Buprenorphine injection limp bunny

[HulknEllie]

Our rabbit Ellie was acting strange on Monday. She wasn’t eating, drinking or pooping. She had loud stomach sounds so I gave her 0.5 cc of Opol and called the emergency vet since it was 8pm. By the time I called the vet to the time I got her there, she was shaking uncontrollably and laying in a very weird position. The vet felt her abdomen, took her temp, and said no fever but she was very dehydrated and had a stomach infection. She was given an iv with some fluids and sent home with Baytril to be started the following morning.
Next morning my regular vet called to follow up and Ellie was completely back to herself again. He advised to hold off on the antibiotics since it might not be necessary.
Yesterday (sat) Ellie took a turn for the worst again. Exact same symptoms, shaking, hiding in her box, laying funny, not eating, still pooping a little. We took her back to emergency vet.
He said to definitely start the antibiotics and he gave her an injectiom of buprenorphine for her pain.
Today, almost 14 hours later, she is not herself. She’s laying down in her box, won’t come out. She’s not shaking anymore. She took a small piece of banana this morning and we force fed her some water with a syringe. But she’s sooooooo sluggish and lazy and I fear she’s dying.
Our regular vet is closed until Tuesday for the long weekend. I don’t know what to do in the meantime. Does buprenorphine usually make a rabbit dopey for so long? We were told she’d be in a sedated state for 4-8 hrs, not 14+.
Im so worried. Please help.

[Bam]

How is your rabbit doing now? Buprenorphine can make a bunny sluggish for a long time, we have had cases of that happening here before. Buprenorphine is an opioid, so it’s not just a pain killer, it’s also a sedative. Some individuals are more sensitive to medicines than other.

[Bunny House]

Hi,
It depends on how big the dose it and how big the bunny is. My bun would get buprenorphine whenever she had surgery on her mouth and it would slow her down, not like yours but she would stay sedated(ment for extreme cases of pain as it sedates them so they can’t get hurt more). It seems like it might be too high of a dose. How high are the doses are you doing and how often? It’s usually every 8-12 hours you give a dose( should be sub q) Do you have another rabbit savvy vet around you that can give a different opinion? Is she still eating and pooping on her own? She needs to do that or else force feed her. Does she have tummy sounds? You can either listen with a stethoscope or put your ear up to her belly and see if you hear anything.

Was the Er vet rabbit savvy?

[tobyluv]

I’m sorry that you and your bunny are dealing with this. I was just dealing with the same thing yesterday. One of my bunnies started acting very quiet late Friday night. He didn’t want to eat and was shifting around like he had gas. He does this every few months and a dose of simethicone has always done the trick. We gave him a dose then went to bed. He was still not acting right in the morning and was laying in his litter box. We gave him another dose of simethicone. When we saw that he wasn’t improving, we called the vet. Our vet wasn’t working that day and the other vet at the practice doesn’t see rabbits. So we went to another rabbit savvy vet that we knew of, who was further away. She gave our rabbit Metacam and an injection of buprenorphine, along with fluids, and sent us home with Critical Care, Metacam and Cisapride. Our rabbit was so limp and unresponsive all day, that we couldn’t get him to swallow much of the CC. He was really out of it and hardly moving. We were very concerned, and also thought that he might not make it. About 11 hours after he received the injection of buprenorphine, he started moving and was more alert. He sat up for the first time, then a little later, he started grooming. I even got him to eat a tiny piece of carrot top.

My regular vet never gave buprenorphine for GI stasis the times we had gone to her in the past. After seeing the affect of buprenorphine, I’m not sure that I would ever want another rabbit of mine to have it. It could be that he is a rabbit that can’t tolerate it very well. He is small, a little less than 4 pounds, but I would certainly be wary of a vet giving it to him again.

My bunny is much better today, now eating normally and making droppings, although they are a little small.

[HulknEllie]

Thanks for all the replies! Ellie seems to be doing better ish. The dose was a one time injection. I read my receipt and it looks like it was 0.5mg. It definitely knocked her out for the day. She’s still acting a little odd. I got her to eat a little and she’s been moving around and drinking, pooping, etc. But still not quite as active as I’m used to. I’m taking her to the vet on Tuesday for a more thorough checkup.
Is it unusual for the bonded rabbit to start acting weird too? Her bonded pair Hulk is shedding like crazy. His fur has little clumps I can easily pull at all over him?!

[Bunny House]

I hope she does better, keep us updated. It is common for the other one to start acting weird as they know their parent is stressed and their partner is sick. Just make sure he keeps acting normal

[tobyluv]

I’m glad that your bunny is better and I hope that she will completely recover very soon. My bunny’s companion was also acting strange. She evidently knew that Higgins wasn’t feeling well, plus he was gone for several hours while we waited to be worked in at the vet’s office.

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