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Knackered but relieved.

The Duchess

Wise Old Thumper
My little Poppet went into the early stages of stasis late last night. Have been up all night with her and her husbun trying to get her right. At about 5am she turned a corner and is now totally back to normal.

That's now 6 different bunnies over the last two months and each time I have been lucky enough to catch it in time.

I just can't imagine what would have happened if I had fed early and put them to bed. I feed my troop late - normally at about 9-10pm and this gives me a final check that all is well.

I went up to feed Poppet and Edison at about 9.30 last night and she didn't do her normal binky up into the hutch despite having been munching her clean hay box only an hour earlier. I knew immediately that she wasn't right. I tried to tempt her with dandelions, grass, carrot, pellets but nothing. She put herself in the corner of her run and started to do all sorts of contortions, obviously to try and get comfortable.

I brought her and her man in immediately and set up the indoors for an overnight stop. I administered Metaclopromide and started to syringe feed. She swallowed when fed, which was a good sign, and she was still pooing. But no gut sounds.

About an hour later the pooing stopped. So a wee bit more syringe feeding and a gentle tummy rub. I monitored her for the next few hours and gave some more Metaclopromide at about 2am. More tummy rubs and a watchful eye and at about 5am she had the most almighty rumble and did what I would have to call an explosive cow pat. She then began pooing normally and was wanting to eat. She straight away tucked into a bit of cabbage.

I am so pleased that it didn't mean a trip to the vets as I think the stress would have done her no good at all.

Obviously if she had been flat at any time during the night she would have been straight off to the emergency vets but she seemed bright enough, but just uncomfortable and unable to find a suitable lying down position.

I just wonder how someone who hasn't seen it all before would know if their bunny was that poorly. If you put your bunny to bed early evening, would the result have been very different. What if you don't see your bunny from 6 at night till the next morning.

Just relieved she's better.......................
 
So glad to hear that Poppet is feeling better this morning.

I think an awful lot of bunny owners have no idea about stasis, or any other bunny health issues for that matter. Unfortunately so many buns are stuck in a hutch at the end of the garden and pretty much left to their own devices:(.

I have found the owners of most of our visitors to be very caring and generally clued up people, however, some of them are unaware of stasis too. I guess this is a downside of being able to purchase rabbits from pet shops where very little general advice is given let alone important health issues.

Have a nice cuppa and put your feet up for a little while (easier said than done I know :)). Give Poppet a nose rub from me.
 
So glad to hear that Poppet is feeling better this morning.

I think an awful lot of bunny owners have no idea about stasis, or any other bunny health issues for that matter. Unfortunately so many buns are stuck in a hutch at the end of the garden and pretty much left to their own devices:(.

I have found the owners of most of our visitors to be very caring and generally clued up people, however, some of them are unaware of stasis too. I guess this is a downside of being able to purchase rabbits from pet shops where very little general advice is given let alone important health issues.

Have a nice cuppa and put your feet up for a little while (easier said than done I know :)). Give Poppet a nose rub from me.

I agree with you about not enough advice given.

I had some visitors a few weekends ago - an old friend of my OH and his wife and two kids. An 8 year old and a 6 year old. They were so excited about seeing my bunnies but the mum was thinking of getting them some. Apart from the fact that they spent most of the afternoon wanting to pick all of mine up (which they didn't). I spent most of my time gently trying to inform her of all of the things that can and do go wrong and how expensive it all is etc etc. I sent her home with a whole pile of leaflets. I do hope she has had second thoughts or I don't give the bunny/ies much chance. When I said about her having to do the cleaning out she said she didn't do animals and that her husband was the animal lover. They are both working parents so we can see where that is going.

I am glad that you see the good side with your boarder's parents. Luckily, I think that once people are informed they do quite well.:D

Thank you for your wishes for Poppet - I will go and give her a nose rub from you immediately.

Helen
 
I am a bit anal about finding out about anything that I want to get involved with be it work, school activities for the kid, arts and crafts or animals!

Glad I'm not the only one with copious leaflets to hand out! Only once or twice have I had boarders where the parents have bought a bunny for their children and are just "going through the motions" of bunny care. The majority of the lovelies that come to stay with me are actually owned by adults :)

Hope Poppet continues to improve throughout the day.
 
I am a bit anal about finding out about anything that I want to get involved with be it work, school activities for the kid, arts and crafts or animals!

Glad I'm not the only one with copious leaflets to hand out! Only once or twice have I had boarders where the parents have bought a bunny for their children and are just "going through the motions" of bunny care. The majority of the lovelies that come to stay with me are actually owned by adults :)

Hope Poppet continues to improve throughout the day.

Thank you so much.

Helen
 
So glad she is better :)

Just a wee word of caution re administering metoclopromide. You need to be as sure as you can be that your Bun does not have a GI obstruction.This really means you need to know what to feel for in a careful abdominal examination. If they did have an obstruction then giving metoclop' could have tragic consequences :cry:

Just didn't want anyone new to Buns to think that Metoclop' ( a POM ) is always the correct treatment for an anorexic Bun.

