Sick Bunny Rabbit Advice

Hi,

My very healthy 2 year old house rabbit ate very little over the weekend and stopped eating and drinking all together on Monday so I phoned for an appointment and got one today (Tuesday). I took him along, the vet checked his teeth and they were fine and she listened to his stomach and she said it sounded quiet. Before taking him to the vets this afternoon, he was pretty lively despite eating and drinking and now he is very quiet and lethargic and has not eaten or drank anything or done a wee or pop. The vet gave him:
Buprelieve
Metacam injection
Ranitidine injection
Vomend soln injection
He has an appointment to go back tomorrow morning but I am extremely concerned about him (especially the lack of poo and wee). Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

He really does need to eat and drink so I can see why you're concerned. Have you got any pain medication such as metacam. Have you tried tempting him with fresh food such as herbs or veg or grass to keep him eating. If you have critical care I would give him that but if he hasn't eaten or drunk for hours and there's no output I would take him to the emergency vets. They normally give them fluid though an IV and also inject all the medicines.
Is your vets rabbit savvy? Regarding his teeth you can't give a through examination without being under ga to look at his back teeth. They could have small spurs on them so that would make him not want to eat but there are many reasons why he doesn't want to. Mainly because he's in pain

brutusthebunny said:

Hi,

My very healthy 2 year old house rabbit ate very little over the weekend and stopped eating and drinking all together on Monday so I phoned for an appointment and got one today (Tuesday). I took him along, the vet checked his teeth and they were fine and she listened to his stomach and she said it sounded quiet. Before taking him to the vets this afternoon, he was pretty lively despite eating and drinking and now he is very quiet and lethargic and has not eaten or drank anything or done a wee or pop. The vet gave him:
Buprelieve
Metacam injection
Ranitidine injection
Vomend soln injection
He has an appointment to go back tomorrow morning but I am extremely concerned about him (especially the lack of poo and wee). Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

Click to expand...

This drug - Buprelieve is a morphine-based painkiller and could well be having quite a sedative effect on him (some rabbits are affected worse than others) so if he seems more lethargic it could be the effect of that rather than the original illness.

If I had a rabbit in the situation you are describing I'd want him admitting for fluids and syringe feeding if at all possible, if not possible to have him admitted then it's really important that he eats but if he's drowsy from the buprelieve then he might not want to. Syringe feeding can be risky with a sedated rabbit.

Yes I would definitely get him admitted. Doughnut has never been given that morphine based drug when she's not been eating so not sure what that's for since your bunny was given metacam.

brutusthebunny said:

Hi,

My very healthy 2 year old house rabbit ate very little over the weekend and stopped eating and drinking all together on Monday so I phoned for an appointment and got one today (Tuesday). I took him along, the vet checked his teeth and they were fine and she listened to his stomach and she said it sounded quiet. Before taking him to the vets this afternoon, he was pretty lively despite eating and drinking and now he is very quiet and lethargic and has not eaten or drank anything or done a wee or pop. The vet gave him:
Buprelieve
Metacam injection
Ranitidine injection
Vomend soln injection
He has an appointment to go back tomorrow morning but I am extremely concerned about him (especially the lack of poo and wee). Can anyone give me any advice?

Thanks

Click to expand...

Hi there and welcome to the Forum :wave:

I'm sorry to hear about your rabbit. As I'm sure you know, a rabbit has to keep eating and drinking to keep their gut moving, and the contents hydrated. You say that he was off his food on Monday, but before he went to the vets this afternoon he was eating and drinking.

Your vet has given his Buprelieve, which basically contains buprenorphine. This is an opiate pain killer, and will make him sleepy and depress the appetite. I don't know why your vet gave that alongside the Metacam if he was indeed eating and drinking OK before you took him?

Vomend is a gut motility stimulant so that's a good thing Ranitidine (aka Zantac) will ease the gut and also help stimulate activity.

He should definitely go back in the morning, and hopefully your vet can give you some gut meds to take away (it's cheaper that way!).

Did your vet advise you to syringe feed him at all? If you don't have any Recovery food, then I should mash down some of his pellets with a little apple or orange juice, or mix them with some baby food (Ella's Kitchen organic is good - have a search online) and feed them to him.

But do you have any syringes?

You can try tempting him with dandelion leaves, rose leaves, herbs etc ... even a bit of fresh picked grass.

The other really good thing (but I know chemists are mainly closed now - you can get it in supermarkets) is Infacol. This is a magic ingredient and is in the baby section. It will help him to pass gas which is what is making him feel full and bloated and not wanting to eat. This comes with it's own syringe:

http://www.infacol.co.uk

You can give one ml every hour for three doses, and then three times daily. It's absolutely fine with other meds and helps enormously!

Some light reading here for you as well:

http://anyflip.com/dvpt/hzvv/basic

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html


Good luck and keep posting back!! x

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?453336-Teeth-problems!&highlight=Specialist+Cornwall
Here's a link to some recommended specialists in your area

Hi,

Thanks for all the advice, in the past 20 minutes he has eaten some grated carrot which is a good start. Vets is not 24 hours but he is going back at 11am tomorrow. I live in rural Cornwall and by the time I get to the supermarket it will be closed. When I googled the drugs I thought buprelieve we an odd choice, however she did take him into a separate room to check his teeth to see if that was the cause of the lack of eating (they are fine) so I don't know if it was administered then to sedate him to check them. No vet didn't advice on syringe feeding, just bring him back tomorrow and he might be tired.

