Repeated gas attacks UPDATE POST 23

Sorry if this is too long but here goes:wave: Housebun in 9th year and I have had his since he was 5. Ever since we have had him he has suffered what appear to be attacks of gas as one dose of infacol makes him better in 30 mins and eating again.
Until I got him his diet had been cheap rabbit muesli only nothing else at all not even any bedding to eat
I cannot find out if he had these tummy attacks before I got him.
Untreated with infacol the attack will last less than 24 hrs and he will not eat, lay stretched out or hunched up and shake, then he is suddenly back to normal.
The attacks can be anything from once every 2 weeks to every 4 months.
I removed all fresh green food 9 months ago and fed him dried leaves/flowers - science selective 20g day and 2 fenugeek crunchies and unlimited hays.
Up till two weeks ago he had gone 4 months with no tummy trouble but in last 2 weeks we have had 5 attacks.
I give him one dose of infacol and it works like a miracle and he is totally fine 30 mins later.
Nothing has changed in his diet in last 4 months even the quantity is exact as I weigh everything.
Normal vet meds of stomach meds/metacam have no effect at all if given the only cure is infacol which most vets never heard of being used.
Vet has said that as infacol works it has to be gas related but only invasive tests might or might not give a clue to cause and given his age having a g a would be very risky. We decided that unless these attacks get very frequent we would leave him alone and this was before we found the infacol cure!
Someone suggested giving him gripe water every day as a preventative??? What do you all think???

(He has no problem eating hay and hard pellets and will scoff the lot as soon as infacol works so vet is sure his teeth are not a problem and they look fine.)

I don't have experience of using infacol, but bumping this up in the hope someone else might be able to advise / share experiences. I'd think there must be some reason for the sudden return of attacks, and so many in a short space of time.

I asked my vet about this and he's to look into it.

Kermit helpfully posted on another thread about using gripe water. I can't quite recall the thread title. I'll have a look for you.


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Thanks both. I did post about infacol a couple of weeks ago and someone mentioned gripe water on there, saying its dill seed so more natural than infacol.

I'm going to try him with some tonight and see if he likes it:roll: knowing my luck he will turn his nose up.

doughnut has tummy issues and I asked the specialist about infracol. He said it's good for gas but because she is on metaclop that's a lot better as it keeps her digestion going.

She did used to get the hiccups a lot too. Does your rabbit eat really quickly or guzzle the water and end up taking in a lot of air. Doughnut does so I think this adds to the gas problem.

She is now on russell rabbit muesli and wilkinsons hay, this is the only thing that works for her. she used to love dill so I may try her with a bit of that.

cpayne said:

doughnut has tummy issues and I asked the specialist about infracol. He said it's good for gas but because she is on metaclop that's a lot better as it keeps her digestion going.

She did used to get the hiccups a lot too. Does your rabbit eat really quickly or guzzle the water and end up taking in a lot of air. Doughnut does so I think this adds to the gas problem.

She is now on russell rabbit muesli and wilkinsons hay, this is the only thing that works for her. she used to love dill so I may try her with a bit of that.

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Yes he does wolf his food down and sound as if he is drowning in his water bowl:roll: He has a very noisy tummy all the time as well which I have noticed gets alot noisier in the lead up to an attack.

Has she stopped having attacks now she is only on this muesli and hay???

My rabbit rupert is exactly the same. He had a dental in October to rule his teeth out (he had ever so slight spikes)... he'd been fine since, until last week, but install, metoclop and metacam worked as usual. He took.a couple of days to get back to normal tho. Nothing has changed.
I'm thinking it's something in hay, or, this time it was new bag of pellets so might b slight change of ingredients

Rupert & Tia said:

My rabbit rupert is exactly the same. He had a dental in October to rule his teeth out (he had ever so slight spikes)... he'd been fine since, until last week, but install, metoclop and metacam worked as usual. He took.a couple of days to get back to normal tho. Nothing has changed.
I'm thinking it's something in hay, or, this time it was new bag of pellets so might b slight change of ingredients

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Sensitive little devils aren't they:lol: Vet meds have no beneficial effect on my bun when he has an attack, only the infacol works but it does work in 30 mins.

Personally, I would talk to the vet about an ultrasound and/or xrays. My bun Barney had these done under a combination of sedation and trancing in order to avoid GA.

He has problems with gas and a slow gut. The scans showed up the gas and that the stomach was enlarged and the gut and stomach lining was inflamed. Once we knew what was wrong this enabled us to treat it. It is mainly treated by a restricted diet and metaclopramide and occasionally zantac. You don't see an immediate effect, but long-term it has meant that episodes are rare now and his weight has increased to skinny rather than dangerously thin as he was before.

