Help with simethicone please!

[Giles's Mom]

Hi all!

First I just want to thank all of you for reading this long post! 

For the past 2 days I have noticed my lop, Giles (about one year old and neutered), stretched out with a bloated stomach for a little while at a time. I have rubbed his belly, and it is not firm so I am assuming this is not stasis. When I massage his tummy I can hear some gurgling noises and he begins to grind his teeth. I am not sure what the cause of this is since I have not changed his diet dramatically. The only thing I am thinking is possibly the raspberries I started giving him again (he gets two small ones per day), but he has never reacted this way when I have fed them to him before (I had previously run out which is why he had not had any for a while). Maybe the sugar has upset his digestion a bit?

He is still active, eating hay, drinking water, and running around. His poops have been a little smaller than usual lately. I am considering giving him simethicone since I have heard it is very safe and will not harm him even if it doesn’t necessarily help him. I need some help determining the dose for him (he is about 3.5 pounds) or if I should give him any at all.

His daily diet is a half a cup of veggies and herbs and one raspberry twice a day. He also gets a teaspoon or two of alfalfa pellets and unlimited timothy hay. Like I said, he is still eating normally. 

By the way, this is my first rabbit so I may be paranoid. I am trying to avoid the vet if I can since he does not seem to be in critical condition and is behaving normally other than the occasional lying down/bloat. 

Any help or advice you can give me would be very helpful!

-Katie and Giles 

[Stickerbunny]

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/109350/Default.aspx <— that thread discusses the dosages and such for it. May want to cut him down a bit on the sugar, 2 whole raspberries is a lot for a 3.5lb bunny! One would be better.

If he’s still pooping/eating it’s not stasis yet, when my buns get an upset tummy I give them a little simethicone and hourly tummy rubs until they feel better. If he stops eating for more than a few hours though you’ll want to call the vet.  Or if he stops pooping.

[Bam]

I have a 100 mg/ml strenght-simethicone for babies, and I’ve given my bunnies 0,5 ml of it every two – three hours when they’ve had gas. Strenght of simethicone vary from country to country, but a dose around 0,5 ml should be ok either way as it’s not absorbed by the body but only functions as a lubricant and comes out with the poop (you can actually feel it on the droppings like a thin, waxy coating. And yes, it’s fairly normal rabbit-owner-behaviour, to examine rabbit-poop rather closely.).

I think it’s helpful but my rabbits absolutely hates the stuff so it’s not super-easy to make them take it.

Best of luck! It’s really good that he eats, especially hay. When I’ve rubbed my bunny Bam’s tummy during episodes of gas, he’s ground his teeth in a high chatter but not tried to get away, so it seems he “knows” the rubbing is good for him.

Sometimes it’s hard to know what’s caused gas. Raspberries can sometimes have bad bacteria on them.

[Giles's Mom]

Thank you everyone!

I will be making sure he gets less fruit/none at all from now on. I just purchased simethicone from Walgreen’s: 20mg/0.3ml. I will be giving him 1mL to start since this is a little less concentrated than 100mg/mL. I will keep you updated! Right now he is still eating hay like crazy. And, when I was rubbing his tummy earlier, he also ground his teeth but didn’t hop away so I think it helped him a little bit.

-Katie and Giles

[Stickerbunny]

I wouldn’t cut fruit out completely, it does have some good nutrients for them. But, you want to limit the sugar as it can cause an upset tummy like with human babies. Especially if you feed other foods with sugar in them, such as carrots with the salad, or other things with a fructose content. Also, if the herbs are different types of the same herb (IE: curly parsley instead of italian parsley) it can cause an upset just like adding a new food can, so the new one should be introduced slowly. Italian parsley gives my Powder an upset tummy and sometimes kale can give my girl an upset tummy if it’s not really fresh.

Being stretched out with a belly sticking out doesn’t always mean upset tummy though, just to mention it. Sometimes it can just mean “man, I ate a lot… aahhh” like on TV when the dad of the family will unbuckle his belt. Powder when he binges will flop out and stick out his tummy and it just looks so huge.

[Giles's Mom]

The raspberries were the only fruit I had really been giving him, so maybe I will try something else. I used to give him blueberries and he adored those but they’re not in season right now. Also, I gave him simethicone about half an hour ago. He was really resistant to taking it and wasn’t fooled at all by me putting it on some lettuce. He is still stretched out right now with a bloated belly. I massaged it a little more and heard some gurgling. I am not an expert on rabbit anatomy, so I’m not sure which organ I was feeling but the soft, gassy feeling one was past his ribs (further down the body/closer to his butt than head) I am assuming this is the stomach. I am hoping the simethicone helps soon because I don’t know how else I can get him to take it and he still seems to be feeling poorly 

[Giles's Mom]

I just thought of something: 

I have some 100% canned pumpkin (puree), is this safe to feed him/mix the medicine in? If so, how much is ok? I thought he might like the taste more. Thanks again!

[LittlePuffyTail]

How is your bunny doing today? If he is continuing to grind his teeth, I would suggest a vet visit as bunnies will only do this when they are in quite a bit of pain.

I would just give the simethicone plain since its such a small dose. My buns are not a big fan of pumpkin.

[Giles's Mom]

Thanks again everyone!
Giles is pretty much his normal self today. I gave him two doses of simethicone last night about 2 hours apart. I just put a little dab of pumpkin on the syringe so that he would put it in his mouth; he does not like the taste of the medicine but loves the pumpkin. I will continue to monitor him closely, but I’m confident it was just gas!

[LongEaredLions]

I know you have pretty much resolved this I just wanted to mention that if he is 1 yr he doesn’t really need alfalfa pellets anymore, you might want to switch him to Timothy based.

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