Bean: Symptoms of a bunneh

[PappaGiant]

Normally, when we wake up bean is at her door trying to force her way out. We open the door and she bursts out circling the room clearing any felines of her floor. Friday morning she was not. At first we thought she was just in a grumpy mood, she sat there eying everyone and making her growling noise when anyone would come near her.

We allowed her to stay in her cage an extra hour before we took her out myself (I got the bruise from a bunneh bite to prove it. She still just sat by the front door looking outside. Then we noticed she wasn't pooping. Alarmed we rushed her to our normal Cat Vet who admitted that she wasn't caught up on bunny medicine. She didn't take her temp and said it was most likely GI stasis . With Cisapride in hand we came home. Later the next day (with no improvements, still no eating, now no drinking), (on our own, researching we began to implement and hourly dosage of 5ml of unsweetened pineapple juice) we noticed her right ear was extremely swollen and very hot to the touch. We rushed her to the animal hospital (our vet is closed on weekends.)

They took x-rays, temperature (105.8), three of the four stomach noises were non existant. They put her on ice, gave her a shot for the fever, prescribed Metacam, Bene-bac told us to continue with the Cisapride. There is a suspiciously Peanut shaped teeth mark on Beans swollen ear (Had low amounts of bacteria in ear ruling out infection. The bite most likely caused the swelling.) The entire weekend weve been feeding her Parsley, Mint, Collard greens and Criticle Care, occasionally she willll eat a pellet or two. Which is a amazing improvement from not eating on friday/sat.

Unsure about why she is sick we've been monitoring her all weekend. Today we woke up expecting improvement because yesterday she began to use the restroom. We took her temperature 104.5 and unfortunately she was still not drinking and now refuses the pinapple juice (She loves the Bene-bac, Cisapride and even metacam flavors. Worried about her hydration we took her back to our normal vet and insisted they do a subcu. Now all wobbly with water she is back and running around obviously feeling better.

Poop's are still rare and she is still not drinking. but there is a noticable improvement (She will fully stretch out again, which tells me she is in less pain than before and she is exploring and occasionally running short distances). Anything else I should try/do? We love our "kids" and would be extrmeely sad if she was to pass away.

 

[Maureen Las]

If you think that she was bitten by the cat she should be on a strong antibiotic as cat saliva is full of bacteria and very serious for a bunny.

 

[PappaGiant]

Peanut is another of our Rabbits.

 

[tonyshuman]

Agreed. A member lost a sweet bunny to a cat bite just a few months ago.

Best of luck...

 

[PappaGiant]

Not only is peanut another of our bunnies our cats are afraid of bean, they just run from her. And its just a bruise and indentation. No breakage of skin.

 

[Maureen Las]

Even if peanut bit her she should still be on an antibiotic if her ear is swollen and hot to the touch. The stasis is probably a reaction to the bite /stress of whatever happened. keep up the GI treatment , plenty of fluids ,benebac, pedialyte etc. but if she has an infected ear this will need to be addressed.

 

[PappaGiant]

Low bacteria cell count in ear, we have her on twice a day enrofloxacine.

 

[Maureen Las]

What do you mean by lower bacterial count in ear ..do you mean internal or external?

 

[PappaGiant]

internal, they took a culture from in the ear.

 

[Maureen Las]

Did they look at theteeth marks on her external ear??

 

[PappaGiant]

Yep as I said before, just an indentation with bruising and no piercing of the skin.

 

[Maureen Las]

Oftentimes when rabbits fight it is a very stressful situation for the rabbit. Sometimes they get bite wounds which can only be detected days later by feeling the rabbit 's body all over for any scabs.

I personally had a rabbit who literally went into an almost catatonic state after having been "beaten up" byanother one of my rabbit's who had gottenout of his x-pen during the night. My rabbit went into severe stasis from the stress of it and actually the wounds were more emotional than physical althoughI found scabs on him a few days later.

I am unsure as to exactly what the swollen ear you describe is ..but I get a gut feeling that your bun has an infection.

If you are taking your bunny to your cat vet you need to find a reliable rabbit vet as that in itself will answer a lot of the questions that you are asking here. We can help you with that.

Your rabbits needs to be syringed fluids if she is not drinking . rabbits do well when given infant electrolyte replacement fluid (pedialyte ). If she continues to have a fever I would suspect an infection undetected that is not responding to enrofloxicin ..possibly needs another drug
this is complicated as she most likely is also suffering from severe stress over whatever occurered that night and should be given extra attention.

 

[PappaGiant]

My wedding was last week and Bean in a free roaming bunny except at night.
This is what we think caused it at this point.

We had for about a week straight 4 people in our apartment constantly and we began to punish bean with a small squirt of water when she got on the couch. We believe this coupled with fight with peanut (whome we found out is a male tonight) stressed her into sickness.

 

[Maureen Las]

Congrats on your wedding and the best of luck in your future
BUT:nonono:

in the free-spiritedness of your weddingyou were very mean to Bean who didn't understand any of this and only wanted her regular routine. :disgust:

You need to give her some serious loving ..........
I hope that she gets well...
keep us posted

 

[tonyshuman]

That type of stress could cause her to go into stasis, but I am also worried about the swelling and very high temperature. I don't think that could be due to stress. It does sound to me like the bite is infected, whether from a cat or rabbit.

You could try cleaning it with betadine and/or putting some triple antibiotic ointment (neosporin--the plain kind, not the kind with pain killer in it, as that pain killer can hurt the bunny if they eat it) on the wound to help it heal from the outside, although that cannot help with the infection that's getting into the bloodstream and giving her a temperature.

It does sound like the vet's giving it a pretty strong antibiotic (although I don't know antibiotics well), but you may need to supplement her gut flora with a probiotic, especially if stress has thrown her into stasis. A probiotic like Bene-Bac should be good. It will restore the helpful bacteria that live in her gut that can be killed by the antibiotic.

Best of luck!