Weaning off gut stimulants - any experience?

Hi there,

We have a bun, Mini, who has been on zantac and metaclop daily since June/July after some quite aggressive treatment for a deep bladder infection which messed with her gut quite badly. The vet is very comfortable with her being on the gut stimulants long-term. I'm slightly less so, but after several months of constant vet visits and a very worrying period of hospitalisation, I'll just be glad if she stays well!

She's currently on the metaclop twice a day and zantac three times and I'm trying to wean her off the third dose of zantac, which is typically given at 10-11pm. This is because I fear that giving her meds three times a day is not sustainable for us long-term, and especially if we are away and need to use a pet sitter, and I figure if we're going to get her off it the sooner the better now that her condition is stable.

I wondered if anyone had experience of weaning bunnies off gut stimulants?

We've got the dose down the less than half now, 0.11ml from 0.23ml, but her poops are noticeably smaller, not to a worrying extent and she's otherwise fine, so I'm just pausing for a while at that dose to see if she will get used to the lower level. Perhaps I've just been a bit impatient and need to give her more time to acclimatise to each reduction?

Grateful for any advice!

Personally I would discuss all this with the Vet treating your Rabbit, assuming you have not already done so. I would be reluctant to change a treatment plan that has/is keeping a Rabbit stable without ongoing contact with a Vet and for the Vet to regularly examine the Rabbit.

I hope you can find a workable plan that continues to keep your Rabbit as well as possible.

Thanks Jack's-Jane. The vet is aware that we are trying to reduce the last dose down, and seems happy enough with this, but I think she doesn't see the need, and she doesn't have experience of doing it. On her advice we tried stopping them altogether once the antibiotic treatment was finished, but then had to quickly reintroduce them. She said at the time in response to my concerns about long-term gut stimulant use that we could try to wean her off gradually but as I said she's very comfortable with Mini staying on all the drugs long-term, so we didn't go down this route in the end, and we're just focussing on this last dose of the day to make sure that over the years to come we can continue to manage her treatment. I know that buns can become dependant on the gut stimulants and the dosages are only likely to go up from here. We see the vet regularly and Mini's health overall is of course our main concern. So of course, I'll continue to talk to the vet about it as well, and adjusting the other two doses during the day might help. I really just wondered whether anyone else had experience they could share of doing this, as the vet has never had to/tried to wean a rabbit off the gut stimulants.

So far I have never had a Rabbit who needed to be on long term gut motility stimulants, so I cant give any first hand experience based advice. Perhaps your Vet could give The Rabbit Clinic at The Royal D1ck at call and see what they think ?

http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departm...ic-animal-and-wildlife/rabbit-clinic/overview