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GI Stasis - question for you all

Biscuit Bunny

Alpha Buck
Hi there

More a ponder really, sorry maybe a bit long:

We had a bunny when I was 7 years old and he lived for 11 years, we never had him vaccination (unheard of in the 80s), he had mixed food, access to grass minimum amount of shop bought hay, couple of carrots and a cabbage leaf now and again. He lived by himself, and was extremely healthy and happy.

Were we just lucky??

We lost our bunny Molly to GI Statis about 3 years ago, had not found this forum and had no clue what it was. :cry:

With better knowledge we then got Dylan who was paired but then separated, vets missed a serious ear infection then led to stasis and the rabbit savvy vets couldn't save him :cry:

Now onto Biscuit, she lived quite happily as an indoor bunny with a different family for a while then they kept her outside, she was on a whole bowl of pellets a day, no hay and little veg loads of shop bought treats. BUT she was with them for 3 plus years with NO health problems.

Then we adopt her and within 6 months she has her first statis episode, and has had about 4 more since, nearly lost her on two occasions. She is on correct diet, has no stress, has whole room to herself and access to whole house after 5pm, plenty of human contact throughout day and evening, etc etc I have followed all bunny advice given.

I just see more and more posts about stasis, what do you think???

Clare xx

Edited: just to add that I do not believe what we did with first bunny was the correct care at all, but just wonder what the hell I am doing wrong now when the care I give Biscuit is in my opinion really good??
 
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i was the same, i had a doe who was unspeyed, unvaccinated, got no grass and lived on pellets. when she was 14 she got an abcess in her dewlap which come to think of it may have been her teeth but back then she was just put to sleep. maybe we where just lucky too, cos i got another rabbit and my parents refused to vaccinate and it died of mxyi :( i wouldn't chance it now though i have the money to care for them and their too precious to me.
 
i was the same, i had a doe who was unspeyed, unvaccinated, got no grass and lived on pellets. when she was 14 she got an abcess in her dewlap which come to think of it may have been her teeth but back then she was just put to sleep. maybe we where just lucky too, cos i got another rabbit and my parents refused to vaccinate and it died of mxyi :( i wouldn't chance it now though i have the money to care for them and their too precious to me.

I'm so sorry to hear your bunny died of mxyi :cry:

Edited my first post, sorry wasn't being very clear
 
We was the same with thumper our old belgian hare. We had a massive cuboard converted into a hutch, he wasnt vaccinated,neutered and was fed all sorts.
Yet Phoebe my 2 year old english lop suffers horribly from GI stasis even though we do all the right things!
 
I used to vaccinate yearly for Myxi. Then I switched to 6 montly.
I had NUMEROUS Rabbits develope recurrent GI hypomotility problems after 18 months of 6 monthly Myxo Vacs, ie after 3 vaccinations. Three Rabbits very nearly died.

I am not for one second suggesting people should go aginst current advice re 6 monthly Myxi Vacs. But my personal belief is that the 6 monthly vaccination plus the yearly VHD vaccination has led to the problems in my Rabbits.

After lengthy discussion with my Vet my Rabbits will now be Vaccinated once a year for Myxomatosis.

Again, I am NOT suggesting that the decision me and my Vet have made for my Rabbits is appropriate for everyBun.
 
well thats all i'm doing, i guess it's what gives you peace of mind. mine are in all winter so won't be near any cats or anything so yearly it is for me.
 
I used to vaccinate yearly for Myxi. Then I switched to 6 montly.
I had NUMEROUS Rabbits develope recurrent GI hypomotility problems after 18 months of 6 monthly Myxo Vacs, ie after 3 vaccinations. Three Rabbits very nearly died.

I am not for one second suggesting people should go aginst current advice re 6 monthly Myxi Vacs. But my personal belief is that the 6 monthly vaccination plus the yearly VHD vaccination has led to the problems in my Rabbits.

After lengthy discussion with my Vet my Rabbits will now be Vaccinated once a year for Myxomatosis.

Again, I am NOT suggesting that the decision me and my Vet have made for my Rabbits is appropriate for everyBun.


Christ almighty.... :shock:
 
Christ almighty.... :shock:

As I have said I am not suggesting going against the current advice re 6 monthly vaccinations is appropriate for everyBun.
But it will take a heck of alot to convince me that the vaccinations did not play a part in the problem after what I witnessed this year with my Buns after the third Myxi Vac
 
I used to vaccinate yearly for Myxi. Then I switched to 6 montly.
I had NUMEROUS Rabbits develope recurrent GI hypomotility problems after 18 months of 6 monthly Myxo Vacs, ie after 3 vaccinations. Three Rabbits very nearly died.

I am not for one second suggesting people should go aginst current advice re 6 monthly Myxi Vacs. But my personal belief is that the 6 monthly vaccination plus the yearly VHD vaccination has led to the problems in my Rabbits.

After lengthy discussion with my Vet my Rabbits will now be Vaccinated once a year for Myxomatosis.

Again, I am NOT suggesting that the decision me and my Vet have made for my Rabbits is appropriate for everyBun.

That is actually really interesting, Biscuit had her VHD quite recently and her Myxi 6 month one on Sat, on the sunday she had stasis. She seemed fine that evening but by morning she was a very poorly girl.

