Please advice, my bunny has been diagnosed with GI stasis

[kenannie]

Ive been beating myself up everyday since my bunny got diagnosed with GI stasis on Monday. I went on a one night business trip on Thursday and when I’m back on a Friday, my bunny looked somewhat sad. He was usually an extremely curious, cheerful and bubbly bunny but I realised he just looked somewhat angry when I came home on Friday. i felt uneasy and decided to bring him to a vet on Saturday. My regular vet was closed so I had to bring him to another vet nearby. The doctor did some checks and declared that he was all well and is most likely upset with me for leaving him for a night. She told me to monitor his eating habits on Sunday and come back should I noticed anything unusual.

By Sunday, my bunny is definitely not fine. He was constantly in a bunny loaf and didn’t move much. More alarming was he didn’t eat and poop for the whole Sunday. I rushed him to my regular vet on Monday morning and he was diagnosed with GI stasis. My vet gave him pain meds, motility drugs and sub-q fluids. She also took an x ray and noticed gas in the intestines and belly slightly distended. She said that due to the delay in getting medical care, we have been advised to prepare for the worst as bunnies are just really fragile. She also does not recommend us to go for surgery because in where Im staying (Malaysia), vets are generally not as well versed with bunnies and we also lacked the facilities needed. I left the clinic with more motility drugs and some pain killers and to hand feed him water and critical care through a syringe throughout the night.

Monday has been the most difficult night ever. Ive been crying the entire night, staying up and giving him water, meds and monitoring him. By 8am on Tuesday, my vet checked in on us and told us that we should come in for more sub-q drips which I did. She also gave me supplies and taught me how to administer the drips myself for the next 7 days. By then, my bunny has pooped some small tiny poop with mucous.

At this point, I’m not sure if my bunny will make it. I’m Doing everything that I can and know of including belly masssge, plenty of water, critical care. He does seem to have slightly better appetite today and he pooped more mucousy poop earlier while I was giving him massage. He still rejects hay and pellet but he’s eating some veges. Overall, he is still very weak and I also noticed he pees outside of his litter box. He never pees outside and I’m not sure if this is him losing his bladder control or he’s just too weak to enter his litter box.

I’ve been trying to keep a positive mind but it is absolutely heartbreaking to see my jovial bunny looking so weak and helpless. I’ve been beating myself up for not noticing it sooner and bringing him in. If anyone has survived a severe bout of GI stasis, please do share your experience.

 

[1BunBao]

Hey there, so sorry to hear about your bunny. I don’t have much experience with GI stasis, but my bunny recently had and overcame the early stages of GI stasis. I read your bunny has a lot of gas in the intestines. Was he prescribed any medications for the gas such as pediatric simethicone? Someone here recommended simethicone for my bunny and it was what helped my bunny recovered.

 

[clwillia55]

Hi. Our bun Nibblet had what I considered a severe GI stasis and survived. It was right after the holidays and he seemed extra quiet when I grew concerned. We took him to an emergency vet who determined he had pretty advanced GI issue on top of a respiratory infection. They felt he was likely feeling ill and stopped eating which caused the stasis. They offered to do a surgery to look for blockages which we did not do, and on the x-ray they did not see anything beyond gas. We gave him critical care, baby gas drops, and electrolytes every few hours for a few days. I was certain he would die. He couldn't lift his head and just laid there while I slowly put critical care in his mouth. He would just lay limp in my arms which was really alarming, in his normal state that would never happen - he would never let you hold him. I kept up administering the medicines from the vet like clockwork even if I had to get up in the middle of the night to try to feed him. He got better. He is so healthy now and it is hard to imagine that ever happened.

 

[Dagny]

Ive been beating myself up everyday since my bunny got diagnosed with GI stasis on Monday. I went on a one night business trip on Thursday and when I’m back on a Friday, my bunny looked somewhat sad. He was usually an extremely curious, cheerful and bubbly bunny but I realised he just looked somewhat angry when I came home on Friday. i felt uneasy and decided to bring him to a vet on Saturday. My regular vet was closed so I had to bring him to another vet nearby. The doctor did some checks and declared that he was all well and is most likely upset with me for leaving him for a night. She told me to monitor his eating habits on Sunday and come back should I noticed anything unusual.

