Rabbit stressed and won’t eat or drink, help?

[Jessica]

Hi,

To start – I HAVE taken my rabbit to the vet already, but I’m posting as I’m hoping to get some additional advice on anything I can do to help my poor Lillian.

Last Friday (May 25/18) I took Lillian to get her hair shaved under sedation. This is the third time I’ve had to do this, and the other two times were no problem. This time however, she just isnt eating or drinking. She has only eaten her lettuce, and a couple of small treats, and a little bit of critical care. I took her to the vet today and he believes she is stressed from the shaving and there’s not much I can do besides try to help her out of it. But she needs to do it on her own. He gave her a shot to help get things moving in her tummy, and then gave me 4 days worth of metacam to give her twice a day and then I’m to keep trying to feed her the critical care. I have her hay water and pellets in her cage but she just won’t touch it.

Please if any one has any other suggestions I’m willing to try anything!

[Bunny House]

Hi!
Is your vet a rabbit savvy vet? They should have sent you home with a gi stasis emergency kit
We are going through a rough stasis-which is what your bun has, the key thing is to not let them try and eat on their own, they need to keep food in their tummy or else their gut completely stops working and it is hard to get it going again.Do you know a lot about stasis? if not, i suggest reading up on this site and house bunny society, because it is a silent killer if not treated and it helps a lot of people know what to do!

We do this
1.Force feed critical care(she will not eat on her own, you need to keep food in her tummy, she may spit half of it out but she needs to be force fed)
2. sub q fluids(did your vet give you any to administer on your own at home?
3. baby gas drops every couple of hours
4.metacam for the pain
5.reglan to keep gut moving
6. soft tummy massages
7.offer fruits and anything sugary to try and get her appetite going
8. probiotics
9. liver support meds-because their liver gets over worked trying to detox the toxins from the bad bacteria.

And maybe next time you can just clip her with scissors instead of putting her under so you don’t go through this again

[Sirius&Luna]

Can I ask why she needs to be sedated and shaved? Most bunnies don’t need to be shaved, but if they do, it should still be able to be done when they’re awake. Rabbits often go into stasis after sedation, so it seems like an unneccesary risk to sedate her for something like fur trimming.

It’s really important that you get food into her stomach. Offer her all her favourite veggies, and if she won’t eat voluntarily, you’ll need to forcefeed her critical care. She might not like it, but it is essential that she gets food into her. You can also try mixing a bit of apple juice into critical care, to see if that makes it anymore appealing to her. Otherwise, wrap her up in a bunny burrito, and inject it into the side of her mouth. Metacam is good, as she will likely also be in pain now that she hasn’t eaten.

[Author]

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