GI Stasis Help (Bunny not eating)

[andrew113]

Hi everyone. I was hoping someone might be able to help with some advice as one of our bunnies is having a lot of trouble with stasis for the past 6 days. He’s always been very sensitive and would get stasis 1-2x a year since he was small (he’s 6 now), but we’ve always managed it.
Typically, he’d stop eating and pooping and have issues maintaining body heat, but we’d get him out of it relatively quickly by putting him in a large enclosure with a heat pad and giving him subcut fluids and critical care to snap until he snaps out of it (in addition to simethicone, reglan, and meloxicam), but this time is different.
Instead of the normal progression we noticed he wasn’t passing great poops on Saturday, but he was eating and wasn’t gassy, so we gave him some lactulose and probiotic tablets our vet recommends as well as a bit of critical care (in the past these have worked well when we’ve noticed his poops were getting irregular or smaller). From Saturday through Monday morning the situation was basically the same, bad poops, but eating pretty well and not gassy. On Monday, he took a turn for the worse, and we basically started the full protocol (including heat as he was having issues maintaining temperature).  By Tuesday evening he had improved a bit (better poops, and no longer needed heat), but still wasn’t eating on his own. Anyway, it’s Thursday evening now and the situation hasn’t really improved. We’re concerned as he’s still barely eating and drinking and essentially surviving on critical care and subcut fluids.
Does anyone have any tips for us? We’ve already taken him to see the vet and they determined his teeth are fine and it’s not bloat or a major blockage, so we’re really confused. Should we just go back to the vet to get more imaging? They pretty much told us they can’t do any more than we’re doing other than giving him an IV (but he usually pulls that out).

[DanaNM]

Ughh so stressful! I wonder if a different motility medication might help? Sometimes a different med (like cisapride) or a combination of reglan and cisapride is needed in severe cases. Although it sounds like he is pooping a bit, he’s just not eating on his own?

Was the vet able to assess whether it could be liver torsion? The symptoms often present like stasis and could explain the anorexia.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[andrew113]

Yes, the biggest issue is he’s refusing to eat. He hasn’t eaten hay or pellets in a week and the only thing he nibbles on are his apple sticks or some fresh herbs if offered (and not really with much appetite as these are usually treats that he devours). We told the vets to check for anything it could be (our specific concerns were issues with teeth, an abscess, or an infection), but it looks like liver torsion requires an ultrasound, which I’m not sure they did. I also always thought liver torsion was fatal very quickly as my wife was following a rabbit on Instagram that passed from that within a few hours, but it seems that’s not always the case. He has a follow-up tomorrow and we’ll ask specifically about that.

We went to another specialized rabbit vet and they decided to change his medicine from reglan to domperidone. They also suggested we give him more aggressive support, bumping his subcut fluids from 50 ml to 150 per day, and asking us to feed him up to 100ml of critical care (up from 60 before). They also switched his critical care to emeraid, which has been a bit of a lifesaver for us as we used both oxbow and sherwood critical care before, but he often refuses to eat it, but he seems to really like this one and doesn’t try to spit it out.
He’s a bit more energetic now but still refuses to eat hay and pellets, and although he’s pooping more, they are very small and irregular-shaped.
Hopefully he starts feeling better and eating with the extra fluids and food. I’m honestly a bit surprised by how much of an increase it is as our last 2 vets were always very adamant about not giving him too much subcut fluids (since he always responded so well to them we had asked about giving him a dose 2x a day quite often, and they always emphatically told us No!”.

[DanaNM]

And they did a really thorough exam of his teeth? Often to really see what’s going on some light anesthesia is needed.

And yes liver torsion is not always immediately fatal, and the surgery to correct it actually has a pretty high success rate. Definitely worth asking if they think it could be an option!

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Author]

Messages