Chase - UPDATED 5/22/10

[Maureen Las]

Amy I don't know if it would help but do you have the sub q youtube videos.I know that it is difficult to do if the rabbit is tensing up.
let me know if you have the videos.. if not I'll post them.

 

[Amy27]

I do have the videos and I watched it again tonight. One thing I didn't like was they had the rabbits head covered with a towel, so I couldn't really see how far down from the head she was putting the needle. I wonder if I am trying to close to the shoulder blades and would do better moving down a little. It kind of scares me to move down though because you can feel the spine there. For some reason it makes me uncomfortable to go down far enough that you can feel their spine. With Chase, we always went inbetween the shoulder blades up close to her head.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

I hope the carrot water works!
I bet you could also float some craisins in some water to make craisin-water too...

I can take a look around for Ohio members, if you like? There's got to be somebody...

(Missed you and your crew, Amy... It's been a long time! I am very happy to be back here:hug

 

[Amy27]

I have some craisin water in there. We will see if that works. I think I may be overwhelming the Little Bunny. I have craisin water and banana water in there plus the sub q's I tried to give her a few hours ago. I did make the carrot water and it does smell like carrots. I think I will wait until tomorrow morning.

One of the issues with Little Bunny is she has always only drank out of one water bottle. She ignores all the other water bowls and bottles. I don't want to flavor her favorite bottle as I am afraid it would make her stop drinking it. So it may not be that she hates the flavors I am giving her, it just might be that it isn't in her favorite water bottle.

If there is an Ohio member that would be willing to help that would be great. I posted about my failure at sub q's on Facebook. The vet tech is a Facebook friend and I am hoping she will read it and offer to come over to help even if it is just once a week. I just feel bad asking because she doesn't live as close.

I have missed you and your crew too! Are you all done with your school work?

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Can you post a picture of her waterbottle? Could we find another identical one for her?

I will see if I can dredge up some Ohio members to give you a hand.

Yup, done school! I will PM you, rather than keep on highjacking your thread

 

[tonyshuman]

You could also buy some carrot juice from Whole Foods or something and dilute it a lot, or add some fake banana flavoring from the spice aisle.

 

[Amy27]

Why didn't I think of that? You are alwasy so full of good ideas.
This is her current water bottle that she loves. I think I got it from Petsmart or may be Pet Supplies Plus. I will have to look tomorrow.

However, she has this bottle too which looks almost the same! May be there is a difference I can't see.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

DUH, Amy! of COURSE they're different

Da Little Bunneh girl has a thing for polka-dots

I believe the company is "All Living Things", sold exclusively through PetSmart. Here's a link: http://deals.coupon-land.com/petsmart/2752722/all-living-things-water-bottles-for-small-animals.html

ETA: LOL! Here it is: http://www.petsmart.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2769314&fbx=0

Hope that works!

 

[Amy27]

Wow, you are soooo good. I guess I am making a Petsmart trip tomorrow. lol I am sure there is some difference that I would know nothing about but Little Bunny knows it and that is what matters.

Claire, I work next to a Whole Foods so if the boiled carrots don't work, I will go there on Monday and get some carrot juice. Thanks for the great idea.

Is it bad that I am thinking if I find something she will drink more I can ignore the vets advice and not give sub q's? I hate doing this to her. And in my nonprofessional opinion, I think she is drinking enough. If you look at the water bottle in her pic, she drank that much since Wed plus getting greens 2 times a day soaked in water. Usually her water bottle would only be down about a half an inch by now.

 

[Amy27]

Sub q fluids were a little more successful tonight. I found that the Little Bunny does better on my lap then in a carrier like Chase did. Only bad part is she feels more comfortable being on my chest under my chin. And I had her on my lap and was upcapping the needle and she just jumped up to my chest and left some really nice scratch marks. It would be so nice to have an extra pair of hands. Trying to hold her, the needle because she keeps shifting, and squeezing the bag is not easy. Hopefully we will get this down though.

I do have a question. She kept shifting and the needle would move a little bit. I kept checking the bag to make sure fluids were still flowing. But I was worried about the needle going deeper then the subcutanous layer of skin. If I give it deeper will it hurt her. I know this is crazy but I kept thinking I hope I am not putting this in your liver or something crazy. She is so fluffy that it is hard to see the needle. I thought about shaving a little patch on her so I could see everything better but I don't think she would be happy with me and I worry about cutting her skin. She ate a treat after so I hope that where ever the fluids went, it isn't bothering her.

