DKaralunas1969
Active Member
Hi all,
It’s been years since I’ve been an active participant! I’ve been spending the last few weeks just lurking, researching, trying to find some answers to a beloved bun with a pretty complex medical history.
I don’t even know where to start with Jojo. She came to me about 7 years ago as a failed bond, a Craigslist bunny. She had an eye infection that her previous owner could not get ahold of despite multiple antibiotics, and the eye was removed. Other than that, perfectly healthy.
Her first 4-5 years were uneventful, she was very active, ate everything put in front of her, and had ideal poops. She did start slowing down, off the vet we went where she had a head-to-tail exam, and it was found she has chronic urinary sludge. So I began watching oxalates, and calcium, I took her completely off pellets and gave fluids as needed. We were managing it pretty well.
About a year and a half ago, she started hiding, with occasional food refusal. Obviously something was wrong with her, I took her to three vets (all exotics), but none could find a thing wrong. Xrays, labs, all came back fine. Well, she wasn’t fine. A couple weeks later I woke up to her unable to use her back legs. I raced her down to Angell in Boston….. again, not a thing on her diagnostics… her EC titer was within a range, not showing active infection, her organ functions were perfect, all her xrays showed were was an enlarged bladder. She was stabilized there, and they sent me home where the hope was she would recover use of her legs (she has about 50% strength presently). Well, on the way home from Angell, I kept getting small whiffs of something akin to rotting fish. When got her settled, I realized it was coming from her… it was her urine. She had a raging bladder infection that three vets had somehow missed. It took three rounds of different antibiotics to get rid of it. The third was after a sensitivity test. My theory is that Jojo had a stroke due to an untreated UTI.
So here we are, present day. She has lost a drastic about of weight, going from 6.8 to about 4.8 pounds. I had the bladder under control, her issue now is cecal dysbiosis. The issue is ONLY localized to her cecum. There is no intestinal stasis. She eats hay for hours and as the big, golden, and plentiful fecal pellets. But her cecals are another story. She does produce “normal” ones, but in general, they are pasty and/or liquid.
So onto my issue: when I attempt to hay-fast her, her weight starts to plummet. When I try add calories, the exacerbates the dysbiosis. EVERYTHING makes her dysbiosis worse: any form of oat (including hay), alflalfa, clover, pumpkin, all the “healthy” ways to add weight to a rabbit. Greens are bad too. Like with oat, she starts creating brown liquid along with the "brownie batter"
I don’t know what to do. I have an emaciated rabbit that desperately needs calories, but I can’t give them to her. I think her cecum is so dysfunctional, she has a malabsorption issue that is contributing to the weight loss. Should I just hay fast her for a month to reset her cecum and not be concerned with the inevitable weight loss?
Please help. Her vets have all but written her off. She still has so much love and life left in her, I can’t give up on my girl.
It’s been years since I’ve been an active participant! I’ve been spending the last few weeks just lurking, researching, trying to find some answers to a beloved bun with a pretty complex medical history.
I don’t even know where to start with Jojo. She came to me about 7 years ago as a failed bond, a Craigslist bunny. She had an eye infection that her previous owner could not get ahold of despite multiple antibiotics, and the eye was removed. Other than that, perfectly healthy.
Her first 4-5 years were uneventful, she was very active, ate everything put in front of her, and had ideal poops. She did start slowing down, off the vet we went where she had a head-to-tail exam, and it was found she has chronic urinary sludge. So I began watching oxalates, and calcium, I took her completely off pellets and gave fluids as needed. We were managing it pretty well.
About a year and a half ago, she started hiding, with occasional food refusal. Obviously something was wrong with her, I took her to three vets (all exotics), but none could find a thing wrong. Xrays, labs, all came back fine. Well, she wasn’t fine. A couple weeks later I woke up to her unable to use her back legs. I raced her down to Angell in Boston….. again, not a thing on her diagnostics… her EC titer was within a range, not showing active infection, her organ functions were perfect, all her xrays showed were was an enlarged bladder. She was stabilized there, and they sent me home where the hope was she would recover use of her legs (she has about 50% strength presently). Well, on the way home from Angell, I kept getting small whiffs of something akin to rotting fish. When got her settled, I realized it was coming from her… it was her urine. She had a raging bladder infection that three vets had somehow missed. It took three rounds of different antibiotics to get rid of it. The third was after a sensitivity test. My theory is that Jojo had a stroke due to an untreated UTI.
So here we are, present day. She has lost a drastic about of weight, going from 6.8 to about 4.8 pounds. I had the bladder under control, her issue now is cecal dysbiosis. The issue is ONLY localized to her cecum. There is no intestinal stasis. She eats hay for hours and as the big, golden, and plentiful fecal pellets. But her cecals are another story. She does produce “normal” ones, but in general, they are pasty and/or liquid.
So onto my issue: when I attempt to hay-fast her, her weight starts to plummet. When I try add calories, the exacerbates the dysbiosis. EVERYTHING makes her dysbiosis worse: any form of oat (including hay), alflalfa, clover, pumpkin, all the “healthy” ways to add weight to a rabbit. Greens are bad too. Like with oat, she starts creating brown liquid along with the "brownie batter"
I don’t know what to do. I have an emaciated rabbit that desperately needs calories, but I can’t give them to her. I think her cecum is so dysfunctional, she has a malabsorption issue that is contributing to the weight loss. Should I just hay fast her for a month to reset her cecum and not be concerned with the inevitable weight loss?
Please help. Her vets have all but written her off. She still has so much love and life left in her, I can’t give up on my girl.