Hope I dont come across as a know-it-all prig here...:oops:.....I dont mean to........:oops:



Janex
 
So glad she is better :)

Just a wee word of caution re administering metoclopromide. You need to be as sure as you can be that your Bun does not have a GI obstruction.This really means you need to know what to feel for in a careful abdominal examination. If they did have an obstruction then giving metoclop' could have tragic consequences :cry:

Just didn't want anyone new to Buns to think that Metoclop' ( a POM ) is always the correct treatment for an anorexic Bun.

Hope I dont come across as a know-it-all prig here...:oops:.....I dont mean to........:oops:



Janex

Hi Jane.

Thank you for your advice - you never come across as a know-it-all, although you probably do. I am grateful for your input.

You are quite right of course. I was happy that she wasn't bloated, or blocked but it is a very valid point to raise.

All meds can be dangerous if not administered correctly.

Thanks Jane.

Helen
 
We are all glad of your input Jane and funnily I had just read that on another site while reading about GI stasis.

I think the problem is not so much the definite -my bunnys not eating or pooing at all- where clearly you need to get it sorted! but we could do with some guidance on what constitutes not pooing ENOUGH , not eating ENOUGH, not having big ENOUGH poos....

its that ENOUGH...that needs defining. Of course each rabbit is different and they all have the odd time where they eat/poo a bit less....

So.....at what stage do you take them to the vet?
(assuming they are not obviously in pain, as rabbits hide this to an extent)...

eating 3/4 of normal dried. 1/2 normal dried. 1/4 normal dried
eating 3/4 of greens/grass 1/2 greens/grass 1/4 greens/grass

poo is 3/4 normal size. 1/2 normal size 1/4 normal size
poo is 3/4 normal amount 1/2 normal amount 1/4 normal amount

or maybe instead of quarters you could give percentage guidelines, please?

It would be so much easier to know. Most rabbits get stressed going to the vets so you don't want to whip the poor thing off just because he hasn't had a big poo...but....you don'y want to ignore the possibility of GI stasis.
I appreciate it easy for experienced rabbit owners like yourself, many of whom will be saying " well..its obvious.." but I think thats why so many buns DO die of GI stasis ...because their owners don't know when to take action

I do hope jane that you or some of the other experienced ones on here could offer some specific guidlines?-Sue:)
 
I now there is something wrong with my buns as they stop eating.
I feed 4 times a day.
Morning - greens
mid-morning - pellets (10 each) and readigrass
early evening - carrot and tops
about 10pm - pellets (10 each)
at some point during the day they will have some fresh grass too.
They munch a lot of hay in between, and the reason they get their pellets separately is because Bobby will insist on eating them all before he tucks into the veg,a nd by that point Ruby's nearly eaten all the veg!!

This helps me to monitor their eating habits.
If any of them stops eating, they have tummy rubs, and I syringe some cooled boiled water and make them run around a bit.
I do this on the hour for two hours, and if there's no improvement, it's a vet visit or 'phone call.

So basically if bun stops eating, I know there's a problem, but don't just assume it's stasis, it could be teeth problems too.
 
Do you need a license or prescription for Metaclopromide? I'd be too wary of sticking needles into my bunnies :shock: but thats just me, Im a coward :lol:

This last awful week with Dougal is the worst I've had, I can usually get it before it sets in and stop it without drugs *touch wood* I massage his tummy, syringe warm water and pinapple juice or warm peppermint tea, run run run and repeat until it moves. I hope I never have to go through last week again. :(

Dougal is the only one of my 4 I've ever had a gut problem with *tempts fate :roll:*

I'm glad Poppet is OK :)
 
Do you need a license or prescription for Metaclopromide? I'd be too wary of sticking needles into my bunnies :shock: but thats just me, Im a coward :lol:

This last awful week with Dougal is the worst I've had, I can usually get it before it sets in and stop it without drugs *touch wood* I massage his tummy, syringe warm water and pinapple juice or warm peppermint tea, run run run and repeat until it moves. I hope I never have to go through last week again. :(

Dougal is the only one of my 4 I've ever had a gut problem with *tempts fate :roll:*

I'm glad Poppet is OK :)

Hi there.

Yes you do need a prescription for Metaclopromide. I don't inject but have some that I give orally in my emergency bunny first aid kit. I have had it prescribed in the past and this is how I have a small amount left.

Thank you for your comment about Poppet. She is quite a highly strung little neddie so I guess that she might be quite susceptable to stress related problems in the future.

Helen :D
 
Glad to hear that Poppet has come through OK.

I have four checks a day to make sure my buns are eating - 7am, 12pm-ish, 6.00pm and 11.00pm.
If any of my buns turn their noses up at any of these times I know it's the start of potential stasis, and I have three that tend to be prone to it.
 
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