Hello,
I would appreciate any advice on this situation as I'm a fairly new rabbit owner.
We rescued two bunnies in October, a mother and daughter. It isn't known how old Rowan, the mother, is as she was found abandoned in a hutch in a garden where the people had moved out. She had her daughter, Roo, when she was with the previous people and that was about 3 years ago. We get the feeling she might be an older bun as she isn't as playful as Roo, and likes sleeping and her own space. They live indoors with us now. They were living in a small hutch outdoors, and the previous people had stopped giving them hay because they made a mess with it... so of course the first thing we did was give them tonnes of space, they now run around the house, and always have tonnes of hay, good amounts of fresh greens that we grow ourselves, and a portion of pellets everyday.
So, the current situation is: up until Wednesday, Rowan was her usual self if not a bit more manic, enthusiastically tearing up a box most of the day on Tuesday. Eating was normal, poo was normal.
On Wednesday morning, she didn't want to come out of her bedroom box. This isn't that unusual, she can be quite grumpy at times and ignore us, and ignore fresh food, and only take it when she wants to. So I left her to it. I kept checking back on her and she was popping out to use the litter, had a munch and then going back to bed. Again, not that odd - it's Roo who loves being in the lounge with us. By the evening, Rowan still hadn't come out, and even if she doesn't want to come out in the day, she nearly always comes out in the evening to have a run around with Roo. So we coaxed her out and brought her into the lounge, but she just went and found one of her snuggly places and settled back down for the evening.
When we all went to bed, she had a munch and a drink as usual and I thought maybe she'd just worn herself out the previous day as it was particularly manic. But when she appeared the same on Thursday, I started to worry. I kept an extra close eye on her Thursday morning and released she wasn't passing. I tried to get her to eat greens but she didn't want to. She was happy to drink if i gave her the bowl of water. Early Thursday afternoon, she got up to use the litter so i raced to watch, and it looked like she was straining but nothing was happening. She wee'd as normal, but no poo and as she jumped out the litter, a saw a white/almost clear worm, about 15mm long, coil about.
I called the vet straight away and explained the lack of poo and the worm. We were able to go down to the surgery immediately and he assessed her, said her temp was fine and she was well hydrated, it was most probably a worm infestation and gave me two pipettes of spot on to put on her neck. He said the worms may start coming out in a few days. So we put the stuff on when we got home. Carried on offering her water from the bowl, she was drinking fine, munching small amounts of hay, but still not wanting to come out or eat greens.
On Friday she was just the same. We maybe saw a few very tiny, hard poos all day, and she still wasn't interested in eating much. So I waited to see how she'd be on Saturday morning, and she was exactly the same. So I phoned the vets back as soon as they opened. We had to wait a few hours as it's lambing season and their was only one vet on call. I should mention that I live on an island, and there is only one vet surgery here, so we can't seek out a rabbit specialist. We took her down again, and he said it's probably gut stasis, so he gave her a pain relief injection, and another injection to get the guts moving. He sent us home with Emeraid Herbivore which we've been giving her ever since.
Since she came back from her second vet visit yesterday, she's really, really grumpy. She won't come out at all, is refusing water from the bowl, won't eat greens and I don't even know if she's eating hay now. I haven't seen her eat any. Obviously we've been having to force her to come and shove a syringe into her mouth every few hours, as well as gently massaging her tummy, but she then runs off back into her box. Last night, there were a couple of extremely hard, tiny clumps of tiny poo, which I thought was the start of the movement. But today there appears to be nothing again.
Would you say this is a normal? I'm guessing she's pretty stressed out with all of this. I don't want to have to take her back to the vets again if it's going to make things even worse. I've read so much about this, but I can't find a lot to do with GI stasis and worms, it's all about bad diet which she doesn't have. I've also read it can takes ages for the guts to move again, but the vet didn't send us home with any more pain relief, just the emeraid.
Any advice on this would be much appreciated!
