Recovery after GI stasis - bunny eats and poops but is lethargic?

Hi!
How long does it usually take before a bunny recovers from GI stasis? Is it normal for his appetite to have ups and downs? Is it normal for his poops to be a lot of different sizes and shapes?
My bun (who I recently discovered was male so he has no official name right now) went into stasis Wednesday/Thursday 10 days ago. He started treatment on Friday, but until Monday night there was little improvement. On Tuesday he made a few droppings, and on Wednesday he started eating a bit of hay. Since then his appetite gradually increased and so did the amount of poop he made. Yesterday he ate about 3/4 of his size in hay and also some critical care so it was almost back to normal. Yesterday he also recieved IV treatment, but we stopped it, and today he gets oral medication, and if everything goes well tomorrow he will not get any more meds except simethicone.
This morning he was very alert and ate a lot, but this afternoon he seems a bit sluggish and sad. He does not seem to be in pain, and reacts if we call him, but otherwise he stands still and appears to sleep or be somehow lost in thought. He appears to eat less than yesterday too. His poops also vary in size and shape (first poops he made were small, then they got biger than usual - about 2x the size of his usual droppings and now they are all sizes).
Is this normal? Should I be worried? (I am already worried sick, a better question would be should I be calm?)
Here is a video of how he looks - imagine him doing that for 30 minutes continuously:*https://youtu.be/AqP4ZHbDC7M*. And here is a photo of his poops:*https://imgur.com/a/Zqpaham


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Hello, and welcome to the forum. Did the vets find the cause of the stasis? Is he moulting? Did the vet check his teeth? Is your vet rabbit savvy? Has a blockage been excluded? What medication has he been having ? Some up and downs can occur, usually with my bunny the slowdowns coincided with the pain relief medication wearing off. My bunny usually has very small poos after stasis, then increasing in size. My bunny doesn’t get unusually shaped poos but it can occur after stasis.

When my bunny has stasis the cause is usually dental, but he does have gut slowdowns when he is moulting. He also ate cardboard which caused stasis so he isn’t allowed that anymore!

I can’t see the video I’m afraid, but he does sound like he is feeling ill or depressed. My bunny had a dental which he took a while to recover from, after which he became withdrawn and wouldn’t eat unless I was with him, so once we had excluded any illnesses, I adopted a friend for him, and he is much happier, eats more hay etc and is more active

Sending lots of vibes for your bunny.

Thank you for the reply!

The vet said the cause was likely the diet with too much sugar and fat (I gave him pellets with cereal, the colorful kind). I got two x-rays done and no obstruction was found in either of them. He did check the teeth and said there were some sharp edges and some gum issues, but nothing serious enough to cause stasis and he adviced waiting until the bunny is recovered to address the teeth problems.

The treatment he recieved until yesterday was:
- Metoclopramide
- Ranitidine
- Meloxicam (Metacam)
- Simethicone
- Metronidazole
- Domperidone
- Buprenorphine

Today they removed some of these meds, they thought they were no longer needed since the bunny was eating and pooping almost normally.

The bunny is moulting, but not in large quantities. He is only 4 months old.


I noticed that sometimes the bunny got more uncomfortable as the meds were wearing off, but today he was lethargic even after getting them (to be fair, I am not sure if the meds that were removed have anything to do with that).

I am really worried because he was just starting to get better and I am scared he is relapsing. On the other hand, he still is eating on his own (even though he would rather have greens instead of hay) and pooping like crazy. So I am getting really mixed signals.

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- Buprenorphine often makes rabbits very sleepy/drowsy/ out of it, so it could be that. My vet usually just prescribes metacam for painkilling. Similarly, my vet has only given metaclopromide rather than both that and domperidone.

My bunny only had small spurs visible on conscious exam, but when he was under for the dental, his tongue had huge ulcers both sides of it. I understand waiting until he is stable to do a dental but that could be the main cause.

If you can wean him onto a pellet rather than a muesli type food that should be better, and once he is fully grown he won’t need many, I give mine about an eggcup full between 2 rabbits once which encourages them to eat more hay :thumb:

I really hope it's the opioids that are making him sleepy. Now that I think about it, the last few days I left him at the vet office in the morning and took him back at night so he could have IV fluids and all that, so this is the first day that I actually saw him in the middle of the day since he started this treatment. You really gave me hope.

The treatment wasn't this aggressive at first. The first days it was only Metacam, Metoclopramide, Ranitidine, Metronidazole and Simethicone, which I think is pretty standard. However, he wasn't responding so they probably doubled up because of that.

I will keep in mind what you said about the dental, and will try to do one as soon as reasonably possible. I just want to see the poor little one happy and healthy again

He has been begging the last couple of days for his cereal. He is really cute when he does it, but no way he will ever again get it after seeing what it did to him. I asked the vet for recommendations for pellets and will try to get him to eat those instead.
These days it seems like he wants to eat anything as long as it is not hay. He even started lapping up his critical care, which he hated until 2 days ago. I give him parsley and he loves it, but I am afraid to give him too much since he is still recovering and only let him have 2-4 stalks.

