Hi everyone,
My little Hammy boy has gone downhill quite suddenly in the past couple of weeks. As you may know, he had quite a bad episode of stasis during the big heatwave and had to stay in the vet hospital on a drip overnight. He bounced back quite well from that and seemed normal again for a while, until the past couple of weeks.
To summarise, he has lost his appetite somewhat and has little episodes of being bloated. This 'clears up' with critical care in a couple of hours, and then he goes back to seeming totally okay, but these episodes are happening almost daily now. I am always on watch to see if he looks on the edge of having another bloating episode.
We took him to our vet a few days ago - we are now at a new exotic specialist vets, the same people who looked after him overnight when he was on a drip. I have a lot of confidence in their expertise. They did some flexion tests on his legs and they bounced back quite quickly, but he said they can't rule out arthritis, and if he has a lack of appetite, it could be arthritis in the jaw. He looked at his teeth and said they had some very small spurs, but nothing that should cause pain or discomfort. He had a dental roughly 3 months ago.
Hammy has been prescribed Loxicom twice daily, as a maintenance medication to see if it helps with any underlying pain. If this goes well, he will have bloods everyone 3 months to check his kidney function. They were confident to prescribe this going off of his recent bloods. He has lost weight, so I'm desperate to try and help him put some back on, but this is hard with the lack of appetite. He seems to have gone off hay, but still wants to graze grass in the run and eat dandelions.
I'm concerned that it is the sudden cold weather which has triggered the potential arthritis, as he is an outdoor bun, and at 9 years old, he obviously isn't coping as well in general. He gets really down in the dumps being indoors, so I'm not sure what to do. We don't really have enough room in the house to bring all three rabbits in, without turning our lives upside down. But I want to do whatever I can to help make him comfortable. He's had a lot of 'sleepovers' with us the past week.
The vet said I should be prepared to make the call and have him PTS if he doesn't improve. I will absolutely do right by him, but the thought of losing him is heartbreaking. He's the most affectionate bunny I've ever had, and an essential member of our family.
If anyone has been through something similar with an elder-bun, any tips would be hugely appreciated. I'm going to order a huge quantity of dried forage and some hay samples to see if I can tempt him with anything else. TIA everyone.
My little Hammy boy has gone downhill quite suddenly in the past couple of weeks. As you may know, he had quite a bad episode of stasis during the big heatwave and had to stay in the vet hospital on a drip overnight. He bounced back quite well from that and seemed normal again for a while, until the past couple of weeks.
To summarise, he has lost his appetite somewhat and has little episodes of being bloated. This 'clears up' with critical care in a couple of hours, and then he goes back to seeming totally okay, but these episodes are happening almost daily now. I am always on watch to see if he looks on the edge of having another bloating episode.
We took him to our vet a few days ago - we are now at a new exotic specialist vets, the same people who looked after him overnight when he was on a drip. I have a lot of confidence in their expertise. They did some flexion tests on his legs and they bounced back quite quickly, but he said they can't rule out arthritis, and if he has a lack of appetite, it could be arthritis in the jaw. He looked at his teeth and said they had some very small spurs, but nothing that should cause pain or discomfort. He had a dental roughly 3 months ago.
Hammy has been prescribed Loxicom twice daily, as a maintenance medication to see if it helps with any underlying pain. If this goes well, he will have bloods everyone 3 months to check his kidney function. They were confident to prescribe this going off of his recent bloods. He has lost weight, so I'm desperate to try and help him put some back on, but this is hard with the lack of appetite. He seems to have gone off hay, but still wants to graze grass in the run and eat dandelions.
I'm concerned that it is the sudden cold weather which has triggered the potential arthritis, as he is an outdoor bun, and at 9 years old, he obviously isn't coping as well in general. He gets really down in the dumps being indoors, so I'm not sure what to do. We don't really have enough room in the house to bring all three rabbits in, without turning our lives upside down. But I want to do whatever I can to help make him comfortable. He's had a lot of 'sleepovers' with us the past week.
The vet said I should be prepared to make the call and have him PTS if he doesn't improve. I will absolutely do right by him, but the thought of losing him is heartbreaking. He's the most affectionate bunny I've ever had, and an essential member of our family.
If anyone has been through something similar with an elder-bun, any tips would be hugely appreciated. I'm going to order a huge quantity of dried forage and some hay samples to see if I can tempt him with anything else. TIA everyone.
It's giving me a bit of hope that he is looking a lot brighter this afternoon - he's eating dandelions, grass, and even a little bit of hay all on this own. He definitely seems comfy indoors at the moment. The girls eat a lot faster than him, so at least he can eat at his own pace and fill up now. But I'm sure that he misses them too. It's a hard balance to strike.
