Stomach Ulcer? Causes or experience with them??

[bunnybunnycatcat]

Hi there I’m new to this forum but have found it incredibly helpful in the past when googling health issues with my bunnies……hoping some of you can provide some insight into our latest problem.

Our poor Cindy has not been eating since last night. We gave her OVOL which didn’t help so we started thinking it wasn’t gas.  took her to emergency where they said her stomach was empty, no blockage and they gave her medication to get everything hopefully moving again. But she wasn’t feeling better this morning so we took her to our regular vet (who is amazing with rabbits). She noticed that Cindy’s gums and ears and skin around eyes were quite pale so they did a blood test. Turns out her red blood cells count is very low. It’s at 17 when normal is between 30 – 45. So they think it might be a stomach ulcer and that’s where the blood’s going. Does anybody know what this might be caused by? We have 3 medications for her, including an antacid. Just looking for some info since I can’t find anything online…. We’ve been home with her for about 3 hours after the vet – been giving her critical care which she is happy to eat from a syringe. But afterwards, she’s just hunched over with her eyes closed in her bed/kennel even though she’s free roam. 

I’m hoping with the meds her condition improves and she’ll eat on her own tomorrow. We have another appointment in 5 days. 

Anyways I’m wondering if this has happened to anybody else’s bun and what can be done – whether it will be reoccurring. 

Cindy is a very feisty bun and very active everyday, digging on our bed, and always constantly hungry – so that’s how we knew she wasn’t feeling well yesterday – when she didn’t come for dinner, pellets, or apple. It’s very sad to see her like this. The only other time I’ve seen her so immobile and sad was when her partner passed away in March 2018. 

[Meg]

I’m so sorry to hear this!! (((((Cindy))))) It sounds like she’s a very strong bun and a good eater, so I’m hopeful she’ll pull through well. I don’t have any definitive ulcer experience so I hope a more seasoned bunny person will chime in, though our vet just put my bunny Teddy on omeprazole to prevent ulcers or treat the beginnings of one, in case the meloxicam they prescribed causes any issues. I don’t know anything about what causes ulcers, I’m sorry!

But for now, I’d just keep a close eye on Cindy. The other day Teddy (dealing with GI stasis too) was sitting really still and didn’t respond a whole lot when I came to pet him, and it turned out his temperature was low, which apparently can happen with buns in stasis. So I put him in a warming box: I turned one of his plastic hidey houses upside down, put a towel on the floor of it, and placed it next to a space heater. I also put a microwaveable hot pack in there with him. Then I put him in there and sat next to him for about 45 minutes, checking that it wasn’t too hot, monitoring him, and making sure he didn’t jump out. If you are giving subcutaneous fluids the vet tech said you can also warm up the fluids by putting the bag and line in the bathtub before administering — she said it should be about bathwater temperature, and that can help with hypothermia too.

Not to say she definitely has hypothermia, just to keep a close eye if she’s staying super still, or has her eyes closed, or is hunched up tight. What are the medications they gave you for her?

Sending vibes for a speedy recovery to you and Cindy!!

[bunnybunnycatcat]

Thanks Meg. She’s doing a little bit better today – was pretty unresponsive yesterday but produced a few poops which is good, not too many, but at least her system is moving a bit. She’s still not eating on her own, but at least when I gave her critical care today, she kept pushing my hand away and digging the ground in frustration that I was in her space – which is more like her normal self! And she is grooming herself today so I think she’s starting to feel a little better. 

Thanks for the heads up on hypothermia – I did notice Cindy’s ears were a quite cold yesterday so I cranked up the heat in our house and put a sheet in with her which she snuggled on. She also has a companion, Griffin, who kept her warm and groomed her lots. 

I think overall she’s improving though she hasn’t taken any food on her own yet….we’re just continuing with the critical care. 

Medications: Cisapride twice daily to stimulate movement in her gut….and Sucralfate which coats her stomach apparently and prevents more harm if it is an ulcer or blood in her stomach. They said to give the sucralfate an hour after feeding and apart from other medications cause it does coat everything inside her. She’ll also be getting an antacid tomorrow –  I’m still waiting for the pharmacy to compound it into a liquid that she can take. 

