What is THIS?!?

[Jenk]

I feel like I'm in The Twilight Zone (or some sort of cosmic joke)....

Tonight, things seemed fine with my Cali boy. He and I played together, and I groomed him.

I gave him his Revolution dose; things still seemed fine. (He didscratch at the back of his neck and lick his foot at times, under my husband's "watchful" eye. *sigh*)

A short time later, he was lying in his litter box andrefused his greens; then he began re-adjusting his position and pressing his stomach to the floor. His stomach and intestional areas felt gushy to me; I massaged him for over 30 minutes andgot two doses of Simethicone into him before 12:45 am, when I had to get to bed.

At 3 am, I heard him flopping around again; I've been in his room since. He's not touched food or water, keeps shifting himself on the floorand seems very uncomfy. At one point, he was breathing rapidly, but had stopped when I checked on him about 10 min. ago. (Edit: Another re-check revealed that he peed on the blanket outside of his cage; he normally has impeccable litter-box habits. )

Help! Besides gas, is there anything else that could be causing this? I don't even feel a lot of gas moving around under my fingers. He is shedding badly--a fact that I didn't realize until tonight. (I'd been working early morning to late evening on a home project from last Monday until tonight.)

Jenk

 

[Flashy]

This isn't going to be of help to you now, however, all three of yours are so prone to gut problems I wonder if something in your home is causing it, like maybe their water (not sure what your water system is), or maybe their food/hay is near a source that contaminates it in some way (air freshner? or something in the fridge? Or something that might leech in any way?). Or maybe something around their cages, like a cleaning product or something? I'm grasping at straws but just thought it might be worth a shot.

Can you keep your guy warm? Maybe give him a rice sock or something. If that were one of my buns I would probably give Metacam too, but that would be up to you what you did. I have no idea what caused this but I know how desperate you must be feeling so just wanted to reply.

 

[Jenk]

Flashy wrote:

This isn't going to be of help to you now, however, all three of yours are so prone to gut problems I wonder if something in your home is causing it, like maybe their water (not sure what your water system is), or maybe their food/hay is near a source that contaminates it in some way (air freshner? or something in the fridge? Or something that might leech in any way?). Or maybe something around their cages, like a cleaning product or something? I'm grasping at straws but just thought it might be worth a shot.

It's likely genetic for the two girls; I've no idea what's causing this for my boy now. :? They all get bottled water; their hay is kept in a large, rubber container. (We don't use air freshener throughout the home, and I can't think of anything that could leech into their food/water supply.) No cleaning products are kept in their rooms. I'm grasping as much as you....

Can you keep your guy warm? Maybe give him a rice sock or something. If that were one of my buns I would probably give Metacam too, but that would be up to you what you did. I have no idea what caused this but I know how desperate you must be feeling so just wanted to reply.

I don't have a rice sock. A heating pad would be dangerous, if I were to fall asleep; he'd likely chew it (but maybe not, since he's feeling poorly).

I gave him Metacam (unsure if it's the "right" dose for his weight) about 45 min. ago.

All I can do is call the vet's office at 7:30 am and ask to speak to the vet before she starts her rounds. (She does take emergency appointments during her normal business hours, though my husband won't be thrilled to miss work time only to have to spend yet more money on a rabbit's health issues....)

Okay, now come the tears that I've been holding back since my good cry this morningabout Emma's issues....

 

[Luv-bunniz]

Jenk. I firstly want to say you are SUCh an inspiration to the rabbit world! You have been through so much yet you just keep on and I dont think there is many people that would do that. :hugsquish:

I too am thinking its something that is being fed, given in water or in the home. Have you checked things like cooking pans? pesticides on veggies? pesticides on hay? different types/brands of hay?

 

[Jenk]

Luv-bunniz wrote:

Jenk. I firstly want to say you are SUCh an inspiration to the rabbit world! You have been through so much yet you just keep on and I dont think there is many people that would do that. :hugsquish:

Please don't say/think that I am an inspiration; I'd be lying if I said that I've not considered life without rabbits, after all that I've experienced from Day 1. :?

I'm starting to think that it's a sickness on my part. I got two hours' sleep last night. From 3 am onward, I slept with my big guy on a cold, hard laminate floor. (I had a thin blanket layerbeneath me, which offered no comfort.) I can barely keep my eyes open right now.

I got some Metacam in him around 3:30-4 am. (He felt so unwell, he didn't fight me.) I placed a heating pad on the lowest ("warm") setting over him and just lied along side him. He continued to show signs of pain until my husband's alarm sounded at 7:00 am, at which time he showed some interest in nibbling hay.

His gut felt so bloated at one point in the wee hours, though, that I'm still (God help me) taking him the vet today. I'm guessing that there'll be x-rays....

I too am thinking its something that is being fed, given in water or in the home. Have you checked things like cooking pans? pesticides on veggies? pesticides on hay? different types/brands of hay?

They all drink the same bottled (spring) water. (Yeah, I know that bottled water is far from pure, but we have hard tap water.) I know that the veggies have pesticides, since I'm not buying organic (and even those can have pesticides from surrounding non-organic veggies). I rinse the veggies under cold tap water, then give them a final rinse in a bowl of the bottled water. (Don't ask.) And they all eat Oxbow timothy hay (with some orchard grass and brome mixed in at times--also Oxbow).

I really don't think that there's a correlation between them; Zoe's issues have been from the time that we first got her. Emma's started last spring.

For all I know, my Cali boy got ahold of something he shouldn't have during the flooring project we just finished. Or maybe he was gassy and hurting from the fact that he slid across the floor into the wall last night. He's gotten gassy in the past from Oxbow pellets, it seemed. I took him off pellets twice and began feeding them again to him very slowly (1/2 Tbsp. to start); he seemed to do fine on this regimen. And I now have him up to 1 Tbsp., which also seemed to be going fine for the past two weeks'.

He's also shedding heavily; it's possible that he's ingested a ton of hair while I was busy working on the house and somehow built up a lot of gas inside.

It's just one mystery after another....

 

[Maureen Las]

How many doses of Revolution did Cali boy have previously ...it may be a reaction to the revolution>
how is he now?
side effects would be rapid breathing , salivating , ,lethargy, muscle tremors, twitching etc

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

How many doses of Revolution did Cali boy have previously ...it may be a reaction to the revolution>
how is he now?
side effects would be rapid breathing , salivating , ,lethargy, muscle tremors, twitching etc

He'd had three doses (of the lowest possible dose), given one month apart. (So last night was his fourth dose; he'll need two more given closer together this time to break the mite life-cycle.)

His rapid breathing was definitely due to his overly-full gut. (He had no other symptoms that indicate a reaction to Revolution.) The vet felta lot of material in his stomach.

I suspect ingested fur isthe initialcause. I didn't spend a lot of time with the buns this past week while working on the floors. But I noticed last night that he's shedding very heavily. (He'd eaten/drank/pooped/peed normally up until last night, so I hadn'tworried until then.)

Iwill groom him nightly until he stops this shedding period.

I gave him sub-Qs at the vet's and will continue them for the next three days'. He'll also get Metacam.And Simethicone is to be given as needed.

I'm just thankful that he's perked up since receiving the fluids and is eating some hay without prompting. (Didn't need yet another heart attack, though. )