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Cautionary tale with a happy ending. long!

Rabbitches

Young Bun
I know many will say I was stupid for not doing my research, but lesson learned! I had a quick browse and thought we would be ok, after all, my buns never get poorly and travel with me all the time!

I had a placement in Anglesey on my friends horse yard a couple of weeks ago. The girls travel 3hrs in the car with me routinely and are always fine, even when we broke down and had to be towed! The journey to placement was no longer than the break down one was. I had a quick look for vets in the area, seemed ok if needed, packed critical care and metacam on advice of my vet, just in case.

When we got up there, I had to collect the keys to my accommodation from the yard, they also have working dogs in kennels, and in hindsight I believe this may have pushed Vera over the edge.

We got to the house, I got them all set up, and gave them both a small syringe feed just in case they hadn't eaten much on the journey. Left them with tasty munch and let them settle while I went back to the yard to discuss hours etc.

Got back about an hour later figuring they would be eating and settling in.

Most of the tasty stuff had been left. Vera looking 'loafed' and annoyed. No where near enough poops as there should be. Margot appeared ok, a little quiet but eating.
I tried hand feeding Vera, she would push it away, sometimes pushing it away but realising it was sage, and eating it, but she just wasn't herself. My failsafe is to rattle the treat tin and they come running, Vera grunting at Margot to make sure she gets first pick- Margot came but Vera didn't. Gave a syringe feed, and was on complete poop watch. She did a few, but not enough and she wasn't right.
I called all 4 vets on the island. Two outsourced emergency care tomsomewhere two hours away, one told me they wouldn't be able to do anything more than I had already done (a syringe feed, really?! I know there is more that can be done!) one was ok, and advised me to give metacam and reassess in half an hour.
She started nibbling hay and did a few more poops, so after regular syringe feeds, I fell asleep at 0330 watching her eating hay in the tray.
I'm the morning I gave another syringe feed and metacam, I rattled tin and she came over, and had two of her favourites so I went to placement, planning on going back in 90 mins to check.
I got back to check on them- Still not enough poos, and not eaten breakfast veg. Margot was eating it though.
Called the vet who I spoke to the night before, as she seemed the most clued up by the medications she was mentioning. Took them in, (45 mins away off the island) and the vet I saw examined, but his abdo palp was more rough that I would have liked. He didn't use an otoscope to check teeth, just pulled the lips aside. Suggested metaclopramide, ranitidine and continue with metacam. I asked for Margot to have it too as she was staying with Vera and I didn't want her to get stressed and go the same way.

When they came back in after injections he said he thought she was fine because she was grooming and ripping up the newspaper in the crate.

Hmmmm.

We went back and I got them settled, and Vera was eating more, but still not in her normal voracious fashion. Figured give the medication a chance. More syringe feeds, and she was eating a bit by herself. I was on mega watch.
I wanted another vet to have a look at her so called a vet someone recommended as experienced in exotics on the island. The receptionist said she couldn't fit me in for four days. If they knew exotics, they would know that that timeframe is too late.
The next morning she was eating, but I found a mucous pellet :( and no actual pops from her, but some ceacotrophes. I called our regular vet in bristol, Sonya Miles at Highcroft vets, who was amazing and even though really busy, relayed some info to the receptionist who passed it back to me. It have me the confidence to go back to the original vet and TELL them what I wanted her to have (without looking like a *****). I wanted a blood glucose test and a conscious radiograph, her on fluids and hospitalised 24 hr care overnight with a referral to Birch Heath exotics in Cheshire the next day (due to travel time it was impossible to get there that day, but they were more than happy to accept referral asap). The vets finally took me seriously and agreed with my wishes as best course of action, but they don't do 24 hr care. I found a referral hospital in Chester (90 mins away) who I spoke to and they were happy to take her in and do the treatment plan, weren't exactly exotic specialists, but they did do the OOH for the exotic vet I was wanting a referral to.
Got the referral, bombed along the motorway and took them to hospital. The vet was lovely, and the over night vet had experience with exotics. I went and got them a huge bag of all thier favourite veg to have.
Cried my eyes out as I left them there.
Radiograph showed food in tract, but no obvious blockage or gas, good news. Fluids overnight and metaclop, Metacam, ranitadine.
0600 update, eaten, but NO poops. He was doing the referral and I would hear from the day vet when done- I asked to mark it urgent as I knew this could get serious quickly and I was 90 min from them, which was 45 min from the exotic vet.
Made it to the exotic vets at 1030 after the referral had all gone through.
Straight away glucose testing, and new radiograph, which showed some movement in the gut, but not enough for poops yet.
These vets were amazing. They told me that Vera was lucky I knew them so well as she did definitely have stress ileus, and if I had left it much longer, she could have gone down hill fast. They hospitalised her, but they aren't on site 24 hrs and the vet knew I wanted her to have a 24hr eye, so she took her home with her for a total of 8 days! Even though she improved and was pooping fine, she kept them in as I was so scared of travelling them again and having no vet support nearby. She also did a tiny dental as she saw Vera had a TINY spur, with no redness or ulceration, but maybe enough combined with the journey and dogs, to contribute. I was worried about the GA, but they were so good at keeping in touch andnupdating me, and so caring. After four days I could have collected her, but they kept them in until I finished my placement so I wouldn't have to take them all the way back only to travel past them again two days later.

