How soon to taper treatment during stasis recovery?

[Meg]

Hey everyone! 

My sweet 9-year-old Lionhead, Teddy, started GI stasis and treatment for it 5 days ago (after a vet visit and X-ray), and thankfully the last couple days he’s started eating a bit more on his own, though not the normal amount.  I’ve been through the stasis routine a bunch before, but have never been sure: when do you know it’s OK to start tapering the Critical Care, cisapride, meloxicam, simethicone, subQ fluids, or other treatments?  Or should you really wait until they’re eating and pooping at 100% again before doing any tapering? 

 Thanks!  I’ve heard the latter but don’t understand how they’d have the appetite for all their regular food if they’re getting Critical Care 3 times a day.  Also, for buns like mine who super hate being handled, I think the stress of being chased, caught, and picked up, and then force fed, is hard on their morale and I always feel tempted to “reward” them when they start eating about half their food by cutting back the frequency of their treatments and the amount of Critical Care I make them eat.  (They almost never eat it willingly, unfortunately.)  However, once or twice I seemed to cause them to backslide in their recovery by doing this too soon.  So what is the right approach?

 Thank you so much!  Teddy is eating about 2/3 of his greens, and nibbling some hay and pellets, but still refuses certain treats that he usually loves.  I’m concerned he isn’t recovering as fast as usual.  But I’m probably also being impatient.  This time, since he started eating more I’ve been keeping up the meds, but not making him eat that much Critical Care (a few CCs per session, since he hates it so much) and only doing one round of fluids (60mL) per day.  He hates Critical Care so he usually refuses to chew it, meaning I have to burrito him, force 1-2 CCs into his mouth, and then unwrap him and wait for him to chew while he’s digging his frustrations out on the couch, and then a few minutes later burrito him again — this means that even 10 CCs is quite an ordeal from him, and I wanted to reduce the stress.  But I don’t know if that’s right! 

[Bunny House]

Personally, I start tapering when I see that their poops are close to normal size, then slowly back everything down. Backing too early can cause the gi tract to go back to how it was since not enough food is moving through it to keep it going. It may seem counterintuitive to keep feeding cc until he’s better since you want to see if he can eat on his own but the main thing is to keep that gi tract moving and cause a shorter recovery time.
Of course if it’s causing so much stress, then maybe feed him the required cc but only 3 or 2 times a day and see if the lower stress helps him get better. Of course you don’t want to lower the amount of C.C. given as his body needs that amount of nutrients to get everything working again.
Some may say you can taper off now, but with all of my experiences with this, this is what I do.
As for difficult feedings, my lop was like that. Are you able to sit cross legged, have a towel on your lap and then him on your lap and not wrapped up? Sometimes wrapping up makes them mad. I usually sit at my dining room table and put her in my lap unwrapped and force feed her and she has been way easier to feed that way.

I hope this helps!

[Meg]

Thank you so much!! That’s really helpful. I’m doing as you say. I feel so bad because this morning he was just stretched out napping all relaxed and comfortable, and then I had to catch him and it took my partner and me like 20 minutes to get him out from under the bed (he’s way faster and smarter than us), and now that he’s done he’s hiding in a weird spot and looks so much more stressed out. I feel like this must have a negative effect on him!

But yes, as far as feeding positions, I did just start the other day putting him in kind of a hammock of a towel between my knees and feeding him that way. It does seem less stressful for him even though it doesn’t guarantee he’ll chew his food. He definitely will not let me put anything in his mouth if he’s on all fours and has the option to turn his head away, and if he’s not chewing the liquid will just fall right out. So I have to put my knees at a 45-degree angle and have him lean back on them in order to make sure the medicine goes in his mouth. It’s not ideal, and I’m careful to make sure he can’t aspirate anything, but it’s the only thing that seems to work.

My poor little bun. If there were a stasis treatment that cost $3,000 but didn’t make me chase and catch and torment him, I would put it on my credit card and find the money later.

[Bunny House]

I know how you feel, it’s stressful treating stasis! If force feeding is too much for him, you can do his regular amount he needs but only give 3/4 of it and supplement him with veggies and see if he eats it all. If he eats all the veggies, then slowly decrease cc and see how he does, just need to get the right amount of nutrients and water in him to keep him healthy and recover!

[Meg]

Thank you so much!  I just hate how stressful it is for him.  Bunnies are such sweet and lovable souls, it feels so wrong to torment them even for medical reasons. 

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