Bun not Eating!! Help!

[Aki]

So sorry to hear that. Sometimes, there is nothing you can do except for making the end as painless as possible.

 

[graceofangels]

Thank you. It means allot. Today was hard. Not having someone to look after it to see a bunny come rushing to the front of his pen when I said hi boo boo.

For those interested, the vet called because she wanted to see exactly what happened. Apparently Thump had a severe bacterial infection that began shutting down his organs. I asked if there was anything I could have done to have helped him survive, and she had long pause and said no. I'm not sure if that was really a yes sir to the pause. I brought him in the MOMENT his behavior slightly changed. He wasn't as excited for pellets on Sunday and didn't seem as excited for food in general. I force fed him, forced fluids, have tummy massages, finally medicine. No one mentioned bacteria. No one gave an antibiotic. I keep trying to tell myself I did everything possible.

Eventually she said based on the information and symptoms, there was nothing else I could have done. That I wasnt an awful bunny owner and I didn't fail him. The bacteria moves fast and can be as quick as 12 hours.

 

[JBun]

Your vet is right, that you really couldn't have done anything differently. You brought your bun in right away at the start, so after that your information about what's going on and what to do is coming from the vet. The blood work didn't show evidence of the infection. If the infection was in the digestive tract, without the diarrhea being present at the start, I wouldn't have thought to treat for bacterial enteritis just based on my rabbit having symptoms of stasis, and I wouldn't have thought my vet would pick up on this either.

You know the saying about hindsight. But at the start, by all appearances you were dealing with a simple case of stasis, and an antibiotic isn't typically given unless there's some indication of infection being the cause, which indication you didn't have. Even if the vet had given you an antibiotic, the usual one given is baytril and it's likely it wouldn't have been that helpful in treating this type of infection. Without having seen the diarrhea earlier, it would have been difficult to know there was a bacterial infection present. If it was the clostridium bacteria, it's such a toxic bacteria that it does cause death very quickly and isn't easily treated because of this.

I know how hard it is to look back and wish you had done something differently, but I think it's always this way when we lose a pet. You just have to keep reminding yourself you did all you could, and that your bun had a happy life with you.

 

[graceofangels]

Your vet is right, that you really couldn't have done anything differently. You brought your bun in right away at the start, so after that your information about what's going on and what to do is coming from the vet. The blood work didn't show evidence of the infection. If the infection was in the digestive tract, without the diarrhea being present at the start, I wouldn't have thought to treat for bacterial enteritis just based on my rabbit having symptoms of stasis, and I wouldn't have thought my vet would pick up on this either.

You know the saying about hindsight. But at the start, by all appearances you were dealing with a simple case of stasis, and an antibiotic isn't typically given unless there's some indication of infection being the cause, which indication you didn't have. Even if the vet had given you an antibiotic, the usual one given is baytril and it's likely it wouldn't have been that helpful in treating this type of infection. Without having seen the diarrhea earlier, it would have been difficult to know there was a bacterial infection present. If it was the clostridium bacteria, it's such a toxic bacteria that it does cause death very quickly and isn't easily treated because of this.

I know how hard it is to look back and wish you had done something differently, but I think it's always this way when we lose a pet. You just have to keep reminding yourself you did all you could, and that your bun had a happy life with you.

Thank you for the kind words. He was my first bun, and I put so much research into making sure I was prepared before even taking him in. Due to him being the only bun I've had, I was so nervous there was something that I could have done to have prevented his death. I really do hope he had a wonderful life with me. He definitely became a different bunny while with me.

When I got him, he was in a cage he could barely stretch out in and couldn't sit up in without having his head hit the bars. He never ventured out of that cage. Once I got him, he slowly started venturing out, but refused to do without the cage. For a while he had his cage inside the x-pen until he told me he was ready to go without it (I had unlatched the roof, but he shook tremendously when I first took it off. I put it back on until he then began biting the bars, trying to shake the top off himself). His curiosity got the better of him and he slowly began venturing around my apartment when I was home, checking all the nooks and crannies. Then he went from being shy and quiet to demanding thumps for attention, food, treats, you name it. Eventually he began following me around the apartment. He'd race me to the fridge whenever I would go in the kitchen and on a few occasions, jumped in the fridge in search of veggies when I was too slow in getting him his dinner.

He loved when I would sit in a chair and he could have the couch to himself. I swear he watched TV. I loved visiting my mom, especially since she has wall to wall carpet. He came when you called his name and demanded everyone greet him when they came in. He became a very outgoing, social little troublemaker.