Rabbit unexpectedly died after being treated for GI stasis

[bellathebunny]

Hi everyone,

Just hoping for some advice.

My lovely Bella passed away a week ago today and I'm really struggling with it.
She was around 2 and we only adopted her 6 months ago from a rescue. She bonded with our male rabbit who we have had for nearly 2 years and he hasn't had any health issues.

2 months ago, Bella was treated for GI stasis. She stayed at the emergency vets overnight and then came home and seemed to recover well.
Bella seemed completely normal on Friday and had some carrot on Friday night as a treat, but I noticed similar symptoms of stasis on Saturday morning and I was able to get her in to our vets for lunch, they were very thorough and did an x-ray, checked her teeth, her hocks, took a blood sample (blood glucose was 15) and gave her a pain relief injection as well as a gut stimulant injection. They said her teeth were slightly spiked but not overly concerning, and they could hear gut still making noises so said we had caught it early if it was stasis again. We took home critical care and pain relief and agreed to take her back in the next week or so to do a full x-ray on her teeth and do some further tests if needed so we could check for underlying causes of the stasis.
We took Bella home and she was doing well taking the critical care from us throughout the afternoon. At midnight, we took her to the emergency out of hours vets (same one we used in the past) as she was looking very weak and felt slightly bloated. At 2am, she was finally seen and we agreed to keep her in overnight. They gave me several updates throughout Sunday and on Monday morning they rang to say her blood glucose was now at 5, she had started to eat some hay and a bit of veg, was passing faeces and had hopped around a bit. My partner collected Bella and she was home for 11am. She didn't look right though when we opened her travel case at home, she wouldn't come out so we lifted her out and put her next to Beau (husbun). She looked as though she was struggling to support herself, as she was laying on the floor with her head touching the floor. We thought she just might be a bit tired and stressed, so we left her for a while with Beau. I did notice she felt wet underneath, but I thought it might just be from the vets of if she'd had a wee in her travel case.
We gave her some critical care around 1.30pm and she felt quite floppy, she was eating some of the critical care but also spitting some out so we stopped and I wiped her mouth. She hopped off my partners knee which we took as a sign she was gaining some energy, I went to get her some water in a small syringe and my partner placed her back on his knee so we could give it to her but as I came back she just sort of flopped and closed her eyes and died.

I am truly heartbroken and struggling to understand how or why this happened, especially as the emergency vets said they were happy to discharge her.

I just wondered if anyone has experienced something similar, or if you think there was anything I could have done differently? I was worried I caused it by feeding her critical care, but we were told by the vets to carry on with this and she didn't make choking noises so I'm really not sure if that contributed to it.
I've also been worrying it was the carrot on Friday as a treat. We had reduced Bella's veg intake recently and been encouraging her to eat more hay, but she LOVED her food and would often eat Beau's as he will only eat when he's ready, but maybe I should have monitored this more closely to check how much she was eating. She wasn't very active compared to Beau, but we had been encouraging her to move more and our local vets were also going to check for arthritis in case this was the cause.

I want to make sure I'm doing the best for Beau. We want to get him a new companion at some point (struggling with that too because I don't want to replace Bella but it's so sad seeing Beau on his own), but I also want to make sure I do everything right for a new bunny we adopt. Any recommendations are welcomed.

I keep telling myself I was trying my best, but I can't help but feel I let her down.
Bella was so friendly and gentle, a true friend as well as a pet.

Sorry for the long post! Thanks for reading.

 

[Scrappy's Little Helper]

I'm so sorry you lost your beautiful Bella

Reading through your post, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I can't see anything you could have done differently. You got her seen very promptly by the vet and it sounds as though it's unlikely she had a blockage as they had taken the blood glucose tests and she had passed faeces. In my experience with stasis episodes that require hospitlisation, vets often prefer to discharge once they've started to eat for themselves and pass faeces as they tend to recover fully better at home than at the vet. It did sound as though she was on the way to recovering well. The problem is that as non-professional, we have no choice but to rely on the expertise of the vets and if they say they're well enough to be discharged then the only thing we can do is hope that they were right.

I'm not a vet, but I strongly suspect there was a more serious underlying health issue and that the stasis was a secondary problem. The difficulty is that the stasis manifests itself as the bigger, more immediate problem and you have to try and get on top of that before you can start investigating underlying issues.

