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possible gut blockage?

Rosie42

Mama Doe
Hi, I stumbled across this forum while looking for advice on my bunny, so I hope it is okay to post her for advice!

I have been having a lot of problems with my bunny over the last few weeks. Her brother died suddenly about three weeks ago and shortly after this she wouldn't eat. I took her to the vet, who gave her a thorough check up, and couldn't feel anything wrong, but gave me some emeprid syrup in case her gut was gassy or blocked. It worked initially, however, a day or so after her last dose she wasn't pooing at all. I was told to give her some more syrup and within three quarters of an hour of that she had done a big pile of poo. We experienced the same thing a couple of days later and again, gave her some syrup and again she pooed within 3/4 hour of having it. Took her back to the vet and she was given another thorough check up and 5 days worth of syrup (1.5ml three times a day). The vet thought that she had possibly made herself ill through the stress/ grief of losing her brother. She finished that on Friday evening and ate and pooed fine all of yesterday. This morning there wasn't much poo in her hutch, and I think she has done a little bit this afternoon but not much. She's going back to the vet tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to give her another dose of syrup to get her gut moving, and am worried about her. Could something be blocking or obstructing it for it to not be working properly? She has had gut stasis on two other occasions this year but has bounced back from them fairly quickly. I'm just worried that she doesn't seem to be able to poo properly without the syrup. She seems fine in herself apart from the not pooing. She is meandering about and eating and drinking and resting a bit as it is quite warm. Since the gut stasis has happened she has gone off hay, although she will happily eat grass. I have been told that her teeth are perfect, and so the vet is not sure why this has happened.

Thanks

Rosie
 
My instinct is that the not eating hay part could be significant. I wouldn't like to offer advice as to why she isn't eating hay but it *could* be having the knock on effect on her digestive system to the extent that you are needing to use a gut stimulant to help things move through. I'm not knowledgeable enough to offer suggestions at to why she's not eating hay but I'd be looking further than dental issues. I've had a few bunnies with underlying illnesses and they've given up eating hay as I presume it takes a lot of effort and if they are not well then they don't put the effort in, but that's too vague - somebody knowledgeable will be along with better suggestions! Personally, I'd not suspect blockage/gut problems but looking broader at all potential health issues affecting her eating leading to gut mobility issues rather than that being the primary problem.

I hope you manage to find out what it is.
 
Hi, I stumbled across this forum while looking for advice on my bunny, so I hope it is okay to post her for advice!

I have been having a lot of problems with my bunny over the last few weeks. Her brother died suddenly about three weeks ago and shortly after this she wouldn't eat. I took her to the vet, who gave her a thorough check up, and couldn't feel anything wrong, but gave me some emeprid syrup in case her gut was gassy or blocked. It worked initially, however, a day or so after her last dose she wasn't pooing at all. I was told to give her some more syrup and within three quarters of an hour of that she had done a big pile of poo. We experienced the same thing a couple of days later and again, gave her some syrup and again she pooed within 3/4 hour of having it. Took her back to the vet and she was given another thorough check up and 5 days worth of syrup (1.5ml three times a day). The vet thought that she had possibly made herself ill through the stress/ grief of losing her brother. She finished that on Friday evening and ate and pooed fine all of yesterday. This morning there wasn't much poo in her hutch, and I think she has done a little bit this afternoon but not much. She's going back to the vet tomorrow. I think I'm going to have to give her another dose of syrup to get her gut moving, and am worried about her. Could something be blocking or obstructing it for it to not be working properly? She has had gut stasis on two other occasions this year but has bounced back from them fairly quickly. I'm just worried that she doesn't seem to be able to poo properly without the syrup. She seems fine in herself apart from the not pooing. She is meandering about and eating and drinking and resting a bit as it is quite warm. Since the gut stasis has happened she has gone off hay, although she will happily eat grass. I have been told that her teeth are perfect, and so the vet is not sure why this has happened.

Thanks

Rosie

Is there any chance that there is a predator about at night ? Fox ? Cat ?

Do you know the cause of her Brother's death, for which I send my condolences.
 
Thanks for the reply. Do you think that it is a coincidence that this started after her brother died or could it be related?

She has been vaccinated and was due to be spayed a week or two ago, but these problems have caused it to be delayed as the vet doesn't want to operate on her when she isn't 100%. She is two years old and was my sister's rabbit, but she has gradually been losing interest and this was increased by her going to uni, and as I moved back home after finishing uni last summer I have been slowly taking over bunny care and doing my best; I know she should have been spayed sooner, but it's only since the bunnies have officially become mine (a few months ago) that I had any actual say in their care etc, so I have been saving up to get her spayed since then. Could that have anything to do with it? A couple of weeks ago, when she was on her first course of syrup, there were a couple of spots of blood in the run. I said this to the vets but they did not seem overly concerned. There was no sign of where it had come from, and she showed no signs of anything being wrong, but it has stuck in my mind, and I am wondering if it could be significant?
 
