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GI Stasis & Pineapple Juice

M

mousetarget

Young Bun
Just passing on a tip we use all the time if we have a bunny with GI Stasis - it is of course important to get your bunny to the vet as soon as possible, but there is one thing you can try straight away - always make sure you have the long life Pineapple juice in your fridge and a syringe, feed a syringe full of the pineapple juice to your bunny through its mouth - for some reason this juice seems to get the gut moving again after a few hours - we've used it on a few bunnies in the past and it works. At the same time syringe feed some water and some mashed up food in water as well after you have given the Pineapple juice.

Hope this tip helps a bunny somewhere.
 
Sorry I have to disagree with the use of pineapple juice :oops:

The reasons are as follows:

1- If giving it as an attempt to break down fur in the GI tract then it has to be 100% FRESH pineapple. The enzyme which is alleged to help (bromelain) is destroyed during any processing (as would occur in making the type of pineapple juice bought in cartons).


2-Pineapple contains a lot of sugar. Giving sugary substances to a Rabbit if gut stasis can make things much worse. The sugar feeds the 'bad' gut bacteria potentially causing a life threatening dysbiosis


The best thing to administer to a Rabbit in gut stasis is water. Oral administration in less severe cases, SQ or IV in more serious cases.


The enzyme Bromelain can be bought from most Health Food Stores. If wanting to give bromelain then far better to do so without all the added sugars found in Pineapple

Another VERY important thing is that no Rabbit should be syringe feed anything but water until it has been confirmed by a Vet that a GI tract obstruction is not present. Syringe feeding an obstructed Rabbit can be extremely dangerous :cry:

Tis what I think anyway :)
 
Last edited:
Jack's-Jane said:
Sorry I have to disagree with the use of pineapple juice :oops:

The reasons are as follows:

1- If giving it as an attempt to break down fur in the GI tract then it has to be 100% FRESH pineapple. The enzyme which is alleged to help (bromelain) is destroyed during any processing (as would occur in making the type of pineapple juice bought in cartons).


2-Pineapple contains a lot of sugar. Giving sugary substances to a Rabbit if gut stasis can make things much worse. The sugar feeds the 'bad' gut bacteria potentially causing a life threatening dysbiosis


The best thing to administer to a Rabbit in gut stasis is water. Oral administration in less severe cases, SQ or IV in more serious cases.


The enzyme Bromelain can be bought from most Health Food Stores. If wanting to give bromelain then far better to do so without all the added sugars found in Pineapple

Another VERY important thing is that no Rabbit should be syringe feed anything but water until it has been confirmed by a Vet that a GI tract obstruction is not present. Syringe feeding an obstructed Rabbit can be extremely dangerous :cry:

Tis what I think anyway :)
Click to expand...

:thumb:
 
I agree. I saw a rabbit specialist a couple of months ago and asked her about the pineapple juice theory and she said it's an old wives tale and didn't recommend it. She is one of two people in the UK with a small animals specialist qualification so knows what she's talking about. That's why I made a list of lots of questions for her since I was paying out lot of money!:D
 
The enzyme bromelain breaks down protein and is used as a meat tenderiser for this reason. Maybe this is how it came into being as a suggested means for clearing a trichobezoar; by utilising the enzyme action on the hair. I cannot find any research to support the argument that bromelain will break down the protein keratin, the protein in hair. It may work to break down other protein from food which had been caught in the trichobezoar and possibly loosen the mass of hair, but I can't see where that would be sufficient to allow the hair mass to pass through the pylorus.

It is disappointing to hear many vets with limited rabbit experience still suggest the use of pineapple juice. It must be one of those myths that if repeated enough become "fact".
 
Lobo said:
The enzyme bromelain breaks down protein and is used as a meat tenderiser for this reason. Maybe this is how it came into being as a suggested means for clearing a trichobezoar; by utilising the enzyme action on the hair. I cannot find any research to support the argument that bromelain will break down the protein keratin, the protein in hair. It may work to break down other protein from food which had been caught in the trichobezoar and possibly loosen the mass of hair, but I can't see where that would be sufficient to allow the hair mass to pass through the pylorus.

It is disappointing to hear many vets with limited rabbit experience still suggest the use of pineapple juice. It must be one of those myths that if repeated enough become "fact".
Click to expand...

I had a rabbit admitted for treatment of stasis recently (not my usual vets) and when I visited her there was a big lump of pineapple for her to eat, I was horrified but when I calmed a little I knew she wouldn't eat it anyway. I was still very dismayed to see it being offered, especially such a huge quantity of it, and the vet had told me quite proudly that he had sourced it for her :(
 
I also recently read an article that exploded the myth of the pineapple -

and also re rabbits in particular indicated that only a few of the GI stasis issues are due to 'fur balls' as such (which pineapple could not dissolve anyway). Of course some do result from/are triggerred by hair but many have other core issues..
 
Last edited:
Bunny Buddy said:
I had a rabbit admitted for treatment of stasis recently (not my usual vets) and when I visited her there was a big lump of pineapple for her to eat, I was horrified but when I calmed a little I knew she wouldn't eat it anyway. I was still very dismayed to see it being offered, especially such a huge quantity of it, and the vet had told me quite proudly that he had sourced it for her :(
Click to expand...

I know it wouldn't be your usual vet.:)

This is a genuine trichobezoar that was removed from the stomach of our dwarf lop in 2007.

It is about the size of a golf ball with the centre hard from matted hair and was lodged at the pylorus, all in a little 2Kg rabbit. No amount of pineapple was going to shift this.

DSCF1483R.jpg
 
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