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Sad Times :( very sick bunny.

tracey1986

tracey1986

New Kit
Hi all,
One of my bunny is rather sick :/ His name is lee and he is one and a half yrs old. since we have had him we noticed that he is a very quirky character.When we first got him we was told he was a she...then when he went in to be done we found she was a he! But all was well till earlier this year, he came down with a nose infection which cleared up but the straight after he got fur mites. After he was better from being sick twice in such a short amount of time i prayed that he wouldnt get sick again, but this was not to happen :(
3 months on from having fur mites he is now on deaths door.We noticed that he was dropping weight rappidly so we up'ed his pellets and hay intake. 6 weeks on and things are now life and death, today was his cage cleaning day, lee was lifeless weak and is shockingly skinny and dehydrated. this makes no sense his is drinking and eating as normal, he has no worms and his pooh is healthly. We rushed him to the vet and was with what i would nomally call an excellent vet only she implied that we had neglected him (as he only weighs 1.2kilos). which was totally not professional i would never neglect an animal. we had to leave him with her and was told later on that his liver is not functioning correctly and that he is not taking in the nutriances that he needs from his food, we have since picked him up but he still does not look very good, i feel that there is only a matter of time, but i hope he pulls through but this is unlikely, has anyone else been through this i dont understand what i should do i will be very heart broken if anything happens to him :(
Does anyone know what this could be or if u have been through it please let me know any information would be extremly helpful.
 
Hi, I am so sorry to hear about poor little Lee, bless him.
I hope to God that I never experience this with Jimby, he is my life line, so I completly understand how heartbroken you must be.
Is Lee an indoor or outdoor bun?
If outdoor I would suggest moving him inside where you can keep him warm, syringe feed him science recovery/critical care and also fluids (water or cooled peppermint/nettle tea are good?) and give him lots of fuss and lots of encouragment to get better, a positive attitude from his loving bunny owner will go along way, they scense when you are down and can react to that too.
The only thing I can really suggest is that maybe you take him to a rabbit specialist or at least get a second opinion from another vet, do not give up on him if you feel he still has fight left in him, he is only a young boy so there could be hope given the right care/treatment.

Sending Lee lots of get well vibes. xx
 
Definitely take him to another vet. Your current vet seems to be not only incompetent but also rude. Has your rabbit ever been wormed? I'm thinking of E. Cuniculi. Many of us use Panacur for four weeks to treat our rabbits, just in case. Sending lots of vibes for Lee xx
 
I to would echo the above. If he is outdoors he needs to be brought in pronto.

This cold weather will only make a dificult job harder.

At least you have a diagnosis and something to work from, and I hope an apology!

Cherry has had 2 dentals in the last 5 weeks. It took the vet 4 weeks and a lot of lost weight to figure out the problem was her teeth. I was there every week wooried. She finally had a dental weighing 1.7kg. She looked like skina dn bone. But perked up and went back outside with Charlie.

2 weeks later I found her even thinner, and the vet said PTS or £500 op. I opted for looking for another vet. She weighed 1.5kg. For a bun her size, I was very scared and brought her inside, she is so bad, she still has no winter coat. I started building her up, knowing she was going to need an op.

Has your vets said anything about diet, or medicines. I have never had liver trouble in my buns, so don't know what the treatment or prognisis is.

ETA: I would be worming (Panacur) as it can't harm him to do it and will get you ahead of the game, if you do decide to look for another vet.
 
Last edited:
Sorry to hear about your bad vet experience :(

I would go to another vet and see what they say
xx
 
tracey1986 said:
Hi all,
One of my bunny is rather sick :/ His name is lee and he is one and a half yrs old. since we have had him we noticed that he is a very quirky character.When we first got him we was told he was a she...then when he went in to be done we found she was a he! But all was well till earlier this year, he came down with a nose infection which cleared up but the straight after he got fur mites. After he was better from being sick twice in such a short amount of time i prayed that he wouldnt get sick again, but this was not to happen :(
3 months on from having fur mites he is now on deaths door.We noticed that he was dropping weight rappidly so we up'ed his pellets and hay intake. 6 weeks on and things are now life and death, today was his cage cleaning day, lee was lifeless weak and is shockingly skinny and dehydrated. this makes no sense his is drinking and eating as normal, he has no worms and his pooh is healthly. We rushed him to the vet and was with what i would nomally call an excellent vet only she implied that we had neglected him (as he only weighs 1.2kilos). which was totally not professional i would never neglect an animal. we had to leave him with her and was told later on that his liver is not functioning correctly and that he is not taking in the nutriances that he needs from his food, we have since picked him up but he still does not look very good, i feel that there is only a matter of time, but i hope he pulls through but this is unlikely, has anyone else been through this i dont understand what i should do i will be very heart broken if anything happens to him :(
Does anyone know what this could be or if u have been through it please let me know any information would be extremly helpful.
Click to expand...

What diagnostics did the Vet carry out ?
What is the treatment/medication prescibed ?
Has he had a thorough Dental examination ?