I haven't used infacol before, but then I've never really needed to, as the metaclopramide, if given in a high dose 2-3 times a day, prevents the gas from collecting and helps push it out.

Rupert episodes come on so fast, literally seconds he'll go from usual hyper rupert to off in agony, belly like a balloon, luckily, I know straight away, and he seems to know the medicine helps but he hates infacol, I have to aim it at his face. He loves his metoclop and metacam tho.
My vet thinks it could be same as human ibs and would like proper research done on it.

Rupert & Tia said:

Rupert episodes come on so fast, literally seconds he'll go from usual hyper rupert to off in agony, belly like a balloon, luckily, I know straight away, and he seems to know the medicine helps but he hates infacol, I have to aim it at his face. He loves his metoclop and metacam tho.
My vet thinks it could be same as human ibs and would like proper research done on it.

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You could be describing my bun. He can be eating like a horse and racing around one minute and then flat out belly pressing and shaking the next minute. I have to syringe the infacol in between his teeth whilst wrapped in a towel as he tries his best to hide his head under himself:roll:
30 mins later he is up and washing himself and eating again.
I just wish I could find out what causes it.

bunkin said:

You could be describing my bun. He can be eating like a horse and racing around one minute and then flat out belly pressing and shaking the next minute. I have to syringe the infacol in between his teeth whilst wrapped in a towel as he tries his best to hide his head under himself:roll:
30 mins later he is up and washing himself and eating again.
I just wish I could find out what causes it.

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Exactly the same with Rupert hun - what kind of rabbit is he?

I can't get hold of Rupert it stresses him out far too much, which makes his problem worse, but if I catch his attacks early enough (before he's really stopped eating) he'll happily take his metacam etc. We thought his teeth were the problem, since after his dental, he's not had another issue til last week.

However, we did think he had several triggers - his first episode was burgess apple snacks, second was swede, then just seemed to be random after that really! BUT he is a pest for stealing hamster food (our hamster throws the food out to him!) and I think he'd eaten some last week!

Has your bunny had his teeth checked? The other thing, which is next to be investigated with Rupert, is bladder sludge - an emergency vet we seen said she'd once seen a bunny who was in pain every few weeks, but was fine after painkillers, she contacted seers croft (big, really good referral place near us) who said to check for bladder sludge - and low and behold, they checked his bladder and he did have bladder sludge, which is quite painful for them if it's building up.... we went down the route of checking his teeth first tho (less invasive for him).

The other thing, you mentioned your bunny gulps his water and eats his food really really fast, Rupert does this, and I do notice he drinks a lot more right before an attack....... I mean, he does drink a lot anyway, but just before an attack he does drink quite abit more.

I find it quite frustrating speaking to vets as I don't feel like they listen or understand that he doesn't stop eating, then gets gas... he gets the gas, which then stops him eating.... I get quite frustrated, I want to make them understand that he can literally go from being his hyper normal self (he's a very very active rabbit) to in agony (he never does dead bunny flops unless he's poorly, and trying to get comfy) within seconds, its literally that fast!!!!!

The other good tip for moving the gas is getting his bum higher than his head - so we get Rupert to go upstairs, then back down.... or running around generally helps move it on..... the chase to catch him for the vet and then the car journey seem to help (he always seems to wait til 730 when the vets is closed and its the emergency vets which is further away!) most of the time his tummy is fine again by the time we get to be seen at the vets!!!!

Our vet has now set us up with a bunny medicine cabinet (metoclop - altho they gave emperid which he hates so I have to get the metoclop ordered from emergency vets and go collect it - and metacam) and I have to give him both (with infacol), then carry it on for 2-3 days.

I have a bun, Bailey, who had this.

He was fed on a cheap muesli before I got him, then I changed his diet to Excel. The attacks used to come in clumps. I changed his food again to Rabbit Royale, and he has stopped having the attacks.

He eats the RR much slower, so I assume that is what his problem was.

bunkin said:

Yes he does wolf his food down and sound as if he is drowning in his water bowl:roll: He has a very noisy tummy all the time as well which I have noticed gets alot noisier in the lead up to an attack.

Has she stopped having attacks now she is only on this muesli and hay???

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Yes she has but hers wasn't gas, her food wasn't pushing along her gut so she was getting constipated. I tried all different pellets and hay but the specialist put her on the muesli, unlimited at first and one metaclop and she is a lot better. I have now restricted her to 23g of muesli a day and the rest is hay. The green hay seems to upset her so she has wilkinsons which is more stalky and yellow which she loves anyway.

