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correct treatment for stasis??

lauraandmike

Warren Scout
Hello

My bunny Polly has recurrent stasis. We have managed this through diet /medication etc and she was fine but it occurs again now every couple of weeks, for half an hour or so. her poos can be tiny, her boyfriends are massive.

vet now suggests, xrays, blood test, urine test, poo test.

does this sound ok? should we check for anything else?

i was recommended that i should try gut motility treatment over 5 days by someone on RU. the vet told me to give this medicine only when she has an expisode. perhaps longer treatment should be tried ?

he says it could be kidney stones, or where intestine has stuck to something during her spey. what else could it be?

thanks :)
 
i think blood tests and xrays are the right way to go along with an attempt at diet management :wave::wave::wave:

Alvin is a prone bun, hes had blood tests but has never gone as far as xrays. His stasis episodes have dropped to almost non-existant with diet changes alone

hope you get answers, i hate stasis :(
 
do you know what the blood tests can detect?
did you find that certain veggies were a problem? what diet changes did you try? unfortunately i really dont think its food related, wish it was that simple. they have the high fibre diet, hay, egg cup of pellets each a day and greens, carrots etc.

i dont really want to do xrays as they will ahve to put her under and that is stressful (for all of us!). Do all vets put a rabbit to sleep to xray it?

thank you :D

i think blood tests and xrays are the right way to go along with an attempt at diet management :wave::wave::wave:

Alvin is a prone bun, hes had blood tests but has never gone as far as xrays. His stasis episodes have dropped to almost non-existant with diet changes alone

hope you get answers, i hate stasis :(
 
Alvins blood tests ruled out EC and any organ function issues, the main reason i havent gone for xrays myself is because his bloods were fine and he has really long periods when hes 100% if he had something going on inside i believe he would be ill all the time not just on and off

his teeth have also been given the all clear, he had a dental once even though the vets didnt think his teeth were the problem and the spurs were so minor, down inside where they can only see with a GA was fine so not a teeth issue.

one thing that did show up in his bloods was his unusually high (for a rabbit) stress hormone which may need treatment in the future.

diet wise i have totally cut out all fruit and carrot. his pellets are limited to a 15ml measure (shared with Holly) twice a day. no more shop bought treats apart from 1 fenugreek crunchy a day.

veg, human veg he gets a small amount of kale and a leaf of romaine and some basil all shared with Holly. the wild part of his diet is rose leaves, bramble leaves and hawthorn leaves, i also dry these out to give as a treat or scattered on hay.

he had a blip about a week ago, but with one dose of metacam and him choosing to eat brambles and hawthorn over pellets we only had a few hours of not eating and not even any stasis poops :D:D

do you know what the blood tests can detect?
did you find that certain veggies were a problem? what diet changes did you try? unfortunately i really dont think its food related, wish it was that simple. they have the high fibre diet, hay, egg cup of pellets each a day and greens, carrots etc.

i dont really want to do xrays as they will ahve to put her under and that is stressful (for all of us!). Do all vets put a rabbit to sleep to xray it?

thank you :D
 
do you know what the blood tests can detect?
did you find that certain veggies were a problem? what diet changes did you try? unfortunately i really dont think its food related, wish it was that simple. they have the high fibre diet, hay, egg cup of pellets each a day and greens, carrots etc.

i dont really want to do xrays as they will ahve to put her under and that is stressful (for all of us!). Do all vets put a rabbit to sleep to xray it?

thank you :D

I really do understand how you feel. We felt the same way. Nino had ongoing stasis episodes ever since we adopted him 4 years ago. Sometimes they would go away for nearly a year, and at others they would be recurrent and reoccur almost every weekend or every month, particularly this Spring and in the New Year.

