Bunny emergency

bluscuroforesta · May 11, 2006

Hi--
Yesterday we noticed my bunny had started to have a runny nose and some dried crusty bunny snot on her nose.

For a while she has had poopy stuck to her butt, that comes off inchunks every once in a while, and we've been pulling it off, hoping itwill go away. We made changes in her diet like no more carrots, andsome oatmeal added with her normal pellets. Lots of hay, and water.

Yesterday we brought her inside because we were concerned about her.She has been eating and drinking little. I syringed her some waterwhich she gladly drank.

Today we discovered that she is infested with maggots inside and out,and we have been taking them off; there are tons of them. We contactedour vet, which we should have done a long time ago, but she isn't realexperienced with bunnies so we will be finding a bunny vet today ASAP.

Would anyone happen to know what we can give her to get her blood sugarlevel up? Would carrots be too difficult for her to digest if she'deven eat them in the first place? What kind of things should we begetting in her to help her body gain a little bit more strength afternot eating?

Help would be wonderful

Thank you

EDIT: I read the bunny emergency sticky at the top that says not to pull them off. We are pulling off the

pamnock · May 11, 2006

bluscuroforesta wrote:

Would anyone happen to know what we can give her to get her blood sugarlevel up? Would carrots be too difficult for her to digest if she'deven eat them in the first place? What kind of things should we begetting in her to help her body gain a little bit more strength afternot eating?

Help would be wonderful

Thank you

I use Nutri Cal for dogs/cats -- has worked wonders for me.Critical Care is also available for herbivores. I you want togive a "glucose boost" -- try honey, it's nearly pureglucose. Grated carrots, parsley, dandelion leaves, toast,shredded wheat can also be used to tempt her.

Fly strike is an emergency situation if the maggots have invaded theflesh. The maggots can release fatal toxins, so treatment canbe tricky.

Please keep us updated on her condition.

Pam

pamnock · May 11, 2006

More info:

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/4-3/maggots.html

naturestee · May 11, 2006

Please, get your rabbit to a vetimmediately! Even if the vet isn't bunny savvy, he can removethe maggots and help clean the poor bun up.

After she's been treated, you can feed her a pellet slurrythrough a syringe. Crush her pellets and mix them with wateror Pedialyte, and make it thin enough to go through thesyringe. You can mix a little of something she likes inthere, like canned pumpkin, finely chopped parsley, or unsweetenedapplesauce.

bluscuroforesta · May 11, 2006

Thank you all very much.

Bunny died about an hour ago. (Her name was Eventide but I just called her bunny most of the time)

We tried giving her Nutri-Stat, which my mom said is the same thing asNutri-cal, but she would not take it and wouldn't even lick it off ofher mouth where we put it. We seemed to have gotten all of the maggotsout, though I'm sure there were probably still more.

We finally got a hold of a vet who would be able to see my bunnybetween her other appointments. My mom is the one who helped her themost in the last few hours (taking care of the maggots, etc.) becauseshe used to breed bunnies and a lot of other animals... I just stayedwith Eventide for moral support, petting to her and talking to her. Ihad to drive my girlfriend home who lives pretty close, and as soon asI got back we were going to take her to the vet downtown but she died afew minutes before I got home. My mom was with her when she died. Ijust buried her in our yard by a creek where it's nice and peaceful.

Thank you.