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Advice please - Clarence has "Ileus" - anything else I can do 4 him???

Gizzie G

New Kit
Good morning,

My poor Clarence has been diagnosed with Ileus which, from what I have read I think is basically stasis. He was fine Tues bed- time, but then not eating and just laying down Wed 1st thing so straight to the vet (me waiting outside for them to arrive!!). He is on Metacam and has had 2 doses of Metochlopramide yesterday and more Metacam this morning. He has only eaten a tiny amount of veg, no pellets and a tiny amount of hay. I cant seem to tempt him with anything. I am syringe feeding him CCF to get some fluids and nutrients in him although he is not taking it at all well. Seems to be more a case of wetting the inside of his mouth a little before it drips out. He has a heat pad - thought it might help. Encouraging him to move around as I read this can help (although he is not very happy about it).

Then to add to things Clover started to go the same way- I think I have caught her in time though. The vet said she was gassey (?) She had Metochlopramide etc too yesterday eve just in case and this morning she does seem brighter.

Is there anything else I should or could be doing, esp for Clarence?? He seems so depressed :( . Have had no experience with this kind of problem so feel really at a loss. Any advice would be very welcome- I am so worried.

xx
 
Has your vet performed any other diagnostics?

Checked teeth? (this may need to be done under sedation/GA to determine spurs right at the back of the mouth as its virtually impossible to check this in rabbits while awake)

Checked for a blockage? If it was a blockage, metaclopromide could make the situation worse, as he would need to get the blockage moved before further food being processed. If it was a blockage, fluids are vital to be given via IV.

Your bunny may need an xray to determine if its a blockage and/or teeth as mentioned above.

Is your vet rabbit savvy do you know? If you are at all unsure and wish for a second opinion, pop a thread up in 'Rabbit Chat' stating "Rabbit Savvy vet needed urgently in <insert your area here>".

Hope thats a start, unfortunately, a lot of us have ileus prone bunnies :(

Loads of vibes for Clarence and his friend.
 
She checked his teeth - no signs of a problem but from what you say may need further investigation, palpated his abdo etc and seemed satisfied no blockage. No sure the vets are 100% rabbit savvy so will go on rabbit chat as you suggest.

Thanks for your quick reply & vibes. Hopefully he will start to improve a little through the day. :(
 
She checked his teeth - no signs of a problem but from what you say may need further investigation, palpated his abdo etc and seemed satisfied no blockage. No sure the vets are 100% rabbit savvy so will go on rabbit chat as you suggest.

Thanks for your quick reply & vibes. Hopefully he will start to improve a little through the day. :(

Also, with the pain relief, what metacam has he had and how much? Was it cat or dog metacam ? (it'll say on the box) and what dosage (how much does he weigh too?)?
 
He weighs 1.8kg and is on cat metacam max dose (up to the 10kg mark on the metacam syringe) once a day.

Okay, thats possibly not going to be strong enough - rabbits metabolise meds a lot quicker than dogs/cats so they need much higher doses than you may think. Hopefully, if someone such as Jacks-Jane as i see she's just posted on your other thread suggests another vet, it may be worth getting hold of them and taking your bunny there - hopefully they can help!
 
Hi, I'm no expert but I've just experienced the same thing with my bun Pebbles this week, it terrified me!! But he is SOso much better now and is recovering fantastically :)

Same thing happened though, he was fine all day Saturday, out on the lawn munchin grass. Scoffed his hay and pellets for dinner on saturday night. Then Sunday morning he was just sitting and refusing to eat anything :( Phoned the vets and we went off to get checked. Vet said it was good because he stil lhad some gut movement but there was no food in his mouth which was bad. He couldn't find anything wrong that may have caused it except he did see some tiny tooth spurs on his back teeth. He gave Pebbles an injection of a gut moving drug.

Pebbles was still bad by Sunday night and I hadn't seen him eat anything at all or drink or poop. Phoned the emergency vet who said to bring them indoors and just keep trying with food etc and phone vet again in morning if still not eating. That was a terrible night, I was up nearly all night worrying, but felt couldn't phone vet again coz he had already told me what to do.

Phoned my local vet first thing in the morning and got an appointment at 11am... struggled through the morning thinking he wasn't going to make it til 11! Went up to the vet early to try and see her before then. She said his gut was empty and had stopped moving :( Gave him another drug for gut and a pain relief drug I think and gave me some gut drug and some Fibreplex to bring home. It was so sad, Pebbles continued to just sit and lay down, barely moved and was getting really fed up with me waving food in his face! I put them out on the grass after the vet and he perked up a litle bit and hopped about weakly but wasn't tempted by the grass. Back in the shed I saw him eat a few blades of grass and a couple of spinach leaves, phew!