Thanks for the reply. Do you think that it is a coincidence that this started after her brother died or could it be related?

She has been vaccinated and was due to be spayed a week or two ago, but these problems have caused it to be delayed as the vet doesn't want to operate on her when she isn't 100%. She is two years old and was my sister's rabbit, but she has gradually been losing interest and this was increased by her going to uni, and as I moved back home after finishing uni last summer I have been slowly taking over bunny care and doing my best; I know she should have been spayed sooner, but it's only since the bunnies have officially become mine (a few months ago) that I had any actual say in their care etc, so I have been saving up to get her spayed since then. Could that have anything to do with it? A couple of weeks ago, when she was on her first course of syrup, there were a couple of spots of blood in the run. I said this to the vets but they did not seem overly concerned. There was no sign of where it had come from, and she showed no signs of anything being wrong, but it has stuck in my mind, and I am wondering if it could be significant?

It may be

It would be helpful if you could say if you know why her brother passed away
 
Is there any chance that there is a predator about at night ? Fox ? Cat ?

Do you know the cause of her Brother's death, for which I send my condolences.

No foxes around here that I know of. We have three cats; two completely ignore her. One will occasionally tap her with his paw through the mesh, but would not actually hurt her, he just doesn't understand that rabbits don't play in the same way he does. He has always been like this and it never seems to have bothered her; she will follow him as far as she can along her side of the mesh and try and sniff him.

I do not know what happened to her brother (Neville). He was fine, and then one morning looked a little bit off, but was still eating. Took him to the vet (who I did not know at the time were not brilliant with rabbits). She said that he seemed fine but had a slight temperature. He was given something to bring his temp down and something to keep his gut moving. I went to work for the afternoon, came back and he still did not look right. Took him back to the same vets but saw a different vet who was very unpleasant and made me feel like a terrible pet owner. He said he thought he could feel some sort of tumour in his tummy, and sent me home with a view of x-raying him in the morning, I gave him things to eat, and he didn't seem too bad, but by the morning he had died.

He was not vaccinated at the time as no one had ever told me how important it was. As soon as I looked into it all I worried that it could have been RHD and took Luna to a different, much better vet to get checked over. She does not think that it was RHD or anything else contagious because she thinks that if it was, Luna would have probably got it too. So we will never know, and I will always be racked with guilt that it was something that I could have prevented :( He was only two years old, so I thought he was a bit young to have had a tumour, but obviously it can't be ruled out.
 
Also, am I right in thinking I should continue giving her the syrup until the vets tomorrow? She has done a little bit of poo this afternoon, but not very much. I'm worrying about it backing up inside her if it is not coming out?
 
I would administer the medication as instructed by your Vet. Also try to encourage her to drink. Offer her water in a bowl rather than a sipper bottle, Rabbits tend to drink more from a bowl.

It may be that her lack of hay eating is causing her gut motility problems. Was she previously a good hay eater and what is her daily diet now ?

How much exercise does she get ?
 
I would administer the medication as instructed by your Vet. Also try to encourage her to drink. Offer her water in a bowl rather than a sipper bottle, Rabbits tend to drink more from a bowl.

It may be that her lack of hay eating is causing her gut motility problems. Was she previously a good hay eater and what is her daily diet now ?

How much exercise does she get ?

I was told to give her it until Friday, but I was also that she could have some if she wasn't eating/ pooing because I know that that can be serious very quickly. She is munching away at grass and has had some cucumber (as I was concerned about her not getting enough water), but does not seem overly fussed by water. She is drinking a bit but not lots. Will give her a bowl as well and see what she does.

Before she was eating a decent amount of hay (her hay rack was being emptied about twice a day) and some grass as well as a handful of pellets in the morning and a bit of veg later on in the day. Now it just seems to be the odd bit of hay, but she will happily eat grass, pellets and veg etc. The run is on paving slabs, and the exercise pen which she is allowed in when there is someone at home to watch her did have grass, which she has eaten so it is now just stubs. She is happy to eat any grass that is pulled up for her, but the vet advised me that if she was being picky about eating then she should just have whatever she would eat for the time being, so she is now getting an extra handful of pellets. She has been doing some running about in the evenings but is not doing a huge amount of exercise during the day I think because of the heat.
 
