French lop with GI Stasis or Mucoid Enteritis? - RIP

[awarmrainyday]

I have a 4.5 year old French Lop named Oscar. He came to me from a rescue at 8 months of age when he had stasis while recovering from his neuter. He currently weighs 10 pounds, which is very thin for him. Under the best of circumstances I have trouble keeping weight on him, but when he's sick he gets boney fast.

Thursday morning I noticed he hadn't touched his pellets, water, greens or hay from the previous night. No poops either. I figured it was another bout of statis, which we battle at least once a year. So I started him on critical care mixed with baby food, simethicone, pedialyte, and aspirin for pain. He has also had a papaya tablet a day.

Thursday night he still hadn't done anything so I decided to give him a warm water and mineral oil enema. He had three little poops. He also had a little bit of a vet prescribed laxative and high calorie supplement.

Friday morning there were three more little poops with some mucous, which is normal after stasis for him. I continued with his force feed/ med routine. When I got home from work he had left a big pile turds, some round, some misshapen, but they were covered in a clear-yellowish jelly. Ofcourse, a Friday night, vet closed for the weekend. Late last night I decided to do another warm water enema and a lot of mucous came out with just a few well formed but soft poops. He also started sneezing and had some crusts around his nose so I gave him 4cc of Tylan-50 with his last force feed of the night.

His body temp is normal but he wants to lay at the heater on a heat pad. He doesn't have diarrhea. He's not drinking on his own but he will take one of his favorite treats every now and then and occasionally munches on some bits of kale.

I didn't hear him sneeze at all this morning so far and he took his meds and food from the syringe very well. His butt was smeared with the clear jelly substance but he seemed a bit more alert this morning. Normally he is a very independent boy, but he's quite content to lay on his back on my lap and have his belly rubbed.

Does this sound like mucoid enteritis (which we've never dealt with) or just a worse than usual bout of stasis? Should I be giving neomycin sulfate and if so what is the dosing? I've also been told he should be getting plain yogurt but others say yogurt is bad for bunnies.

After two nights up with Oscar this bunny momma is tired :bed:
Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[Azerane]

I can't really give any advice, as I'm not familiar with mucoid enteritis, although what I've just been reading on it suggests that it is very serious and can be fatal quite quickly so I would advise that you find another vet that you can go and see if possible, rather than waiting until your vet reopens on monday.

 

[ladysown]

I'd be looking into coccidiosis.... he's a bit old for entropathic illnesses... so look into coccidiosis...

 

[awarmrainyday]

Thanks for your thoughts. At your suggestion I looked into coccidiosis and his symptoms are definately more in line with mucoid enteritis. Each poo is one or two soft but round turds and a bunch of clear rounds and stringy mucous globs. We had an episode of his temp dropping to 98 at lunch but he's been on the heating pad infront of a heater since then and seems pretty comfortable. He ate a few nibbles of kale but has accepted pedialyte, critical care and simethicone regularly from a syringe. I also started him on probiotics. Assuming he stays this way I plan on getting neomycin oral solution in the morning and starting him on that.

 

[Aki]

When it's just normal post-stasis mucus, it's not supposed to last more than 2-3 days. One of my rabbits had enteritis two years ago. He was 4,5 years old as well. He wasn't sneezing. Actually, the only difference with normal stasis (that another one of my rabbits suffered from some weeks ago) was lots of mucus in the droppings. It is very serious, I would go to my vet as soon as possible with some stools to show him to make sure. If it's cocciodiosis, the treatment is only effective if you give it fast after the infection (they should look at the stools or do blood work). It is true that the symptoms of cocciodiosis are a little different from what you describe (especially the lack of real diarrhea), but cocciodiosis come from different types of parasites, so I'm not sure the symptoms are always exactly the same. If it is enteritis, there is not much you can do aside from what you've already been doing.
Did you look closely at the mucus to check there aren't any worms in it?
Anyway, I hope your rabbit gets better and I wish you good luck with the treatment - stasis and all her nasty cousins are exhausting to battle.

 

[awarmrainyday]

Oscar passed away yesterday morning at 10:15 a.m. in my arms. I am fairly sure he was battling mucoid enteritis. He had had GI related problems that would come and go for quite a while that the vet couldn't explain. He had been unable to maintain his full healthy weight (about 18 pounds) for the last year and was on a vet prescribed high calorie supplement and calf manna.

I did find information on successfully treating mucoid enteritis with neomycin oral solution, found at tractor supply or other stores that carry livestock medications. Unfortunately I found this information a little too late and my local tractor supply was out of stock. So I hope that by sharing this information that it may help someone else successfully treat their bunny.

True to Oscars usual nature, even the weather during his burial was moody. We broke the shovel. It was sunny, then 60 mph winds and downpours. And then sunny. And then windy and raining. I'm not sure I've ever seen weather quite like it before. At times the wind whipping through the trees sounded like a tornado coming and branches were falling. We had to dig the hole by hand because we kept running into rocks and roots. Three hours later we finally laid him to rest with his favorite blueberry yogi treats. His grave is marked with a heart shaped stone I had found this past summer.

 

[Azerane]

I'm sorry for your loss, rest in peace, Oscar.

 

[Aki]

I'm sorry for your loss. There's probably nothing more you could have done. Rabbits seldom recover from mucoid enteritis, my own rabbit passed away from it two years ago. You did your best to help Oscar recover and it's all that matters.

 

[majorv]

It's very difficult to save a rabbit once enteritis sets in, mainly because it's hard to catch it early. The first sign is not eating and it advances so quickly that they can die the same day. There is usually an unmistakable smell that comes with it.