Dysautonomia

bunnylover177 · Mar 5, 2015

My OH took Garfield to the vet today and came back with this diagnosis

He is now on septrin and emipred with metacam if we feel he is in pain. Thinking of giving him a course of panacur as well. Does anyone have experience of dealing with this? Is there food we should or should not be giving him? He starts out keen to eat everything but loses interest fast. Is this the same thing as megacolon? I'd be grateful for any advice!

Sky-O · Mar 6, 2015

I have a bunny with this and there are others about on the forum too. It can show in different ways and so here's not necessarily a one size fits all.

What symptoms does your bunny have?

bunnylover177 · Mar 6, 2015

Wet poos, some caetotrophes + very dry straw like poos (drier than usual). Keen to start eating but loses interest. Lost nearly 10% of body weight.

The only good news part of it is that because this also effects horses (called grass sickness) the racing industry is throwing a lot of money at it to try to solve it. Also Francis Harcourt Brown is doing some work on it, in particular why it appears in clusters.

Sky-O · Mar 6, 2015

Poor bunny.

My Autumn was diagnosed three years ago and showed entirely different signs and symptoms from your bunny. He gets acute pain episodes where his gut seizes up and is essentially paralysed. He'd been having these episodes since about six months old and was diagnosed just before he was three, when he was having a month long episode, up and down, and we were faced with PTS.

After diagnosis he started off on a low level gut stimulant (Zantac) and low dose Metacam. When he has an episode we add in Tramadol, increase both those meds, add in Metaclopramide, and he has a very high level of subcut fluids. I don't ever syringe feed him, I just give him all the fluids, all the meds, and wait.

He's now endstage and he's on top level of both gut stimulants and there's very little else we can do to keep his gut moving. He also has flavoured water to encourage drinking which also helps.

I'm not sure how much that helps, because both bunnies present very differently from each other.

Jack's-Jane · Mar 8, 2015

AFAIK a definitive diagnosis of Dysautonomia can only be made post mortem. I have a Rabbit who has a 'presumed' diagnosis of Dysautonomia. He has symptoms related to his GI tract, his heart and his eyes. He is treated symptomatically. His prognosis is guarded at best, but at the moment he is doing well. He is not yet one year of age.

MightyMax · Mar 8, 2015

bunnylover177 said:
My OH took Garfield to the vet today and came back with this diagnosis He is now on septrin and emipred with metacam if we feel he is in pain. Thinking of giving him a course of panacur as well. Does anyone have experience of dealing with this? Is there food we should or should not be giving him? He starts out keen to eat everything but loses interest fast. Is this the same thing as megacolon? I'd be grateful for any advice!

I'm sorry to hear your rabbit has been diagnosed with dysautonomia.

I remember that Katherine Whitwell is leading authority on dysautonomia in rabbits. The last I heard of her she was practising in Newmarket, Suffolk. She is extremely good at sorting out symptoms and finding a way forward. I don't know if a referral to her would be possible or helpful at all.

Good luck xx

bunnylover177 · Mar 11, 2015

Thank you everyone. Garfield is responding well to the meds. A referral could be useful in the future esp. as Newmarket is within long driving distance of us. We will see how it goes. I never heard of this as an official illness before. I had one other bun a few years ago who periodically had runny poos for no clear reason. Anyone know if it is infectious? Does it mean the grass I put them on is a problem? Or the hay or ready grass?

Dysautonomia

bunnylover177

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Sky-O

Wise Old Thumper

bunnylover177

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Sky-O

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Jack's-Jane

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MightyMax

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bunnylover177

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