Is there anything more stressful than a rabbit that won't eat?

[Inimical Me]

That’s actually a very good point, and something that I hadn’t considered. Looking at her posture and the shape of her back from above, you can see that the muscles are tensed. That is actually what made me notice her leg injury initially – she was still walking fairly normally, but her side seemed “pulled in”, presumably where she was tensing the muscles to hold her foot just above the ground and support herself on the other side. Some kind of strain on her good side would also explain why she was a bit wobbly on her feet (foot) and her reluctance to jump into her litter tray or move in general. Since the majority of her hay was in her litter tray, this would explain her not eating hay, which would then cause the rest of the GI symptoms. It would also explain her improvement since removing the litter tray, giving her paper to pee on and a very low tray of hay so she doesn’t have to hop too far. That video is fantastic – I think I forget the power that those back legs are capable of and have possibly underestimated the strain of having 50% of that taken away. Certainly other animals do well on three legs, but they are generally animals who distribute their weight evenly on four legs.

We do have another painkiller for her now (I’m not sure what as I’m at work). In total she has metacam, cisapride, metoclopramide, zantac and the painkiller I can’t remember the name of :roll:. She is drinking and peeing normally now, and will eat leafy greens and herbs, so now my main concern is that I have seen her do one tiny poo in 18 hours. She seems in a stable enough condition. Certainly no worse, so the fear of imminent deterioration has subsided somewhat. Fingers crossed I go home to find a big pile of poos so that things can get moving normally again.

Again, I'm just rambling out loud :lol:. I don't know where we'd be without RU .

 

[thumps_]

I don't think you're rambling Inimical me, you're giving us lots of useful information, very necessary to understand the fundamental problem.:thumb:
Thank you.:thumb: I'm the one who rambles in an attempt to communicate how I come to a conclusion.:lol: If my understanding is wrong, & I can't explain everything you've noticed, my conclusion will be wrong! It could still be wrong!!
You've just given me the essential information to tackle a complex problem - "What did you notice went wrong 1st?"

Thumper had a minor back strain in totally different circumstances. A sudden very loud noise perforated his ear drum. He just ran crazily, bed to windowsill (fortunately window closed or he'd have jumped out) & slipped. When I took him to Marie vet, she also noticed a slight curvature of the spine from muscle spasm - minor back strain.

I say something which sounds really silly. "Rabbits have 3 legs - 2 at the front & 1 at the back with a slit in it!" I'm referring to the way they always use the hind legs as 1 unit, unless they're crawling, & very slowly approaching something they're scared of. I've also noticed that they tend to get hock sores on both hind legs at the same time, which makes me suspect that they haven't got the knack of shifting weight from 1 hind leg to the other easily. What Benjie & Thumper do (house rabbits on hard floor) is to tilt the foot foreward when lying flat out, so the hocks stick up behind.

From Marie I learned that hind leg (amputation) / dysfunction is much more serious than front leg issues, & more difficult for a bunny to adapt to, but they can & do. In both cases, but more with the hind leg, they have to bring the sound limb further underneath them to balance.

I'm guessing here. The knee joint has no sideways "give" in it. Humans can use strong muscles near the hip to retain balance & hop, or bring the sound side centrally, but we're limited by the risk of tripping over our own feet. What we do, is to slightly tilt the pelvis which brings the injured leg slightly off the ground, & causes a curvature in the back.
You can try it out yourself. Try hopping foreward with both feet together. You should find your back & pelvis stay level. It takes a lot of energy because we don't have the muscles for it. Now try hopping on 1 leg with the knee straight, (injured side) & feel what happens to your back, back muscles, & pelvis. I find it takes more effort too. Does that begin to explain what you're seeing??
IFF I'm right & rabbits always move their hind legs as 1 unit to hop or run, they simply won't be geared up mentally to use the knee & hip to bend, so as to take weight off the leg.
I think that other pets move their hind legs independantly, a bit more like us, & can bend at the knee more easily.

I've always been totally astounded by the mobility a rabbit has in their back in comparison to us. My suspicion is that they compensate almost totally in their back.
Again watching the video, another thing which impressed me is that they only put weight on the front legs for a split second. The hind legs have to take the weight most of the time.

