My rabbit isn’t eating anything. Need help

[Ayesha]

Hello
This is my first post. My rabbit, Luna, age 4 years stopped eating and pooping almost 5 days ago. She was only drinking water and refused to eat even her favorite treats. This continued for two days before I could take her to a vet.
They started her on antibiotics and liver tonics and I also gave her simethicone at home. As she wasn’t eating anything, I had to syringe feed her. After the first dose of antibiotics, she started getting better. Started eating in small quantities and also started passing droppings.
After the third dose, her condition worsened again and she again stopped eating anything and stopped drinking water as well. This happened a day ago, I took her to the vet again today and they did an Xray. Turns out she has a chest infection and bladder sludge as well. They continued the same antibiotics and gave her fluids as well.
I have been blending together some veggies and her hay, and giving her that mixture through a syringe for now.
I live in a third world country and we neither have a lot of rabbit savvy vets here nor proper diet available here for rabbits.
I am really worried as she is not improving, she just sits in a hunched position and refuses to eat anything.
Any help or guidance would be highly appreciated.

 

[JBun]

What exact liver tonic and antibiotic did the vet prescribe? Some antibiotics can be very harmful to rabbits. It could be the antibiotic is causing some stomach upset, and that caused your rabbit to stop eating again. If it was a dangerous antibiotic for rabbits, it needs to be stopped immediately and questran and Septrin be given to protect the rabbit from a fatal reaction.

Medirabbit: list of dangerous antibiotics for rabbits

www.medirabbit.com/Unsafe_medication/Unsafe_treatment.htm

Unfortunately if your rabbit truly has a chest infection and bladder sludge, these are the types of medical problems that require a specialist rabbit vet. Your rabbit would need to possibly be hospitalized and kept in an oxygen chamber and put on IV antibiotics.

But if your rabbit was improperly diagnosed and doesn't actually have bladder sludge or pneumonia, then a rabbit that stops eating from some digestive issues, may have Gastrointestinal Stasis.

https://rabbit.org/care/gi-stasis/
The anti inflammatory pain medication meloxicam, the gut stimulant Cisapride or Metoclopramide, possibly a rabbit safe antibiotic like enrofloxacin or Septrin, and regular syringe feeds every 4-6 hours, are usually what's prescribed by rabbit vets for non complicated cases of this. It's also important to make sure your rabbit hasn't become chilled, as this commonly happens when rabbits get sick. And a chilled rabbit will struggle to recover.

 

[Ayesha]

What exact liver tonic and antibiotic did the vet prescribe? Some antibiotics can be very harmful to rabbits. It could be the antibiotic is causing some stomach upset, and that caused your rabbit to stop eating again. If it was a dangerous antibiotic for rabbits, it needs to be stopped immediately and questran and Septrin be given to protect the rabbit from a fatal reaction.

Medirabbit: list of dangerous antibiotics for rabbits

www.medirabbit.com/Unsafe_medication/Unsafe_treatment.htm

Unfortunately if your rabbit truly has a chest infection and bladder sludge, these are the types of medical problems that require a specialist rabbit vet. Your rabbit would need to possibly be hospitalized and kept in an oxygen chamber and put on IV antibiotics.

But if your rabbit was improperly diagnosed and doesn't actually have bladder sludge or pneumonia, then a rabbit that stops eating from some digestive issues, may have Gastrointestinal Stasis.

https://rabbit.org/care/gi-stasis/
The anti inflammatory pain medication meloxicam, the gut stimulant Cisapride or Metoclopramide, possibly a rabbit safe antibiotic like enrofloxacin or Septrin, and regular syringe feeds every 4-6 hours, are usually what's prescribed by rabbit vets for non complicated cases of this. It's also important to make sure your rabbit hasn't become chilled, as this commonly happens when rabbits get sick. And a chilled rabbit will struggle to recover.

First of all, thank you so much for responding. I am quite worried and I really appreciate you responding to my post.

They are giving enrofloxacin and two liver tonics, Jetepar and hepagen.
They did an Xray and diagnosed the chest infection and slude from that. Originally she stopped eating and pooping and I thought it might be stasis but now I don’t know whether she stopped eating due to the infection or gut problems.

I will be taking her to the clinic for the 5th dose of the antibiotic and the rest of the medication today. Other than that, I am syringe feeding her every 6 hours, almost 20-25 ml (2.9 kg weight). Should I ask them to include some pain medication and gut stimulant as well?
In the first two days of her treatment, I gave her infacol drops, should I try those again?
She isn’t eating anything but I am feeding her but the droppings are still very few and not properly shaped.

 

[JBun]

If your rabbit is taking the syringe feeds well enough, and is pooping ok, then you probably don't need the gut stimulant. And the infacol is only helpful if a rabbit has mild gas, which doesn't seem to be the problem here.

Adequate pain relief is a big part of helping a rabbit get better and start eating again on their own. Plus being a NSAID, it will help reduce inflammation from the chest infection as well. I would definitely ask for a meloxicam suspension if possible, provided your rabbit isn't already on an anti inflammatory and doesn't have kidney issues. Or if in severe pain, a stronger pain med may be necessary. But I prefer sticking with meloxicam whenever possible. For rabbits, oral meloxicam should be dosed at 0.3-0.6mg/kg, twice a day, to provide the necessary therapeutic pain relief.

Pain Control for Pet Rabbits

https://www.vgr1.com/metacam/
Enrofloxacin is usually safe for rabbits, but it may not be the most effective antibiotic to use if the respiratory infection isn't a mild one or isn't sensitive to the antibiotic. If you aren't seeing improvement or see a worsening of respiratory symptoms, I would ask the vet about switching antibiotics immediately. I've had the best results with azithromycin (50mg/kg, once a day), but rarely some rabbits can be sensitive, so there is some risk with its use.

Medirabbit: antibiotics safe for rabbits

But if you continue with the enrofloxacin (5-15mg/kg) it usually needs to be given for much longer than a few days. 4-6 weeks minimum is usually needed with most antibiotics, when treating an infection in rabbits. If your vet is giving it by injection currently, you could ask for an oral suspension to be given by you at home. Though rabbits generally hate the taste of it, so be prepared for that.

(LINK CONTAINS GRAPHIC MEDICAL RELATED PHOTOS)
Medirabbit: pneumonia signs and treatment in rabbits

I'm not sure what purpose the liver tonic is supposed to be for since your rabbit isn't experiencing liver problems. And since it's not something normally given to rabbits here, I can't say anything as to it's safety. But it's not something I would want to be giving to my rabbit without thoroughly researching it's safety first.