Posted for GlenntheLionhead: GI stasis troubles

[DanaNM]

Posted on behalf of @Glennthelionhead :

’Hello, its been a little while since I last posted.

I have been having a bit of a hard time with the buns the last week. Nellie had another bout of not eating and slow guts, sore tummy on Tuesday – Thursday, getting back to an acceptable eating and popping rhythm by Friday, shes still a little off her hay.
Glenn decided early hours of Saturday morning to go into a full blown stasis, we took him to the non specialist vets Sunday and they prescribed, CC, emeprid and 0.8ml of 1.5 loxicom twice daily! So a pretty high dose, he seems to be having a really slow recovery and was pressing his tummy a lot on the floor, the meds didn’t really help him at all, no poops other than a few tiny droppings until Monday evening! He saw our exotics vet who prescribed cisapride, loxicom and a fairly new drug emerging in small animals for visceral pain called metarhitindine or something like that? Probably incorrect spelling but its used for cats and dogs normally . It did seem to help a lot, at one point before the vets this morning he looked in so much pain I was actually unsure of his chances… He has had a few very mucusy poops this evening but there is some output now.

My question is, is nearly 2 days before seeing any signs of improvement/ output and willing input, despite lots of meds and feeding normal for stasis? mine have always usually bounced back so quickly! I’m a little worried there could be something more at play with the extreme tummy discomfort glenn seemed to be in despite both vets not being able to feel any gas or impactations. Nellie has been having recurring GI issues since we adopted her really that were still trying to get to the bottom of.

I noticed Glenn seems to have began his molt, also I don’t know if the stress of seeing Nellie be medicated and ill is enough to set Glenn off too.. They sync up!

Just to top things all off this evening we’ve had a little brief chase/spat, they then cuddled for half an hour and had another little chase.. I think Glenn is instigating a mount of Nellie causing her to run and him to chase. Should I consider seperating them given their need for comfort while overcoming the stasis?

Thoughts appreciated, the stress of it all gets to me so badly.’

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[DanaNM]

Ughh I’m so sorry! Having one poorly bun is hard enough, having two is just so difficult.

So the short answer is it can take time for treatments to work, as maddening as that is. But he might also need stronger/different pain meds and/or a different motility med depending on what part of his gut has slowed down. Fluids can also be really helpful.

Have you discussed doing any imaging with the vet to see if something besides stasis could be going on?

Are they molting heavily?

Whether to separate or not… I would use your judgement. Movement is helpful so a little chasing isn’t the worst thing, but it if turns to spats that don’t resolve on their own I’d prob separate when they weren’t supervised.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

Stasis recovery can be slow, as Dana says. Did they run any bloodtests? I too think x-rays could be good. Liver values tend to get elevated by stasis alone, but sometimes there is an underlying acute liver problem.

0.8 of 1.5 mg/ml loxicom isnt a huge lot unless Glenn is very tiny. Vets often underdose meloxicam (substance name of Loxicom, Metacam and other brand names) for rabbits, but rabbits need a lot more than cats and dogs per kilo body weight.

Metarhitidine is not a med I recognize, I tried googling it but I got no hits even with some alternative spellings.  There is a dog and cat anti-nausea med called maropitant (brand name Cerenia) that’s being used for rabbit pain now. My rabbit savvy vet uses it. There is also metamizole (brand name Novalgin) that my vet uses for pain in rabbits, my Vilde was on that during his really bad bout of stasis (which he recovered from, but it took like 5 awful weeks!)

I’m glad there’s been some poop. It doesnt matter if its misshapen, the fact that sth comes out means stuff is getting through!

As Dana says, movement is very important for the GI tract, but truly vicious fighting is of course not good.

 

 

[DanaNM]

Reply from GlenntheLionhead:

”

Thanks so much for the helpful replies both!

Its seems things are improving, after the second dose of cisapride that was prescribed Monday by the exotics, Glenn appears to be much much less pain and is beginning to nibble and has passed dropping a couple more times. So this is a relief.

I am considering bloods and an x-ray. My vet seemed a little hesitant and said because he couldn’t feel anything it might be too much stress so to see if the change of meds worked first… Perhaps it is, he does seem to be turning a corner. Im still massively at a miss to have what could have caused them to both get ill, especially considering the extent of pain Glenn was in even with the 1.6 ml per day (he is 1.9kg). With Nellies bout she was ill but it was clear she wasn’t going downhill, whereas glenn continued downhill until after the visceral pain med. We did notice some of the leaves from their regular salad mix bag look a lot like iceberg despite not stated on the ingredients… Bad batch maybe. Glenn is having a moderate sudden molt i would say… I know that a lot of the time stasis causes can just remain a mystery.

And now you mention Bam, I think the med was maropitant! Obviously I jumbled some of the letters together in my head to make a random word lol – I’ve not seen it prescribed here in the UK before but it seemed to help him quite a bit.

Nellie is doing well now but has been full on eating a pile of her fecal pellets, I corrected her and pushed fresh hay which she began eating…. Strange bun

As for the bond things have escalated over the last day and I’d say they are pretty unstable 🙁 they aren’t really having positive interactions, they are not vicious but breif spats have been broke out with fur flying several times now, though they only last a moment or so. I think I will seperate in sight when unsupervised and when glenn is finished recovering I will try to re-establish the bond.’

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Bam]

Fingers crossed he’ll keep improving!

I agree it’d just be stressful for him to take him in for more testing/x-rays if the meds do their work within reasonable time. Once he’s eating a bit and there’s pee and poop, recovery can -and often is- be slow and nerve-wrecking, but as long as you see progress it seems he’s recieving the proper treatment.

What sets a bout of stasis off is often not clear. Rabbits are very sensible to any type of stress. During molting they can get a small partial blockage that comes loose and move through. My bun Vilde once passed a chain of poop 8 poops long, connected with hair.

Meloxicam it not always very effective against acute gut pain. Many vets like to combine it with sth else.

[DanaNM]

I agree with bam! Meloxicam is great but it’s basically the equivalent of ibuprofen. It can only go so far in cases of acute and severe pain. And yes if he is showing any signs of improvement I would stick with the current course.

Molting can def be a trigger. It seems like many buns will go into stasis in spring time, even if they aren’t molting heavily. But again sometimes it can be really hard or impossible to know for sure.

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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