cpayne
Warren Veteran
It was lovely meeting two RUers at the talk and hopefully they will add anything I've forgotten. The main things I got out of it are:
1. Vets are under subscribing metacam and that leads to a lot of gut statis or can help rabbits out of gut statis. Mark has helped hundreds of rabbits just by putting their metacam dosage up so please don't think you are going to overdose. As an example Doughnut can have 0.5ml three times a day and she is 1.2kg. He gives talks to vets and said it's one of the main issues he sees when people have come to him after being treated elsewhere.
A study of rabbits was done after being spayed or neuteured, some were given no metacam others were given high dosage. Students observed them and found hardly any differences in their behaviour as they hide pain so well. Never go home after a spay without metacam and if your rabbit is going into statis then you should give it metacam if you have it on hand and then syringe feed it. Don't just syringe feed it water, add a bit of critical care in or something to add a bit of taste. In America they do not subscribe any metrocloprimide or drugs for statis, they just feed them. Mark was saying about getting food into the rabbit and they feed them 24-40ml 4 times a day, that's what you should be aiming for. You shouldn't worry about there being a blockage as if a rabbit has a blockage it will become very unwell suddenly not have reduced fecal etc.
He gives intravenous metacloprimide, cisapride, some form of infracol to disperse the bubbles and put them on an IV drip or SC depending on how bad they are. They also syringe feed liquid and food.
2. Get your combined vaccination done 10-11 months. The vaccine seems to not be so effective after 11 months and he's seen cases of myxi. In 4 of the case one died.
3. For sore hock bandage the feet. This is the only way they will get better, vetbeds, fleeces are fine but the feet need to be bandaged in order to recover and also make sure they have metacam to take the pain away.
4. There's no point in giving surgery to rabbits if you're not going to get a lot of post surgery pain relief. A lot of rabbits have surgery for one thing but because they aren't given adequate pain relief they go into statis and die.
The main reasons rabbits go into statis is pain, stress and disease. Normally all three. The first thing to do at home is give metacam if you have any or start syringe feeding to get the stomach going.
Mark doesn't recommend ranitidine as it reduces the acidity in the stomach too much. He said you should never leave a rabbit for a day that hasn't eaten or drunk anything.
5. The sign of needing dental treatment is salivating but he said although you can examine rabbits teeth when they are awake the best thing to do examine is under GA as the spurs at the back are hidden by their tongue, so could be rubbing an ulcer on it but you wouldn't get to see that when they are awake.
It was so interesting and he showed two videos on how to get blood from a rabbit. He said blood tests are always good to do on a sick rabbit and also a radiography. Basically you need to find out what the underlying problem is and treat the statis but if surgery is needed the primary cause then you need to make sure you get pain relief after the surgery otherwise the statis will be back straight away.
I hope all this makes sense. He said a lot more so any questions feel free and I'll or someone else who went hopefully can answer it.
1. Vets are under subscribing metacam and that leads to a lot of gut statis or can help rabbits out of gut statis. Mark has helped hundreds of rabbits just by putting their metacam dosage up so please don't think you are going to overdose. As an example Doughnut can have 0.5ml three times a day and she is 1.2kg. He gives talks to vets and said it's one of the main issues he sees when people have come to him after being treated elsewhere.
A study of rabbits was done after being spayed or neuteured, some were given no metacam others were given high dosage. Students observed them and found hardly any differences in their behaviour as they hide pain so well. Never go home after a spay without metacam and if your rabbit is going into statis then you should give it metacam if you have it on hand and then syringe feed it. Don't just syringe feed it water, add a bit of critical care in or something to add a bit of taste. In America they do not subscribe any metrocloprimide or drugs for statis, they just feed them. Mark was saying about getting food into the rabbit and they feed them 24-40ml 4 times a day, that's what you should be aiming for. You shouldn't worry about there being a blockage as if a rabbit has a blockage it will become very unwell suddenly not have reduced fecal etc.
He gives intravenous metacloprimide, cisapride, some form of infracol to disperse the bubbles and put them on an IV drip or SC depending on how bad they are. They also syringe feed liquid and food.
2. Get your combined vaccination done 10-11 months. The vaccine seems to not be so effective after 11 months and he's seen cases of myxi. In 4 of the case one died.
3. For sore hock bandage the feet. This is the only way they will get better, vetbeds, fleeces are fine but the feet need to be bandaged in order to recover and also make sure they have metacam to take the pain away.
4. There's no point in giving surgery to rabbits if you're not going to get a lot of post surgery pain relief. A lot of rabbits have surgery for one thing but because they aren't given adequate pain relief they go into statis and die.
The main reasons rabbits go into statis is pain, stress and disease. Normally all three. The first thing to do at home is give metacam if you have any or start syringe feeding to get the stomach going.
Mark doesn't recommend ranitidine as it reduces the acidity in the stomach too much. He said you should never leave a rabbit for a day that hasn't eaten or drunk anything.
5. The sign of needing dental treatment is salivating but he said although you can examine rabbits teeth when they are awake the best thing to do examine is under GA as the spurs at the back are hidden by their tongue, so could be rubbing an ulcer on it but you wouldn't get to see that when they are awake.
It was so interesting and he showed two videos on how to get blood from a rabbit. He said blood tests are always good to do on a sick rabbit and also a radiography. Basically you need to find out what the underlying problem is and treat the statis but if surgery is needed the primary cause then you need to make sure you get pain relief after the surgery otherwise the statis will be back straight away.
I hope all this makes sense. He said a lot more so any questions feel free and I'll or someone else who went hopefully can answer it.