Sakura is lethargic and off her food

[NZminilops]

Sakura isn't eating her pellets nor treats. She's a fussy rabbit at the best of times and doesn't have much she likes to eat anyway. I'm very worried about her and just wanting some ideas on what could be wrong with her.
She isn't eating and is less active. Drinking water normally. Isn't hunched up or flopped out in any particular way...just sitting normally. It's been hot and she's moulting but I've been using a furminator on her and I cant get any lose hairs from her right now so doubt it's a hairball.
I have tried some gas meds as per the reccomended dosage's referenced to on here.
I'm not sure if I should be forcing her to eat or treating this as a blockage. Any help would be much appreciated. I CAN NOT lose Sakura. That would be it for me and rabbits and coming on here and I'd be one sad little person.
Sorry for funny spacing if there is any as I can only get to RO from my PS3 and it's awkward.
Michelle

 

[Maureen Las]

You can still give fluids per syringe which is a treatment for stasis but won't hurt her at all even if she doesn't have it

unflavored pedialyte mixed with fresh pineapple juice or even just water
give her a bowl even if she has a bottle.
also get some benebac.
I go into this mode a lot when a rabbit just seems off and I'm not sure what's going on ..anadI also use simethicone

tummy massages
simethicone

benebac

unflavored pedialyte and pineapple juice

lots of fluids

 

[mouse_chalk]

Oh no, not Sakura....

How long has she been like this? Is she still pooping?

I'm sorry I don't have anything helpful to add but you're in great hands with Maureen... I will be thinking of you guys and hoping she gets better soon :hug:

 

[NZminilops]

Sorry for the late reply but it's been a struggle to get on RO today for some reason.

She's seemed a bit different for the last couple of days, nothing I could put my finger on but I had a feeling something was off.

Her poo is a funny colour now, it's yellow. It's normally dark brown/almost black looking (especially the more greens she eats, the darker her poo). It looks like she's been eating sawdust :?.

She's not been outside for weeks, she's in a nice safe environment. She's my very special girl, my heart bun, and she's never sick. I am really in panic mode now. She's always been the bun that could eat anything and be fine, try new foods and be fine, just handle anything really.

This is very random. She's had no new foods, we've had no visitors, her pellets are the same brand and bag as for the last few weeks.

I never give bottles to any animal, just my personal belief, that they can get a more satisfying drink from a crock. I change out water several times a day in this hot weather, to put nice chilled water from the fridge in.

She's had gas meds and tummy rubs galore, I've syringed her some water a few times, but she is drinking happily by herself anyway. Just doesn't want to eat.

She has no shyness or aggression which makes me think she's really not feeling herself .

She's got an appointment to see the vet t 8am tomorrow morning, so that's in 11.5 hours, gah, seems so long away.

Thanks for all the well-wishing and Peg has sent me a lovely PM but I can't reply to it, it's not working. But thank you Peg and that meant so much to me and I will reply when the forum lets me.

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Oh, no Chelle. How is she doing now? I would second Angieluv's recommendation to use Simethecone, it won't hurt her even if it's not gas. Please let us know. I'm so worried.:cry2

 

[Flashy]

Try not to worry about the poo colour, that sounds diet related. Sandy has very light poo because she stuffs so much hay in.

Could this be anything to do with her lump? Any possibility it is not a cyst, but is something else?

 

[irishlops]

is she ok????
are you using a syrine or mushy food.
is she drinking now?
i second what flashy/traey(sp?) said

 

[ra7751]

Hi,

Get her hydrated first and foremost. The thing that caught my attention is the yellow poop. Is this mucus surrounding the fecal matter or is the poop itself yellow?

Randy

 

[TinysMom]

Oh no....I was so hoping to get up and hear that she was doing better....

:hugsquish:
This is the best I can do from this long distance....but I will be sending healing thoughts and prayers and stuff your way.

I'm so worried about my girl...even if she lives all the way over there with you. She's one of the few Nethies that I feel a connection to.,....

 

[Flashy]

I just realised how limited and thick the first part of my other response is, sorry. Not sure what I was thinking when I posted that.

How is she? How are you?

 

[kherrmann3]

Oh, no! I just saw this thread now! I hope that you and Sakura are doing OK! Is she eating a little bit yet? When Toby was going into stasis (we got him out of it before it happened) we wet down a bunch of cilantro/coriander and snapped the stems into bits. Then we kind of patted them on his nose until he got mad and grabbed them from us. All it took was that little, irritated bite to get him eating the offending herb.

Best wishes to Sakura (and you!) :hug:

ray:

 

[NZminilops]

Firstly will try and answer the posts then I'll update on how she is.


