Stasis help and tips PLEASE :(

[Cassidyfare]

Okay so maybe some of you saw my post yesterday about my bunny not feeling well. She didn’t really improve throughout the night so I took her to the vet first thing this morning. They said she was bloated (which I knew) and most likely had just tummy upset so she prescribed the gas drops and gave me some critical care. I’m thinking she’s in stasis or early stasis because her tummy is feeling doughy and she’s eating very very little and hasn’t pooped since this afternoon. I’ve dealt with this before, or at least something similar, but this seems more severe. What is the best things to do to help her? I’ve been massaging her tummy pretty constantly and encouraging her to move around, but she really doesn’t want to. I know she’s exhausted because I’ve kept her up for nearly 24 hours massaging her and moving her around. I don’t know if it’s safe for me to let her rest/sleep though? It seems like if I leave her alone for more than 20-30 minutes she looks worse (more hunched over and ears back eyes closed). When I keep her moving she’s more alert and will spread out on her tummy and looks more relaxed. Is there any over the counter pain medicine I can give her? I was surprised the vet didn’t prescribe me any. Also, is it safe to give critical care if she doesn’t poop in between these feedings? She has been pooping fairly regularly, they’re just tiny, but hasn’t in 5ish hours which I assume is because she’s barely eaten in that time span besides the critical care. I would appreciate any tips to help get though this. My vet is closed tomorrow so I have to at least get her through Monday before she can be seen again and I’m worried sick

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

If you have pellets/ treats that she likes,
you could smush them up and sprinkle them on the hay

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

If your vet is rabbit savvy, just keep following their instructions, in terms of feedings. Keep up with the at stomach massages and everything else that your doing. Try to get quite a variety of differences hays for her (even if it’s just for this period of time), so that it’s more enticing for her to eat. The critical care will help get her gut moving hopefully. I’m not sure what the gas drops would do at this stage, as I know that they usually aren’t used as treatment.
Did your vet run an X-ray to see if there was a blockage?
If your vet is closed tomorrow and your really worried about her, take her to another rabbit savvy vet.
@Blue eyes @JBun Should be able to help more

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

If you have rabbit safe vegs. Put water on it to keep her hydrated
or flavor the water with rabbit safe juice to make sure she stays hydrated.

Just please try to keep her digestive track moving
I know I had to force feed my rabbit when he got a MINOR GI stasis

 

[Cassidyfare]

If your vet is rabbit savvy, just keep following their instructions, in terms of feedings. Keep up with the at stomach massages and everything else that your doing. Try to get quite a variety of differences hays for her (even if it’s just for this period of time), so that it’s more enticing for her to eat. The critical care will help get her gut moving hopefully. I’m not sure what the gas drops would do at this stage, as I know that they usually aren’t used as treatment.
Did your vet run an X-ray to see if there was a blockage?
If your vet is closed tomorrow and your really worried about her, take her to another rabbit savvy vet.
@Blue eyes @JBun Should be able to help more

Yes she’s very rabbit savvy! I’ve been seeing her for a while and she’s always been so great, but she did have to squeeze us in today so she may have not been as thorough. She did offer to take an X-ray but she said she didn’t feel it was necessary because she felt pretty certain that she’s just backed up (or was at least). But yeah I am going to start looking for other local rabbit vets near me just in case.

 

[Cassidyfare]

If you have rabbit safe vegs. Put water on it to keep her hydrated
or flavor the water with rabbit safe juice to make sure she stays hydrated.

Just please try to keep her digestive track moving
I know I had to force feed my rabbit when he got a MINOR GI stasis

I’ve been trying to offer water soaked romaine and kale (I know kale can be gassy, but she always really likes it) and she’s not interested at all. She ate a little piece of kale about an hour ago, but hasn’t had any romaine since this morning. Last time this happened her symptoms were similar except no poops for 12 + hours, but she was eating water soaked romaine phenomenally so that put me more at ease. I’m not so lucky this time around /: I’ve tried offered pineapple juice in water and by itself to encourage drinking and she likes it less than plain water

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

Keep up with her instructions in that case, but stay alert, and be ready to make your own judgements if you think something is going wrong. As Lucas the bun said, make sure to keep her hydrated as dehydration can quickly turn into a problem. You can syringe water if needed. It’s going to be difficult to get her to eat food on her own at this stage, but just keep offering it, and refreshing her hay ever few hours. I’ve also realised that if you bother a rabbit with food, directly by their mouth, they will usually grab it from you out of annoyance and will generally start to eat it! I hope she begins to feel better

