HELP! SICK BUNNY!

[Bunnylover041]

Hi everyone!!

  Last week my bunny was cold, wasn’t eating, drinking or using the bathroom regular. We took him to the vet and they warmed him up. They fond discharge around his “thing.” We had to take him to the ER Clinic for animals. They gave use pain meds and powder food to mix with water. The vet told us he should keep him warm and he should start eating regular in two days at the max. Couple of days past and he wasn’t eating. He would take a couple bits of hay, drink a little water and his poops were really small. Day or so later he started pooping regular, drinking more than before and he would only eat lettuce and wouldn’t touch his pellets. The day after that we went back to the vet to get new food and hay,  we mixed his pellets together (new and old) to see if he would eat them. He picked at his hay and his body temp was back to normal. Yesterday we took him back to the vets, they checked him and they gave us more pain meds and different powered food.  Were now hoping he will eat and go back to normal. Does anyone know why he is like this or what caused this. I was so scared that I was gonna lose him. If anyone else went throw this with there bunny could you please private message me on here or reply to this.

Thanks so much. He is doing better than before but not back to normal with feeding.

[Roberta]

What you are describing sounds like Gastro Intestinal stasis caused by an infection and yes, many of us have been through it. I had it with two of my bunnies recently. Stasis is generally a sympton of another illness. It can take several days before they fully regain their appetite and even longer before they poop normally again. Make sure you are emptying his litter tray regular so you can see if there is any decline in the poops and keep feeding the critical care in addition to his normal foods until he starts to consume the amounts he used too.
If he is not an indoors bunny you might want to bring him inside until he is fully recovered so you can closely monitor his recovery or be able to notice immediately if there is any sudden decline. If you think something is amiss call your vet immediately and check. Lots of nice fresh greens are always good like sweet basil, cilantro, italian parsley and mint. Avoid Iceberg lettuce but Cos lettuce is fine.
Did they give your bunny any meds other than pain medication ?

[Bunnylover041]

 Thanks for replying.  I clean his litter out at night to see how much he has pooped during the night. It’s been a week tonight that’s he’s been like this. Also he is a indoor bunny and we have him by a fire place (its not wood). We have hot water bottles in his cage. I don’t think they gave him any other meds beside pain meds. Is that aright or should we get him on something else? This is my first bunny and its my first time going throw this. The vet said its rare to see a 7 month old bunny have discharge at his “thing” (hes 7 months) Thanks again

[Roberta]

Is he also drinking normally ? Hydration is very important.
Whilst warm is good, hot isn’t. Buns can become heatstroked if they are in temps over 80F/27C so possibly not too close to the fire. Just ring your vet and ask what meds were givne or if you have the invoice they should be listed on there. It will give you a better idea of what they were treating him for.

[JackRabbit]

Unless your house is extremely cold, having him by the fireplace and having hot water bottles is probably a bit too warm. We have a gas log fireplace and it gets the room pretty toasty. Definitely keep an eye on the temp in the room and try to keep it below 75. Like Roberta said, approaching 80 can bring on heatstroke. If your house runs on the cool side (ours is around 67 F), a hot water bottle alone would likely provide enough extra warmth if your bunny is not well.

[drwil]

Certainly sounds like an infection but….you did not mention anything about gastrointestinal mobility agents. That system has to keep moving is what the vet told us. Pain medicine also will slow intestines down.
We just had to jump start one of our bunnies last night with lactulose and simethicone. Maybe syringe feed him some baby gas drops? It cannot hurt.

[Bam]

It sounds like an infection, the gooey stuff around his man-parts. Was it like pus? Sticky, thick like toothpaste, vile smell? Or was it sth more liquidy? Didn’t he get any antibiotics? I’m puzzled by this discharge-component of his ailment.

As Roberta and drwil points out, getting him to eat and poop and pee is vital. Whatever is wrong with a bunny, the feeding must be kept up because that system can shut down due to stress (any illness causes stress). You seem to realize the importance of feeding though, and that’s great =) If he’s not eating enough you can syringe-feed him Critical Care. I recently had to syringe feed one of mine for quite a while. It’s not extremely difficult even if there may be some struggling to begin with. Has he lost weight?