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You might be able to tempt him to eat hay if you mix his pellets, herbs and anything like it into his hay. Not eating hay does sound like his teeth are bothering him. My bunny did go off his usual hay after his dental, and I tried him on lots of samples before finding his favourites. I’m wondering if you are not in the uk, from your phone sign off?

Can you get different hay for him to try, some places will send samples. Also if you can get something like Readigrass, it’s easier for a dental bunny to eat sometimes.

Yes, I am not in the UK Sorry if I was out of place to post here, I was just really worried and I found this forum while searching for answers.

He didn't really have a problem with eating hay before the stasis episode. Is it possible that not eating for a week caused his spurs to grow bigger and start bothering him? I will try to find some Readigrass or something similar, thank you for the tip.

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Zephyre said:

Yes, I am not in the UK Sorry if I was out of place to post here, I was just really worried and I found this forum while searching for answers.

He didn't really have a problem with eating hay before the stasis episode. Is it possible that not eating for a week caused his spurs to grow bigger and start bothering him? I will try to find some Readigrass or something similar, thank you for the tip.

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No, not at all, sorry if I gave you that impression. We have members worldwide :thumb: It’s just if you were in the uk we could have recommended some hay suppliers to get samples from, it may be that they don’t ship overseas or that it would be cost prohibitive to order some.

A week not eating hay could have allowed the spurs to grow bigger or his mouth might have got more sore.

Oh, great then. Since the site ends in .uk I was worried it was UK exclusive and I missed it haha.

I will try to get him to eat some more hay, and will report back tomorrow with how things develop. Thank you for all the advice!

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No, we have members from all over the world :thumb: you might be able to get something like Readigrass from pet shops or from equestrian supplies.

I hope he is eating more hay soon :thumb:

Sorry to hear your bunny has been unwell. You need to change his food over gradually so his tummy can get used to it. Does he drink normally? Do you have any grass you can give him? The video wouldn't work.

Yesterday night he started being more active and aware. Still not playful as he used to be, but he would jump around without us coaxing him.

He drinks water on his own, around 50-100 ml every day.

Today he is FAMISHED. I finally weighed him and I was shocked. Before he went into stasis, he was around 1250g. He is still growing so by today he should have been around 1400g, but instead he is only 1080g. I will start to feed him critical care 3 times a day again, at least until he is back at the weight he was before. I also bought some Brit pellets, but I am scared to give him too many. I gave him around 5 pellets but I don't want to upset his stomach.

Could he be so lethargic because of the weight loss? Today he eats a lot, but when he takes a break from munching on hay he seems completely uninterested in anything not food related.
Also, how can I encourage weight gain without risking his recovery?

Thank you so much!

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Zephyre said:

Yesterday night he started being more active and aware. Still not playful as he used to be, but he would jump around without us coaxing him.

He drinks water on his own, around 50-100 ml every day.

Today he is FAMISHED. I finally weighed him and I was shocked. Before he went into stasis, he was around 1250g. He is still growing so by today he should have been around 1400g, but instead he is only 1080g. I will start to feed him critical care 3 times a day again, at least until he is back at the weight he was before. I also bought some Brit pellets, but I am scared to give him too many. I gave him around 5 pellets but I don't want to upset his stomach.

Could he be so lethargic because of the weight loss? Today he eats a lot, but when he takes a break from munching on hay he seems completely uninterested in anything not food related.
Also, how can I encourage weight gain without risking his recovery?

Thank you so much!

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How old is your Bunny ? Is he under 12 weeks of age ?

Jack's-Jane said:

How old is your Bunny ? Is he under 12 weeks of age ?

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He is around 4 months old.

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Zephyre said:

He is around 4 months old.

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If he is now eating well for himself and has a normal poo output personally I would not give any syringe feeds or any new food types for now. I'd weigh him daily and allow his weight gain to be slow. Overloading his GI tract with syringe feeds and/or giving new food types may cause more problems than it solves as he may bloat up.

Oh. I never considered it might do him more harm.
The thing is, he begs for more food. He eats eagerly when I give him critical care with the syringe, and until 2-3 days ago he would fight me whenever I tried to give it to him. I am worried the hay is just not enough for him in this state (before the stasis he also got muesli type pellets and corn, which are more calorie-dense, but obviously I will never give those type of foods to him again).
His poops are now mostly round and big so I guess I could say they are almost back to normal.

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He is very young. Any change of food / introducing new food at this age should be done slowly. Given what he has been going through, it is even more important to stick with only what he is used to until he is fully back to normal. Encouraging him to move around more will also help to get his guts working better - so maybe put food in different places when he is showing interest.

I would keep a very close eye on him for the next week or so at least to make sure he is eating normally and pooing normally before his medication is stopped. Any reduction in input or output needs addressing promptly. You have done well so far - just need to get him back to normal now.

Hope your bunny continues to recover well. My Bertie was almost comatose after buprocare. It was such a relief when it wore off but he ended up dehydrated and needed subcut fluids. He made a speedy recovery thereafter.