Hi,
I have two, bonded Netherland dwarf sibling bunnies that are about 4 1/2 months old. They were supposed to both be girls and we were waiting for the 6 month mark to talk about spaying, but one turned out to be a boy! So, we had to get them spayed and neutered about two weeks ago. As we live in a small, semi-rural town it has been hard to find a rabbit-savvy vet (see my previous post), but a new hospital opened with one of the vets having seen and performed successful surgeries on many, many rabbits in his experience and we felt fairly confident with him doing the surgery. However, the male bunny seemed a little more delicate and on the thin side and we did ask before the neuter if it might be better to wait until he was bigger and a bit heavier, but this vet (let’s call him “Vet A”) was fine with the bunny’s health and thought that it was better to perform the surgery at this age. The surgeries went well and it was actually the female who was initially not wanting to eat and needing extra help for the first few days, but then it switched over to the male seeming to become very skinny and unwilling to eat. Having previous bunny experience we did syringe-feeding, pain management, motility agents, temp. regulation, etc. and went for the re-check (in the mean-time, were told to taper off these things).
Last week, Vet A was on holidays, so we saw his partner, “Vet B”, whom we know previously and returned to work at this hospital, also with some rabbit experience. Both bunnies were healing well (though the male had chewed a bit of the glue off on one side, but that looked to be well healing, too) and seemed to be healthy in every way, except the male had dropped a fair amount of weight, was dehydrated, and Vet B (and us!) were quite concerned! So, the poor little bun was giving Sub-cutaneous fluids and we were to continue syringe-feeding more frequently, up the pain meds (Metacam) and motility meds back up, etc. This continued all last week and through the weekend with daily visits for fluid admin. On the second day of this, it should be noted, that Vet B decided to switch the pain med to Buprenorphine and taper to stop the Metacam, which was kind of confusing and questionable, but we discussed it and tried it. Anyway, I don’t know if it was the fluids or change in pain meds, but the little bun started to eat some pellets, and hay…and then the next day back to nothing but what we syringe-fed him. Vet B just said that it takes time and consistency (which is what we are used to and understand from other articles, etc.).
Vet B went on holiday and we were back to Vet A Monday. It was very odd, as the previously serious, but friendly/ eager Vet A seemed very terse and critical in manner (weren’t sure if he was mad at us for no discernible reason or mad at his colleague) and expressed that the male neuter was a lot less complicated and that the bunny was so healthy in every other regard (good teeth, lungs, no injuries, no diseases, no parasites, healthy urine, fed a good diet, kept with bonded friend, good-sized indoor housing and free-roaming play, etc). It was strange! Maybe he was defensive or puzzled himself? He seemed cross about the buprenorphine, switched back to Metacam and kept motility agent (both at a much lowered dose from what he, himself, had previously given). He felt that it was stress and the bunny being over-handled and didn’t want us to bring him up again (which we did agree with), for now. Ideally, he wants us to just leave the bunny be with no meds, no extra feeding and to give him (the vet) a phone update yesterday (if bun was not eating, then could syringe-feed and maybe up meds). So, we tried that for most of the day Mon., and the bunny ate a tiny amount of pellets, but was thinner and thinner, and seemed uncomfortable (hunched, lacking energy, etc.). Yesterday morning, we continued with the meds from Vet A and syringe-fed the bunny, leaving a message for the vet.
We’re now syringe-feeding, offering fresh grasses and continuing to offer hay and green, leafy veggies, plus continuing with the low-dose meds from Vet A. The bunny will eat sometimes, if prompted, or when his sister eats, but still is struggling and needs syringe-feeding. Vet A finally phoned us back today and basically said nothing about increasing med doses and said to be cautious about the syringe-feeding, at all, but that it was our choice…
I’m sorry for the long post, but wanted to describe things so they were understandable. I guess I’m frustrated and we have been heart-broken when we lost our other bunnies and are still very sad and have many unexplained questions. Recently, we lost our older female Netherland dwarf (who looked a lot like this bunny and also became very thin, but for different reasons), which I think was partially due to a lack of rabbit-savvy vets, and the vets sort of giving up on us (they get to a point where they don’t know what to do and just seem to stop caring). I’m feeling a bit like Vet A is giving up on us now. I think continuing to syringe-feed is the right thing to do. It’s all very stressful, expensive (especially when given confusing answers or what seems like a lack of help), and heart-breaking to now have a sick bunny so recently after another has passed away. What is your experience of when to stop syringe-feeding with GI stasis, so that bunny is not only eating on his own, but is eating enough to have a healthy size/ body condition? What about type of pain meds and duration? Wouldn’t it be better to taper it off and not stop outright, especially the feeding? Once bunny is eating on his own, how do we help him gain a healthy weight safely/ in a healthy way?
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