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Post GA advice

Zigzag

Alpha Buck
Hi all,

My rabbit (Harrison) had GA on Thursday - the vet found a 3.5cm hay piece dislodged in his throat, took a culture (for ongoing sneezing), and filed his teeth down. My vet is very experienced, and has prescribed Harrison with a pain relief and antibiotic, alongside something to get his gut moving.

My bunny is nearly 7, and I really wanted to hear about people's experience of post GA behaviour. My bunny isn't eating very much (especially hay) but on the positive side he is eating his veg though! He is also resting a lot, understandably. We are (trying to) feed critical care, but it's really, really hard seeing him not eat very much.

The vet will be calling us on Tuesday with the culture results.

Any advice or experience people have of post GA behaviour would be very helpful.

Thank you so much 🙂
 
Poor Harrison, that's a large piece of hay! I would imagine that his throat is going to be sore and also his mouth will be uncomfortable generally from being wedged open during the operation. I would imagine that is why he's not eating very much yet.

Maybe try mixing up the Critical Care, making it on the runny side, and putting it into a bowl for him to help himself. You could also try mixing it with some fruit or vegetable based baby food, such as Ella's Kitchen to see if he likes that.

He will be getting moisture from the veg, which is good. I would give a mixture of veg if he will eat it, to get a variety of different nutrients and to tempt his appetite. I would also rinse the veg in water to increase his fluids. Herbs are also sometimes favoured in times like this, particularly the strong smelling ones like Coriander, Dill and Basil.

Is he weeing and pooing OK?

It will be good to get the culture results on Tuesday. It will also be an opportunity to update the vet on his progress.

Sending lots of vibes he feels better soon.
 
Hello
My bun had a recent bout of gut stasis (last week) and had a GA to look at his teeth. I found that afterwards although he would only nibble at hay he loved fresh mint, fresh grass and fresh rosemary.
I also cut some grass from the garden and waved this under his nose and that seemed to help.
As suggested by Omi I rinsed all of these to try and give him extra fluids.

He was also a little quiet, but I think this may have been the painkillers as he would have 'moments' where he looked a little vacant
I hope Harrison's feeling better soon xx
 
Hi all,

My rabbit (Harrison) had GA on Thursday - the vet found a 3.5cm hay piece dislodged in his throat, took a culture (for ongoing sneezing), and filed his teeth down. My vet is very experienced, and has prescribed Harrison with a pain relief and antibiotic, alongside something to get his gut moving.

My bunny is nearly 7, and I really wanted to hear about people's experience of post GA behaviour. My bunny isn't eating very much (especially hay) but on the positive side he is eating his veg though! He is also resting a lot, understandably. We are (trying to) feed critical care, but it's really, really hard seeing him not eat very much.

The vet will be calling us on Tuesday with the culture results.

Any advice or experience people have of post GA behaviour would be very helpful.

Thank you so much 🙂


Hey Zigzag :)

Sorry to hear about Harrison, but great that the vet found the piece of hay!

A GA will have made him very sleepy and it can take a couple of days to get over it. Though some rabbits seem to spring back straight away.

You could try mixing the critical care with some organic baby food. Ella's Kitchen is a good brand, and mine like the bananas and blueberries brand :)

I also try and feed some nicely scented herbs such as coriander and parsley, also dill and mint, and crush the stems lightly to release the aroma. Tickling his nose with them might provoke an eating episode. Also, try some freshly picked grass.

If he's not picked up by tomorrow morning I would call the vet again for advice. Of course, having his teeth filed down and all that nasty equipment in his mouth won't help and he may need soft food for a day or two.

I hope they get to the bottom of his sneezing :)
 
Hi all

Thank you all for your advice, helpful to know we are not alone 🙂

I should have said the piece of hay pierced the soft palate- our rabbit vet had never seen anything like it.

I will make sure I give him a range of herbs - he loves them. I often wave bits of hay under his nose, which sometimes works. As you can imagine with all the med feeding, he's not really loving us at the moment.

I've used Ella's baby food, but I'm going to try giving him more.

His poos are very small. But he is pooing.

I have another question- when a rabbit is ill, does it impact on the other? I.e. Does the other get a bit stressed?

Thanks and I'll update you on Tuesday 🙂
 
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Ouch, that sounds painful no wonder he's not too keen to eat.

When a rabbit comes back from the vet they will smell different, so in this respect it could affect the other rabbit in that they may not recognise the returning rabbit as a buddy.
Also if a rabbit is poorly this can result in them being aggressive to other rabbits that they have been fine with previously (similar to anyone who's feeling under the weather I guess, you can be grumpy with others!).

So the other one may get stressed because of the above, I'm not sure if they get stressed simply because their buddy is poorly though.
 
Hi all

Thank you all for your advice, helpful to know we are not alone 🙂

I should have said the piece of hay pierced the soft palate- our rabbit vet had never seen anything like it.

I will make sure I give him a range of herbs - he loves them. I often wave bits of hay under his nose, which sometimes works. As you can imagine with all the med feeding, he's not really loving us at the moment.

I've used Ella's baby food, but I'm going to try giving him more.

His poos are very small. But he is pooing.

I have another question- when a rabbit is ill, does it impact on the other? I.e. Does the other get a bit stressed?

Thanks and I'll update you on Tuesday 🙂


Oh that does sound painful :( Really glad the vet got it out though.

Regarding the impact on the other rabbit - yes it can have an effect. The way it changes their behaviour varies from rabbit to rabbit. Is your other rabbit getting a bit stressed at the moment?
 
Oh that does sound painful :( Really glad the vet got it out though.

Regarding the impact on the other rabbit - yes it can have an effect. The way it changes their behaviour varies from rabbit to rabbit. Is your other rabbit getting a bit stressed at the moment?

Yes, Zigzag (the other rabbit) wasn't initially eating as much. But it looks like he's eating more, and I'm seeing golden poos! What behaviour changes have you experienced, when one rabbit is ill?

Harrison's getting more and more non compliant with syringe feeding, but his appetite is increasing, slowly.
 
Yes, Zigzag (the other rabbit) wasn't initially eating as much. But it looks like he's eating more, and I'm seeing golden poos! What behaviour changes have you experienced, when one rabbit is ill?

Harrison's getting more and more non compliant with syringe feeding, but his appetite is increasing, slowly.


They can be stand-offish, or a little aggressive (that's happened to a few people I know) or intensively grooming ... All are expressions of stress in one way or another.

I hope you can still get the meds down Harrison - good luck for today :)
 
Thanks for this. Harrison is intensiveky grooming, I assume this is due to ongoing stress - med feeding doesn't help.
 
Thanks for this. Harrison is intensiveky grooming, I assume this is due to ongoing stress - med feeding doesn't help.


Yes, stress and wanting to have some control over the situation and Harrison. I'm glad it's not aggression - that's harder to deal with.

Vibes for the meds!
 
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