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

Https://knowyourrabitgi-stasis-in-rabbits/Https://best4bunnys.com/gi-stasis-rabbits-first-warning-signs-can-help-rabbit/.com

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

I would go to the vet first thing in the morning (I hope your rabbit feels better)

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

Sorry my
Links didn't work but try looking up the key words (really informative)

-Know your rabbit GI stasis

Best 4 Bunny GI stasis

 

[Cassidyfare]

I would go to the vet first thing in the morning (I hope your rabbit feels better)

Thanks so much for your help, I really really appreciate it. I found a vet with small animal experience that’s open on Sundays so I feel a little relieved to know I have that option if need be. I am giving her some water via syringe and she doesn’t swallow all of it, but at least it’s something. She had a really good healthy pee at around 2 or 3 so hopefully I intervened with the syringe before any dehydration really set in

 

[Cassidyfare]

Keep up with her instructions in that case, but stay alert, and be ready to make your own judgements if you think something is going wrong. As Lucas the bun said, make sure to keep her hydrated as dehydration can quickly turn into a problem. You can syringe water if needed. It’s going to be difficult to get her to eat food on her own at this stage, but just keep offering it, and refreshing her hay ever few hours. I’ve also realised that if you bother a rabbit with food, directly by their mouth, they will usually grab it from you out of annoyance and will generally start to eat it! I hope she begins to feel better

I have been giving her water via syringe, but she doesn’t swallow all of it /: but I know she’s getting at least something (if you have any tips on getting them to swallow all their water id be SO grateful!!) and I did just discover that with the food in front of their face, I was rubbing a piece of lettuce against her lip and she finally took it. Thank you so so much for your help and your well wishes

 

[Lucas the Bun 💕🐇]

just make sure she's eating and drinking (even if you have to syringe feed)

Tip: give a tiny water drenched veg. Or fruit that they like so that they associate syringe with good things and not annoying
and so hopefully she isn't stressed out that much
plus hydration

 

[JBun]

Did the vet say bloat or GI stasis? They're two completely different things with different treatments. True bloat is an actual emergency and your rabbit should have been kept at the vets for emergency intervention.

If it was GI stasis, that can be from an upset stomach, or a variety of other health issues, but in the very least the vet should have offered sub q fluids(as she's likely dehydrated ), and take home gut motility meds and pain meds, along with the critical care. If your vet didn't give or offer any of this, I would try and find a more experienced rabbit vet, especially if your rabbit is still unwell tomorrow and you need to take her in.

If your rabbit has true bloat (where the actual stomach itself is bloated and not just the belly area), this is an emergency requiring immediate intervention. Rabbits with true bloat have extreme pressures exerted on the stomach walls as well as it putting pressure on the heart and lungs. If this pressure isn't relieved it can sometimes lead to stomach rupture or cardiac /respiratory failure.

For a rabbit with true bloat, they should not be syringe fed as this increases the pressure on the internal organs. Usually the treatment that is required is decompression of the stomach or surgery. For rabbits experiencing true bloat, common symptoms may be loud tooth grinding, sitting very hunched up and not wanting to move at all (more so than what happens with stasis), trembling, sitting next to the water bowl and holding their paws in the water, and refusing to swallow and letting syringed food or water dribble out of the mouth.

If you at all suspect your rabbit has true bloat, I would try and find an emergency vet with experience in rabbits, tonight.

 

[Cassidyfare]

Did the vet say bloat or GI stasis? They're two completely different things with different treatments. True bloat is an actual emergency and your rabbit should have been kept at the vets for emergency intervention.

If it was GI stasis, that can be from an upset stomach, or a variety of other health issues, but in the very least the vet should have offered sub q fluids(as she's likely dehydrated ), and take home gut motility meds and pain meds, along with the critical care. If your vet didn't give or offer any of this, I would try and find a more experienced rabbit vet, especially if your rabbit is still unwell tomorrow and you need to take her in.

