Coccidia - Any tips on caring for our bunny?

[doodlebugger]

We have three rabbits total, but they all have their own separate living spaces in our home. Our little gal, Ginger, has not been acting like herself after this most recent heat wave. We have tried to keep our living room space very cool, but even on the worst day, with our central air running all day, we couldn't get it below 74. So, Ginger, a lion head, seemed to constantly be over heating despite running two a/c units and a fan on her. And then she started acting weird in her cage, and by yesterday, we had her at our rabbit savvy vet because she wouldn't poop. And, today they got a sample and found out that it's coccidia and that it could have been brought on by stress?

They put her on Albon, and she is also taking metoclopromide. We got two conflicting stories between the vet and the techs. One was that we need to clean everything, remove her hay mats and anything else that got her wet diarrhea poops on, and to sanitize everything or throw it away. We were also told by a tech that we could get coccidia. Our vet said there was no real threat.

Now we have her home after spending the night at the vet's and she doesn't want to eat or do anything. Our vet doesn't want us to give her any pain meds if we don't have to, she said it could cause ulcers? She said we could if she gets worse and seems like she is in pain. She has us giving the metoclopromide once every 12 hours. All she has done since we got her home is lay down. Our vet advised to give critical care, so we did that about an hour ago. I'm so worried about her!!

Any tips on caring for her? Or to prevent the spread of the coccidia among our other rabbits? Can our dog get coccidia? Should Ginger be on an antibiotic too? How can we get her to eat?

 

[ladysown]

Are you using a rabbit Savvy vet? Coccidia is an easy treatment. No you won't catch it, your other rabbits can, So practice a safe handling.

Safe Handling means you take care of your other rabbits first take care of your sick rabbit last and then make sure you clean up well between handling her and handling your other rabbits.

Getting her to eat if she's got a gut ache she's not going to want to

 

[sparkly]

I might be unpopular, but if your bun is not eating...it's pain and danger. get a different vet. needs tummy degassing and to eat. pain relief should help with that.

 

[doodlebugger]

I do have a rabbit savvy vet, who has had many years of experience both as a vet and in rabbit rescue. We haven't had a rabbit with coccidia in many years, and I don't remember what it was like. When I wrote my post, I was working off of very little sleep. My mind is clearer now. There were conflicting things said between the vet and the techs as far as the spread of coccidia, but we have her quarantined in another room, and we wash our hands between caring for her and any of our other animals. She has not had any runny poops in quite a while, and she is pooping, but not frequently. She is eating, but not a lot. And she is not eating much when we are around, but we have seen evidence that she is eating (greens disappear, pellets half chewed).

I wanted to also explain something about Ginger. We adopted her from our vet's rescue. She was part of a large hoarding case, and she had been living in a cage with a lot of her other siblings. When we adopted her, she had been living with our vet and was not adoptable because she had some behavioral issues - she growled a lot at people and swatted. She bonded with my daughter very quickly (which is why she was adopted), but any time we have taken her to the vet, she gets upset because we think she thinks she is being abandoned again perhaps? Anyways, she went home with our vet the other night because she was so critical (and the overnight tech didn't have a lot of experience caring for a sick bunny), and we are wondering if the fact that she is staying in another room, in an exercise pen (instead of her cage), is causing her some undue stress. When my daughter gets down on the floor with her, she perks up, runs around, and tries to go back in the room where her main cage is. She will eat a bit more if my daughter hand feeds her, but after a little bit, she refuses. So, do you think any of this could be behavioral?

Where I am at right now with Ginger is that I don't know if I should force her to eat critical care if she is eating some hay, pellets, and greens. Giving her critical care stresses her out so much! But I am worried she is not eating enough. And, our vet says as long as she is pooping some every 12 hours, we should not worry. She is peeing a ton. And, she is getting Albon once a day and Metoclopromide every 12 hours. But she still isn't acting like herself most of the time. Our vet is about 45 minutes drive from where we live, so I don't want to take her back down there unless it's necessary because it could make her worse.

For those of you who have treated your buns for coccidia, did you use anything else like Metacam or Simethicone? I read one story by someone who said that after the third day on Albon, their rabbit started eating more. Today will be the third dose. I just hope that is our case. (I do have a call in to our vet's office, but she is out of the office today and won't be back until tomorrow. I'm hoping one of the rabbit savvy techs will call me soon.)