to bed I managed a long belly massage resultinig in loud gurgles. I booked her in at the vet’s first thing this morning and explained my concerns. She had a feel and couldn’t feel any blockage as i had thought, but instead her little belly felt “empty”. (i’d been checking poops which made me have suspicions and so upped her fibre intake including Fibreplex which she had also recently not been keen on.

My poor little girly had to have 2 injections and I’ve been given some Zantac to feed her twice a day and some foul smelling speedy recovery food which I need to syringe feed her every 2 hours (thank god I’m not back at work yet and am still not sleeping properly!!), and an early morning visit back at the vet’s tomorrow. She has just wolfed down some nice wet parsley and plenty of lovely fresh hay, and has also come out from under the bed to greet me like normal….and I just wanted to stress that if anyone is ever in doubt about anything they feel is not quite right with their buns GO GET IT CHECKED OUT!!!!!

🙂

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

ohhh no!! I don’t like hearing someone’s bun is sick…*****VIBES for Bettie**** Keep us posted!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hope Bettie feels better soon!

[Gravehearted]

ooo hope Bettie will be ok and keep eating, I’m so glad she’s getting such good care from her mommy.

[Spacehopper]

Sorry i had to post it on this thread but i wasnt able to post anywhere else last night.

Bettie has just got back from her day after check up, he vet was thrilled to see such an improvement and to hear Baby Bean had wolfed down loads of oat, wheat and barley hay, and was given another injection, and some meds to take until Thursday. She has bought a little tear to my eye as she has hopped back under the bed and tucked into a huge pile of brussell sprouts!!!

[Charlene]

Hi,

Does he do this a lot right after eating?  Does he really gulp his food down?  I know this is not totally the same, but horses have a similar condition called colic, and I had one horse that would eat so fast and furious that he would colic right away, then after I walked him around he’d get better.  I finally cured this by making him eat more slowly.  I put his food in a big shallow dish instead of a deep one (this was pellets same as buns).  If your bunny is gulping his food maybe you could try something similar.  I also found wetting the pellets down helps since then at least they don’t get a mass of it all stuck in their tummies.  Take care.

Charlene

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Charlene -great thoughts!! I’d often thought colic was very similar to buns having stais as their digestive systems are both so delicate! Colic is sooo scary!

Welcome to binky bunny!!!

Do you still have that horse? I’ve seen some people put large rocks in the feed bin too, to slow down eating, as the horse has to eat around it Glad you solved the problem though!!

[Charlene]

No, I sold that horse, after he put on weight he stopped eating like a freak anyway

Colic is so similar, down to the meds.  I have banamine at home for the horses, but I don’t usually have such tiny syringes!  They don’t give horses the gut stimulants though (at least not as readily)  I’ve always wondered why.  But you can do surgery on a horse, but not a bun.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I agree colic is very similar to GI Statis. I thought so the first time I read about statis. Rabbits are extremely similar to horse: herbivores, prey animals, side vision, sensitive digestive system and physically unable to throw up.

My horse colicked 2 years ago and it was so terrible. They had to give her pain killers and the dreadful tube down the nose with a couple of liters of mineral oil. She was sick for 2 days and it cost a fortune! It could have been much, much worse though. I know many horses that have died from colic. And just like rabbits, many times the cause of the upset is a mystery (as was the case with my mare)

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