Does Jess need to go back to the vets?

Hello,

I hope someone can advise me on what they think is best to do for my rabbit Jess. She needed to see the emergency vet last night as she wasn't eating and she was gassy and lethargic. She had pain meds, zantac, emeprid and a syringe feed of critical care. We kept her indoors over night and she wouldn't take her meds or critical care this morning so we panicked and made a vet appointment. However since then we let her out in the garden to see her sister, Roxy, and then put her back in the hutch. Within half an hour she was eating hay so I gave her some carrots and spring greens. She's had half a carrot and 2 leaves of spring greens and I've now let her out and she seems much better than yesterday. She did some soft droppings this morning and now she's just done some small but firm, normal looking droppings.

So my question is should I stress her by taking her to the vets this afternoon or should we just keep monitoring her ourselves? I've tried to speak to the vet but he can't come to the phone. I spoke to one of the vet nurses and she thinks the vet should see her but Jess hates being picked up and I know it's going to stress her a lot to be captured up again. I don't want her to get stressed and stop eating again. Does anyone have any thoughts on what we should do? I'm not worried about the cost of taking her back to the vets again, I just don't want to do more harm than good by taking her back to the vets if she doesn't need it.

Usually with the follow up appointment, they'll give you some more meds to give her orally over the next few days just to ensure her gut does keep ticking over. I wouldn't worry too much about the vet stress causing her to stop eating, sometimes it seems to have to opposite effect and perk them up. They may also discuss any possible triggers to why it happened.

If it's the picking up that stresses her, you might be able to encourage her to hop in the carrier rather than lifting her in.

Thanks for the reply. We already have zantac and emeprid to give her twice a day. The emergency vet didn't tell us to see our own vet. We just panicked this morning when she still wouldn't eat. At the moment she's sitting in her favourite place in the garden being groomed by her sister. We tried to get her to walk into the carrier last night but she wasn't interested at all. In the end we managed to grab her because she wasn't feeling like running away. We couldn't get her to go in the carrier after than so we had to take her to the vets in a big cardboard box. I'm not sure how easy she'll be to catch today but I think perhaps we should take her along to be on the safe side. I don't want her getting sick again tonight. I was just concerned about stress after reading some articles about GI problems that have suggested that it was best to avoid unnecessary vet visits.

Just thought I'd mention that carrots are very high in sugar, so not terribly good for their digestive system (or teeth for that matter) so you may perhaps be best to avoid them.

If it were me I would not go for another vet visit, as long as I had metacam to administer over the next few days. When Sweep had stasis I took him to the vets twice, once to the emergency and then again the next evening as there hadn't been much improvement. The next day he had improved and was eating and pooing, he still wasn't totally better (that took about a week) but I didn't see the point in taking him again as I could see he was improving. Obviously if he went backwards I would have taken him again. I continued metacam on vets orders until he was eating normally again.

I think when trying to get a bunny out of stasis, I would use anything (within reason) to try and tempt them to eat again. If that was carrot, then so be it, but I would be careful to restrict the carrot again when the bunny gets better. Just my personal opinion, but if its eating carrot or not eating at all, I know what I would prefer!

I hope Jess feels better soon

catherine09 said:

If it were me I would not go for another vet visit, as long as I had metacam to administer over the next few days. When Sweep had stasis I took him to the vets twice, once to the emergency and then again the next evening as there hadn't been much improvement. The next day he had improved and was eating and pooing, he still wasn't totally better (that took about a week) but I didn't see the point in taking him again as I could see he was improving. Obviously if he went backwards I would have taken him again. I continued metacam on vets orders until he was eating normally again.

I think when trying to get a bunny out of stasis, I would use anything (within reason) to try and tempt them to eat again. If that was carrot, then so be it, but I would be careful to restrict the carrot again when the bunny gets better. Just my personal opinion, but if its eating carrot or not eating at all, I know what I would prefer!

I hope Jess feels better soon

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See what you mean about the carrot. - I was just concerned that it may make matters worse.

If she is eating, pooping and you have meds to continue to give her for a couple of days I would not go back to the vets but would keep a very close eye on here and continue with any tummy rubs, getting her to move around etc until she seems 100%.

You could try to bramble leaves or hawthorn, they are sometimes the first things that my buns eat when they are poorly.

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the help. We did try to catch her but she was determined not to let us. She bolted past my OH and out of her hutch and now won't come any where near us. We are having a telephone consultation with our vet instead and are just waiting for him to call back to see if he wants us to do anything different for medication. We do have meds for a few days but not metacam so will see if the vet recommends that or anything different and then we'll pop up there and collect it.