She has just had a little bit of a sprint, and then afterwards to my amazement, starting munching some of the timothy hay I put in earlier. Only a small handful of it, and then she hopped off, but that must be a good sign surely?

Also, how often should she be pooing? When should I worry? Because it has been a few hours since the last one and that wasn't very much.
 
Without being able to examine your Rabbit it is hard to know exactly what is going on.

I think giving her the gut motility medication tonight, encouraging her to drink and hop about and offering her veg and hay to eat would be beneficial. Fluids and exercise can help gut motility. She should pass some fecal pellets at least every 4-6 hours.

I hope the Vet can identify if the problem is a health issue or if it is behavioural.
 
I think I have had a mini eureka moment with the rabbit (although I could be completely wrong!) I think that possibly, her stasis etc has been caused in part, largely by stress, if that is possible?

I think, that initially, she wasn't eating because she was pining and confused and upset by Neville not being there. Then she went to the vets because she seemed down, which was very stressful, and then I had to give her medicine three times a day which was even more stressful, especially as she doesn't much like being handled. Then when she didn't seem to be getting better, (probably because she was stressed out) she was taken back to the vets and given another week's worth of meds. I have been checking on her more often, so she's probably confused and a bit stressed by that, and every time she sees me is potentially a time when she could be forced to take medicine, so she's on constant alert. And because I'm constantly thinking that she needs to eat/ poo 'x' amount of times per day, some of that stress is probably rubbing off on her.

She hasn't had any since saturday, and she does slowly seem to be getting calmer (culminating in her finally eating some hay and doing some sprinting and a binky today) and she has come up to me for food a couple of times today and even 'chinned' me a couple of times.

She's just done a slightly bigger pile of poo, and eaten a bit of hay from my hand, so I am really hoping I am right. The only problem is going to be when she gets spayed, as she will be in the vets for half a day and will come round in a strange place, which will obviously be very stressful. But I'm guessing that we will just have to try and cope with that as best we can.

Would this make sense as an explanation?
 
I think I have had a mini eureka moment with the rabbit (although I could be completely wrong!) I think that possibly, her stasis etc has been caused in part, largely by stress, if that is possible?

I think, that initially, she wasn't eating because she was pining and confused and upset by Neville not being there. Then she went to the vets because she seemed down, which was very stressful, and then I had to give her medicine three times a day which was even more stressful, especially as she doesn't much like being handled. Then when she didn't seem to be getting better, (probably because she was stressed out) she was taken back to the vets and given another week's worth of meds. I have been checking on her more often, so she's probably confused and a bit stressed by that, and every time she sees me is potentially a time when she could be forced to take medicine, so she's on constant alert. And because I'm constantly thinking that she needs to eat/ poo 'x' amount of times per day, some of that stress is probably rubbing off on her.

She hasn't had any since saturday, and she does slowly seem to be getting calmer (culminating in her finally eating some hay and doing some sprinting and a binky today) and she has come up to me for food a couple of times today and even 'chinned' me a couple of times.

She's just done a slightly bigger pile of poo, and eaten a bit of hay from my hand, so I am really hoping I am right. The only problem is going to be when she gets spayed, as she will be in the vets for half a day and will come round in a strange place, which will obviously be very stressful. But I'm guessing that we will just have to try and cope with that as best we can.

Would this make sense as an explanation?

Yes and it was my thinking too. Hence my reference to the possibility of it all being 'behavioural' rather than a health issue. If she does well overnight and is eating and pooing more maybe just call the Vet to update him/her and see if he/she thinks you should postpone the appointment for a couple of days to see if a less stressy atmosphere with minimal handling gets her back to her old self. Obviously if she does not eat/poo overnight then she will need to be seen by the Vet tomorrow.
 
Yes and it was my thinking too. Hence my reference to the possibility of it all being 'behavioural' rather than a health issue. If she does well overnight and is eating and pooing more maybe just call the Vet to update him/her and see if he/she thinks you should postpone the appointment for a couple of days to see if a less stressy atmosphere with minimal handling gets her back to her old self. Obviously if she does not eat/poo overnight then she will need to be seen by the Vet tomorrow.

Okay thank you very much. Presuming that she stays well, do you think I could get her spayed this week, or should I wait until next week? I want to get it done asap, but don't want to stress her out too much.
 
Okay thank you very much. Presuming that she stays well, do you think I could get her spayed this week, or should I wait until next week? I want to get it done asap, but don't want to stress her out too much.

I would leave it for at least a couple of weeks after she has gone 'back to normal'. Ideally it'd be better done when its not so damn hot. The weather alone is enough to stress a Rabbit out, it is stressing me out and I am not wearing a fur coat !!
 
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