By Sunday, my bunny is definitely not fine. He was constantly in a bunny loaf and didn’t move much. More alarming was he didn’t eat and poop for the whole Sunday. I rushed him to my regular vet on Monday morning and he was diagnosed with GI stasis. My vet gave him pain meds, motility drugs and sub-q fluids. She also took an x ray and noticed gas in the intestines and belly slightly distended. She said that due to the delay in getting medical care, we have been advised to prepare for the worst as bunnies are just really fragile. She also does not recommend us to go for surgery because in where Im staying (Malaysia), vets are generally not as well versed with bunnies and we also lacked the facilities needed. I left the clinic with more motility drugs and some pain killers and to hand feed him water and critical care through a syringe throughout the night.

Monday has been the most difficult night ever. Ive been crying the entire night, staying up and giving him water, meds and monitoring him. By 8am on Tuesday, my vet checked in on us and told us that we should come in for more sub-q drips which I did. She also gave me supplies and taught me how to administer the drips myself for the next 7 days. By then, my bunny has pooped some small tiny poop with mucous.

At this point, I’m not sure if my bunny will make it. I’m Doing everything that I can and know of including belly masssge, plenty of water, critical care. He does seem to have slightly better appetite today and he pooped more mucousy poop earlier while I was giving him massage. He still rejects hay and pellet but he’s eating some veges. Overall, he is still very weak and I also noticed he pees outside of his litter box. He never pees outside and I’m not sure if this is him losing his bladder control or he’s just too weak to enter his litter box.

I’ve been trying to keep a positive mind but it is absolutely heartbreaking to see my jovial bunny looking so weak and helpless. I’ve been beating myself up for not noticing it sooner and bringing him in. If anyone has survived a severe bout of GI stasis, please do share your experience.

HI, my girl Phrosty had a bad GI scare about a month ago. Took her to outpatient vet 2 days in a row,, and then to an emergency vet, where she spent 2 nights. When she came home she would not eat, or move, and her tiny little poops were sparse. I also came home with Critical Care and a lot of medications. I was scared because she looked so withdrawn and "out of it." I spoke to the vet on her second day home,, and told him I was concerned that the side effects of two pain medications were too strong and making her groggy, and tired. I decided (with consent of my vet) to stop one of the pain meds. I also forced her to move around the pen a little. I know with horses, who get a thing very similar to Stasis, that they have to move around for their gut to start working. I don't know exactly why, whether she was less doped up, because she was moving, or just enough days had passed, but by the third day home, she started to feel better and eat some hay. 7 days of medications, and 5 of Critical Care and we are now a month later. I hope your guy gets better. He's lucky to have good parents who care about him.

 

[kenannie]

Reading all of this encouraging stories gave me abit more hope. Nevertheless, I’m glad to see that he has started to poop quite abit today. It’s not perfect, they’re slightly wet and cling to his bottom but it’s still poop. And I also noticed he has better appetite for vege and even Nibbled on hay.

in the meantime, I’m still giving him critical care, sub-q drip and meds. Thank you so much for your stories.

 

[kenannie]

I

Hey there, so sorry to hear about your bunny. I don’t have much experience with GI stasis, but my bunny recently had and overcame the early stages of GI stasis. I read your bunny has a lot of gas in the intestines. Was he prescribed any medications for the gas such as pediatric simethicone? Someone here recommended simethicone for my bunny and it was what helped my bunny recovered.

I didn’t get any gas relief meds from the vet but In where I’m staying (malaysia), I don’t think Simethicone is available. I went to a few pharmacy and they all have Dimethicone. I managed to find one Simethicone but it’s 50mg and it also comes with a few other ingredients that I’m not comfortable giving it my bun bun.

 

[kenannie]

Hi. Our bun Nibblet had what I considered a severe GI stasis and survived. It was right after the holidays and he seemed extra quiet when I grew concerned. We took him to an emergency vet who determined he had pretty advanced GI issue on top of a respiratory infection. They felt he was likely feeling ill and stopped eating which caused the stasis. They offered to do a surgery to look for blockages which we did not do, and on the x-ray they did not see anything beyond gas. We gave him critical care, baby gas drops, and electrolytes every few hours for a few days. I was certain he would die. He couldn't lift his head and just laid there while I slowly put critical care in his mouth. He would just lay limp in my arms which was really alarming, in his normal state that would never happen - he would never let you hold him. I kept up administering the medicines from the vet like clockwork even if I had to get up in the middle of the night to try to feed him. He got better. He is so healthy now and it is hard to imagine that ever happened.

So happy to hear this. Bunnies are such fragile creatures and they really depend on us. I’ve been setting my alarms through the night to feed him water, meds and food too. Similar to Niblet, he is also extremely floppy and weak, can only lift up his head for a while and he will lie back down. Going to keep up with the meds and stuff and hopefully things will be better soon. He is usually a very jovial, curious and mischievous bunny. Really breaks my heart to see him like this.