Could this be early signs of GI Stasis???

[Haleyrose]

Hello all, I just recently made a post about my bunny Thelma and her resistance to critical care syringe feeding, but I now have another issue entirely.

I’ll recap a little of my other post: she was spayed yesterday around noon and so far I thought things were going well. I’ve been giving her critical care (it made her super stressed at first, but I just gave it to her almost with an unbelievable amount of ease around 30 min ago??) and she just started eating veggies, pellets, and a little bit of hay earlier this afternoon. She has been moving around a decent amount in her pen and nudging her hidey house over, playing with her seagrass ball, and burrowing. These all seem to be good signs to me.

In the last 24 hours, she has pooped a decent amount, all very irregularly shaped and a lot of them were very wet. Someone else on my other post said this is probably because of the critical care. She is drinking and peeing today from what I can tell, but she has virtually stopped pooping in the last 4 hours. Her last poops were right before giving her a little critical care at around 6 pm, and one while she hid in a corner around 8 pm, both were relatively small and the one in the corner was misshaped, kind of like a 4 sided star shape with one flat side.

I wouldn’t have been as concerned if I hadn’t noticed she is obsessively grooming her body, especially around her mouth where the critical care kept getting stuck (she is a lion head so LOTS of fur). She had one or two audible tummy grumbles yesterday, but just 30 minutes ago she had a loud fart. I am mostly worried that either the hair is clogging her, or that the gas is building up from the irregular digestion after the stress of surgery. She is not one for touch, so I know I can’t give her a belly rub to stimulate her gut.

Am I being paranoid? She has eaten a good amount of critical care in the last 6-8 hours (maybe 20ish mL of critical care, 10 of which I just gave her 30 min ago), a few lettuce pieces, and maybe 1/16 cup of pellets give or take. I also gave her pain meds with the critical care 30 min ago as directed by my vet. In the last 20 minutes she was in a corner again, but alert and in a normal loaf position. She is now active and moving around her pin, and ate a bunch of hay before laying flat to sleep. Again more eating, no pooping. I know I should probably just give it time, and worry about this if it persists in the morning, but it was a very abrupt change in her pooping. I understand digestion is probably rocky right now from stress, but at the risk of being a helicopter mom, I don’t want to miss any signs something is really wrong. Any advice??

[Bam]

As you say, her tummy is out of whack due to the spay (full anesthesia, a invasive surgery, probably an opiod painkiller and not as much food as normal). I’d say keep an eye. She is eating, and it seems a good amount too, she is active and doesnt appear to be in pain. Weirdly shaped poop and some gas is pretty much standard  during this time. As long as gas can get out, it’s not a problem. It doesnt smell nice, but the smell means gas is able to move along and get out, so in that respect it is nice.

You should of course keep keeping a close eye. Which is exactly what you are doing 🙂

If you dont see any poop today, call the vet that did the spay. They might say it’s ok, wait and see, or they might want to prescribe a gut motility drug to get things moving.

 

 

[Haleyrose]

Thank you for your reply!

That makes me feel much better! I was worried the gas was a bad sign, especially the fart. I woke today and she has pooped a bit more, not much, but I’m going to take it! I also gave her some more pain medicine as I have some for 5 days post op from my vet. If she doesn’t seem to be in pain (no grinding anymore, and moving around), should I stop pain meds? I know a number of people continue them just in case, but I don’t want to hurt her if she doesn’t need it. I think she could also be showing no signs of pain because I have been giving her the medicine already.

I also gave her some greens which she seems to be eating a little bit, and she has tried for some hay. If she has started eating her own food (a little but not a lot) would it be best to stop critical care? She seems okay with the syringe now, and its only morning two after so I don’t want to stop too early, but if it’ll put too much food in her gut I would rather just leave her be. Her last round was as I said last night around 9:30 pm and she ate nearly 10 mL. I’m not sure if it’s something I should wean off?

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