Urinary infection? Or GI symptoms?

[GlennTheLionhead]

My year old spay netherland dwarf Maggie is showing some strange symptoms tonight. Earlier today she ate fine and was very energitic, as of tonight however she appears to be ‘tummy pressing’ i.e flopping or lying down and then getting up to move position every 30 seconds as if she’s uncomfortable, she’s refusing food and seems to be slightly incontinent, frequently running to a random near by corner to pee, and when I say frequently I mean 3 times in the last hour if not less, she is litter trained and is doing this in a extremely out of the ordinary place, it does not appear to be territorial

There’s definitely something up, does anyone have any ideas?

[Wick & Fable]

It does sound like gas. I’m unsure how urine may relate, perhaps it’s pushing the bladder in an uncomfortable way.

Do you have simethicone (baby gas drops) on hand? It may help.

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.

[GlennTheLionhead]

Urine seems normal colour so perhaps it is something to do with this, she is also moving her head towards her bum as if to eat cecals but nothing comes out. I don’t have any baby gas drops at hand but it might be possible to obtain these from a 24hr pharmacy if this could help?? (It’s 2.30am where I am). I have tried tummy massage which seems like it may have helped a little as she was active for a little bit after this but not sure if that was just because she was trying to get away from me.

I am a little reluctant to take her to the emergency vets for her not eating because I don’t know how fimilar they are with small animals like rabbits, I would feel more comfortable taking her to her regular vets in the morning, but I guess if she still doesn’t resume eating in a couple hours I may have too :/

[Wick & Fable]

Yes, simethicone may help if it’s gas. Simethicone has helped a lot of rabbits bthrough bad gas episodes. Make she eats and drinks. Not constantly obviously, but that she is staying satiated. If it has been a while since she’s pooped, a vet is the best option, though a rabbit one is ideal.

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.

[GlennTheLionhead]

Thanks for the info, I will stay up with her and moniter, with the simethcone can this still be admistered with the chance that gas may not be the issue (as I’m not 100% certian of the true cause) and what dose would I want to give her? She’s a very small weighing about 2pounds at her last check up a few months back.

[Bunny House]

I’m sorry this is late, you can give .5-1ml every hour or two. It’s not a “medicine” so it doesn’t get absorbed by the body so you can’t over dose, it goes straight the the gi tract to bind to the gas to help it get out.

How is she doing now? Do you have any critcal care to see if she’ll eat it?

[Queens]

You have described exactly how my rabbit behaved when he was going through gas AND gi stasis. I also made sure he moved around, as being active helps relieve the gas. Your rabbit won’t be happy about this, but it will help. Just try to get her to walk/run every 5 or 10 minutes or so. I also would try to massage my rabbit’s belly. And as someone else mentioned, the baby gas med/simethicone should help. She may not want to eat or drink anything at all, in which case I had to syringe/force feed my rabbit water and critical care. How is she doing now?

[GlennTheLionhead]

Thanks for the replies!

It was definitely gas in the end, I tried a mix of of stomach massages and trying to keep her active, what seemed to particularly help was a technique posted on a previous thread in which I carefully held her head in towards my elbow and rested my hand flat under her hind quarters and gentlely lifed her up to help relieve the gas and this worked perfectly, she perked back up and resumed eating, she has been great since!

Since I have picked up some simetcone medicine for if this happens again

Thanks again

[Bunny House]

Good! Glad she’s doing better!

[Wick & Fable]

Great to hear! For future reference, it’s not harmful to give simethicone “just in case”. It’s also not really possible to overdose on simethicone either because of how it’s absorbed in the body. If you got one with a dropper bottle, there may be two lines that indicate 1.0 and 0.6 (I think?). I usually give Wick a squirt of a 1.0 dropper amount (the higher amount) for good measure if I suspect something is up.

Be sure to note the expiration date of your simethicone!

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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