I called the Rabbit Rescue I was volunteering at and the woman who runs it said she had one rabbit in previous years with something similar. Apparently the symptoms improved once the Sucralfate was given and the bun lived with her for another 3 years before passing away from the ulcer. She said it could’ve been cancer as well – but it’s hard to determine cause they can’t exactly do an mri or camera feed on bunnies, and she didn’t get a post mortem done on her bun. 

I have hope though! My husband and I both tucked her into her bed last night then woke up early to check on her – we were relieved to see her eyes were more open than yesterday. She is definitely more alert today and a little bit grouchy, which is wonderful because her normal self is very bossy and grouchy (though she is the biggest sweetheart). 

Will keep you posted!

[Meg]

I’m so glad she’s on the mend! Grouchiness and digging are very welcome in a recovering bunny. I’m always so happy when mine start to show some more sass!! (; Good for you for taking such good care of her and keeping her warm.

It may take some time for her to start eating on her own again, so just try to be patient and definitely keep up the Critical Care and meds. Cisapride is good. I’ve not heard of using antacids but maybe others have. You can also give simethicone, and your vet might want to give meloxicam for pain, if she doesn’t have kidney problems. If you’re comfortable giving subcutaneous fluids, that can help too. I’m squeamish, but my bunnies never seemed to be in pain when I gave this to them, so hopefully it doesn’t hurt them.

Please do keep us posted. Go, Cindy, go!!

[ergodic]

So George had a Gastric Ulcer, I left him with the emergency vet until he recovered. I am surprised there is no antibiotics prescribed. George was put on Pen-G injections and oral metronidazole, also for pain he was put on gabapentin. The Pen-G is really tough on rabbits.

It George several weeks to recover. You can do transfusions with another rabbit to help with the red cell count, I did not with George since I was not aware you could.

Anyway George was at 9% rbc he was about 2 1/2 at the time (currently 5 now). He will be on a lifetime of Sulcralfate and omperazole. This precautionary rather be safe than sorry. Omperazole apparent works really well with ulcers. Generally repeated GI stasis can result in ulcers and certain rabbits are just prone to it.

You can do barium swallows with rabbits. The barium will fall into the ulcer hole and when you do the xray you can determine where it is and semi-confirm it is an ulcer. Did this with George it was very helpful and instructive.

[Meg]

Thank you, that’s really helpful! Teddy was just started on .85 CCs of omeprazole twice a day but it smells so foul, and I hadn’t heard of other bunnies using it, so I was a bit concerned. Can I ask how much George is getting and how often?

I’m glad George is better!!

[ergodic]

George gets his compounded and flavored, he gets .15 ml twice a day he is pretty small. He like bubblegum so it is flavored bubble gum. Snickerdoodle gets a similar dosage to Teddy. He just hates any medicine. If you can find a good flavor it might go easier.

[Meg]

OK good to know — thank you so much!!

[bunnybunnycatcat]

So just an update! We took Cindy back to the vet on Tuesday morning because she had started eating on her own on Monday – which was amazing! Her energy was way up and she was much happier. We kept her in her kennel with Griffin over the weekend so she could get rest, and gave her all 3 meds.
At the vet on Tuesday, she was much bossier than her previous appointment, and gave everyone a hard time – especially when they wanted to look in her mouth and take another blood test from her ear haha – the vet said “it’s nice to see Cindy back to her old bossy self”.

The blood test showed that her red cell blood count was way up since Thursday – it went from 17 to 32 (back to normal range) – so the vet recommended we stop the sucralfate. We’re keeping it only as an emergency measure if she stops eating again. We’re continuing with the antacid and cisapride until the end of the week.

Thanks for your good thoughts! We’re going to keep an eye on Cindy and hopefully this isn’t a reoccurring condition. She did lose 200g over the 5 days so we’re also keeping an eye on her weight. That could be because she wasn’t eating much and maybe she was dehydrated – anyways we’re going to have another weigh-in in a month and see if it’s still going down.

[Meg]

This is such great news!!! Go Cindy!!!

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