• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Albus is in for a CT scan today

parsnipbun

Wise Old Thumper
Those of you that dont recall . . .

Albus Dumbledore and Cornelius Fudge (a loving pair of 5 yr old males) were 'given' to us a few months ago. We were expecting to find new homes for them as we are already full, but then we discovered Albus had a long term gut issue with lots of impacted caeacal and other material in his guts. Cisipride and metacam etc had no impact on this.

He then (about a month ago) developed ascites (fluid in the abdomen).

An x-ray has not revealed much due to the mass of fluid and material in the stomach - despite frusol and cisipride etc etc - and we do not know why his insides are like this.

However he is a very bright loving little chap and always hungry for his forage. He happily runs around and has fitted in a group with Parsley, peaches and Fudge with Gooseberry as a bit of a hanger-on.

Our vet has always thought that an op. to see what was in there would be inappropriate, as many of the possible causes would be something she would then not feel able to bring him round after (a large tumour or abcess in the guts).

However as he is still with us a month on from getting the fluid. . we have compromised on a CT scan to try and find out what is in there and whether there might be some other form of treatment or a small op. that might be worthwhile.

However (sorry this is so long) as he is mostly poo and fluid, despite his best attempts at an Olympic gold in eating . . even the sedation for a CT is still very risky for him.

Our only other option would be just to let him slowly get worse . . so we have decided on the scan and he is in there today . .

I am obviously very worried for the poor little chap and really hope we have done the right thing . . please send all your kind and supportive thoughts to Albus and his friend Fudge (who has gone with him to support him).

Thank you
 
Bless him, hope he copes with the drugs and scan ok and that it gives you some answers/ a way forward.

Gentle snogs to him x x
 
albus is home :love::love:

He is taking a little time to recover but in part because they sedated rather than fully GA as they did not really know whether there was anything going on in his lungs since the last xray - so bizarely coming round takes longer.

the results were good but a bit unexpected really -his caecum is huge (not unexpected we knew that), but there is no sign of anything at all blocking it - no lumps no tumours anywhere, no abscess, not even any thickening of the gut walls or classic mega colon signs - . They scanned the whole of his insides and nothing . . . not even much fluid in the abdomen anymore . .

So it looks like it just a case that the very poor diet he was on for 5 years plus the total lack of exercise for 5 years meant that gradually everything just sat and nothing moved on and things built up and up until the caecum lost all muscle etc.

In a way this is good as it means no decision about an op (nothing needs operating on), and no having to watch as he slowly dies of cancer . . .

but leaves us with a challenge of what to do next having tried all the classic medicines for this sort of thing.

The vet has suggested that in a couple of weeks when Albus has recovered from this she has him in for several days and gives intensive fluids with a prostaglandin and painkillers (as apparently prostaglandin causes large reactions in any muscles in the gut) - under close observation.

Has anyone else tried this?
 
That sounds like fairly good news :D

Humphs caecum was enlarged and didn't move much. The vet thought the nerves were sluggish due to old age :?. It never bothered him, we just gave him fibreplex during his worse episodes and he was soon back to normal :D
 
albus is home :love::love:

He is taking a little time to recover but in part because they sedated rather than fully GA as they did not really know whether there was anything going on in his lungs since the last xray - so bizarely coming round takes longer.

the results were good but a bit unexpected really -his caecum is huge (not unexpected we knew that), but there is no sign of anything at all blocking it - no lumps no tumours anywhere, no abscess, not even any thickening of the gut walls or classic mega colon signs - . They scanned the whole of his insides and nothing . . . not even much fluid in the abdomen anymore . .

So it looks like it just a case that the very poor diet he was on for 5 years plus the total lack of exercise for 5 years meant that gradually everything just sat and nothing moved on and things built up and up until the caecum lost all muscle etc.

In a way this is good as it means no decision about an op (nothing needs operating on), and no having to watch as he slowly dies of cancer . . .

but leaves us with a challenge of what to do next having tried all the classic medicines for this sort of thing.

The vet has suggested that in a couple of weeks when Albus has recovered from this she has him in for several days and gives intensive fluids with a prostaglandin and painkillers (as apparently prostaglandin causes large reactions in any muscles in the gut) - under close observation.

Has anyone else tried this?

Yes, for a Rabbit with cecal impaction. But if the cecum is empty what's the point :? Surely the contractions would be agonising :cry:

Has Domperidone been tried ?
 
Yes, for a Rabbit with cecal impaction. But if the cecum is empty what's the point :? Surely the contractions would be agonising :cry:

Has Domperidone been tried ?

the caecum is full . . just full of old rubbish . . . it needs to empty. When I said 'nothing' I meant no lumps or bumps or growths etc.

we havn't tried domperidone - will ask her about that. Seem to recall that from an earlier discussion.
 
Is he otherwise well and happy and eating OK?

Mmmm - he is happy and eats like a pig but because he is full of old poo he does not get to really gain much goodness from his food - so he has the typical huge tum and skinny body of malnourished . . despite eating fantastic forage hay and pellets non stop for the last three months.
 
the caecum is full . . just full of old rubbish . . . it needs to empty. When I said 'nothing' I meant no lumps or bumps or growths etc.

we havn't tried domperidone - will ask her about that. Seem to recall that from an earlier discussion.

I'd opt for aggressive fluids, Lactulose and Domperidone before thinking about a prostaglandin. If the cecum has been impacted for a long time I dread to think what a prostaglandin may result in pain wise :?

But I aint a Vet !!

I hope that the problem can be resolved for him.
 
I'd opt for aggressive fluids, Lactulose and Domperidone before thinking about a prostaglandin. If the cecum has been impacted for a long time I dread to think what a prostaglandin may result in pain wise :?

But I aint a Vet !!

I hope that the problem can be resolved for him.

She is concerned about the pain - hence having him in and monitoring and giving pain relief as well all the time he is having prostaglandin (if we go ahead). We did discuss lactulose but she is concerned that given that it draws liquids into the dry contents of the caecum it may literally explode the caecum as it is full of material already. As you know, we did try and get info on rabbits who had had it whilst suffering from the exact problem that Albus has but couldn't.

Domperidone is something we will discuss.
 
Back
Top