Help Please - vet is closed until tuesday :(

Hi there,
My rabbit Reese has some impacted food and hair in her stomach.
I took her to the vet and they gave me antibiotics and critical care (timothy hay powder) to feed her.
They also gave her a shot to rehydrate her and said she would be swollen behind her neck from the shot.
Now she is not swollen behind her neck anymore but she has a golf ball size lump on her right breast area, is this the liquids from the shot just moving? Or is this something to be concerned about?
My problem is the vet is closed until tuesday and the emergency clinic hear doesn't accept rabbits

I am supposed to feed her critical care from a syringe, but I just cant seem to get her into a burrito to make her eat it, altho she will eat the cherry antibiotic happily.
This is very frustrating, when they are with the vet they are stressed and scared so they dont move and they let her pick them up but when they are at home with me they fight till the end to not be picked up.

I am supposed to syringe feed her over 4 times a day with critical care and with water 1 hour after her meals, this is so frustrating for me I cant get her into a burrito...but I will keep trying, I guess I will have to corner her, which I hate to do... anyone have any tips for getting your bunny into a burrito, and more importantly has anyone experienced this lump moving around after a shot?

Thanks a bunch guys, sorry I'm not in a very good mood I'm exhausted from today and I feel helpless for this weekend.

Honestly, I don't know. Sorry. :?
Sending lots of good vibes your way. And, I know it's hard NOT to, but try not to get too stressed out. Good luck,

Anna

Hi there, thnx for your reply.
I was so upset trying to catch her , but after I calmed down a bit she just started eating it on her own. Phew, if she will keep eating her critical care mush I think she will be ok.
I hope this lump goes down but I guess it will be ok until tuesday if it is some kind of infection since I am already giving her antibiotics.

I hope you and your bun are ok.
I'm looking after my poorley bun after a spey, I've been up all night as she is in so much pain bless her, I cant get her to a vet until 8:30am.. not long now.

Is the bump at the stomach area? If it is a hard enlarged object in the stomach area, then it is bloat. Bloat is extremely dangerous, I lost my bridge bunny Monty to it.

That would mean that whatever your bun ate, is blocking the intestine area and requires surgery to get it out. If that is so, it's an emergency and she doesn't have more than 12 to 18 hr. left.

A normal rabbit can pass thru carpet fiber or hair thru their system and it is nothing to worry about.

The important thing, is your bun eating and drinking normally?

Most rabbit doesn't like critical care. I used to use critical care, but I hate the smell. So was all of my pass bunnies. A good alternative is, get some raspberry or blackberry and smash them via a juicer into pulp.

YOu then mix the pulp w/ timothy hay stem that you cut into 1 mm length. Mix it well, put the mixture in a 35 mm syringe, and force feed your bun. They smell good and taste good and has lots of direct fiber.

You need a vet that has a lot of experience in rabbit. A regular vet has no idea how to treat a rabbit. Ask your vet if he/she has treat rabbits before

What is "impact food"?

Are you in the UK? What City?

If your bunny has a blockage you should not be force feeding it as it will have nowhere to go.

I suggest that you keep her warm, try to get her to take in some fluids. You can do this by offering water in a bowl and but a drop of boiling in to make it just room temperature (they seem to love it like that), you can also try to syringe some fresh pineapple juice - there is an enzyme in pineapple which is supposed to help try to break down hair (not proven though). Get your bunny to move around too as this can help to start the gut moving. Fluids are very important as it can help to break up any mass in her tummy.

Has she done any poops yet?

If you can, I would get her to see a vet.

Hi guys thanks for all the replies,
Sorry about the confusion she has impacted food and hair in her stomach, the vet I go to is specialized in rabbits (they are the only ones for miles and luckily i live close to them
She has felt the squishy lump along with another doctor and they are sure it is hair and food that is all tangled together and dehydrated. She said if it was hard it would need surgery, and if it doesn't brake up it will likely need surgery.

Reese never drinks enough water or eats enough timothy hay - something I think she picked up while she was in the SPCA before i adopted her.
So I'm told I need to be constantly getting liquids into her (watery critical care) to rehyrdrate the lump and help brake it apart so it will pass through.

She is eating well and loves the critical care now that I put some pineapple juice/ mashed up banana in it.
She is pooping regularily but they are still a little too dark.

Even if this lump breaks up and passes through I will likely need to keep feeding her a supplement to get enough timothy hay and liquids into her...[silly bunny needs to drink & eat more].

I'm trying to find a less expensive alternative to critical care - its costing me $25 every 5-6 days.
Oxbow has a timothy hay based pellet that includes very similar ingredients to the critical care and it is much cheaper...I'm going to ask my vet about grinding these up and mixing them with water.

Has anyone found a similar/cheaper alternative to critical care?
I was wondering about making my own from scratch with ground timothy hay and adding a vitamin supplement.

Thanks again for all the help, here is a picture of reese:
(you can see a couple of poops behind her, and how dark they are, you can also see how she picks at her timtohy hay and then pushes the rest into the corner)

My bridge bun Goofball was supposed to be on Critical Care after her leg removal surgery. But due to the smell and the taste of critical care, I decide not to use it. She had bone cancer, and I thought blackberries treatment will work better anyway.

So for over 1 year, I buy blackberries, 6 oz. to 12 oz. per day (raspberries will work too), smashed it w/ a juicer, and mix the pulp w/ timothy hay stem, the stem is cut into 1 mm long strip. As i mix them up, I put them in 35 ml syringe and force feed her a few times daily.

I believe Critical Care is 100 g of Critical Care per 1 KG (i can't remember, but it is listed at the back of your critical care package).

So for my 5 KG bun, I use 6 oz (170 g) mix w/ hay stem, as she still ate other regular food like greens.

Remember a bun's diet should be 90% hay, so as long as you get him the hay in there somehow, that solve most of the diet issue. The blackberries, in your case, is just to mix the hay up, so he'll take the hay easier.

Critical Care is a board based blend for all animals. And for rabbits, we really need is fiber from hay. In other words, a hay based diet, in this case mix w/ berries, is better than critical care in my opinion

vegatable baby food or fruit baby food but not ones with dairy in or meat. are fine for rabbits also you can use fruit adn veg you have pureeed yourself mush up some pellets in the food too to get extra fibre in to bunny x

Hay is the main thing to help digestive system. One of mine won't eat it so I use Oxbow Bunny Basics T pellets which are hay based. You could try some of these as they are high in fibre - you could add a bit of warm water to soften them if you need to syringe.

Thanks for all the replies I will look into some of the products you guys have mentioned.
I just got some pellets that are timothy hay based, the ingredients are almost identical to the critical care, excluding the probiotics.
I mix the pellets into a mush with some spirulina and banana and she loves it
I'm going to try and find some decent priced probiotics to add to it (the pills can get very expensive).

I'v found some rabbit foods that have spirulina in them so I assume it is ok for my bun, has anyone else ever given their bunny spirulina?
Its great for humans and chalk full of protiens and vitamins, I'll probably use it from now on with both my buns.

Does anyone know of an affordable way to add some probiotics to her meal?
I wonder if a plain organic yogurt would be okay?

Thanks again for all the help