 

[Maureen Las]

The needle is probably just moving around in the layer between the skin and the muscle; if the fluids are flowing I would not worry about it;it is not going into an organ of her body.

 

[Amy27]

Thank you so much Maureen. I feel a lot better now. I just don't trust myself when it comes to this stuff.

 

[billinjax]

Hello Amy and everyone else with bladder sludge problems...

I kind of fell off the radar for awhile. We've had quite a bit of drama here fighting the bladder sludge problem at home.

I saw someone posted about the Potassium Citrate and mentioned my rabbit Jack. Yes, he is 1700 grams and is on .85cc twice per day mixed with banana. I think that's about double than what I saw mentioned above. Not sure why. Jack is a pretty small rabbit from my perspective. 1700 grams is less than four pounds.

I don't have anything to report yet with respect to the success or failure. I started the Potassium Citrate in April but stopped after I thought he was having a seizure one morning. I have been back on since 5/7 and the only thing that happened was an abnormal amount of thick sludge in the litter box all last week. My understanding is that the Potassium Citrate should bond with the excess calcium BEFORE it gets to the bladder. However, I'm going to be patient, hope that was just the last big round being expelled, and go in for an x-ray later this month. With any luck, we'll have less sludge.

FYI - we're still on 35cc of fluids every other day. I saw Amy's struggles with the fluids. I had a terrible time at first too. I may be lucky in that Jack doesn't struggle at all anymore but the process has become very simple after doing this every week for 9 months. I sit on the floor with my legs crossed and put Jack on the floor in the middle. He will put his head under my leg while I insert the needle sometimes. I don't use any towels or anything to cover him. I just have everything ready before I start, including the syringe needle inside of the butterfly needle's plastic opening. One hint - Unscrew and remove the cap on this end of the opening. The vet tech taught me to punch through the cap but I had problems with the plastic clogging up the needle in the syringe. I also learned how to buy all of these supplies in bulk to save money. http://www.allegromedical.com/ It took some time to figure out the right part numbers so that I was using EXACTLY what the vet was selling me. But, I figured it out and this has helped. Back the process: once you find the right technique (which is hard to describe) for placement of the smaller butterfly needle, everything will fall into place.

Good luck with the fluids. I imagine it's slightly different for every rabbit.

I will let you know if we have success with the potassium citrate at the dosage mentioned.

 

[Amy27]

Bill, How is Jack doing? Did you go for the x-ray yet? I am curious to see if you have any results using the potassium citrate.

I am glad Jack is good when giving the fluids. I talked to my vet and we increased Little Bunny's daily Lasix amount and so I stopped giving the fluids. Increasing the Lasix made her drink even more. She is so small and so hairy that I had such a hard time with the needle. I couldn't see where it was at.

Autumn, I just have to tell you, after you located where those water bottles are sold I went and got another one. Little Bunny will now only drink out of the new one. Of course, it has circles on it. She won't drink out of her old one anymore. Rabbits are so weird!!

Anyway, I wanted to post an update as I took both bunnies back to the vet today. Chase is still calcium free and we lowered her lasix dose to 1/2 pill once a day. The vet said if that keeps her bladder clear she will stay on that dose for the rest of her life.

Little Bunny's calcium decreased a little bit. I am going to continue the lasix with her for another month and then she will have another x-ray. Little Bunny had a little sludge like 2 years ago but it wasn't enough the vet wanted to do anything about it. The vet said if we can get the sludge down to that amount again, she won't worry about it and I can stop the Lasix. Little Bunny had blood work done to make sure her electrolytes were okay and they were all good.

I was also happy that neither of them gained any weight. I hide their meds in crasins so they have been getting a lot of craisins. Chase is alreadt very over weight and Little Bunny is a little on the heavy side so I don't want either of them to gain anymore.

 

[tonyshuman]

Glad to hear things are going well with your two!

 

[myheart]

Congrats on a pretty good check-up for your bunners. It is a little sigh of relief when things start looking good, isn't it?

myheart