Help. Advice needed urgent.

Lavender was spayed yesterday. Everthing went well. Lavender spent the night in an indoor cage in the spare room. She seems quite perky but as not eaten anything. I have put pellets, hay, her favourites grasses, lettuce, carrot in her cage but she hasn't been tempted (and water).

This morning I put her indoor cage outside in the run attached to her hutch so that her 2 baby rabbits can see her and vice versa, thought this might encourage her to get back to normal. Haven't been able to check if this has worked yet or if she has eaten as I am at work, but fortunetly have arranged to work from home this afternoon.

What can I do. I really don't want to force feed her
Rabswood

You could try mushing up some pellets and veg with some water in a food blender and just try tempting her that way. I have found that i usually don't need to force feed the buns if they have a sloppy mixture if you put it just inside there mouth they will usually swallow without to much fuss. You may have to force her if she hasn't eaten when you get home though as that is a long time for her not to have eaten anything. Xx Good Luck and i hope laveder is back to normal soon XXXX

hi

I would take her back to the vets and ask them to give her another shot of painkiller, plus sub-cutaneous fluids if she's not drunk anything - It's urgent she eats as what happens after a rabbit has abdominal surgery is the guts bruise easily and can stick to each other - eating and passing food along breaks up these adhesions before they become rock solid and rupture the gut - it's an emergency if she's not eaten all this time - hope you find she's broken her fast by the time you get home though.

Once they go off their food they start to feel full with gas - so they don't eat because they're not hungry, which is why you have to really tempt them - I had to sit and hit Benny round the nose with wet grass to get him eating after Pepsi died - then once he'd got a taste he did it himself - just coax her till she eats - but she needs to go back to the vets if she's still not eating when you get home - fingers crossed for her!

Most of my does that have been done have not eaten for a day or two - you do have to check that they have had painkiller and then get some more for them - it is a big operation and is more invasive than a boys so painkiller is vital for them to recover.
I know that you are doing your best for her but I wouldn't put her outside for a few more days yet as she has an wound and that can attract the flies - it is better that she stays inside and gets plenty of rest with just some gentle exercise. The gentle exercise will also help to keep her gut moving. Bring her babies into see her if you want to but at the moment she is feeling rough and will just want peace and quiet.
Sorry that I am having to use Scoot's laptop - my machine has decided to throw a wobbler :roll: :?
Lots of healing vibes going to Lavender - get better soon sweetie

Hi everyone. Thanks for replies.

Got home. Lavender has done normal poo and wee and still seems quite perky. Watching her now from the computer I can see her grooming herself. I think being near the boys (babies) must have helped. Not sure if she's touched anything, veg etc still there. Have popped in a freash carrot but no interest. Have some fresh parsley and mint will try a sprig of both. She's still perky and alert and comes to sniff me when I go to see her and quite interested in getting oout of her cage and into the run so I don't think she's in any pain, but obviously she won't have healed over night so there will be some discomfort. I want to keep her in the cage for rest so she doesn't strech her self. She does have quite a bit of space though.

She was given a pain relief vaccination I checked all that out , taking others advice off the forum.

Have just phoned the vets who said to take her in if I am worried. The last time I saw her eat was 9.30am yesterday morning before her op.
Since she's poo'd and wee'd doo you think she must have eaten something?

I'ts too stressful being a bunny mummy

Just got Scoot's message

Her indoor cage is plastic with plastic sides and a vented top, She's on newspaper and has a blanket which I've just changed as other had wee and poo on. She can see the babies and vice versa but they can't get to her. The inside cage is in the run and I've put a cotton rug over the top of the run so shade from the sun. She's just in a typical rabbit position so her tummy and wound are underneath so no flys can get her wound, but I take your point. I'll bring her in in a couple of hours. I thought it would also help with putting her back in with the babies in a few days time, it will help to keep them bonded.

I would force feed the bunny w/ baby food in syringe as well as inject SQ fluid under the skin just behind the neck. (the skin behind the neck is the loosest) as you have to keep the bunny's diet up and water for the rabbit as well.

Probably a moderate amt. of both, imagine if you just complete a surgery, you can't take full diet too, but you do need to eat something and drink something.

More Lavender

Decided better to be safe than sorry so took Lavender back to the vet. She gave her another pain killer, an anti-biotic and something for the gut. Poor Lavender feels like a pin cushion. She is now safely back in the spare room with fresh water and a bowl of mashed with hot water pellets (Baxter's Excel) with partly boiled mashed up celery, green bean and carrot mixed in. I've left her in peace.

I will check on her later with some hay. Hopefully by tomorrow she will be well onher way to recovery.

Thanks for all the advice everyone.

Have you tried dandelion leaves? Its the only thing Phoebe would eat after her op but i had to really rub them under her nose before she would try it!

Happy Hopping said:

I would force feed the bunny w/ baby food in syringe as well as inject SQ fluid under the skin just behind the neck. (the skin behind the neck is the loosest) as you have to keep the bunny's diet up and water for the rabbit as well.

Click to expand...

