naturestee
Well-Known Member
As some of you may know, I'm fostering a litter of baby bunnies and their mom for the local shelter. They're about 2.5 weeks old now. Today I found little Zappa, the dutch baby, had a very large poo stuck half in and half out of his anus, which was very swollen, red and sore-looking.
First thought- warm, wet washcloth held to his bottom to soak the poo off. That's some darn hard, stubborn poo! And I found a tiny bit of clear mucous (hopefully just from intestinal irritation) and then... I started finding the occasional drop of blood.
2nd thought- (well, 2nd after remembering it's Sunday and my vets don't do emergency calls any more) call a breeder! Called Tinysmom, she's never seen this so she referred me to Randy, ra7751 , who is an experienced wildlife rehabber and often works with baby cottontails. He recommended mineral oil instead of water to soak the poo off and sub-q fluids (I don't have the stuff or experience) or unflavored Pedialyte. And to double check that my vets won't answer the phone. Calling my vet clinic referred me to the new emergency vet clinic 30 minutes away which doesn't take rabbits at all and they referred me to the emergency place in Milwaukee 1 hour+ away which isn't necessarily very good with rabbits. Gah... no help there!
I just came back from running out to get unflavored Pedialyte and the mineral oil seems to have soaked off the poo that was outside Zappa's rear. Yay! But the whole genital area is still very red and swollen and I'm not sure if there's still poo stuck on the inside for not. He must of removed the outside poo himself after it softened because I can't find it in the basket at all. I syringe-fed him 1 cc of Pedialyte very slowly and now he's resting in his basket again, with a warm rice sock to snuggle with.
Long post, huh? Anyway, that's everything up till now. Anyone else who has seen this happen or has recommendations please post!
First thought- warm, wet washcloth held to his bottom to soak the poo off. That's some darn hard, stubborn poo! And I found a tiny bit of clear mucous (hopefully just from intestinal irritation) and then... I started finding the occasional drop of blood.
2nd thought- (well, 2nd after remembering it's Sunday and my vets don't do emergency calls any more) call a breeder! Called Tinysmom, she's never seen this so she referred me to Randy, ra7751 , who is an experienced wildlife rehabber and often works with baby cottontails. He recommended mineral oil instead of water to soak the poo off and sub-q fluids (I don't have the stuff or experience) or unflavored Pedialyte. And to double check that my vets won't answer the phone. Calling my vet clinic referred me to the new emergency vet clinic 30 minutes away which doesn't take rabbits at all and they referred me to the emergency place in Milwaukee 1 hour+ away which isn't necessarily very good with rabbits. Gah... no help there!
I just came back from running out to get unflavored Pedialyte and the mineral oil seems to have soaked off the poo that was outside Zappa's rear. Yay! But the whole genital area is still very red and swollen and I'm not sure if there's still poo stuck on the inside for not. He must of removed the outside poo himself after it softened because I can't find it in the basket at all. I syringe-fed him 1 cc of Pedialyte very slowly and now he's resting in his basket again, with a warm rice sock to snuggle with.
Long post, huh? Anyway, that's everything up till now. Anyone else who has seen this happen or has recommendations please post!