I would appreciate any advice on this situation as I'm a fairly new rabbit owner.
We rescued two bunnies in October, a mother and daughter. It isn't known how old Rowan, the mother, is as she was found abandoned in a hutch in a garden where the people had moved out. She had her daughter, Roo, when she was with the previous people and that was about 3 years ago. We get the feeling she might be an older bun as she isn't as playful as Roo, and likes sleeping and her own space. They live indoors with us now. They were living in a small hutch outdoors, and the previous people had stopped giving them hay because they made a mess with it... so of course the first thing we did was give them tonnes of space, they now run around the house, and always have tonnes of hay, good amounts of fresh greens that we grow ourselves, and a portion of pellets everyday.
So, the current situation is: up until Wednesday, Rowan was her usual self if not a bit more manic, enthusiastically tearing up a box most of the day on Tuesday. Eating was normal, poo was normal.
On Wednesday morning, she didn't want to come out of her bedroom box. This isn't that unusual, she can be quite grumpy at times and ignore us, and ignore fresh food, and only take it when she wants to. So I left her to it. I kept checking back on her and she was popping out to use the litter, had a munch and then going back to bed. Again, not that odd - it's Roo who loves being in the lounge with us. By the evening, Rowan still hadn't come out, and even if she doesn't want to come out in the day, she nearly always comes out in the evening to have a run around with Roo. So we coaxed her out and brought her into the lounge, but she just went and found one of her snuggly places and settled back down for the evening.
When we all went to bed, she had a munch and a drink as usual and I thought maybe she'd just worn herself out the previous day as it was particularly manic. But when she appeared the same on Thursday, I started to worry. I kept an extra close eye on her Thursday morning and released she wasn't passing. I tried to get her to eat greens but she didn't want to. She was happy to drink if i gave her the bowl of water. Early Thursday afternoon, she got up to use the litter so i raced to watch, and it looked like she was straining but nothing was happening. She wee'd as normal, but no poo and as she jumped out the litter, a saw a white/almost clear worm, about 15mm long, coil about.
I called the vet straight away and explained the lack of poo and the worm. We were able to go down to the surgery immediately and he assessed her, said her temp was fine and she was well hydrated, it was most probably a worm infestation and gave me two pipettes of spot on to put on her neck. He said the worms may start coming out in a few days. So we put the stuff on when we got home. Carried on offering her water from the bowl, she was drinking fine, munching small amounts of hay, but still not wanting to come out or eat greens.
On Friday she was just the same. We maybe saw a few very tiny, hard poos all day, and she still wasn't interested in eating much. So I waited to see how she'd be on Saturday morning, and she was exactly the same. So I phoned the vets back as soon as they opened. We had to wait a few hours as it's lambing season and their was only one vet on call. I should mention that I live on an island, and there is only one vet surgery here, so we can't seek out a rabbit specialist. We took her down again, and he said it's probably gut stasis, so he gave her a pain relief injection, and another injection to get the guts moving. He sent us home with Emeraid Herbivore which we've been giving her ever since.
Since she came back from her second vet visit yesterday, she's really, really grumpy. She won't come out at all, is refusing water from the bowl, won't eat greens and I don't even know if she's eating hay now. I haven't seen her eat any. Obviously we've been having to force her to come and shove a syringe into her mouth every few hours, as well as gently massaging her tummy, but she then runs off back into her box. Last night, there were a couple of extremely hard, tiny clumps of tiny poo, which I thought was the start of the movement. But today there appears to be nothing again.
Would you say this is a normal? I'm guessing she's pretty stressed out with all of this. I don't want to have to take her back to the vets again if it's going to make things even worse. I've read so much about this, but I can't find a lot to do with GI stasis and worms, it's all about bad diet which she doesn't have. I've also read it can takes ages for the guts to move again, but the vet didn't send us home with any more pain relief, just the emeraid.
Any advice on this would be much appreciated!