Stasis - need to share my stress

[larndridge]

Spice is gas prone, so she gets no "wet" food at all - I dry all their forage and they have a constant supply of apple twigs and branches from the garden instead of fresh veg. But sometimes she flares up anyway - possibly from stress of all the strange smells when we have visitors on the house, but I'm not sure on that yet because it happens so infrequently that she has a problem. So the standard routine yesterday: notice she's not eating (not hard, since she loves food more than anything), see if she lets herself be picked up (by Spice's rules I am allowed to touch, but not pick up, and nobody else is allowed to touch at all, ever), find that she's even letting my OH pick her up and sitting with him on the sofa, call vets, immediately go to vets, stimulant, metacam, and watch her like a hawk for poo and eating whilst trying to get her mobile.

Usually this would result in a normal bun within a few hours. Now it's the next morning and my lounge floor is covered in a buffet of rabbit foods that I'm trying to convince her to eat. None of the normal offerings have worked, but she has condescended to nibble a couple of things. She also managed to produce a grand total of 3 poos and has been drinking water. Neither the vet or I think there's a blockage, and she's just had her teeth checked recently. But I've been up all night with her, and she's still not eating properly, plus she really hates the syringe with a passion not encountered in my other buns. And all this despite her having a really tightly controlled diet and environment. Anyway, she's picking up now, and as I type this she has just jumped up on the sofa next to me, but it's so frustrating that no matter how well you take care of them buns are so fragile!

Just as a matter of curiosity, at what point would you have used critical care, if at all? I would have if she hadn't started moving around and nibbling, and I still may have to if I can't get her food intake up, but my vet doesn't go to it as a matter of course with stasis, and she seems fairly rabbit savvy?

 

[tonibun]

Sorry Spice is giving you worrying times. It seems like some buns are prone to Stasis, perhaps you could tell us which food she is on and how much hay she eats as someone may be able to advise you. I do know that a rabbit's gut has to be hydrated to allow food to pass through and usually wet veg helps in this instance.

 

[larndridge]

When she's poorly is the only time she's allowed wet food: this morning she's been nibbling fresh dandelion and bramble leaves, and has even licked a strawberry I offered in desperation in trying to get her to eat anything at all. She has been drinking water as well, so I think she's ok hydration-wise at the moment.

I tried to just reduce her wet food intake earlier this year to avoid her getting bloated whilst still allowing her to have some, but it just didn't work: even one leaf of fresh greens (I tried various types) was causing her to stomach press at one point. I think it might have something to do with how fast she eats? She gulps food down incredibly fast.

She has a constant supply of meadow hay, maybe just over an egg cup of Burgess Excel a day, and as I said before a fairly solid supply of the bark from apple twigs, plus mainly dried apple leaves, dried dandelion, sometimes plantain if I buy it for her since we don't get it in the garden. She's a really good hay eater and will often leave pellets in favour of hay, and she produces the kind of golden poos that you want to see - it's just sometimes she stops producing them altogether! I realise that there's probably not much else I can do to keep her healthy, but as I said before, it's just really frustrating (and I have been up all night, so am understandably grumpy!).

 

[Jack's-Jane]

Does she every produce sludgy wee ?

 

[larndridge]

Does she every produce sludgy wee ?

Not as far as I've ever seen, and I keep a reasonably close eye on their litterbox. Her only symptoms, when she has them, seem to be a slightly swollen, quite gurgly stomach, coupled with lethargy and loss of appetite. Are you thinking bladder or kidneys?