But that evening when I brought them back inside he still seemed bad. Trying to syringe in the gut stuff and then the Fibreplex was really difficult but managed to gt a bit in. Phoned vet again the next day to ask whether I should bring him in again. Vet nurse said no as it would stress him out again and he is more likely to eat at home. Brought some flat leaf parsley under her guidance as an appetite starter.

It all began to work! PEbbles gradually started to eat leaves of parsley, then some spinach and other leaves, then bits of carrot and grass and eventually later that day a few pellets!!! I was SO happy!! Carried on like that. Then put them back out in their shed yesterday because it's too warm in our house for hardy outdoor buns! He is so much happier out there, he's even eaten a little bit of hay.

There is a thread I started on Sunday about Pebbles not eating or moving and lots of people gave me good advice, have a read. I was someone who had never experinced this before and truly thought my bun was going to die :( but he's recovered and I can see him hopping about out in the garden :)
 
Sorry, that was a really long post!

The drug my bun had was Zantac if that helps? Smelt like sweets?!!
 
GrahamL - Thank you. Will be phoning vets to sort - especially the pain relief.

kt6382 - Thank you - you know EXACTLY what I am going through. It is such a worry. I have got really good advice and feel more prepared to address things/ask questions when I speak to the vet to make sure Clarence has the most appropriate treatment he can.I feel there is more that can be done to help him. Glad Pebbles is so much better - how lovely he is back to hopping around. Just going to make phone calls, try Clarence with fluids again, then it off to buy flat leaf parsley and some other fresh herbs to try and tempt him.

Thanks to all :)
 
Heya, hows Clarence this afternoon? Hope he's munched some of that parsley! Pebbles seems fine now, but I don't know how long to try and continue to give the medicine for? I can;t get any Fibreplex in which isquite annoying, but the gut/Zantac stuff is easy to absorb into apple so I can keep that up.

Need to get him munching back onto hay now though, he's been spoilt the last few days as vet said get him eating what ever he will!! Spoilt bunny, and Sandy has been desparately trying to steal itall,think he feels left out!!

Hope Clarence is feeling better and hasmanaged to have a munch :)
 
Sorry didn't post yesterday, glad to say Clarence appears to have turned the corner and is a little better.

Couldn't get to Twickenham, but spoke to a particular vet at my practice through the day who is the most rabbit savvy (not the one who said oh its a rabbit thing, he'll be fine :shock:!!). She has adjusted the Metacam dosage - thank you GrahamL- (and said she would have given the one for dogs - like she did for my rainbow bridge bunny Gizmo) she also suggested giving him a small amount of fresh pineapple or papaya when he starts to nibble to tempt him and "reset" his enzymes, but to keep up with my "intensive care". She also discussed next steps like xray etc if no improvement by morning. Have an appointment this morning for a review.

So yesterday was spent with my timer set hourly to syringe feed Clarence, tempting him with parsley, a little grass, strawberry leaves, veg, encouraging him to move around etc and lots of TLC. Late afternoon he started nibbling a few bits :):), I even found a few obviously Clarence poos - yippee :lol:. my husband came home and found him drinking (I was so relieved I was worried about him dehydrating). By 10.45 he actually came over to me and nudged my hand and took the tiniest piece of pineapple and seemed to really like it!

Hopefully, he will continue to improve. Thank you GrahamL, your knowledge and advice has been invaluable.
kt6382 you have been very reassuring having experienced the same thing so recently. Your other post and the advice given on there was really useful. Glad Pebbles is fine now - such a relief when they recover (or start to in my case ;))

:):)
 
Ah!! So glad to hear Clarence is starting to recover!!! :) Thank goodness :) How is th pineapple thing working? I read that somewhere and wondered whether to try it with Pebbles.. I think I read that it can be good for blockages if they eat alot of furor paper or something?!

Who'd have thought rabbits could scare us so much! It's been my half term this week and I have had ton of work to do in prep for the coming half term but haven't been able to focus on anything coz been so stressed about Pebbles, and now I'm ill! But thankfully he seems to be absolutley fine :) Just need to up the hay intake now that he's been used to all these enticing snacks! and I'm notsure when to stop the gut medicine?? He's almost finished it all anyway.

Bet Clarence will be back to his normal self in no time!:)
 
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