GI Stasis Closure

[HasandPfeffer]

Hi all, I am new here so I am so sorry if this is the wrong area to post this. I am just a complete mess right now and I really need to know if my partner and I did something wrong.

It all started October 31st at midnight when my partner drove me home from work. They noticed that our bunny Pfeffer was lethargic and not feeling well, and they told me that they think she is going through stasis. This has happened before with her and we were prescribed a colic and metacam. This combo has usually worked in the past in addition to giving her a basil lickable treat. We gave her a dose of both the metacam and colic. This was around 1am. We checked on her again at 4am and nothing had changed so we fed her some of the basil treat. At around 7am nothing had changed so we fed her some nutrient broth. While we were feeding her the nutrient broth, she went limp and we started freaking out. We immediately contacted the emergency vet in our area (the only one that works on exotic pets) and they said that their vet only works mon-thurs and was not in and to try the vet 20mins away. We called them and they said their vet was out sick and to try the one an hour away. They said their vet wasn't in and to try the one 2 hours away. By that point our sweet Pfeffer wasn't doing well at all and I knew she wouldn't make it. While the phone calls were happening I was trying to physically move her tummy in hopes that some poop would pass or something (I later learned that this was probably not a good idea as this can be painful and the last thing I wanted to do was create any more pain for her.... )She passed away in my arms. I tried cpr but to no avail. We are an absolute wreck.

We can't stop thinking about if there was anything we could've done or if we are at fault for the situation and that we should have noticed sooner. She was eating just fine the day prior. Any advice or support is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[bunny momma]

I am sorry for your loss.
Bunnies are prey animals and as such they hide any illness very well.
If she was already lethargic when you noticed she was ill, you were correct in giving her medicam for pain. I do not know what you mean by ‘colic’ since I am not from UK, yet I wonder if you mean baby gas drops which may not help, yet would not harm a bunny with bloating/gas. Gentle tummy massages are done by some persons once pain is addressed.
A basil lick is also something we do not have here, yet again may not help or hurt.
You were in a difficult situation with no vet available near you to conduct a blood glucose test to rule out an obstruction and to possible hospitalize the bunny.
I have been in similar situations out of hours and on weekends when I will keep the bunny warm, administer pain meds, syringe water/fluid or give sub q fluids from the vet, offer greens or treats to encourage the bunny to eat on their own, if the bunny does not have an obstruction begin motility meds prescribed by the vet and syringe feed softened pellets or a recovery food.
Even with my years of experience and after an emergency vet visit I have lost a couple bunnies to GI stasis, so try not to blame tourself.

 

[HasandPfeffer]

I am sorry for your loss.
Bunnies are prey animals and as such they hide any illness very well.
If she was already lethargic when you noticed she was ill, you were correct in giving her medicam for pain. I do not know what you mean by ‘colic’ since I am not from UK, yet I wonder if you mean baby gas drops which may not help, yet would not harm a bunny with bloating/gas. Gentle tummy massages are done by some persons once pain is addressed.
A basil lick is also something we do not have here, yet again may not help or hurt.
You were in a difficult situation with no vet available near you to conduct a blood glucose test to rule out an obstruction and to possible hospitalize the bunny.
I have been in similar situations out of hours and on weekends when I will keep the bunny warm, administer pain meds, syringe water/fluid or give sub q fluids from the vet, offer greens or treats to encourage the bunny to eat on their own, if the bunny does not have an obstruction begin motility meds prescribed by the vet and syringe feed softened pellets or a recovery food.
Even with my years of experience and after an emergency vet visit I have lost a couple bunnies to GI stasis, so try not to blame tourself.

Thank you for your response, I really appreciate it! You are totally right, the colic is basically gas drops. And that is great advice and we still have our precious bunny Has so it will help to have this information to help her if anything like this happens again! Unfortunately we weren't even able to see and emergency vet due to the lack of veterinarians available to see bunnies, which really upsets me. It just felt so sudden to us that it was hard not to blame ourselves, but doing more reading it seems like this can happen to bunnies and that GI stasis is more common than I thought.

Thanks again!