Critical Care Question- confused

[whispercalm]

We made an emergency vet visit late this afternoon.  Charlie suddenly stopped eating and wasn’t acting right. Vet didn’t find anything and thought maybe she had hurt herself or might possibly have a low grade urinary track infection.

They fed her Critical care about 7pm. Gave her Sub-Q fluids. Also she has medication for pain, appetite stimulant, a gut mobility med and antibiotic.

He told us to feed her once or twice more this evening. When the vet tech came in with Charlie’s meds I asked when I should feed her again and she said wait 2-3 hours. When I read about Critical Care it says 3-4 feedings a day.

So do I feed her every 3 hours? Or 3-4 times a day? I don’t know if I should make her eat again around 10pm which would be 3 hours? Then every 3 hours after that? I can’t ask the vet as they are closed.

She weighs 7.2 pounds… how much a feeding?

[pinkiemarie]

I had to feed critical care this week and I also found the instructions a little unclear. If the dr’s office said to feed in 2 to 3 hours I would do so tonight. You’ll want to go by the dose instructions on the package. I’m not sure if yours has the same dose as mine (if all flavors are the same dose?) but you’ll need to decide how many times per day you think you’ll be feeding and then adjust the dose accordingly. More often is probably better from strictly a gut perspective but it can be upsetting for the bunny to be force fed so you may choose to do it less often. For a 7 lb rabbit you want about 9 tbsp per day so if you are feeding 4x per day you would probably want to mix about 2 tbsp with enough water so it isn’t too thick and do that amount at each meal. Did they give you a good syringe for feeding?

Hopefully her meds work and she starts eating soon. If she regains her appetite and is pooping you can stop using the critical care unless her vet says otherwise. If she is eating but not as much as normal you might want to continue with critical care but at a lower dose.

This type of digestive issue isn’t super uncommon in rabbits and there isn’t always a clear cause that they can pinpoint but if she just stopped eating then you got the meds started early which is great. The earlier the better for recovery!

However I’m a little confused about the antibiotics. What antibiotic was she given? Did the vet have a reason to think she has a bacterial infection? Infections can cause them to stop eating but in my personal experience we’ve had stasis 7 times and only 1 of those was related to an infection so I’m just wondering if they said they found an infection? I suggest getting benebac to give her as well because the antibiotics can kill off the gut bacteria that she needs and that will help replace them.

 

Edit: since you said this was an emergency vet, if you have a regular vet I suggest calling them tomorrow to go over the medications and instructions to make sure they are on the same page.

[whispercalm]

Thank you for your reply. The vet gave her an antibiotic because he thought there may be a chance she has a low grade urinary track infection. She’s been dribbling a little urine now and then. We were trying to cover all possible situations.

We fed her critical care and she only took about half the amount. We divided up for 3 hour feedings throughout the night.

Shes a pretty sick little girl. I’m quite concerned. She he just can’t seem to get comfortable. Been in her litter box for a while, but no poop or pee.

[pinkiemarie]

How is she feeling this morning? The dribbled urine does help explain the reason for the antibiotic.

[whispercalm]

We fed her critical care at 11pm, 2:30 am and again at 6:30 this morning. She looked a lot better this morning. She ate some fennel greens and dandelion greens in addition to being syringe fed. So that’s encouraging. Got her morning dose of meds in. She was moving about more, which is good.

No pooping yet ☹️  Looks like she peed some. Not as much as I would have thought with the fluids they gave her, but she did some. Not eating any hay yet.

[pinkiemarie]

I’m glad to hear she took some greens! Eating anything at all is a positive sign.

[whispercalm]

Got a small bunch of hard misshaped poops! Things are starting to move. She is wound up and wants to chew on everything. I think is the combo of the appetite stimulant and the gut mobility one.

I didn’t see the question earlier about contacting her regular vet. He’s out of town until Monday. None of the emergency vets see rabbits here. We took her the next town over to another exotic vet that she used to see a couple years ago before we found someone closer to us. It was about an hours drive with traffic. He was the only exotic vet that offered to worked her in late in the day.  I think the fact she was once a patient helped.We didn’t get there until about 6 pm.

Trying to find an exotic vet around here is tough. Most aren’t in every day that treat exotics. Our own vet is frequently out of town. Great vet though. He nursed her through a very long bought of respiratory issues and consulted with other experts.

I did have an appt lined up for this morning at another clinic that was going to work her in, but thank God we got her in last night even though it was farther away. I’m not sure she would have made it through the night if we hadn’t been able to get seen last night. That was an answer to prayer.

Other vets couldn’t see until Monday and another could work her in Saturday. Not good with emergency situations.

Her meds are:

Cyproheptadine for appetite, Metoclopramide for gut mobility,  Metacam for pain and Sulfamethoxazole/Trimeth Susp for antibiotic.

 

[Bam]

Meds sound great. Cyproheptadine is an antihistamine appetite stimulant. I had it myself as a child due to severe cat allergy. Metoclopramide is a gut stimulant. Sulfa-thrimeth is great for bact problems in the GI tract. Metacam is a non steroid anti inflammatory drug, pretty much like ibuprofen for hooms.

Sometimes we do need to put our trust in the Higher Powers. When we do that, we are able to discern between things that are beyond our control and things that we ourselves can remedy.

I know what you mean about not getting her seen over the weekend. Ever since covid its been like that here. Try to keep her warm and give her fluids continously. This could save her and if it doesnt, its thtough no fault of yours.

[Author]

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