I notice that quite often when a bunny is sick you suggest injecting sub-cut fluids and force feeding I must stress for the benefit of new bunny owners that injecting sub-cut fluids is only to be attempted on the advice of a vet and only after you have been shown how to do this correctly.

On this forum we have several experienced rabbit care givers that in an emergency would give sub-cut fluids without consulting a vet but they have had many years of experience treating rabbits and know when it is vital immediate action is taken!

Force feeding is sometimes necessary when a rabbit has not eaten for 24-48 hours but again I must stress if you have not done this before you must consult with a vet - my vet often attempts phone diagnosis when I am unable to make it to the surgery straight away and need urgent advice so you can always ring them if you aren't sure!

Sometimes he just says wait, sometimes he suggests feeding recovery but often when I have described the rabbit's symptoms I am told to bring him in NOW! If a rabbit has developed stasis then really it needs certain medications only a vet can administer or even x-rays!

If in doubt always take your rabbit to a vet!

Caz

I agree.

I'd rather go to the vet than attempt force feeding a bun. I just couldn't do it I would feel like I was tourturing them. I feel awful worm tableting my cats, one of them is fine about it but the other 3 get scared. I'm quite experienced with cats so can do it quite quickly, but I still don't like it as they don't understand whats going on.
Rabswood
Michelle

Syringe feeding doesn't have to be force-feeding. There is no need to stress the rabbit out at all. If you just sit them on your lap, the right way up, put your left hand on top of the head and lift the cheek a little with your thumb so you can introduce a small 1ml syringe into the side of the mouth where there are no teeth and squirt the liquid feed in they are quite likely to accept it quite happily, especially if they are thirsty. (No i don't mean make them thirsty first, i mean if they haven't been drinking well - they should always have water available). The critical care stuff, and recovery are very palatable so this should be easier than giving baytril for example. If your rabbit does appear to be getting stressed, stop and rethink. You must weigh up relative benefits before continuing.

Of course a rabbit sick enough not to be eating should see a vet. But if a vet suggests it don't be afraid to try it. It is very important that rabbits eat, due to the nature of their digestive systems.

hi

When Pepsi appeared to have stasis (he actually had a blockage but only an x-ray would have showed that) - the vet gave him the gut stimulant, painkiller, sub-cu fluids and antibiotic, and because I'd only had rabbits a couple of months she offered to have him stay in the surgery, where the vet nurse could force-feed him...She said it was vital to his survival to get food moving through his gut, so if I didn't want to do it she would have to - has your vet not suggested this to you rabswood?

In the end she explained how to kneel with the bunny between my legs wrapped in a towel, its back towards me - and just put the mushed up food in a syringe and very slowly squeeze a tiny bit into its mouth so it didn't choke - the syringe has to go behind the front teeth sideways, rather than pointing towards the back of the mouth, just to be safe...

She asked me if I was sure I could do it - 'you're going to have to work at this if you want him to survive' she said...In the event no-one could help Pepsi as he had a blockage, but syringe feeding might save Lavender's life - if a bunny has gone 16 hours without food or water it's very bad - I'm really worried about her to be honest - please try syringe feeding or let your vet do it.

Lavender has been accepting dandelion leaves and I caught her munching a little hay, but not so much as you would notice the hay had gone down.

This morning there was a wee and one possibly 2 poo pellets.

She still seems quite bright and her wound is healing nicely.

The vets are open until 7.00pm tonight so I might take her over again if it doesn't look like she's taken anything while I've been t work.

Oh bunnies are such a worry

hi

oh well it's a start - she sounds like she's getting the idea of eating again - hope she keeps at it - I'm dreading my 5 getting spayed :?

Caz said:

I notice that quite often when a bunny is sick you suggest injecting sub-cut fluids and force feeding I must stress for the benefit of new bunny owners that injecting sub-cut fluids is only to be attempted on the advice of a vet and only after you have been shown how to do this correctly.

Click to expand...

Using SQ fluids does have to be show by a vet before any average rabbit owner knows how. I've been doing it for 7 mth. straight day after day since my rabbit passed on due to cancer.

But if the owner doesn't know how, they can go to the vet and let the technician injected them. In the end, a rabbit can't live w/o water, especially in these hot weather. Keeping fluid up is more important than w/o food for a day.

As to force feeding, w/ a lot of rabbit disease, once the bacteria gets to the rabbit, their system shut down and they stopped eating, I have encounter this several times in the past few yr. These vet recommendation is I have to keep the bunny's diet up, i.e., they have to eat something, so force feed a few times of 5 cc of Heniz baby food is quite needed to give them some energy to go on during the day.

Lavender is eating at last and is weeing and pooing as normal. Crisis over! Going to introduce her back to the babies on Saturday.

thank goodness, thats brilliant news

hi

Hoooray! I wonder if re-bonding might take a bit longer as she's been away from the boys for so long though - hope they all get on still! - I'm wondering what to do with splitting up my group of 5 for spays, so PLEASE keep us posted as to how they react after a few days apart

I have on a couple of occassions put the indoor rest cage into the run so that they can all see each other, it was only yesterday when it rained that I didn't do it. Hopefully re-introducing will be ok.