Infacol - it works

Over the past few years I have posted many times on here about my rescue housebun suffering 24 hrs of not eating, laying stretched out and shaking. Had endless vet visits ( 8 different vets for opinions including the lady at edinburgh vet school). The concensus was gut but none of the medicines worked in any way that were given even by injection and 24 hrs later bun would be perfectly back to normal.
We realised that any fresh green food made the attacks much more frequent like once every 3 weeks so cutting out fresh food has reduced the attacks to once every 3-4 months.
I read on here about giving infacol to poorly buns so I decided to try just infacol and none of the other vet meds and nearly a year later I can happily say that within an hour and a half of one dose of infacol my bun is back eating again.
Our vet is assuming that his problem is gas as infacol only works on reducing air bubbles in gut.
None of the vets including the most specialist suggested infacol and most hadn't even heard of it so huge thank you to all the people on RU who posted about it:thumb::thumb:
Its been 4 months since buns last "funny do" but this morning after muching away as usual he suddenly looked odd and was stretched out and sure enough he wouldn't eat and was shaking. I managed on my own which is a miracle to wrap him in a towel and give him is infacol and hour half later he is sat in his litter tray munching his hay:thumb:

That's brilliant news!

From reading your post, it seems you give it when you see symptoms but not otherwise?

A few of us are currently having a debate about when to give it/how much etc. so I'd be grateful if you have any ideas.

Yip, I have used it in the past but now prefer Gripe Water.

Kermit said:

Yip, I have used it in the past but now prefer Gripe Water.

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Again, that is something I have thought of but am a little "scared" to try. How much and/or how often do you give it?

Thank you (sorry, I'm not deliberately trying to hijack this thread, I am just interested!) :wave:

Interesting - I do only give it when he is ill. Usually we are in the house when we notice he has that look:roll: and he gets it within 20 mins but there have been times when we have been out and we come home to find him ill so he could have been ill for hours but it still works the same when we give it,

I too had wondered about using it at other times but don't like the thought of giving it daily as no one knows the long term effects on bunnies although as its safe for new born babies its unlikely to harm a bun! It does contain sugar so that could be bad for a buns gut????

IF he got attacks very frequently then I would certainly try it as a preventative because there would be nothing to lose as I would have a bun who was in pain alot and quality of life issue would raise its head.

Even max pain relief from the vet by injection did nothing for my bun before we found the infacol.

I also did wonder about gripe water but haven't read the ingredients and wondered if it has the same active ingredient anyway???

I use gripe water when I suspect one of mine having a dodgy tummy. It has not got the same active ingredient as I am pretty sure both can be used together for children.

My two lap it up straight from the syringe. If ill then I give a 1ml syringe 3 or 4 times a day and I have always found it to help

I give it for a few days after an episode.

I only give it when the gas is obvious - with Rupert, its VERY obvious if he's got gas! and I give about half a tube (but not much actually gets in :lol: )

Have you had your bun's teeth checked if its recurring as often? Rupert was having gas episodes every 3 weeks, got to every other week and altho his teeth seemed fine, the vet said 'lets just have a look under anaesthetic as he's got a very tiny spur' we did - and, touch wood, we've not had a problem since - sometimes, even the smallest of spurs can cause the problems (like in our case)

Thank you both.

It may actually come down to which tastes better and/or which has the least sugar for me to try. Syringing bad tasting medicine really does not work!

I will have an investigate of the ingredients.

Rupert & Tia said:

I only give it when the gas is obvious - with Rupert, its VERY obvious if he's got gas! and I give about half a tube (but not much actually gets in :lol: )

Have you had your bun's teeth checked if its recurring as often? Rupert was having gas episodes every 3 weeks, got to every other week and altho his teeth seemed fine, the vet said 'lets just have a look under anaesthetic as he's got a very tiny spur' we did - and, touch wood, we've not had a problem since - sometimes, even the smallest of spurs can cause the problems (like in our case)

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He has had his teeth checked without going under ( perfect teeth) and the vet said as he can eat everything even the hardest pellet and crunchie literally 5 mins before he has a funny do and when he is okay again he goes straight back to the really hard stuff and hay she just didn't think it had anything to do with his teeth.
It does seem more to be a gut issue as cutting out fresh green food totally has improved the frequency of his attacks tremedously.
He is also an old bun in his 9th year now so I wouldn''t give a general unless absolutely necessary.
It is something I would bear in mind though if things got worse, thanks:thumb:

SJH said:

Thank you both.

It may actually come down to which tastes better and/or which has the least sugar for me to try. Syringing bad tasting medicine really does not work!

I will have an investigate of the ingredients.

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The active ingredient in Gripe Water is dill seed but I find it difficult to get in the shops these days.
It's also possible to make a tea from dill seed for "colicky" babies. Home made = no added sugars.

bunkin said:

He has had his teeth checked without going under ( perfect teeth) and the vet said as he can eat everything even the hardest pellet and crunchie literally 5 mins before he has a funny do and when he is okay again he goes straight back to the really hard stuff and hay she just didn't think it had anything to do with his teeth.
It does seem more to be a gut issue as cutting out fresh green food totally has improved the frequency of his attacks tremedously.
He is also an old bun in his 9th year now so I wouldn''t give a general unless absolutely necessary.
It is something I would bear in mind though if things got worse, thanks:thumb:

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You could be describing rupert.... he can b fine, he's a v v v active bunny (right now he's running laps round room jumping on me then sofa), then he stops n his belly blows up like a balloon (literally). He ears everything never has any signs of tooth problems, never has, yet since his dental he's been fine....

The vet said we could potentially have the first ibs bunny, and I think a lot of them probably have an ibs type problem. I've now got all medicine at home for him (empeprid, metacam) so if it happens I can deal at home (we were having weeklytrips to emergency vet it was getting silly)