The metaclop is keeping her well and I have metacam if she is in pain. When I said to him about infracol he said the metaclop is better so I wouldn't need to use infracol.

Maybe try scattering his food to slow him down. I got all sorts of stuff like vetcare digestion ones which did slow her down but she was still unwell. I can still hear her gulping her water down though and it's hard to slow that down so she doesn't take in any air.

weedug said:

I have a bun, Bailey, who had this.

He was fed on a cheap muesli before I got him, then I changed his diet to Excel. The attacks used to come in clumps. I changed his food again to Rabbit Royale, and he has stopped having the attacks.

He eats the RR much slower, so I assume that is what his problem was.

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Hmmmm this is interesting - we don't know what Rupert was fed before, as he was a stray. They do have excel now. The attacks are always (I've just worked out) when we have a new bag of pellets.

Barney is like this but much worse i think he gets gas after eating anything really. It used to just be his pellets, now it is anything even leaves :? The only thing is, he is always fine after his supper (about 9pm) of spring greens, herbs/watercress. In the morning he has a few pellets then fresh hay and some dried plantain etc, then he lies down with a gurgly tummy, and i can feel big gas bubbles blowing up in his tummy if i stroke his tummy it helps. He did seem better the other week and was fine in the mornings, but he seems to have gone backwards. Night time is worse - he is now bad again from about 5.30 until 8.30

CPayne, what did your specialist do to diagnose Doughnut? :wave:

I have to say there are a few threads about this, what is going on with the buns? Moley is currently having an attack of gas, I know for sure it's gas as I was massaging him and could feel a lump. He was pressing and not himself, he has been suffering from these episodes since he went into stasis last April. Anyway as I massaged him he put his bum up as if to wee and literally farted.

I gave him metcloparimide, Metacam, Zantac syrup and fibreplex. He is passing poo and eating but I am getting increasingly worried about the frequency of attacks. I will probably take him to the vet tomorrow and ask them to investigate as it's so sad seeing him in discomfort and not knowing why he was like this 2 weeks ago and the meds above helped him. He also had an attack just before Christmas

I think it might be the change in Hay but I can't be sure...... I feel very much like Ripminnie at the moment a little helpless.

I hope it's not the weather stressing them out!!?

Its the not knowing whats causing it that is so frustrating isn't it!

With my bun the only med that works is infacol having tried all the other vet meds over the years and they do nothing to help him even the metacam

I also think that us being bunny mad we take alot of notice of our buns so pick up on all illness. I am sure my bun had these attacks in his previous home but as he was looked at for 30 secs a day if he was lucky while they threw some cheap bunny muesli at him they would not have known he was ill

bisc has these problems aswell. infacol is good, but the vet says metaclopramide is better so we always have some at home now because we know the signs and symptoms well enough to beable to treat him straight away at home. so that could be an option? bisc is on 1ml 3x a day when he gets it, and it usually takes one days amount to get back on track. it used to be three so he has got better over time. maybe because we treat at the first signs. he would also be given metacam for these flare ups, but he's already on that long term anyway so that side is covered.

another thing we noticed is that over time, he has had to have less and less variety of food. even things he has had for years, he will suddenly be unable to handle.

we aren't really sure what happens with bisc either, but we have found the pro-fibre probiotic pellets to have helped. we recently thought he was becoming sensitive to those aswell, but after cutting out and re-introducing things, we found out it was the basil.

i hope you can find out what is causing it. it's awful when they're fine one minute, then something has set them off again.

eta: bisc is 2.3kg re: metaclopramide dose.

ripminnie said:

Barney is like this but much worse i think he gets gas after eating anything really. It used to just be his pellets, now it is anything even leaves :? The only thing is, he is always fine after his supper (about 9pm) of spring greens, herbs/watercress. In the morning he has a few pellets then fresh hay and some dried plantain etc, then he lies down with a gurgly tummy, and i can feel big gas bubbles blowing up in his tummy if i stroke his tummy it helps. He did seem better the other week and was fine in the mornings, but he seems to have gone backwards. Night time is worse - he is now bad again from about 5.30 until 8.30

CPayne, what did your specialist do to diagnose Doughnut? :wave:

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She didn't just have gas she was rubbing her throat a lot and in pain and then I discovered she was constipated as once she had toileted, which was all soft in a heap, she was OK again. He then started her on metaclop and that worked, after she had been unwell for a year and had been wet from straining.