Have you got any grass that you could pick for him and do you have a syringe to give him some water. I would question why they gave him that drug and they should admit him tomorrow to get an IV into him for fluids if he's not back to normal in the morning. I would keep going with the carrot and even a little bit of fruit to keep him eating. It's obviously not ideal food but anything is better than nothing. If he doesn't improve maybe you could get to the surgery when it opens and not wait until 11.
Your vets should have an emergency number for out of hours. When my specialist is closed I have to go to the animal hospital which has 24 hour care. They syringe fed the rabbits through the night

brutusthebunny said:

Hi,

Thanks for all the advice, in the past 20 minutes he has eaten some grated carrot which is a good start. Vets is not 24 hours but he is going back at 11am tomorrow. I live in rural Cornwall and by the time I get to the supermarket it will be closed. When I googled the drugs I thought buprelieve we an odd choice, however she did take him into a separate room to check his teeth to see if that was the cause of the lack of eating (they are fine) so I don't know if it was administered then to sedate him to check them. No vet didn't advice on syringe feeding, just bring him back tomorrow and he might be tired.

Click to expand...

I am glad he's eaten something - good news

Checking the teeth with an otoscope will only reveal about 50% of what's going on with the back teeth. Some vets are capable and willing to do 'conscious dentals', which means looking at the teeth properly - and they are able to correct overgrown spurs without sedation or anaesthetic. It's doubtful your vet did this if they didn't tell you? You can enquire tomorrow

With the meds your vet gave you I guess they hoped for improvement overnight.

Good luck with more feeding/eating, and hopefully (and very importantly) pooping

You are right that the vet may have administered something to better check his teeth. Of course, if a bunny is having a lot of pain, a vet may give them a stronger pain reliever than Medicam. My late Black Velvet was prone to stasis and twice she needed stronger pain relief. It can make a bunny lethargic and it also can slow the gut. However, a bunny in pain will not eat or move around so it is a balancing act.
Did the vet administer any fluids? Keeping your bunny hydrated and eating is important.
I am glad your bunny ate some grated carrot. It is a good start.

Good luck at the vet today.

I hope he gets better and better, and has eaten (and poo'd?) overnight

Hope your little one is still eating something and toileting

UPDATE ON BRUTUS (the Bunny)
I had a rehearsal this morning so my Mum took him. Overnight he did not drink anything but did eat a little more grated carrot and he did do a few poos. He was not his normal characterful self and made a strange grunting noise when he was approached (he is more like a dog and loves his cuddles normally) Apparently his stomach is still quiet, he had a glucose test to test for a stomach blockage and it came back normal (never heard of this) so they have decided to admit him overnight and give him fluids and take it from there. It is really strange without him at home

I guess they will syringe feed him too. Are they going to check his teeth? I've never heard of that test either. Hopefully they find what's made him stop eating and drinking. It's horrible when they're not home with you but he really needs to be there where they can give him fluids via IV and getting him eating again. Hopefully he'll be good tomorrow back to normal.

brutusthebunny said:

UPDATE ON BRUTUS (the Bunny)
I had a rehearsal this morning so my Mum took him. Overnight he did not drink anything but did eat a little more grated carrot and he did do a few poos. He was not his normal characterful self and made a strange grunting noise when he was approached (he is more like a dog and loves his cuddles normally) Apparently his stomach is still quiet, he had a glucose test to test for a stomach blockage and it came back normal (never heard of this) so they have decided to admit him overnight and give him fluids and take it from there. It is really strange without him at home

Click to expand...

I'm glad he's being well taken care of - you've done the right thing

Yes, it must be really strange with him not there ....

How is he today?

brutusthebunny said:

UPDATE ON BRUTUS (the Bunny)
I had a rehearsal this morning so my Mum took him. Overnight he did not drink anything but did eat a little more grated carrot and he did do a few poos. He was not his normal characterful self and made a strange grunting noise when he was approached (he is more like a dog and loves his cuddles normally) Apparently his stomach is still quiet, he had a glucose test to test for a stomach blockage and it came back normal (never heard of this) so they have decided to admit him overnight and give him fluids and take it from there. It is really strange without him at home

Click to expand...

My vets use this. Low levels point towards anorexia, high towards a blockage.

Vibes for Brutus bun

UPDATE ON BRUTUS (the Bunny)

Vet called this morning to say he is much better and responded to the drip well and is eating dandelions and grass and was running around causing havoc and kicking out the bedding (my Mum forgot to mention that he was litter trained and prefers blankets and a litter box when he was admitted and hates bedding!) We went and collected him and he seems much more like his normal self, although he is a bit nervous which is understandable after all he has been through. He has a check-up on Saturday and we have to monitor his eating/drinking, poop/peeing over the next few days but it is all looking good thank goodness!

brutusthebunny said:

UPDATE ON BRUTUS (the Bunny)

Vet called this morning to say he is much better and responded to the drip well and is eating dandelions and grass and was running around causing havoc and kicking out the bedding (my Mum forgot to mention that he was litter trained and prefers blankets and a litter box when he was admitted and hates bedding!) We went and collected him and he seems much more like his normal self, although he is a bit nervous which is understandable after all he has been through. He has a check-up on Saturday and we have to monitor his eating/drinking, poop/peeing over the next few days but it is all looking good thank goodness!

Click to expand...

So good to hear this!!

Well done Brutus, and well done you