I'm very sorry again for your loss and I do know how hard it is when you don't know why it's happened. I hope you're doing ok and that Beau is too.

 

[Zoobec]

I’m so sorry for your loss I agree with SLH, you did everything you could for her and it wo be likely the stasis was secondary to something else. Also agree a blockage seemed to have been ruled out. Sadly they are sometimes very fragile but you did the best you could and she had a great life with you xx

 

[bunny momma]

I am sorry for your loss. Some people on this forum give tiny amounts of carrot to their bunnies as a treat with no ill effect.
Was she sent home with any medications?
For future reference, IME GI stasis results in my vet prescribing a few days of pain meds and motility meds at home.
You did nothing to cause her passing. A similar situation happened to me.

 

[joey&boo]

Scrappy has very eloquently said what my thoughts are. so many hugs.

Sleep tight, sweet dreams Bella xx

 

[Pets mum]

So very sorry that you lost your bunny, sweet dreams Bella xx

 

[bellathebunny]

I am sorry for your loss. Some people on this forum give tiny amounts of carrot to their bunnies as a treat with no ill effect.
Was she sent home with any medications?
For future reference, IME GI stasis results in my vet prescribing a few days of pain meds and motility meds at home.
You did nothing to cause her passing. A similar situation happened to me.

Yes our vets prescribed pain relief which we came home with along with the critical care. She’d already had her daily dosage given at the vets and then she went to the emergency vets who continued with it, so we hadn’t had chance yet to give her pain relief at home only the critical care.
Sorry to hear something similar happened for you x

 

[bellathebunny]

I'm so sorry you lost your beautiful Bella

Reading through your post, I can honestly say, hand on heart, that I can't see anything you could have done differently. You got her seen very promptly by the vet and it sounds as though it's unlikely she had a blockage as they had taken the blood glucose tests and she had passed faeces. In my experience with stasis episodes that require hospitlisation, vets often prefer to discharge once they've started to eat for themselves and pass faeces as they tend to recover fully better at home than at the vet. It did sound as though she was on the way to recovering well. The problem is that as non-professional, we have no choice but to rely on the expertise of the vets and if they say they're well enough to be discharged then the only thing we can do is hope that they were right.

I'm not a vet, but I strongly suspect there was a more serious underlying health issue and that the stasis was a secondary problem. The difficulty is that the stasis manifests itself as the bigger, more immediate problem and you have to try and get on top of that before you can start investigating underlying issues.

I'm very sorry again for your loss and I do know how hard it is when you don't know why it's happened. I hope you're doing ok and that Beau is too.

Thank you so much for your reply. Beau isn’t doing too bad at the moment, he’s still eating so I’m just trying to give him extra company

 

[Spongefinger]

So sorry for your loss of Bella. I also just lost a bunny, similar age, to GI stasis, but without giving it all the medical attention at the right time that you gave it, as I ignored some of the symptoms that I now know to interpret better. I am truly guilt-ridden and can empathise with the feeling - but you did nothing wrong at all. It is awful losing an animal you were responsible for and loved. I think it will take me some time to come to terms with it.

 

[bellathebunny]

So sorry for your loss of Bella. I also just lost a bunny, similar age, to GI stasis, but without giving it all the medical attention at the right time that you gave it, as I ignored some of the symptoms that I now know to interpret better. I am truly guilt-ridden and can empathise with the feeling - but you did nothing wrong at all. It is awful losing an animal you were responsible for and loved. I think it will take me some time to come to terms with it.

Very sorry to hear that.
I think we’ll always feel some guilt or question what we could have done differently, it’s a horrible feeling but I’ve been able to cope with it better lately and I hope you will too.
They’re such fragile beings.
Take care x

 

[Spongefinger]

 

[bellathebunny]

Just wanted to add that we’ve tried our best and given them love, which is what matters most.
They’re complex and we’re still learning, so try and be kind to yourself. Easier said than done, believe me I know!
I’m at a point now where I can remember Bella and smile rather than feel so overcome with guilt, and you’ll get there too

 

[Spongefinger]

Thank you.. that's lovely of you to say. I've also just posted my story on here and got some lovely replies, which all helps. X