Roxxy recovering from GA, advice needed

Hi all. I posted another topic not long ago asking about treating EC because I thought Roxxy was showing signs of it but it turns out she had an abcess on her left cheek and some molar spurs. The spurs are sorted and the vets did an x-ray to check her teeth which the vets say are normal so no tooth root problems. Well we got her back home yesterday and she has eaten tiny bits of hay, celery leaves and some carrot but not much. We gave some recovery food last night and she had a tiny bit this morning, she has to have baytril for the next few days as well. The thing is it has been a while since she was under GA it was Tuesday afternoon time so about 48 hours have passed now and her appetite is still not back to normal yet. I am wondering is this normal for rabbits who've had GA? Surely having been 2 days she should be eating normally again?

Can anyone help with any advice? We have to take Roxxy back on Monday for a check up but I am a little concerned. Oh and I have not seen her pass many poops. This morning she was all sticky underneath, the poop was not diarrhoea but I think it is because of having the medicine and only really eating veg that caused it. When the rabbits used to have museli mix food some of the rabbits used to get sticky poop around their back end and we had to always clean it. It is a bit like that with Roxxy I cleaned as much as I could off of her.

I am about to put them into the indoor run so was going to bring Roxxy in and try to give her some more Recovery food and check her for any more sticky poop.

is she receiving regular pain relief ?

Jack's-Jane said:

is she receiving regular pain relief ?

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Hi. She is having baytril once a day. They said 1.6ml once a day for the next few days. She wasn't given anything else. They did say that recovery food may need to be done. I tried it just now, she took 1ml of the syringe. I put her brother and sister in the run which is in our non-heated conservatory but I put Roxxy back in the hutch (in a shed so not properly outside and the vets said it was alright to put her back in her hutch) so she can be on her own for a little while. Also to give her a chance to eat some apple and some pellets. I left some pellets in a bowl and after eating one slice of apple and taking a few bites of of the second she did eat a few pellets before running off to the bed area. I checked on her to see if she was eating hay but I think she just wanted to be on her own to groom herself and possibly go to the toilet. I did check her underneath as well to see if the sticky poop I couldn't remove this morning had gone and she has cleaned it all off.

How often should I give her critical care (recovery food)? It has been 48 hours since she was under GA so I was hoping she'd be getting back to normal by now. She still seems a little groggy. When brought in to check her she does go a little bit back to her normal nosey self and tries to climb up on my shoulder but she is still not 100% yet.

She needs dog metacam, every 12 hours at least. Jane will recommend the dose i'm sure, as i'm useless at remembering it.

Can't believe she's not having any pain relief, some vets

GrahamL said:

She needs dog metacam, every 12 hours at least. Jane will recommend the dose i'm sure, as i'm useless at remembering it.

Can't believe she's not having any pain relief, some vets

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Fuzzy has the dog metacam. When the vet asked if we had been given anything for her and we said yes Baytril she said that's fine. I'm confused... so she should be having metacam and would have improved by now if she had been?

Scrufox86 said:

Fuzzy has the dog metacam. When the vet asked if we had been given anything for her and we said yes Baytril she said that's fine. I'm confused... so she should be having metacam and would have improved by now if she had been?

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If she's just had a dental, i would certainly say so.

Tooth issues really hurt, imagine having a wisdom tooth grinding the inside of your mouth

May be worthwhile asking about metoclopramide also.

GrahamL said:

If she's just had a dental, i would certainly say so.

Tooth issues really hurt, imagine having a wisdom tooth grinding the inside of your mouth

May be worthwhile asking about metoclopramide also.

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I know that Fuzzy has tooth root issues (he's had this for 2.5 years now) but Roxxy had a few spurs, can spurs really cause so much pain?

I know about metoclopramide... I think one of our other rabbits had that once before. Yeah I think I will phone the vets and ask. We have only last month gotten a big bottle of dog metacam for Fuzzy which lasts almost 5 months so all I need is to find out about dosage and Roxxy could have some of that.

I just put the other two back in with her and she is laying down in the bed area at the moment. She didn't eat the pellets in the bowl, I took them out as I don't want the others eating too many pellets. I just don't get it though she is eating the celery leaves and apple (I assume because they are soft and not hard on the teeth?). So what could I get for her to eat other than trying to force feed her recovery food by syringe?

Scrufox86 said:

I know that Fuzzy has tooth root issues (he's had this for 2.5 years now) but Roxxy had a few spurs, can spurs really cause so much pain?

I know about metoclopramide... I think one of our other rabbits had that once before. Yeah I think I will phone the vets and ask. We have only last month gotten a big bottle of dog metacam for Fuzzy which lasts almost 5 months so all I need is to find out about dosage and Roxxy could have some of that.

I just put the other two back in with her and she is laying down in the bed area at the moment. She didn't eat the pellets in the bowl, I took them out as I don't want the others eating too many pellets. I just don't get it though she is eating the celery leaves and apple (I assume because they are soft and not hard on the teeth?). So what could I get for her to eat other than trying to force feed her recovery food by syringe?

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I think she is very likely to be in pain which is why she is hardly eating and consequently her GI tract is barely functioning. I would call the Vet now and ask about giving her Metacam. I have dental/jaw pain myself and there is no way on earth I could put up with it without some sort of analgesia.

Try making her pellets soft by soaking them in boiled water

Scrufox86 said:

I know that Fuzzy has tooth root issues (he's had this for 2.5 years now) but Roxxy had a few spurs, can spurs really cause so much pain?

I know about metoclopramide... I think one of our other rabbits had that once before. Yeah I think I will phone the vets and ask. We have only last month gotten a big bottle of dog metacam for Fuzzy which lasts almost 5 months so all I need is to find out about dosage and Roxxy could have some of that.