Her poo changed colour without her diet changing so I found it odd. No mucous, I've had a bun with mucoid enterpathy (or whatever they label it these days) so I know what that looks like. This is just normal shaped poor, normal hydration and texture, but yellow as if she ate nothing but hay for a week. BUT - no more hay was consumed, and she stopped eating anything alltogether, hay or pellets, yesterday. I am the only person who feeds her.

Sakura mostly eats greens and hay to begin with, I'm not that in to the pellets we have in New Zealand (they are ALL alfalfa based, high protein low fibre) and she will only eat a couple of handfuls a week anyway normally. I've had to throw out a 10KG bag once because it was getting too old - she just doesn't chow down on them and I've tried to provide her with a more natural diet. I try and let her tell me if she needs more pellets, by monitoring her weight and her appetite. She's not one of these rabbits that get fat or over eat so that's very handy.

I grow most of my own vegetables and herbs, and what I do by I get from a vegie shop on my road that I have been going to for years, and I wash the vegies I do buy.


Tracy, yup her lump is still there and it's just been called a non cancerous growth by my vet from what he got from testing the cells he took from it. It's due to be removed on Wednesday this week. I don't know if it had anything to do with how she is feeling, but wouldn't surprise me. It hasn't gotten any larger.

Her thirst level never went down, and she's been peeing fine, I syringed her some water and small amounts of watered down baby food and she took all that well.

I said I'd been doing gas meds, and I continued those, and tummy massages.

I couldn't find anything with pedialyt in it, I haven't ever really known what that was or where to find it. Hard to find a pharmacy open on a Sunday so if it's a pharmacy/chemist/drug store thing I'll have to look today.


Now onto the good news! I've been up with her since 5 and it's now 7 and she seems pretty fine. I'm not sure if I should still take her in or not. I feel a bit silly running off to the vet with a rabbit that seems to have righted herself - I'm terrible paranoid about sick bunnies so I go there often, the receptionist is starting to think I'm a bit crazy :?. She's active and eating again and just seems 100% fine.

 

[Flashy]

I think you should take her in because rabbits are sneaky like that, and if you don't take her in, you might find you end up feeling guilty or something, about not taking her. Has she had her teeth checked?

 

[tonyshuman]

My guys get really light poo when they eat a lot of hay, like you mentioned. Does she feel hot (I feel ears to see how they are for temperature)? Maybe cooling her down would help, if that's the problem--ie giving her a frozen water bottle or frozen floor tile to lay against. Barring that, it sounds like something pretty serious and vet time.:?

 

[TinysMom]

The fact that she isn't lethargic now is really good....that part scared me.

Somewhere on the forum - Pipp shared a homemade pedialyte formula before...if I remember right.

I like this article - while it is dealing with diaherrea (which Sakura doesn't have) it does mention a sort of homemade pedialyte type formula..

http://www.thenaturetrail.com/Holland-Lops-and-Diarrhea.htm

The formula is:

First Step: Rehydration

Luckily for me, Tracy Lukeman, a more experienced breeder, called just as I was determining my plan of action. We talked over several options and she gave me some ideas to try. Then I hopped on the internet to find a recipe for Oral Rehydration Therapy (ORT) solution. The solution I used follows:

1 cup clean water
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/16 teaspoon salt (take some out of a 1/4 tsp. or use a rounded 1/8 tsp.)

This formula differed from ones I'd previously used by having baking soda in it. But because I had read that the bunny's system is probably more acid when it is sick like this, I thought it might be a good thing to include the soda. One article said that the system would be so acid that using probiotics might be useless since they would die in the high acid environment before they could colonize the colon again.



​

I am posting this here in hopes that some of the infirmary mods will look at the formula listed and comment on it. I don't know enough myself to know if it is good or not - I believe Zin used this formula to pull some babies through enteritis...but I'm not sure if this would be good for your girl.


I will keep an eye on this thread - and please don't make up this formula till someone more knowledgeable gives the go-ahead!

 

[Little Bay Poo]

Sometimes when bunnies on this forum get sick, I feel like they are one of my own...Sakura is one of those bunnies. I'm glad to hear that she is looking better and hope that she continues to improve!

Robin

 

[NorthernAutumn]

Fingers and ears crossed over here for you guys :hug:

 

[PepnFluff]

If you want I can post you some Dexalyte powder? It's like the animal version of pedialyte.....Hope she stays better:hug:

 

[NZminilops]

The comments and care for Sakuras wellfare has been very touching. I'm sorry I'm not responding in full but I'm in a low mood and just wanted to say she's still fine so far.

 

[pumpkinandwhiskersmom]

Glad to hear Sakura is holding her own. Hope you're doing ok, too. Thinking of you and Sakura!