Slippers not eating!

[Maureen Las]

try to keep up the fluids and some syringed food as you don't want her system to shut down so you have to put something in.
is she active at all or is she lethargic?

 

[bunniekrissy]

She is mostly sedentary but has been hopping around a bit, grooming her face, and digging at the floor of the pen.

Any idea how much fluid/food and how often I should be giving her?

 

[tonyshuman]

I would give her at least 50mL of liquids tonight. That's just a guess though. I don't know how much food. Good luck! Cmon Slippers, just eat already!

 

[bunniekrissy]

OK, thanks.

 

[Maureen Las]

you can syringe more canned pumpkin and/or baby food if you have it ; 50 ml seems like a lot of fluid you would need to work on the fluids slowly and not worry about getting it in all at once. maybe 5- 10 cc at a time if that

do the same with the food. ( you don;t need to syringe 50cc)

Don't worry as much about the amount as just gettingit infrequently (even if it is a small amount) ; you just need to keep the system moving

 

[bunniekrissy]

Oh dear, now Sonicka passed a few soft poops that were coated and stuck together with a brown mucous... Slippers also had some small poops with a light coat of mucous. Does this happen when recovering from GI stasis? I know mucoid enteropathy causes jelly in the stool but what I saw is not big blobs and is not clear.

The good news is, both buns were eating late this evening ... Sonicka was munching on hay and veggies, and Slippers was nibbling hay and veggies.

*edit* Just checked on them one more time for the night, and thank goodness, there were solid poops about.

 

[tonyshuman]

Mucous is the body's response to bacterial overgrowth and trying hard to move stuff through. It could also be from the petroleum-based laxative--I've seen mucous/goop on the poos of a bunny that was being fed the laxative as well. I think if they have a few poos during the recovery that have mucous that's ok. Solid poos are also a good sign, plus the eating...I'm hesitant to jinx you, but they may be finally coming out of it. ray:

edit: disregard what I said about petroleum laxative. That was a different bunny that was given that.

 

[Maureen Las]

Bunnies that I have had in stasis often poop 'cold mucousy poops when they are just beginning to go again.

I would guess that they are cold and not body temperature because of inactivity in that area of the intestine for awhile ; the mucous could potentially be a huge problem as it is present when clostrdium begins to form, however ,I hope by now that both of them are better

let us know>>.

 

[bunniekrissy]

They are both about the same :-/ Slippers continues to nibble on things on and off, poop small bits on and off, and still seems uncomfortable. She always seems better in the evenings than in the mornings. I got a lot of fluids in her last night, but now with all that practice she had avoiding having to swallow it, whenever I try now it seems like a lot of it just spills out of her mouth. I have tried giving her small bits of banana chip to see if she's interested. This evening she grabbed one, seemed to chew on it, but then spit it out whole! Maybe she does have a tooth problem ... I am not sure how to address that though when there's the GI issues to solve first. She is no more interested in soft food than solid foods. Also, I feel lumpiness in her belly.

As for Sonicka, I don't know what to think. She has an appetite and the veggies I give them always end up gone eventually, but I am finding it very hard to tell whether she is pooping normally or not. I keep seeing a fair amount of new small, dry poops (not sure whose they are), but I have seen a couple more soft, larger poops (with no mucous) from Sonicka. And I see very few large, normal poops.

I'll call the vet in the morning if there's no significant improvement and see what else they might be able to do.

 

[bunniekrissy]

I hope I'm not disappointed in the morning, but I just saw some GREAT improvement! I saw Slippers stand up on her hind legs and look around, and then she and Sonicka decided to team up on destroying some of the cardboard flooring in their pen. Then, when I brought them fresh parsley, both bunnies started munching right away! Tomorrow is FINALLY Saturday so I can monitor them more closely during the day.

