Watery Belly

[leanne]

Hi, a few months ago my male rabbit had a bad belly, it was rumbling very loudly and you could see it moving, he also sounded like he was filled with water when he moved and then one day he was very quiet and still so i took him to emergency vet and they said he was blocked up, after a bit of medicine he got the all clear. Now he sounds like he is filled with water again, I took him to the vet 2 weeks ago and they said his stomach felt normal and not to worry, just gave me some medicine as his poo was very large. however, his watery belly has got far worse this week!! He is completely himself so is this just something common in rabbits or should i get him back to the vet just to make sure it has not built up again since his vet visit?

[KatnipCrzy]

A bunnys gut condition can change from one day to the next- it is not usually a slow build up of gas or the stomach not emptying that causes the problem- it can happen pretty suddenly from my understanding.  If something causes gas or the bunny to not eat (such as tooth problems)- they do not want to eat if they are in pain- but they need to eat on their own or be syringe fed Critical Care to keep their gut moving and they need to stay well hydrated (usually SQ fluids or IV fluids)-helps keep their gut moving and them stable.  And if pain is causing the listlessness and not eating- usually prescription pain meds are prescribed and sometimes gut motility drugs.

If your bunny is not acting right it should be seen by a vet- the sooner you start treatment the better.  You need to use your own judgement- but when my bunny Griffin starting not eating and acting painful on a late Thur night- I could not get him into the rabbit vet until Fri afternoon and that was OK since he was stable.  But another members bunny became hypothermic (temperture dropped below normal) and if she had not taken her bunny in on emergency it would have died.  So every situation is different- but prompt care as soon as possible is recommended.

[KatnipCrzy]

Here is a link to Griffin’s x-rays that I posted…

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tab…fault.aspx

It might give you a better idea of what might be going on with your bunny- you can see Griffin’s distended stomach (gray colored) and his intestines were gassy (large dark bubbles) which makes their belly feel a bit larger, softer and you can somtimes hear the gas gurgling. 

I suspect your bunny has a gassy belly as opposed to a “watery belly”- usually it is a build up of gas and gut slow down as opposed to a build up of fluid.

Keep us updated on your bunny!  My rabbit vet quizzed me about a ton of things to try to figure out what caused the GI stasis for Griffin- but we could not come up with anything.

What medication did your vet prescribe?

 

[jerseygirl]

Posted By leanne on 05/16/2010 09:09 AM

 I took him to the vet 2 weeks ago and they said his stomach felt normal and not to worry, just gave me some medicine as his poo was very large.
 

I’m also interesting in what medicine they prescribed. Are his poos normally very large? Or was this the reason you took him 2 weeks ago, because he passed some largish poop?

[Andi]

Are the poops eggs shaped? mushy? or just regular round but large?
What is his regular diet?

[leanne]

His poo can sometimes be egg shaped but they are smaller as he has been having his medication. I occasionally see the cecal dropping that he should be eating. He eats greens and small amount of pellets in morning and same before bed and hay throughout. he is not acting different, he seems completely normal its just he sounds like someone is shaking a hot water bottle when he runs but it is not as bad as it was when he was actually sick so I thought maybe he is just like this!! His poo does smell quite bad sometimes tho! The medicine he had before was maxalon and that banana tasting stuff?? this time he was given something similar to maxalon. I took him to the vet as I heard the watery sound and was worried he was constipated again and sometimes i can actually see his belly moving as if gas is moving around but the vet said he felt normal

[Sarita]

Was it cisapride that you were giving him that was like maxalon? They are both used for gut stasis but work in different ways.

Does the vet have any idea why he keeps having problems?

[leanne]

i will check the name of the stuff when i get home but i dnt think it was that. The vet said that what he had before was something he had not seen in years but seen 6 cases that month. He said that they think it is something caused by perhaps the poor weather we had and is something they have seen in horses lately. He said they dnt know wot has caused it but have seen some strange things in rabbits lately.

[RabbitPam]

I would contact the vet and ask if the medicine he is on from 2 weeks ago is treating the watery belly, or if it’s a return of the other problem and should you take him back in again. It sounds like there is something going around that he may have been exposed to, or the exposure continues so he is having recurrences. Either way, it’s back, and needs to be treated or let the current treatment run its course.

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