A Bit About Rabbits and Pain

Some of you may notice how I am always going on about why pain relief is so important for poorly Rabbits.
Here is a little example from today. At 4pm Lara was absolutely fine, eating and pooing normally and her usual happy self. About an hour an a half later I found her in a state of near collapse.
I picked her up and immediately felt how cold she was. On examination her temperature was only 36.2C. She was not in stasis as there were huge golden poos coming out of her bum and very good gut sounds. However, her intestines had LOTs of gas so before I called the emergency Vet I gave her a shot of metacam and some Ranitidine. My Vet allows me to have these meds at home. I then put Lara on a heatpad. Within 15 mins she stopped wobbling and could sit up unaided. After half an hour she started to eat.
So it looks as though her collapsed state and hypothermia were due to severe pain from gas in her intestines. I will monitor her over the next couple of hour and will take her to the emergency Vet if she relapses.

Rabbits may not vocalise pain but they can have profound and dangerous physiological responses. Thats why I so wish all Vets would realise how important pain relief is. I am just so glad that my Vet does.

Just needed to get that off my chest

Thanks for sharing and hope she's alright x

I hope she's ok and I think thats a perfect example of why rabbits need pain relief

Hope your lass is ok... I saw the vet that Snowy regulary uses today, and she is brilliant. She was saying to me that rabbits just don't get the pain relief they need, and manufactures don't produce it. She prescribed me canine metacam, and said that I can use it anytime I think the bunnies are looking poorly. I remember you saying about it a while back, and I'm glad you bought it up. I made sure that Hermione was given pain relief when she came out of her spay!

Wow, that poor bunny. I'm so glad you took such swift action and got her comfortable right away. I am a huge advocate of pain relief thanks to you. I will spread your words far and wide over the States! *hero pose!*

its lucky you had the stuff jane

Good post Jane :thumb:

The other thing to remember is that bunnies display pain in very many different ways, sometimes in ways that you wouldn't even normally associate as a pain response, so any slight change in normal behaviour should be considered as a possible pain reaction

Yes I do know the importance of pain relief for buns as when Pepsi had GI statis the vet gave him a metacam injection and from then he only got better and wasnt in a hunched position so the pain must have gone! I hate seeing them in pain anyway!!

I hope Lara will be okay.

It's a shame that most vets won't part with metacam routinely - so that people could keep a supply at home just in case. I'm hoarding the bottle that Daisy was given after her op so I have an emergency supply for another 5 months until it's passed the discard after six months of opening rule.

Out of interest, are there any useful bunny-safe analgesics that are non-prescription/available to buy?

Brilliant post,Jane.I wish vets would realise that bunnies are as important as cats,dogs and humans and feel pain,therefor need pain relief like the rest of us.Sending vibes for Lara,she is so lucky to have a proper loving,caring mummy.

giantbunnymummy said:

Out of interest, are there any useful bunny-safe analgesics that are non-prescription/available to buy?

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No, there are not.
Some people have used Calpol for a Rabbit but my Vet does not agree with this at all as Calpol contains Paracetamol which may adversely effect a Rabbit's Liver, especially if given to an anorexic Rabbit. When a Rabbit stops eating their Liver function is effected very quickly and they can develope Hepatic Lipidosis. Put simply a sequence of physiological events resulting in fatty deposits being layed down in the Liver. This will eventually cause the organ to fail. Overweight Rabbits are very prone to Hepatic Lipidosis.

Jack's-Jane said:

No, there are not.
Some people have used Calpol for a Rabbit but my Vet does not agree with this at all as Calpol contains Paracetamol which may adversely effect a Rabbit's Liver, especially if given to an anorexic Rabbit. When a Rabbit stops eating their Liver function is effected very quickly and they can develope Hepatic Lipidosis. Put simply a sequence of physiological events resulting in fatty deposits being layed down in the Liver. This will eventually cause the organ to fail. Overweight Rabbits are very prone to Hepatic Lipidosis.

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what about aspirin?

donnamt said:

what about aspirin?

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Not advisable as it has the potential to cause Renal problems. I have used it a couple of times when with a different Vet who refused to give analgesia to a Rabbit with a very sore hock. I needed to get her through a weekend before I could change Vets.
In FHBs book 'The Texbook of Rabbit Medicine' she mentions Aspirin as a 'First Aid' analgesia so I used it.

Jack's-Jane said:

Not advisable as it has the potential to cause Renal problems. I have used it a couple of times when with a different Vet who refused to give analgesia to a Rabbit with a very sore hock. I needed to get her through a weekend before I could change Vets.
In FHBs book 'The Texbook of Rabbit Medicine' she mentions Aspirin as a 'First Aid' analgesia so I used it.

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aspirin was always my back up plan if i have to row with the vet over pain relief... a printout on GI stasis and a threat of self medicating was gonna be my way of getting the good stuff

luckily when he was admitted he had a great vet... wish i knew her name

Great post. My vet agrees completely with pain medication in rabbits and gives it swiftly whenever there might be an indication that there is a problem. He keeps me well stocked up on Metacam and that makes things much easier because it's always here to use if and when it's needed.

I hope Lara keeps improving

Good post I was having problems with my vets not giving me pain relief home for my buns, after following advice from Jack's-Jane I was able to push for home pain relief for one of my poorly buns which I now have and after a chat with my vet today this shouldn't be a problem again so thank you