Thanks for this Jack's Jane :)
 
my mom mentioned the other day the issues weve had with my cat who died at 6 and Jet who got the bladder blockage.... in her day cats had no vaccines etc and lived to be really old without problems

you could have a point about too many chemicals being pumped into our animals.. :?:?

im just so lost and confused about Alvin :(
 
I feel really iffy about having posted on here actually as I certainly dont want anyone to think the vaccines are 'not safe'. Its just my personal UNQUALIFIED opinion that as happened with Dog vaccines, Rabbits *might* be being over vaccinated.

Please please everyone go with the advice of your Vets and the RWA.
 
I feel really iffy about having posted on here actually as I certainly dont want anyone to think the vaccines are 'not safe'. Its just my personal UNQUALIFIED opinion that as happened with Dog vaccines, Rabbits *might* be being over vaccinated.

Please please everyone go with the advice of your Vets and the RWA.

dont worry Jane, i promised hopper haven Pearl would be done twice a year when i signed the adoption form so i will not stop on a suspicion... and again its all just possibilities...maybe 10 years down the line there will be scientific data and the manufacturers will rethink the 6 months.. until then unless specifically discussed with a vet wed be mad to go against the current advice... myxi is a much worse way to die than a stomach ache :(

none of us really know for sure, just its scary that we seem to not be able to stop it happening
 
I definitely think that's one to think about though Jane.

Mine have all had at least 3 consecutive 6 monthly jabs and shown no ill side effects of it, however, if a problem showed up in the future in terms then I would look at the vaccines being relevant.

Scared the **** out of me though because all mine are having their 6 monthly myxi booster next week, most of them that will be the 4th one.

We did something similar as you with our VHD jabs after we had some bad reactions and now every rabbit under 1.7kg gets a half dose.

But that's off topic.

Back on topic we had a nethie who was nearly 12 and we did everything wrong with him to be honest. We've had another couple get to 8/9 but nothing else, so far come even close. Scary when mine are starting to approahc middle age.
 
Same old story here too - I got 2 fat, unneutered, unvaccinated buns, with no health issues beyond a sticky bum. I turned them into sicky bunnies on permanent medication and shortened lives. :(
 
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I feel really iffy about having posted on here actually as I certainly dont want anyone to think the vaccines are 'not safe'. Its just my personal UNQUALIFIED opinion that as happened with Dog vaccines, Rabbits *might* be being over vaccinated.

Please please everyone go with the advice of your Vets and the RWA.

I personally would rather you say what you think than keeping quiet :)

I think the issue of rabbits possibly being over vaccinated is an important one, and one I will be discussing with my vet.
 
Dont feel iffy Jane! its your personal opinion, and it'll allow us to keep an eye on our bunnys.
I get my bunnys done 6 month as precaution anyway as im a 5 minute walk from the river and live right beside a metro track, but i will be keeping a very close eye on my bunnys when they go for there top ups!
 
I've always been funny about vaccinations, as I think humans are over-vaccinated (no idea what I'll do when the swine flu vaccine comes along!)

But then, what's the alternative? Sometimes I think ignorance must truly be bliss.
 
That's very interesting Jane, thank you. Food for thought, don't worry I'm sure everyone understands you are not recommending this but going on your own personal experience for YOUR rabbits. :)

I think there is an interesting point about a compromised immune system and over stimulating the immune system, not enough is still known about rabbits sadly. I certainly believe that overloading the immune system can lead to illness in susceptible humans, I am such a patient!, so why not other mammals? I think susceptibility/predisposition is also an important factor.

I personally have my own theories on the rise of incidents of GI stasis, especially in house rabits. Firstly I believe that as we are all becoming aware of our rabbits and taking more interest in them as pets and being more vigilant, we are spotting illness that might have otherwise gone unnoticed. Rabbits can spontaneously, according to my vet, recover from GI stasis with no intervention at all in some cases - I have seen this myself when we got our first rescue bun, we didn't know that is what he had - now we know he had a pronounced associated bloat as well going on the symptoms he displayed then, and now, but he recovered all by himself the next day (he also had VHD limp and dental pain) but he got through it with no help at all poor thing :( (I'd better clarify - he had that day seen a well known rabbit-vet who had given him Cylap and 'clipped' his teeth and missed his GI stasis :( - we didn't deny him medical attention!!)
But I personally believe that it could have something to do with us by bringing them into our homes and making them our companions, and us theirs, we are enriching them socially and giving them hopefully more attentive and stimulating lives, however, they are prey animals first and foremost and as such are very sensitive to stress, our own emotional stresses - e.g.If I am tearful/upset Poppy's behaviour changes and she becomes difficult, she has wet her bedding on occasion before; physical and environmental change as stress such as noises, smells, strangers, furniture moving, routines upset; and most of all, I believe, separation stress from their companions - us, when we go away or out for the day. They don't understand that we are coming back again. This is just my own observations but our male bun used to get stasis every time we went away for the wknd (which was rare) despite a trusted friend visiting atleast 3x a day and spending time with him. The day after we came back - bloat/stasis.
It happened too often for it to be coincidence in my mind. The day we got him Poppy as a neutered female companion he has never had 'separation' related GI stasis since! :) He still gets it now and then for other reasons we can pinpoint - always with a stress factor involved. :(
 
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