A Runny nose (Snuffles) and fur mites are both problems that can occur secondary to Dental Disease.
Severe weightloss (as would occur with a Rabbit with untreated Dental Disease) would result in an abnormal Liver Function and Dehydration.

There are numerous other conditions that can cause Liver problems but the history you have given here makes me think 'Teeth' are involved in the overall situation.

ETA -Please do not administer any Worming products until you have consulted a Rabbit Savvy Vet. Fenbendazole/Panacur (a wormer) MIGHT effect the Liver.
 
Last edited:
when we took him to the vets these are the things she carried out:
1. took his blood to check everything
2. xrays
3. gave him fluid under his skin
4. gave him metacam

then she rang us to collect him. We was sent home with rabbit penicillin(antibiotic) and orders to siringe feed him baby food, pineapple juice an water.

We was told that she wanted to put him under to check his teeth but it was not viable due to how bad his condition is.

He is an indoor rabbit along with our other 3 rabbits...i am trying to tempt him with lots of different foods that i know he likes, when i checked on him this morning he had eaten a little of his pellets and a little of his salad bowl. He seems perkier today but has not touched his water bottle. Off to the shop today to get more fresh food for him as this is what he is mainly eating which is good!!! he is also eating hay but not much of it...

My vet is sending lee's paper work to a specialist in swindon to see if he can help, fingers crossed we can wait till monday, luckily we are moving to swindon at the end of the month so this will be the vets that we move to!

thankyou all for your concern, it is much apperciated and helps me think more positively. will be giving lee hugs from all of you :)
 
Is the Swindon vet Great Western Referrals? If so, I'm sure they'll be very competent at helping you to get to the bottom of the problem.

Had you taken your bun to the vet at all in the 6 weeks prior to his emergency appointment the other day? It's not clear from your original post, which makes it sound as if you'd left him at home while he continued to lose weight but that he hadn't been to the vet...if that is the case, then I'm afraid I think your vet does have a point in her telling off, even if it wasn't said in the most diplomatic way :?

Glad your little one is eating for now and hopefully there will be a positive conclusion for him :)
 
We took him about 4weeks ago, and was told to up his food intake which we did. It was not possible to keep picking him up to check him as he does not like heights, and was acting as normal,his weight loss was a very gradual thing.I did everything that was possible from preventing him from losing weight but i guess that just wasnt good enough, lee is now having around the clock attention our other bunnys are perfect in weight.

Lee has always hidden his illness very well (natural rabbit thing to do),has always appeared to act normal, when he cam out to play he would do the things he would normally. under normal circumstances we would do routine health checks with the bunny's like checking their teeth,pooh,urine,nose and nails once a month...but we also check their toilets every other day. It is clear to me that i really need to do more...but rabbit are difficult to determine when they are sick as they dont show obvious signs.

All that matters now is that lee gets better and pulls through. I am not sure which vets it is in swindon (i cant remember the name!!)

will keep u all posted.
xx
 
Great Western Referrals is great. I'm sure you'll be sent there. I can't speak highly enough of them, & advise you to get Lee there ASAP. [You can pm me if you want help with a cuppa while you're waiting for tests etc.]
 
update on lee

just to let all of you that have replied to my thread.
Took lee to the vets today and saw the same vet that was rather rude to us,she said we are model bunny parents :D Lee was 1.2 kilos and has is now 1.4 :) we are not out of the woods yet but the vet suspects that he has a spur in his tooth. He has to go back on Wednesday and if he is strong enough will be going under to confirm her conclusion and we will take it from there. Lee is looking so much better but not 100% due to him not having loads of energy when he gets excited his back legs go :? his appetite is getting a little better but not great and we are still giving him his syringe treatments, which he is starting to enjoy :D

will keep you all posted
 
Thinking of you with everything crossed for tomorrow & your visit to the vet.
[It may be worth asking whether his liver abnormality could be caused by not eating enough?]
 
Sending get well vibes for Lee, I am glad he has gained a little bit of weight. Hopefully the vet can get to the bottom of it all soon.

Cerys :)
 
Update 2

:wave: Lee has put a little more weight on and is 1.59 kilos.however the vet now is unsure if it was his teeth,and now does not know what to think. We will be going back on friday to make the decision to have him put under to check his teeth to be certain. But if they dont find anything wrong with his teeth then we wont know what to do next but i may get a referral if they cant find anything wrong.They have also said he may only be eating because of the metacam :?
He is gradually getting his fiestyness back, and last night he managed to eat 2 handfull of pellets and a bowl of veg as well as some hay which is excellent, he is even drinking water by himself too now!!hopefully things will keep getting better... will keep u all posted and will give lee a hug from all of you :D

xx
 
Thank you for updating us.

I agree with parsnip bun on 2 counts:
a) A specialist center will reach the diagnosis more quickly & start him on the best available treatment we currently know of.
b) They have specialist equipment for anaesthetizing rabbits, & very wide experience. This reduces the anaesthetic risk in a sick bunny, considerably.

I had to demand a second opinion on Thumper, hence my involvement with the Great Western. It didn't cause any unpleasantness. They actually seemed quite relieved, because they didn't know much about rabbits, although excellent with cats & dogs.
 
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