Impaction?

[Isabelle]

Last night I put Dutchess away about ten o’clock and gave her dinner, which she didn’t eat. Over the next hour she curled up into a ball and refused to move, her breathing was harder and she was definately in pain, she didn’t even go to the litterbox to pee, she did it right where she was sitting. She didn’t improve so I called the er vet 30 min. away and they said they don’t do rabbits  So they gave me the number of a vet office an hour away that does rabbits, but we decided on the phone (they weren’t much help) that the hour drive there and then the home trip would be too stressful on an already distressed bunny. So mom went out at midnight to get some baby puree and from 12:30-2:00 in the morning I was able to get 3ml into her. She was shaking, dragging her belly on the ground, and moving awkwardly.

I gave her some tummy massage which she didn’t like, but then put her back in her habitat to monitor her. About 3 in the morning or so she did eat some greens and some pellets, but showed no interest in hay. Then a half hour later she ate a little more and did drink some water. Now this morning I called our regular vet and they’re booked until 2:30 this afternoon!  It’s now about 8:30 in the morning so we’ve got six hours to wait. She will not let me touch her belly, she pushes it down onto the floor of her habitat and growls and nips at me. She did eat about two stalks of hay and made it into her litterbox, she does appear a bit more alert.

Is there anything else I can do? The vet clinic said to try gatorade or pineapple juice but Dutchess just detests everything it was hard enough getting the puree into her, and now she won’t let me pick her up to give her another round of it. We’re thinking it’s a hair impaction type thing, but yesterday we did have a plumber come over and I found some pieces of stuff: a toothpick like stick, a metallic crunched up wad of something, and a black coil that is kind of like a twisty tie. I found those because Dutchess was taking a bite out of toothpick piece  I combed over the area and found nothing else, but I’m worried she might have eaten something that caused this. She has only made about 12 poops in the last 11 hours and they are very tiny. I did tell the vet clinic but they said it’s most likely the hair impaction.

[DUSTBUNNY-CLYDE]

SO SORRY!! Hope everything turns out fine!! best wishes!!

[Sarita]

Pineapple juice is not a good idea anyway – very old school and high in sugar.

I would continue to try to get her to eat some wet greens and some hay. If it’s an impaction then trying to get her to drink to rehydrate the impaction is a good idea as well as trying to get her to move.

Many times the car ride helps get the gut moving again due to the agitation from the driving….so while it’s stressful, it can be beneficial as well.

Poor Dutchess, please let us know what the vet says. Make sure if they think it’s an impaction, they do an x-ray too so they can see where it could be.

[Isabelle]

Saw the vet yesterday, actually two vets (one is a learning vet) and a tech were in with us, so we got lots of attention! Dutchess was vocalizing a bit (hard for me to hear, probably them too) and snapped once when vet was checking out her tummy. Temp was normal, she checked her vents (tech had just cleaned them two weeks before), listened to her insides and checked out her back. She didn’t recommend an x-ray since Dutchess has had this a few times before and because she could feel her whole abdomen without a problem except Dutchess’ stomach, which she was guarding. When she did finally get to it, it felt a bit swollen and was obviously the source. She said that if Dutchess isn’t improving in 1-2 days that she would do an x-ray.

So I had some metacam left over from a minor back tweak she had last March that was still good for another month, so she told me to resume that, perscribed an antibiotic, and said I can use baby puree, pinapple juice, gatorade, and laxatives to help get her stomach contents wet so they’ll start to pass. She warned me about the sugar content of the pinapple juice and gatorade, so she told me to get a very spectific kind of the gatorade (which I don’t think I’ll need to get), and the reason behind these is the gatorade would give back electrolytes and the pinapple juice would have enzymes to help break down the blockage. She also said not to give too much of those, so I am giving Dutchess 1.5 ml of the juice once per day, 1 ml of laxative, two different times 1.5 ml of baby puree, and her two meds each day spread out.

She also said to provide lots of fresh water and very wet leafy greens, so we picked up some kale which I soaked before giving it to Dutchess and she ate all of it!!! Yay! She left me some not too good looking, dry and shriveled up poops, but then she started dropping some more rounder and normal looking poops, so things are starting to move. She has been hopping around today looking for everything she missed out on yesterday, so things are all good news today! I’m really going to put myself in charge of making sure we have these items on hand so if something happens like this again I will be much better prepared, since it would seem I am on my own from night until eight in the morning.

[Sarita]

Glad she is improving, continued vibes to Dutchess.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hurray for poops and hopping around! ((((((More Feel Better Vibes))))

[Author]

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