It is all too easy to think that a rabbit is just 'prone' to stasis when in reality this is quite rare and nearly always there is an underlying condition causing ongoing low grade pain or something similar. Like you we were very reluctant indeed to Xray but it just so happened that after one middle of the night emergency vet trip a vet did a conscious abdo Xray. Trying to get to the bottom of the recurrent episodes this Spring our reg vet requested this old Xray after I suggested/asked about stones for example causing pain... because of our bun's strange pain on weeing symptoms - lifting hips strangely and straining. Our reg vet spotted something that looked like very poorly hip joints on this one-off Xray and requested to put Nino under a GA to Xray properly. The problem with conscious Xrays is that you can not position the rabbit correctly for every aspect. They are fine for a quick abdo Xray to check for obstruction/gas but to check jaw and molar tooth roots properly (a common reason for repeat GI stasis) and in our case to position Nino's hips correctly to check the suspected arthritis - a GA was required.

Our vet knew how we felt about this and Nino's 'stress' levels but took every care, even housed Nino with his bonded partner Poppy in an isolation room away from the cats and dogs and gave them a big dog crate. He was ABSOLUTELY FINE during his GA and surprised them all by munching hay in his tray immediately afterwards ( I took all their blankets and litter tray etc with us to the vet for familiarity). :D These Xrays were then sent off to an exotic vet for analysis - this was such an important thing we did you know. Nino has a definite diagnosis of early onset Osteoarthritis (he hides his symptoms VERY well - the only symptom was stasis from the pain of his joints). He is on daily NSAID and glucosamine and has not had an episode since. :D Whislt this is quite rare in a young rabbit - it demonstrates the importance of investigations and Xrays if your vet thinks necessary. How much more stressful is it for you and your bunny when he keeps getting stasis? Surely no more than having a quick GA and some Xrays taken. :)

If diet makes no difference - cutting out all starchy/sugary foods (we don't feed pellets at all) then I really would consider further investigations for your own peace of mind and to help you find out what is wrong with your bunny. Good luck x

p.s. I might have been the person suggesting ongoing metclopramide (maxolon) and ranitidine (zantac) because this is what my vet advises for repeat stasis buns - simply because a persistent ileus does not just go away over night and repeat episodes are more likely to be flare ups of the original episode unless you reestablish normal gut motility over a longer period of time with prokinetics if appropriate.

ETA Xrays also showed microabcesses on the kidneys probly due to past EC infection going by blood test result also - may also be contributor - again importance of investigations!
 
Stasis type symptoms lasting for a short time is usually due to gas...which is usually due to diet.

Try cutting down on 'gassy' veg like brussels, cabbage, kale, and broccoli to see if she improves. Don't feed any sugary treats at all (including too much fruit or sugary veg like carrots). Also be cautious about over-feeding readigrass/ dried grass because it can be high in calcium and stop them eating enough hay.

Plus, switch over to a water bowl rather than bottle if you don't already use one.
 
thanks everyone

thats all a lot to take in, i will have to read it properly when i get home (so i dont get caught at work ha ha).

i think i will go for blood tests first and cut out carrots, poo/wee tests also. they have 5 water bowls as i read that they must keep hydrated!

if this doesnt work i will get the xrays of course.

fingers crossed. hope your bunnies all stay stasis free, it is horrid.

they wont be impressed tonight when the dinner bowl arrives with no carrot bits. if something is missing they look quite confused and then disgusted :roll:
 
I'm really sorry to hear about your bunny. One of my previous rabbits went through a problem with stasis, she had to make frequent visits to the vets to stay over night etc. We tried allsorts, with advice from the vets obviously, pineapple to drink and dried, all kinds of dried fruit, natural yoghurt, special papaya and pineapple digestion tablets for rabbits.

She mostly lived on a diet of grass and fresh veg. After a while I decided to start to add some pellets to her food and plenty of hay, I know it sounds obvious but I really think hay turned out to be the key.

Spoiling my rabbit the way I did, I brought almost every hay under the sun from varying websites, just to get her to eat lots of it, in the end I came up with a sly solution....mix the dry food into the hay. This also gives the rabbit foraging entertainment. Whether it was a phase she went through or it was her diet change, she thankfully didn't have the statsis issue again and haven;t had any problems with my bunnies since....fingers crossed.

I have always and always will give my rabbits access to fresh grass and vegatables, but I am also aware that they need some form of dry substance also. Also after looking into it so much I have read in a number of places that kale and brocolli can cause dietary issues and as we all know lettuce can also. I hope your bunny is better soon. Oh and I have always found alfalfa cubes to be gone come morning too!
 
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