I just put the other two back in with her and she is laying down in the bed area at the moment. She didn't eat the pellets in the bowl, I took them out as I don't want the others eating too many pellets. I just don't get it though she is eating the celery leaves and apple (I assume because they are soft and not hard on the teeth?). So what could I get for her to eat other than trying to force feed her recovery food by syringe?

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Yes, exactly yhat - soft things is what she would rather eat. You could separate her for a few minutes, mush up some of their normal pellets in warm water and let the pellets soak the water up - makes it a lot easier to eat. We have to do that for Ginger sometimes post-dental.

Jack's-Jane said:

I think she is very likely to be in pain which is why she is hardly eating and consequently her GI tract is barely functioning. I would call the Vet now and ask about giving her Metacam. I have dental/jaw pain myself and there is no way on earth I could put up with it without some sort of analgesia.

Try making her pellets soft by soaking them in boiled water

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Yeah I know what you mean but that is what the recovery food looks like, crushed up wet pellets, so would it be better to use the critical care recovery food or use the excel pellets as you said?

GrahamL said:

Yes, exactly yhat - soft things is what she would rather eat. You could separate her for a few minutes, mush up some of their normal pellets in warm water and let the pellets soak the water up - makes it a lot easier to eat. We have to do that for Ginger sometimes post-dental.

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Well when the other two were in the run she did eat a few pellets but literally just a few. She ate her apple alright and the side without the wound she looks bright like her normal self. I am going to phone up the vets and find out what to do. Like I said we have plenty of metacam here we just need the correct dose for her.

Thank you both for your replies.

Scrufox86 said:

Yeah I know what you mean but that is what the recovery food looks like, crushed up wet pellets, so would it be better to use the critical care recovery food or use the excel pellets as you said?




Well when the other two were in the run she did eat a few pellets but literally just a few. She ate her apple alright and the side without the wound she looks bright like her normal self. I am going to phone up the vets and find out what to do. Like I said we have plenty of metacam here we just need the correct dose for her.

Thank you both for your replies.

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She may not like the taste of CC. You dont have to make the pellets into a paste, just make then a bit soft and see if she will eat them from a bowl rather than stressing her out with syringe feeds. If her mouth hurts she wont want anyone messing with it.

Perhaps cook some of Roxy's favourite veggies, mash them up either together or separately, let them cool and put them in a saucer for her to lap up. This has worked in the past for some of my bunnies.


Excellent advice has already been given by Jane and Graham.

Best of luck and I hope Roxy is feeling much better very soon.

Ok phoned vets. They said to bring her down to be checked by the vet. I am not complaining about having to take her but I did think seeing as we have to take her for a check up on Monday that they'd be able to advise over the phone about giving some metacam. But I suppose this way they can help a lot more and see what may be preventing her recovery?

The appointment is at 8:30 tonight so until then I will be checking on her and trying to get her to eat. I will be back on here after we've been to the vets to let you all know what happened. I hope this isn't serious and she has to be...

How did you get on?

I specifically came on this morning to check, hope all is ok...

GrahamL said:

How did you get on?

I specifically came on this morning to check, hope all is ok...

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Hi sorry for not posting earlier. Well we took her and the vets told us that yes the metacam idea sounds fine and got the correct dosage for her. Also she gave us some of what you said the metaclopromide (don't know if I spelt that correct but you know what I mean). She said that we also have to open the wound a little as there is more puss there and she showed us what to do. The wound has to be cleaned and then manuka honey put on to help heal it.

Today Roxxy is getting a little better as she is more active so I put her out in the run today with the other two and she was alright for a little while. She did eat some hay earlier today as well. I gave them some apple and celery just now and Roxxy ate hers.

Also I noticed she had done poop. She did it in a corner and I know they were hers because they were smaller than normal and where she has not been eating her usual amount of hay they were darker. Harmony does light colour poops as she eats more hay than pellets and Fuzzy always has darker poops as he doesn't eat much hay due to his molar tooth issues. Roxxy's should to be somewhere in between so orangey as she was easting pellets and hay about the same amount. I will give an update tomorrow on how she's doing.

Right ok so Roxxy went back for her check-up appointment today and the vet gave some iodine solution to put on her wound twice a day instead of manuka honey. She said Roxxy has lost a little weight since before she was put under GA and so wants to see her again on Thursday. I have been checking on her and she was eating hay earlier and seems a lot more like her self today. She is still not back to normal with eating pellets and hay. She has been eating pellets though because she came running like she used to but just not eating like she did before. However I think she is slowly recovering and so she will continue with the medication until Thursday and then hopefully she will have recovered enough for the vets to say to stop it and she is fine.

I really hope she improves. Fingers crossed.

I too hope that she is recovering now. Are you still getting pus out of the wound ?

Jack's-Jane said:

I too hope that she is recovering now. Are you still getting pus out of the wound ?

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Hi sorry for late reply. We took her back on Thursday evening and the vet had to open the wound again (I am not sure she had to but she said she did) to make sure there was no puss left. Well I could've told her that myself as I hadn't been able to get any more out and it had begun healing.

She saw some of the poops she has been doing and felt her underneath and said she seems fine and to only take her back if there is a problem. So far there hasn't been anything as she seems to be doing her usual running for the pellets with the other two and at night she has been coming over for the hay now. I did notice just now she did shake her head a few times (I nearly panicked about e.cuniculi) but then she groomed herself so I thought ok maybe it was just that. I looked in her ears and there is no muck in there, they are pretty good at cleaning themselves and each other though. So I may be a bit too conscious of e.cuniculi. She did tilt her head when she had the abcess which I assume was because of how painful it was and nothing to do with e.cuniculi and it was only the one day if it was e.cuniculi then the head tilt would have remained.

Ok so Roxxy is alright now and fingers crossed she stays that way.