 

[bunniekrissy]

Here is a photo from a couple of days ago of my girls; Sonicka (right) comforting Slippers (left). BTW, Sonicka's name is pronounced So-NEECH-ka. (made up word of my grandpa's meaning salt) There's supposed to be a type of accent mark above the "c" but haven't figured out how to do that here.

 

[Maureen Las]

They are a very cute pair;

I'm glad to see there is improvement; it's been a long week

 

[tonyshuman]

Glad things are better. If you continue to see things like her dropping food, a tooth issue may be occuring.

 

[bunniekrissy]

Update: Today I called the vet to give them an update. The vet wanted to see her because I mentioned feeling something in her tummy. The vet visit was fairly uneventful, she pretty much told me to keep doing what I'm doing and give some Critical Care. The lump I was feeling she said felt like it was in the muscle of her abdominal wall rather than the GI tract, and could be just scar tissue or metal stitches left in from her spay. She was spayed at the animal shelter so I don't know what kind of stitches they used. I brought both bunnies and she felt Sonicka's tummy which felt ok, too.

Today Slippers has eaten a several pieces of veggies several times ... hopefully things stay in the positive direction.

 

[bunniekrissy]

Today the bunnies are both eating veggies fine, and I see more poops, but a lot of them are still small.

And now I am worrying about the lump I felt on Slippers' belly. I assumed it was due to too much food collected in her GI tract, but now that her belly feels more normal in general it seems more like it could be an abscess or something. I had the vet feel her belly yesterday, but I had to point out what I had been feeling, and I had trouble locating it for the vet because it is not very obvious. So I am not sure if she properly felt what I was noticing. There is definitely something there. I wish the vet visit yesterday had addressed that issue better ... I might switch vets. There have been far too many vet visits this month

 

[Maureen Las]

Sorry that you are in a 'never ending problems mode"

Is the lump hard like bone or a soft lump ?; how big does it feel ?(compare it to something )

Does it feel bigger than when you felt it yesterday?

 

[Pipp]

bunniekrissy wrote:

There is definitely something there. I wish the vet visit yesterday had addressed that issue better ... I might switch vets. There have been far too many vet visits this month

Whenever you have to make return visits to a vet, there shouldn't be an exam fee, just diagnostics and treatment fees.

In this case in particular,.I'm sure the office/clinic won't charge at least the visit fee, because they didn't fix/address the complaint. It's like fixing your car - if they do it wrong, you bring it back, the mechanic doesn't double dip for the wrong work AND fixing the mistake.

She will need an x-ray, and they'll charge for that, but not the visit.

Hope it's nothing. (I was feeling a lump with Pipp, the vet felt it too, was talking about opening her up to see what it was, which thankfully never happened. It was a poop!)


sas :clover:

 

[bunniekrissy]

It feels harder than the surrounding tissue, it doesn't squish really. It seems line-shaped or elongated. It feels sort of like a tiny lymph node. The dimensions are maybe 1 cm long by a few mm wide. It does not feel bigger than yesterday.
And yeah, for the few couple rechecks they charged for the visit but a discounted charge, and for others there was no charge for the visit.

 

[tonyshuman]

I think an x-ray or ultrasound would be important to figure out what the lump is. It could be food stuck in her intestines, leading to all these problems. It could be something else (abscess, other type of mass), also leading to these problems. Is she spayed?

 

[bunniekrissy]

Yes, she is spayed. She is just not recovering 100%; this morning she ate a little bit and was pretty excited about the baby carrot or two she "shared" with Sonicka, but didn't eat too much of the other veggies. I'll make another appointment.

Last night, my parents' 14 week old puppy had an allergic reaction to what must have been a bee sting. We took her to the emergency clinic because when she came inside from playing, she started rubbing and shaking her face, and then her eyelids started swelling up! We called the emergency clinic as soon as we noticed something wrong and brought her in right away. By the time we got there, her eyes were swollen shut! She is doing fine today though; they gave her a shot of benadryl and cortisone and that seemed to do the trick ... poor puppy!