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Surgery on the GI Tract of a Rabbit-PLEASE Tell me Your 'Good Outcome' Stories

just wanted to send our love and that there is always hope. Winston was really ill few month ago even our bunny vet didn't think he would make it. She sent him home the first night basically to die as he was really ill.
But he never hes a little fighter he was on a drip for nearly a week but at the end he pulled through and hes still here today to tell the tail! He never had surgery but the vet was considering it .
 
It's Tess

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=241886&highlight=tess

:cry:

Whilst she is now bright and eating she still has a palpable mass in her intestines and despite gut motility meds and fluids her poos are dreadful

002-16.jpg


Tess is not a Bun to cope with lots of hands on care. She gets mega stressed. I dont know if it is fare to subject her to very high risk surgery that by its very nature would require lots of post op' intensive care. Assuming she actually makes it through surgery.

Atm Tess 'feels' well and unless you palpate her abdomen or see her poo you'd not know that there was anything wrong.

I dont know what to do :cry:
 
Poor Tess :cry: Ive no advice, just didnt want to read and run :( Sending lots of vibes for Tess xxx
 
Willow survived taking a mass out of her gut and was well within a few days! Damson had very extensive surgery which involved taking his guts out and put back in again and was well for about 4 months afterwards - eventually passing away probably due to old age more than anything else.

So both happy outcomes!
 
Unfortunately the only time we have had intestinal surgery on a rabbit there wasn't a good outcome but that was 10 years ago.

If Tess is bright and eating then IMO I wouldn't go for surgery at the moment, considering how long she went with not eating properly I think she needs a little longer to see if things settle down :D
 
Our dwarf lop had a fur blockage surgically removed from his stomach in February 2007 and lived on until November 2009. Our vet only gave him a 25% chance of survival but he was one very determined little rabbit.
 
Not an easy decision - thanks for the link, I'm up to speed on Tess' progress now.

I agree with Liz to give her a couple of days for her stress levels to come down and for her gut to settle. Poor Tess hope she's feeling well soon.
 
Does your vet have any info on what proportion of rabbits make it through intestinal surgery?


hope Tess improves, whatever option you choose.
 
I'm sure you know it is one of the most difficult ops:(. I have discussed these with my vet and he is quite experienced and positive about them - it mostly seems to depend on where the blockage is and whether or not the vet can manipulate the mass without cutting into the bowel itself (which really reduces the chance of a good outcome ).) I expect a really experienced rabbit vet would also help. It's a really tough decision - I don't envy you.
 
Surgery on the gut has two main groups:
1) where the intestines are manipulated but not cut e.g. moving a small intestinal obstruction down to the caecum, removing an abscess next to the intestine. This usually carries a good prognosis if the rabbit is not debilitated at the time of surgery.
2) cutting into the intestine e.g. to remove a lodged foreign body or tumour of the intestinal wall. This carries a worse prognosis with high risk of infection, wound breakdown and secondary adhesions.

Do you know what/where the mass is exactly as this will dramatically affect possible surgery and outcome?

Last two obstructive surgeries I have done went home within 48hrs looking fantastic so it's not always a bad outcome.
 
marie_kubiak said:
Surgery on the gut has two main groups:
1) where the intestines are manipulated but not cut e.g. moving a small intestinal obstruction down to the caecum, removing an abscess next to the intestine. This usually carries a good prognosis if the rabbit is not debilitated at the time of surgery.
2) cutting into the intestine e.g. to remove a lodged foreign body or tumour of the intestinal wall. This carries a worse prognosis with high risk of infection, wound breakdown and secondary adhesions.

Do you know what/where the mass is exactly as this will dramatically affect possible surgery and outcome?

Last two obstructive surgeries I have done went home within 48hrs looking fantastic so it's not always a bad outcome.
Click to expand...

The mass is in the small intestines. She has not had an U/S yet as we are trying to balance her (extreme) stressiness with diagnostics. She's more stable now in that she is bright and eating. She had to be syringe fed for almost a week!! But her fecal output remains abnormal despite ongoing gut motility meds.

She is due to be reviewed on Tuesday unless anything changes beforehand.
If she were a Bun who tolerated alot of hands-on care and traveled better it would be marginally easier to know what to do. But a 10 minute car journey can almost finish her off :cry:

Thanks for you input Marie :)
 
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