Nemo has bad diarrhea...

[timetowaste]

Okay this is my first experience with acute bunny illness, and I'm having anxiety like none other right now.

Nemo had diarrhea today. Dark almost cecal like poop that came out very mushy and he poo'd all over me. It smelled HORRIBLE and i originally thought it was Nemo's breath, and I was like wooo you stink. No....it's his poop. He has spent most of his day laying down in his cage not moving around too much. He let me listen to his stomach for a few seconds and I don't hear any gas bubbles or anything of that nature. I'm really worried about him, and there has been no sign of stinky poop since in his cage...right now he is laying on my chest and digging at my shirt and biting it.

Now he is giving me kisses on my cheeks and biting my hair.

What can I do for him to make him more comfortable right now? No recent changes in his diet have been made and I don't know what could cause him to be pooping like this. He eats PLENTY of hay and 1/8 cup of pellets every day.

Someone help me please...help my little baby!

Tracy

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Oh no, poor boy! Sounds like he needs to get into the vet today!

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Has anything in his environment changed recently? Sometimes changes can bring this on too and usually it's very temporary. Push hay on him and keep us posted.

 

[timetowaste]

ugh not that i can think of, nothing in his environment has changed. my mom DOES have a tendency to give him a few too many baby carrots every now and then, but the last time he had a carrot was almost 2 days ago so this should have happened yesterday if it was because of that.

i'm more worried because he is supposed to be put under anesthesia on monday in order to have his tear duct cleansed out, and i don't know if that is a good idea if he is having digestive issues. but that is on monday...

flashy had a good idea in sending me off to buy pedialyte. i will pick some of that up on my way home from work tonight and try to give it to him. what's the best way to "feed" it to him?

Tracy

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

timetowaste wrote:

flashy had a good idea in sending me off to buy pedialyte. i will pick some of that up on my way home from work tonight and try to give it to him. what's the best way to "feed" it to him?

Tracy

You can just give him an additional bowl for the pedialyte.

 

[timetowaste]

Great advice, thank you so much. Let's see how this pans out, my poor little baby!

Tracy

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

You're welcome, hon. Keep us posted. If you don't see anymore, he's probably fine.

 

[JimD]

I think you should get him to the vet as soon as you can.
Or at very least, get a fecal sample to them to send out for culture.
This may be something that requires an antibiotic.

This is the way my Chippy started out a few months ago, and it ended up being aClostridium bacteria that needed a very specific antibiotic.
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=25794&forum_id=16

Sending prayers and healing vibes

 

[naturestee]

:yeahthat:

Since you can't trace the diarrhea to any changes in diet that might have caused it, you really should have a vet investigate this.

Is he acting fairly normal? They're really good at covering up illness but you still might be able to tell if he's not feeling well. Is he eating on his own? If he is, he should be getting lots of hay and a little bit of wet veggies if he tolerates them to help get more water into him. I usually cut out the pellets or cut way back on them for problems like this.

 

[ra7751]

Time for a quick review of recent events. Could he have eaten something (maybe other than the carrots from Mom) that he shouldn't have? Maybe a new bag of food or hay? New toy possibly? Anything you can think of might lead to the root cause. Keep him hydrated as this condition can lead to dehdration.

Interesting....we are in a battle here against gut problems in several bunnies...including Miracle (she is the most delicate of our bunnies).She blew up like a balloon last night...notgood considering her severe injuries from her past.We do not have GI problems here..but we do all of a sudden. Lots of needles being stuck around here right now.

Randy

 

[timetowaste]

we switched the type of hay we use from kaytee to just normal bales of timothy hay, but that was 2.5 weeks ago! i stopped going to petsmart to buy the hay because of recent videos that have been posted (COUGH COUGH CRUELTY COUGH COUGH). now i get my hay from the bunny basics, which is a bunny only store down the street from my home. i bought a 5 lb box of it. it was sorta dusty the first time i dug my hand in it to pull out a stack of timothy to give to nemo, but nothing out of the ordinary i figured. plus, it has been 2.5 weeks...so i don't know.

last night he had a couple of craisins as a treat...but craisins have never been a problem for him.

you know what he DOES do that drives me bonkers, is when i let him out he heads STRAIGHT for the dog food and starts eating it. but usually after 1 bite i've got that picked up off the ground if i forgot to do so before i let him out. it's dry dog food, and he barely ever gets any of it, and he has been doing that since october for crying out loud, nothing like this has ever happened.

the diarrhea literally coated the fur on his bottom and my freakin shirt. what a stink, i'll tell you that much.

thanks guys...i'll keep you all updated. keep the good information coming.

Tracy

 

[Marietta]

Lots and lots of hay and hydration, like all the others have told you. A vet visit looks inevitable, if he has this kind of a diarrhea, you should be careful, because diarrhea could develop to a life threatening situation very quickly. Monitor closely his situation. Is he doing any better? Is he eating his hay?

Marietta

 

[undergunfire]

How is Nemo?

I hope he is feeling better .

 

[Ivory]

You could try a few drops of Pepto, to help the diharrea harden. But not too much.

 

[timetowaste]

Hey everyone!

Nemo is showing no signs of anything bad today. No diarrhea in his litter box or anywhere else, or on his fur. He has pooped, and it looks to me as though his poop is completely normal shaped, colored, and not stinky.

I picked up pedialyte last night, and I didn't know if it was okay to get him a flavored kind, so I did...I got the fruit flavored one, which he refused to drink down while it was in a bowl by itself. I mixed some in his water and throughout the night I heard him drinking lots of it. He has always been a big drinker though...

Could it be that he just got into something he shouldn't have a few days ago maybe? I mean, everything seems perfectly normal today, like yesterday never happened. Right now, he is back on my chest (I slouch in my computer chair whenever I'm just surfing the internet so he can lay on me and dig at me) just being his typical Nemo self and giving lots of kisses. He likes to lay right up against my face and if I try to get him to move or if I move my nose so I can breathe, he nudges up even closer. Crazy little bunny.

Tracy

PS: Thank you all so much for your advice and help, truly appreciated by me and Nemo, of course.

 

[Marietta]

Great news, Tracy! Give Nemo a kiss from me and tell him to spare his mommy from another heartbreak in the future!

Marietta

 

[JimD]

I'm glad Nemo is feeling better.



Chippy's diarrhea stopped very abruptly, too. She spent all day at the vet getting sub-q, and they said they could barelykeep up with cleaning her.
When I got her home she didn't have any diarrhea at all.
I'm afraid that it has affected her for the long term though...possibly some damage to the GI tract.

 

[timetowaste]

Thank you Marietta! He seems to be perfection this morning. And, as a present to mommy, he peed a nice hot pee all over my pajama pants.

Thank you, Nemo. Always appreciated.

Tracy

Edit to add: Jim, I'm going to call the vet today anyway to see what he says about Monday's procedure. I'm also going to, of course, keep a watchful eye on mister Nemo to make sure things stay peachy keen. Thank you for sharing your experiences with Chippy with me, it helps in knowing what to possibly expect/look for!