Totally stumped (bit long, sorry!)

[luvabun]

Delightful picture you paint of her helping you clean out the hutch. Wouldn't have thought it was the stress of that as you're not putting her anywhere strange. But I'm no expert and could be totally wrong.

The destroying of good bacteria sounds like a good question for the Vets... now practice the humble, confused look rather than the smug one :wink:

The good folks on here have recommended probiotics for Totti after his bout of illness and surgery. I did get some (mail order not from the Vets) and I am very impressed with the size and quality of poos Just waiting for him to start acting daft now like the Actimel woman :shock:

 

[RussAb]

Well, it seems I was way off the mark with this. The vet we saw was fantastic, brilliant at explaining a lot of things to us novices. He doesn't think it's gas....he had a good examination of her and couldn't feel any gas. He couldn't feel any blockages etc or anything like that. He said her teeth were in brilliant condition, and was impressed at the hay/readigrass/alphalpha diet (so I did get to use the smug look briefly :lol: ).

His first thoughts are that she's got E.cuniculi (sp :?: ) and we've seemingly brought home half their medical supplies to help treat this. We've some probioic sachets, some Baytril, some Panacur and some prepulsid. I can't quite remember which of those does what though . I think the Prepulsid will help keep the gut moving?

He said we could get them back on pellets, but that if they were happy with their current diet that a couple of tablespoons of pellets will be enough, just to stimulate them to eat even more hay.

He did talk a bit about how often pellets are marketed as the 'be-all and end-all' whereas really they should be treated as a supplement. And that 80% of the rabbits he sees are overweight so it was good to see a rabbit on roughage, roughage and more roughage . It was really good to be able to have a proper discussion and to actually understand what we were being told :lol: .

So, whilst I am worried about her, I do feel that we're getting closer to the source of the problem. He also said she could do with putting a bit of weight on too, she's a bit skinny. But we'll worry about that once we've knocked this on the head.

 

[luvabun]

Fantastic news Russ- and regardng the skinny bit, Brody was always really skinny but since the mainly hay diet and beng de-wormed, she's a healthy chubby thing now. Its great not to feel her bones. So, well done and I'm sure she'll do really well now.

 

[RussAb]

Fantastic news Russ- and regardng the skinny bit, Brody was always really skinny but since the mainly hay diet and beng de-wormed, she's a healthy chubby thing now. Its great not to feel her bones. So, well done and I'm sure she'll do really well now.

Really....that's really promising to know. I wondered if the hay diet meant she'd struggle to put weight on, but sounds like she'll be ok if she follow's Brody's example.

Off to issue first lot of medication.....wish me luck :lol:

 

[bunnyhuggger]

Probiotic - to re-establish balance of gut flora (unbalanced more so by Baytril)
Baytril - antibiotic
Panacur - to treat the EC
Prepulsid - yep, to get gut moving (you're lucky to get that stuff cos it's like gold. Most vets have run out of supplies of it and are prescribing Metachlopromide (sp?) as an alternative)

What a good vet!!! What's his name? I like to see a vet recommending hay hay and more hay. You're lucky to have found him!

YaY!!!! Keep up the good work, hope your bun is feeling better soon :wink:

Let us know how you get on with giving the medication.

 

[RussAb]

Probiotic - to re-establish balance of gut flora (unbalanced more so by Baytril)
Baytril - antibiotic
Panacur - to treat the EC
Prepulsid - yep, to get gut moving (you're lucky to get that stuff cos it's like gold. Most vets have run out of supplies of it and are prescribing Metachlopromide (sp?) as an alternative)

What a good vet!!! What's his name? I like to see a vet recommending hay hay and more hay. You're lucky to have found him!

YaY!!!! Keep up the good work, hope your bun is feeling better soon :wink:

Let us know how you get on with giving the medication.

It's a guy called Stuart, at Prospect Veterinary Centre in Halifax (well, probably Sowerby Bridge). His expertise seems to be in small animals.

Operation 'medication application' went ok :lol: . Took both of us a while but we got there in the end. We've watched as the vets examine the bunny and pick up a few tips about how to handle bunnies. No spillages and we think most of it went down the hatch.

The probiotic is in powder form, and as she's not eating the few pellets we've put out for her, how else can we get her to ingest it? In their water?

Again, thanks everyone....it really is helping us a lot .

 

[bunnyhuggger]

Did the vet tell you to sprinkle the probiotic it on the food? What's the name of it? Is it Avipro?

 

[bunnytales]

Great News Russ - glad things seem to be going in the right direction - so to speak.

Might be worth just keeping a watchful eye on her weight too though if the Vet felt she was slightly underweight - Buffs had a stint of having several Statis attacks and now although she is back to normal and on mainly hay diet she does have a couple of spoonfuls of pellets just to keep her weight up.

Brill news though I'm so glad she's hopefully on the mend - brill Vet you got yourself there too.

 

[RussAb]

Did the vet tell you to sprinkle the probiotic it on the food? What's the name of it? Is it Avipro?

Yes, he did, although with her only on hay and a few pellets (2 teaspoons or so) I'm putting half of it in their water, and the other half sprinkled on her pellets. Giles sticks his nose in and nicks her food so it's a tad difficult to direct the probiotic towards Abbie only. Whilst it won't do Giles any harm, she's the one more in need of getting it inside her.

It's called Bio-Lapis. Comes in 2g white foil satchets. I do have some Avipro too and was going to see if it was worthwhile keeping her on that for a bit after the Bio-Lapis has run out.

Her incontinence is getting a tad worse, so I'm hoping we knock this on the head sooner rather than later. The newspaper on the hutch floor was soaking wet when we got back tonight, so had to clean the hutch out for the second time today. I don't mind doing it but it must be really uncomfortable for her. Feel really sorry for her - she doesn't like being picked up, but obviously we need to when we need to give her her medicine.....when we picked her up tonight she wee'd herself quite badly 'cos of the shock of being picked up .

Might be worth just keeping a watchful eye on her weight too though if the Vet felt she was slightly underweight - Buffs had a stint of having several Statis attacks and now although she is back to normal and on mainly hay diet she does have a couple of spoonfuls of pellets just to keep her weight up.

We've started doing that too....same amounts as you're using too. Glad I'm on the right track with that then! Wasn't quite sure how many pellets to give her. She is eating hay like a trooper though so if at least she loses no further weight whilst we sort this out then I'll be happy, and we can get her weight up a bit later.