Hi all,
Hope everybody & bun is well. I’m sorry I’ve not been more active recently, work is still extremely busy and access to the net is limited at the moment at home – my dongle is ****.
Anyway, a couple of you may have seen on Facebook, but Mouse is currently not well, with suspected EC
I spent the early part of this week in Zurich for work, and arrived home Wednesday evening. While I was away, I had a friend flat & rabbit sit the girls, while Mickey is currently away being bonded.
Without waffling too much, I ended up at the emergency vets late Monday. Both girls seemed quiet when I got home and went in to see them, and neither ate their pellets when I put their bowl down. Mouse seemed to deteriorate rapidly (not being able to easily get out of their litter tray which is a shallow under-bed storage box) and I didn’t want to leave her until the following morning. She was uncomfortable on her back legs, taking one or two hops at a time, and sitting awkwardly. She wasn’t eating and seemed unusually quiet, allowing me to sit her on my lap while I was on the floor, which never happens unless I have food! Her eyes weren’t bright and she didn’t have the wide-eyed inquisitive look she normally has.
Anyway, while the night vet was fairly thorough, he wasn’t an ‘exotic vet’ and gave her some Metacam suggesting she might have taken a tumble or landed funny when jumping from something in their room and pulled a muscle or something to that effect. He suggested it may be a neurological issue but suggested we wait overnight to see if the Metacam improved things.
Yesterday morning she was worse. We went straight to the vets when they opened for day surgery. Unfortunately neither William or the other rabbit specialist were in, however the guy I did see was great. After testing her glucose levels, and checking her over nose to tail, he asked that they keep her in to take x-rays to see if she had any limb damage to her legs or spine that wasn’t detectable by checking normally, and would take blood work to check for EC. According to my vet, E. Cuniculi is diagnosed by a blood test that is not part of routine blood-work and while I had a bit of a panic about her having bloods taken, I was assured that they would only carry this out if truly necessary. In the meantime they would get her treatment started on Panacur and would syringe feed her throughout the day – I can’t remember the name of it, but the high fibre paste-like food.
She was separated from Mango in error (mine, mainly) for a couple of hours but Mango was promptly taken to the vets where they were very happy to see each other and Mango was started on Panacur treatment as well.
I called throughout the day, and she was fine. She was taking the food paste from a spoon so she seemed to like that! And she was passing poops. She came round from her mild sedation following her x-rays and was comfortable. It seems Mouse is slightly anaemic, the vet said that’s common when a rabbit develops an illness.
Prior to collecting them both last night, I left work early and set about disinfecting their room, cleaning everything thoroughly and setting them up a pen in the corner of the room, lined with towels and blankets making sure everything was cosy. I replaced their normal litter tray with a large dog basket meaning the lip was low enough for Mouse to not really have to jump into to have access to hay, and made sure they had a big hidey area for them. Collected an annoyed looking Mango and a very sad Mouse about 7.30pm.
I managed to get Mouse to eat some grated apple and a few apple leaves, however she won’t touch carrot or any of her other favourite vegs. This morning both ate some fresh bramble leaves and half a carrot treat each. Neither will eat their pellets as they are, but Mango happily munched away on mashed pellet. Both had their Panacur dosage, and Mouse is on .5ml of Baytril for the next 10 days, twice daily.
I have been given some of the food powder to make into a paste, so depending on how she is tonight, I’ll make some of that up. I’ve bought a nice selection of herbs today so I’m hoping that will win her over.
Until the results come back re: EC, that’s all we really have to go on. What I’m wondering is, what else it may be? She’s not showing any signs of statis, diarrhoea, she’s not developed a head tilt. She’s just very huddled up, and looks thoroughly miserable and sleepy
Hope everybody & bun is well. I’m sorry I’ve not been more active recently, work is still extremely busy and access to the net is limited at the moment at home – my dongle is ****.
Anyway, a couple of you may have seen on Facebook, but Mouse is currently not well, with suspected EC
I spent the early part of this week in Zurich for work, and arrived home Wednesday evening. While I was away, I had a friend flat & rabbit sit the girls, while Mickey is currently away being bonded.
Without waffling too much, I ended up at the emergency vets late Monday. Both girls seemed quiet when I got home and went in to see them, and neither ate their pellets when I put their bowl down. Mouse seemed to deteriorate rapidly (not being able to easily get out of their litter tray which is a shallow under-bed storage box) and I didn’t want to leave her until the following morning. She was uncomfortable on her back legs, taking one or two hops at a time, and sitting awkwardly. She wasn’t eating and seemed unusually quiet, allowing me to sit her on my lap while I was on the floor, which never happens unless I have food! Her eyes weren’t bright and she didn’t have the wide-eyed inquisitive look she normally has.
Anyway, while the night vet was fairly thorough, he wasn’t an ‘exotic vet’ and gave her some Metacam suggesting she might have taken a tumble or landed funny when jumping from something in their room and pulled a muscle or something to that effect. He suggested it may be a neurological issue but suggested we wait overnight to see if the Metacam improved things.
Yesterday morning she was worse. We went straight to the vets when they opened for day surgery. Unfortunately neither William or the other rabbit specialist were in, however the guy I did see was great. After testing her glucose levels, and checking her over nose to tail, he asked that they keep her in to take x-rays to see if she had any limb damage to her legs or spine that wasn’t detectable by checking normally, and would take blood work to check for EC. According to my vet, E. Cuniculi is diagnosed by a blood test that is not part of routine blood-work and while I had a bit of a panic about her having bloods taken, I was assured that they would only carry this out if truly necessary. In the meantime they would get her treatment started on Panacur and would syringe feed her throughout the day – I can’t remember the name of it, but the high fibre paste-like food.
She was separated from Mango in error (mine, mainly) for a couple of hours but Mango was promptly taken to the vets where they were very happy to see each other and Mango was started on Panacur treatment as well.
I called throughout the day, and she was fine. She was taking the food paste from a spoon so she seemed to like that! And she was passing poops. She came round from her mild sedation following her x-rays and was comfortable. It seems Mouse is slightly anaemic, the vet said that’s common when a rabbit develops an illness.
Prior to collecting them both last night, I left work early and set about disinfecting their room, cleaning everything thoroughly and setting them up a pen in the corner of the room, lined with towels and blankets making sure everything was cosy. I replaced their normal litter tray with a large dog basket meaning the lip was low enough for Mouse to not really have to jump into to have access to hay, and made sure they had a big hidey area for them. Collected an annoyed looking Mango and a very sad Mouse about 7.30pm.
I managed to get Mouse to eat some grated apple and a few apple leaves, however she won’t touch carrot or any of her other favourite vegs. This morning both ate some fresh bramble leaves and half a carrot treat each. Neither will eat their pellets as they are, but Mango happily munched away on mashed pellet. Both had their Panacur dosage, and Mouse is on .5ml of Baytril for the next 10 days, twice daily.
I have been given some of the food powder to make into a paste, so depending on how she is tonight, I’ll make some of that up. I’ve bought a nice selection of herbs today so I’m hoping that will win her over.
Until the results come back re: EC, that’s all we really have to go on. What I’m wondering is, what else it may be? She’s not showing any signs of statis, diarrhoea, she’s not developed a head tilt. She’s just very huddled up, and looks thoroughly miserable and sleepy