I was sick with worry, and realised sadly, that vets don't always know best. It was a fight to get them to take
me seriously, although when they did, they were good.

Vera has made a great recovery, and it was lovely to have them back to thier usual selves, causing me mischief!
I gave the exotic vets some chocolates to thank them and I totally recommend them- BIRCH HEATH EXOTIC VETS IN TARPOLY CHESHIRE.

They were brilliant.

I suppose the moral of my tale is:
Know your rabbits
Advocate for your rabbits
Have enough knowledge to know when a vet doesn't really know
Have a decent vet you have researched prior to taking them on a trip
Never take your buns health for granted.

It was an horrific time for us all.
 
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Wow! You guys have really been through it. You did an amazing job getting her the treatment she needed. How amazing that the vet took her home x
 
Wow! You guys have really been through it. You did an amazing job getting her the treatment she needed. How amazing that the vet took her home x

I know right?! Her name is Katie. I think she could see the pain in my face for having to leave them and the effect the lack of vet support had on me, and the relief that they were finally in the right place! She said her boyfriend lives with her and is a vet nurse so they converted the spare room and the BF was loving spending time with them. I could hear the nurses cooing over them and discussing their fur because of them being rexes while I was filling out the insurance forms- that made me feel better, because they cared :)
 
Wow - what a stressful time. So glad Vera is OK now. It's a real worry that not more vets are bunny savvy. They have such a long period of training that I would have hoped that by now they would have learned to spend more time on rabbits during the vet course. Maybe they do and the newer, younger vets have more bunny knowledge but, if that was the case, I'd have thought they would have cascaded the salient points down to their colleagues at their surgery.
 
Wow - what a stressful time. So glad Vera is OK now. It's a real worry that not more vets are bunny savvy. They have such a long period of training that I would have hoped that by now they would have learned to spend more time on rabbits during the vet course. Maybe they do and the newer, younger vets have more bunny knowledge but, if that was the case, I'd have thought they would have cascaded the salient points down to their colleagues at their surgery.

See I am on my vet course right now, and there isn't that much focus, we have a good spread across all species, but it's once you qualify that you really get in to specialising one way or the other. Also rabbits are classed as exotics, so regular small animal vets won't do so much CPD on the exotic species. It all depends on what you see, treat and are interested in after you qualify. And sadly, not all vets are created equal, and will do standard treatments for rabbits and when they don't work, just assume it's not salvageable, rather than try to find new treatments or put the effort in to learn, or at least check in a book!
I totally agree there should be more learning and knowledge dissemination about all species, but especially rabbits as they are such a common pet, and such sensitive creatures.
My experience has given me a little push to want to be an exotics vet, and write treatment protocols to share with all vets free of charge (some probably already do this, the onus is on the examining vet to use the info). Thier regular vet has exotics protocols for when she isn't in, which get followed, and comes in on days off for complex cases.
 
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