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  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

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Post - operative problems.

Peridot

Young Bun
Hi All

I haven't posted for a while (mainly due to a lack of problems fingers crossed). Bubble is my 7 year old Netherlands Dwarf with a long history of dental problems and also a gammy right back leg which impairs her mobility slightly. The condition with her leg has never been properly diagnosed as the first vet I took her to was quick to recommend pts after consulting with her boss and I just did not like their attitude. That was in December 2009 and as you can appreciate she is still here and snoozing under a warm radiator after having had a breakfast of mature rabbits pellets, cauli greens, dried plantain, dried dandelion and a carrotbake. She lives in the house although has an outside pen for the summer (not that we have been able to use it much this year lol!!). She is not a hay eater and this along with disreputable breeding has contributed greatly to her poor dental health. She had an extraction of an upper right molar at a rabbit savvy vets in Manchester recently and since the operation we have noticed several changes in habit as follows. Firstly she seems to suffer from wind as evidenced by noise from her tummy on eating and a forward hiccuping motion on eating which she eases by moving forward and licking her front paws. Secondly her caecotroph production has increased (it has always been large due to her not eating hay) and she seems to have largely stopped eating them. Consequently there are usually uneaten ones in the morning which she manages to have sat in and which usually results in a clean up operation on the back of her rear back legs most mornings, although her bottom is largely clean. Thirdly she seems to have become incontinent both ways and is weeing underneath her and also doing her droppings of both types where she sits, although we have developed the habit of putting her in the litter tray every hour or so and put a wet mat and towels or old bathroom mats and an old face cloth underneath her. Prior to her tooth extraction we had no problems with her using the litter tray, although she usually sits and feeds on the settee and has fallen off a couple of times and we think there is a possibility that she may have lost her confidence in jumping on an off the settee to get to the tray. As you can appreciate we spend a lot of time in sorting her but that does not matter as we are both retired and have the time (if not the money lol).She has come through an awful lot (was eating solid food immediately after her extraction) and we would like to make life better for her as well as know what has caused all these problems. Lastly are there any rabbit friendly shampoos we can use on the back of her legs and rear end and as we live in Wigan are they available locally? I once had a job helping to look after 2 circus elephants who were much less of a problem lol...

Thanks

Peridot :)
 
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To me it sounds as though she may have an additional problem aswell as her Dental Disease. Namely arthritis. Arthritic Rabbits become less agile/mobile, have difficulty getting to there bum to eat their cecotrophs/clean themselves and they can also have GI tract problems.

I would suggest another Vet check to see if arthritis may be an issue and if it is a non steroidal anti-inflammatory such as Metacam would be beneficial.

The urinary incontinence also needs investigating. If she is actually leaking wee this may be due to a bladder infection/bladder sludge. These two condition do occur more readily in Rabbits who are relatively inactive.

I would not advise using a shampoo on her as they can irritate the delicate skin. This would just exacerbate the problem.
 
Thank you both for your advice. We have since had Bubble to our regular vet (a rabbit dental specialist performed the extraction). She has said there may be arthritis present in one of Bubbles back legs which she damaged some years ago and has prescribed a two week course of Metacam with a further appointment on the 4th January for review. So far as the leakage is concerned this is continuing but we are managing to keep her quite clean by lightly patting with a damp piece of kitchen roll and then patting her dry with dry towel afterwards. Is this ok? She seems able to bend over and we do see her eating droppings from her bottom but there seem a lot left uneaten in the hutch at night which doesn't help her hygiene difficulties. She attends our regular vet about once a month to be weighed and has lost some weight recently and presently is 1.30 kilos from about 1.45. She is also trimmed round her bottom and has her claws trimmed every other month.

Are there any other safe methods of helping her stay clean?

Thanks

Peridot :)
 
Post - operative problems

Hi All

Bubble has now entered her eighth year and following on from the above she has put 50 grammes back on and is continuing with a lowish dose of Metacam for the time being. The vet is of the view that her present reluctance to use the litter tray is perhaps a question of laziness rather than bladder sludge, as the problem only seems to occur when she is on the settee on her waterproof mats and not when she is on the living room floor when I have secretly observed her using the litter tray and seen evidence that she has done so. I have also secretly seen her jumping on and off the settee, so suspect that the vet is right. A problem with the litter tray is her shredding the litter which we make ourselves from kitchen roll. Can anyone suggest why she does this and would the use of anything else be better?

Bubble has an indoor hutch the floor of which is half covered with a folded towel and the other half with a pet fleece. A problem has arisen in that she has begun to sit in uneaten caecotrophs overnight and regularly gets them on the back of her legs. I am wondering if anything can be done to stop her doing this and whether an alternative lining for the bottom of the hutch is preferable? Also are we better letting her clean herself and letting the mess drop off when dry rather than trying to do this immediately ourselves? Oddly her bottom area is largely clean as it is regularly trimmed as is the back of her legs sometimes but this cannot be done too often due to the risk of sore hocks.

Thanks

Peridot :)
 
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