So after all my endless rambling, & no more knowledge about rabbits than anyone else on here. I'm thinking that back strain was the root of the problem & you're doing all the right things to help her.

Re stasis/gut slow down, poohs. If it's gone on for a while, & started at the "top end" they've got to fill all their gut before they can produce waste poohs. The 1st poohs are often tiny, black, hard, & very misshapen.

Fidget is a bit unusual, but doing all the right things. It's unusual for a stasis prone bun to drink at the beginning, but there's loads of fluid in a stasis bun's gut from the circulation, to soften up the contents so they'll move easily.
With a long period of slow down & somewhat warm weather, I reckon she's softening things up a bit by drinking.
Yes, they go for herbs & greens too, they need the higher nutrient to stop the metabolic effects of low glucose.
I bet she'll start fibre soon.

I discovered that tree leaves especially brambles have a higher nutrient content than hay, but less than herbs. Stasis prone buns need much more attention to dysbiosis than Fidget's case.
So have confidence in her, she's doing all she can to get better.
I'm so hopeful that the extra pain relief will help alot. It'll help any muscle spasm too.
Please keep us updated.

 

[Inimical Me]

Well, your musings have been of great interest and comfort to me these past few days, and I think you might be onto something, although we'll probably never know for sure.

What you say about the hind feet is interesting, as she does use her good leg as a central leg underneath her body in the middle in the absence of her left hind leg to offer support. Although the leg is fine in terms of the bone being healed, I doubt if she'll ever use it again. I've seen dogs who have suffered leg pain and then refused to use the leg at all, even when there is nothing physiologically wrong with it, as the pain as conditioned them to not use it, and continued not using the limb results in loss of muscle which compounds the issue. We also found she had a congenital hip malformation on the same side, which might also be contributing. With retrospect I wonder if it would have been better to amputate but we couldn't know if she'd use it again and you have to try don't you? It just seems to be a bit of a hindrance to her, although I think part of it is my discomfort seeing her with a gamma leg which she flops out at any old angle . Anyway, that's a whole other issue!

An update on the stasis - I think we've turned a corner. I checked on her at lunch time and there was no change. My o/h came home from work and text me her excitement that she'd just seen her eat a mouthful of hay. When I came home there were piles of poo on the floor. Quite moist and stuck together but surprisingly normal sized. Because they're quite wet she has a sore, mucky bum now (she has been trying to clean herself by pulling tufts of the dirty fur out, which isn't helping the soreness. I've tried to clean her up with a damp cloth which didn't do a lot, so we might have to attempt an actual bum bath as I'm worried about flies. I'm not sure how well she'll are an attempt to bathe her now that she has a bit of life back in her. Her 3 leggedness doesn't stop her flicking her feet at me in displeasure :lol:.

 

[thumps_]

The stasis news is really good.
I've heard of people cleaning a mucky bum by softening the hard bits - just damping them & then using cornflower for buns who protest at a bum bath. Hugo's There will know the details, & certainly J-J.

I wouldn't worry about amputations, I seriously doubt whether it would make any difference at all to her back etc.
Far better to give her that chance to use the leg again & you never know, she may do so one day.

I'm also glad I've brought you a little comfort. You've often given me a good laugh when I needed it.

 

[Inimical Me]

The sore bum is now another source of worry :roll:. She's trying to clean herself up and pulling out the fur, which is causing soreness and swelling. It is only on her lame side though, on her bum and upper leg. Her good side is fine. I've tried to bathe her with a damp cloth and a tiny bit of mild soap and I've cut some of the matted bits out with scissors, which she was less than impressed with. I'm not sure how much good it did. We were discussing trying cornflour, and to be honest, I don't think we could make it any worse so I'll give it a go.

I've closed all of the windows so no flies can get in (thank god the weather has cooled down) and I'm hoping that once she starts eating hay, her poos will firm up, she'll start using her litter tray 100% of the time again and the soreness will eventually resolve itself. If I last that long with the stress of it all :lol:.