We try not to give them much carrot - they just get the peels when we have them, but maybe we'll reduce them even more in future. I knew that was the most likely thing to get her eating today though. It's amazing the difference it made getting her back into her own environment again. Within half an hour she'd gone from looking totally sorry for herself to eating and looking almost normal.

JessAndRoxy said:

Thanks everyone. I really appreciate the help. We did try to catch her but she was determined not to let us. She bolted past my OH and out of her hutch and now won't come any where near us. We are having a telephone consultation with our vet instead and are just waiting for him to call back to see if he wants us to do anything different for medication. We do have meds for a few days but not metacam so will see if the vet recommends that or anything different and then we'll pop up there and collect it.

We try not to give them much carrot - they just get the peels when we have them, but maybe we'll reduce them even more in future. I knew that was the most likely thing to get her eating today though. It's amazing the difference it made getting her back into her own environment again. Within half an hour she'd gone from looking totally sorry for herself to eating and looking almost normal.

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I'm sorry I said anything about the carrots - feel badly about it as obviously you were trying anything to get her to eat.

I think it's difficult to know what to do with a stasis bunny, but if she is stressy then a vet visit may indeed set her back again. I'd recommend trying to get some painkillers, after all a bunny probably won't eat if their tummy is in pain

Babsie said:

I'm sorry I said anything about the carrots - feel badly about it as obviously you were trying anything to get her to eat.

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Please don't feel bad about it. I really do appreciate your concern. As I gave them to her I was a bit worried they might upset her but knew she'd find it hard to resist. I'm still checking on her every 20 minutes or so - it's at times like this I'm really glad I work from home. Last time I went out she was eating her rabbit nuggets enthusiastically.

Once we're over the current crisis, I'll be looking for tips to make sure they have the best diet to try and stop this happening again. Their daily diet is Burgess rabbit nuggets, spring greens, hay and grass (when there is any) with occasional carrot peels or a slice of apple. They did get savoy cabbage on Saturday and Sunday for the first time in about a year so I wonder if that might be what caused the problem.

catherine09 said:

I think it's difficult to know what to do with a stasis bunny, but if she is stressy then a vet visit may indeed set her back again. I'd recommend trying to get some painkillers, after all a bunny probably won't eat if their tummy is in pain

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Thanks. If the vet does call us back I will definitely ask him about it. I expect he'll probably wait until the end of surgery. She's not sitting or lying like she's in pain today but I know they're good at hiding it.

Just checked on her again and now she's eating hay so she's definitely trying to make up for the lack of eating.

Our vet didn't get a chance to phone us yesterday but he phoned today. He was happy that we hadn't brought her in since she was doing so much better by the afternoon and said it probably would have stressed her more than anything which wouldn't have been good. He said she didn't need to take any more of the motility meds now she is eating and pooping normally (which is handy as we haven't been able to get her to take them - she tried to bite me last night) and he said to keep an eye on her and hopefully it will be an isolated incident but if it happens again he'll do tests to find out if there is something else causing the problem.

She's been running round the garden most of today and being very busy. Each time I've been out to see her she's come running over to see if I've got any food, so she is definitely back to her normal self.

Thank you everyone for your help and support

Glad she is doing well :thumb:

Thank you

I'm pleased she's doing well - what a relief :thumb:

I keep a carrier pretty much out in the garden all the time so the bunnies think of it as normal, they quite often hop in them selves now to be transported from their everyday run to their "super run" :lol:

I keep the same towel in there that they sit on when they go to the vets so it's all familiar smelling :thumb:

Might be worth acclimatizing them to the carrier if you can :thumb:

JessAndRoxy said:

Our vet didn't get a chance to phone us yesterday but he phoned today. He was happy that we hadn't brought her in since she was doing so much better by the afternoon and said it probably would have stressed her more than anything which wouldn't have been good. He said she didn't need to take any more of the motility meds now she is eating and pooping normally (which is handy as we haven't been able to get her to take them - she tried to bite me last night) and he said to keep an eye on her and hopefully it will be an isolated incident but if it happens again he'll do tests to find out if there is something else causing the problem.

She's been running round the garden most of today and being very busy. Each time I've been out to see her she's come running over to see if I've got any food, so she is definitely back to her normal self.

Thank you everyone for your help and support

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Wow, good news, brilliant