If your rabbit has true bloat (where the actual stomach itself is bloated and not just the belly area), this is an emergency requiring immediate intervention. Rabbits with true bloat have extreme pressures exerted on the stomach walls as well as it putting pressure on the heart and lungs. If this pressure isn't relieved it can sometimes lead to stomach rupture or cardiac /respiratory failure.

For a rabbit with true bloat, they should not be syringe fed as this increases the pressure on the internal organs. Usually the treatment that is required is decompression of the stomach or surgery. For rabbits experiencing true bloat, common symptoms may be loud tooth grinding, sitting very hunched up and not wanting to move at all (more so than what happens with stasis), trembling, sitting next to the water bowl and holding their paws in the water, and refusing to swallow and letting syringed food or water dribble out of the mouth.

If you at all suspect your rabbit has true bloat, I would try and find an emergency vet with experience in rabbits, tonight.

My vet did said bloated, her exact words were “a bit bloated”, so I’m not sure what exactly that means now. That makes me nervous though, how can I tell the difference? When I feel her stomach the bottom part seems to be the “doughy” part, but her sides aren’t protruding and she doesn’t look noticeably bloated. She doesn’t have any of the symptoms besides the not moving around much, but she’s never had true GI stasis so I don’t know the difference in activity level. Her last critical care she took awesome, some dribbled out but she licked it up. It seems like her bloaty-ness is fluctuating, so I don’t know what that means. Like right after she eats she feels more bloated, but then after some activity and massages it subsides (it’s still there but feels noticeably better). I’m really nervous about the bloating though, I’ll keep a close eye on her. She goes through phases where she’ll be alert and active after tummy massages and some movement, but then after about a half hour of being left alone she starts to look lethargic again. Is there anything else I should look out for? When do I know she needs to go to the emergency? The emergency vet in my town has a few doctors that specialize in small animals, so hopefully they’ll be working if something happens! I’m gonna be pulling an all nighter to watch her closely.

 

[JBun]

You can tell a difference if they have actual bloat. They act really sick and in pain, and pretty much seem like they are close to dying. She wouldn't want to be eating at all if she had true bloat. It takes some experience to tell yourself as you have to palpate the actual stomach(feels like an inflated balloon just up under the ribs), and it has to be done with extreme care so not too much pressure is applied. Which usually means it's best left to the vet to determine.

It sounds like the vet meant she had a bit of gas, not actual bloat. Hopefully she'll be feeling more herself by morning. If not, I would want my rabbit put on gut motility and pain meds, as well as given sub q fluids if she's dehydrated and hasn't really been swallowing much of the food or water.

 

[RWAF]

Okay so maybe some of you saw my post yesterday about my bunny not feeling well. She didn’t really improve throughout the night so I took her to the vet first thing this morning. They said she was bloated (which I knew) and most likely had just tummy upset so she prescribed the gas drops and gave me some critical care. I’m thinking she’s in stasis or early stasis because her tummy is feeling doughy and she’s eating very very little and hasn’t pooped since this afternoon. I’ve dealt with this before, or at least something similar, but this seems more severe. What is the best things to do to help her? I’ve been massaging her tummy pretty constantly and encouraging her to move around, but she really doesn’t want to. I know she’s exhausted because I’ve kept her up for nearly 24 hours massaging her and moving her around. I don’t know if it’s safe for me to let her rest/sleep though? It seems like if I leave her alone for more than 20-30 minutes she looks worse (more hunched over and ears back eyes closed). When I keep her moving she’s more alert and will spread out on her tummy and looks more relaxed. Is there any over the counter pain medicine I can give her? I was surprised the vet didn’t prescribe me any. Also, is it safe to give critical care if she doesn’t poop in between these feedings? She has been pooping fairly regularly, they’re just tiny, but hasn’t in 5ish hours which I assume is because she’s barely eaten in that time span besides the critical care. I would appreciate any tips to help get though this. My vet is closed tomorrow so I have to at least get her through Monday before she can be seen again and I’m worried sick

Has your vet given pain meds? She will be feeling very uncomfortable and will be tense. Relieving pain can go a long way to help by relaxing the abdomen and allowing everything to pass through. Any gut motility drugs? Any vet anywhere in the world can join the RWAF Vet Group on Facebook. It has many Specialist rabbit and exotic vets as members who are able to advise vets on how to proceed with any rabbit cases. It can be found here RWAF Vet Group but only veterinary professionals will be admitted. ID is requested as part of the joining process