[Bunnylover041]

 When we took him to the vet last week, they said he was dehydrated. We always had fresh water in there always. Also we had two water bowls and a water bottle on the side for him.  He did drink a little bit out of them, but not enough.

[Bunnylover041]

 We had him by a gas log fireplace. We only had it on, so we could get his temp back up to normal, as it was extremely low last Thursday night, and it kept going up and down at the vet, so we took him home and put it on for 25 – 30 minutes every 2 – 2 1/2 hours for him. He is now in my room as his temp is back to normal, and as he had the fireplace in my mom room we didn’t want a shock for him. So we slowly eased him back in to my room. He now has just one water bottle in my room just encase he gets cold or wants it just to snuggle up to it. But he is now off of the gas log fireplace and we made sure he wasn’t to warm, every 30 minutes I was checking him to make sure he wasn’t to warm.  I also had him on my chest with a blanket rapped around us so he could get  warmed.

[Bunnylover041]

 The vet told us that he did have a infection. I do not remember what the vet called it as I’m not with him at the moment. But as he is getting worse with it, we may have to put him down, which I really don’t want to. I don’t know hw I can make him eat.

[Bunnylover041]

 I’m not sure what it looked like as the vet fond it and we didn’t as soon as my mom got home we took him to the vet. I think it might of looked like pus, but im not sure as she only said it was discharge.  He was on critical care, but we kind of took him off, because he really liked  it and it also had timothy in it, so we got timothy hay and hard food for him. But if you guys think we should put him back on that I definitely will. I don’t think he has been losing weight. But when he was in my moms room with the stove on, he was losing so much fur. I googled it and it said that young bunny (around 4-6 month) lose thire baby coat, and as he is 7 months we thought it would of been that. It also said that if the temp is changed it could been that. So we thought it might of been one of them.

[Bunnylover041]

I’m not sure why it didn’t go under the post I was replying to as I hit reply.

[Bam]

Bunnies that aren’t feeling right very often won’t drink or eat, and I think perhaps you need to syringe feed him. You can make a slurry of pellets and water or veggie juice if you don’t have Critical Care. Then you wrap the bunny in a towel and insert the tip of the syringe in the space between his front teeth and the rest of the teeth (there’s quite a wide gap there) and push slowly on the syringe, giving him a chance to chew and swallow. It helps a lot if you are two people, because the bunny will most likely try to avoid the syringe. You can give him like 15 mls (cc) per feeding-session, with a few hours between feedings.

It’s so important that you get food and water into him that it can’t be stressed enough. Without food and drink his body can’t fight the infection. I hope your vet gave him antibiotics because that’s what cures infections caused by bacteria, but antibiotics can be hard on the stomach. There is a probiotic called Benebac that may be helpful and I also like to give simethicone (baby gas drops) when my bunnies have tummy-issues.

I really hope you get through this, please keep us updated and ask if there’s anything you feel uncertain about, f ex syringe-feeding and all that.

If he’s weak he may need subcutaneous fluids, that’s sth a vet tech can do.

[Bunnylover041]

Hello everyone, thank you so much for the tips and info. I just wanted to update you that Cinder (bunny) is doing so much better, he is eating now almost regular! So happy. He did lose 0.52kg , I think the vet said, but she said it is a lot for his age but shes not worried. He will be 8 months tomorrow. But he is doing so much better ,

[Bunnylover041]

Hello everyone, thank you so much for the tips and info. I just wanted to update you that Cinder (bunny) is doing so much better, he is eating now almost regular! So happy. He did lose 0.52kg , I think the vet said, but she said it is a lot for his age but shes not worried. He will be 8 months tomorrow. But he is doing so much better ,

[Bunnylover041]

Hello everyone, thank you so much for the tips and info. I just wanted to update you that Cinder (bunny) is doing so much better, he is eating now almost regular! So happy. He did lose 0.52kg , I think the vet said, but she said it is a lot for his age but shes not worried. He will be 8 months tomorrow. But he is doing so much better ,

[Roberta]

Great news BL. I was worried for you and little Cinder.

[Bunnylover041]

I was so worried that he wasn’t gonna eat. We changed his food eating his nugget, so just for fun I gave him so of his old nuggets and he started eating. The vet said that if he didn’t eat we were gonna have to order special meds.

[Bam]

Thank you for the update! Glad to hear little Cinder is doing better!

[Author]

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