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My Rabbit had a BAD stasis or Heat stroke episode last night.

Lynn's Bunny

Lynn's Bunny

Mama Doe
Jack is 9 years old and yesterday I came home from work to find him laying down and barely responsive. He was shivering and his eyes were glazed over. He had flaring nostrils and was breathing very fast. I panicked at first and thought he had a stroke. But then I decided to give him metacam and wait to see if it had any effect after 20 minutes. He refused to eat.

his companion Henriette was fine and eating her food normally. It was a very hot day but I had left out a large 2 litre of frozen water and they are in the shade all day. So I thought they would be fine.

I tried to call his Vet but they were closed and the emerg vet here is useless with rabbits. I massaged his belly gently in case it was stasis, he has had this before. Finally half hour later he perked up and was not flaring his nostrils anymore. I lightly wetted his ears with water and syringed a little bit of water into his mouth which also seemed to perk him up. I continued to massage his belly lightly. Then an hour later he started eating parsley and dandelions that I had wet with water.

Then he started moving around and cleaning himself normally. After that he was eating well. This morning when I went out to check on him he is really happy again and grabbed the veggies from me.

Today because its going to be hot again I'm going to wet a towel and drap it on the side of the cage. And I'm going to give them 2 frozen water bottles and ice cubes in the water bowl.

I just am not sure was this heat stroke or stasis? I'm so glad he is fine today. I seriously thought I was going to lose him. :(
 
Lynn's Bunny said:
Jack is 9 years old and yesterday I came home from work to find him laying down and barely responsive. He was shivering and his eyes were glazed over. He had flaring nostrils and was breathing very fast. I panicked at first and thought he had a stroke. But then I decided to give him metacam and wait to see if it had any effect after 20 minutes. He refused to eat.

his companion Henriette was fine and eating her food normally. It was a very hot day but I had left out a large 2 litre of frozen water and they are in the shade all day. So I thought they would be fine.

I tried to call his Vet but they were closed and the emerg vet here is useless with rabbits. I massaged his belly gently in case it was stasis, he has had this before. Finally half hour later he perked up and was not flaring his nostrils anymore. I lightly wetted his ears with water and syringed a little bit of water into his mouth which also seemed to perk him up. I continued to massage his belly lightly. Then an hour later he started eating parsley and dandelions that I had wet with water.

Then he started moving around and cleaning himself normally. After that he was eating well. This morning when I went out to check on him he is really happy again and grabbed the veggies from me.

Today because its going to be hot again I'm going to wet a towel and drap it on the side of the cage. And I'm going to give them 2 frozen water bottles and ice cubes in the water bowl.

I just am not sure was this heat stroke or stasis? I'm so glad he is fine today. I seriously thought I was going to lose him. :(
Click to expand...

Oh I'm sorry!

It sounds like you managed to get him out of an episode of stasis. But as we know, stasis is a sign of something else underlying, which could have been precipitated by the heat. Of course you'll keep a close eye on him, and pray that if anything further happens, it's during your good vet's opening hours!

I hope he'll be OK ongoing :wave:
 
Thanks so much! He is back to his normal self today. Throughout the day I misted his ears with water and he had ice cubes in his water bowel. I soaked a towel with water and laid it on the floor and he liked to stand on it. And he liked to lick it. Very odd. LOL I'm so relieved he is fine. So scary!
 
It could have been either. Thankfully you were able to get him back to being himself. He may have had stasis as the result of dehydration from the heat, or the heat was worse for him because with stasis he did not drink enough or move around.
You may want to get extra water into him so he has some in reserve. As long as the bunny is not too sickly, I have given fluids Sub-Q. It is not hard to do, and you can still syringe water to hydrate the gut more directly.
 
In the past my bunnies seemed to be able to manage relatively well with the only two weeks' worth of high temps we have here, but when humidity factors in it gets worse a lot faster. Now that they're older I really have to watch it, it doesn't take much, sadly. :(
Anytime my rabbits get too warm now I worry. I have to consider the possibility it'll go to seizure activity, as that happened to Pip about 3 years ago. It wasn't a long one but after it passed and I got her cooled down I got her to the vet to be checked over just to be sure. We were lucky it wasn't worse. :(
Glad to hear you were able to bring your bun through. I keep frozen water bottles onhand and check their ears (if those feel warm the rest of the bun likely is too) as often as possible during hot spells. We now have lovely rain and cooler temps as we head for our "autumn" here, so the nasty stuff is behind us at last. :thumb:
 
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