21/11/2023
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve posted on here, because all has been normal in the Fluffle of Seven and the Two Pack of Beetle and Muffin.
Until the other day.
We had our first battle with GI stasis and it was terrifying.
I’m a wait and see dog mom and human mom. You can’t wait and see with rabbits. There’s simply no time. Often once you realize there’s a problem, it’s beyond serious. So I got lucky.
I first noticed at one point during the weekend when I fed them greens and Primrose (a.k.a “Prim”) did not come down. Then she meandered, ate a tiny piece of lettuce and was done. No pellets the next day. This is serious.
I recently became acquainted with a woman who has had bunnies for over 25 years. She had told me that a lot of Stasis can be managed at home and is often less stressful on the bun, but you have to manage it.
When they get gas in their system, it hurts. They don’t eat and they don’t drink and they deteriorate rapidly. Most people would say “go to the vet asap” and I honestly was ready to call Monday morning, but I had to manage her over the weekend. And if I didn’t manage her the right way, she wasn’t going to see Monday. That’s bunnies; they aren’t survivors.
Add to the complexity of the situation is the fact that bonded bunnies need to go to vet together. So I was going to have to load up seven rabbits and then pray that the stress wouldn’t do them in.
So back to the weekend. I had oxbow critical care on hand. If you have a rabbit (my friend also has it for her guinea pig), keep it in your cabinet. Because with these animals, when you need it, you need it now. I went to the store to get pedialyte as dehydration is a very dangerous part of stasis. Then I had to learn how to use the syringe so it wouldn’t damage the trachea or shoot into the lungs.
We started with water and then the pedialyte. I learned to put the mixture of critical care and pedialyte inside another cup of warm water to warm it and make it tastier. It reminded me of warming a bottle when my human daughters were babies. We started with a pretty liquidy concoction, but sometimes at the end she was willing to chew the clumps off the syringe.
A friend of mine reminded me about infant gas drops. It was dark (which means it was sometime past noon lol) and I was already in my comfy clothes, but again, there was no time and this is something that should be in everyone’s medicine cabinet. I got home and gave her .3 ml. Next dose was 4-6 hours but it was late and I didn’t want her to go overnight, so it was 3 hours.
She was still alive in the morning and taking the critical care well. She did bite her gas drop syringe in half, but thankfully I had bought another pack of syringes as well lol. My bigger fear was watching to make sure she wasn’t chewing any of the syringe and adding to her problem.
I also started letting her out to go around the pool house because I believe in exercise and its impact on the body. Then I let her friends out too. And I kept watching her and hoping and praying for p**p.
I made an amazing salad full of everything a rabbit could want. She said no. She was, however, getting spunkier and sassier regarding syringe feeding and would turn her head around to bite me. So I got a piece of lettuce and when she went to bite me, she got lettuce instead. She ate it.
I continued with the gas and critical care even when she was started to eat a little on her own, because I had to make sure she was absolutely headed in the right direction.
Last night when I put the bowl of greens in, she joined the others and kept eating and eating. This morning she was thrilled to have her pellets. And then she finally p**ped and seems 100% back to herself.
I’m sharing this story because someone educated me and we all have room to learn. But also, I got lucky. Bunnies are fragile. I don’t think God ever intended them to be anything more than Nature’s Snack Food. Adorable snack food, but considering they can have heart attacks from sudden noises, can have stomach distress due to eating something weird, stress, or in Prim’s case, no apparent reason, they just don’t survive. There is a reason they reproduce like rabbits, but that also doesn’t mean that once they’re in our lives they should ever suffer.
So again, I rolled the dice and came out lucky. I do recommend if you have bunnies you keep critical care, infant gas drops, and pedialyte (unflavored) on hand. Also small syringes makes sense to have at the ready.
And don’t wait with bunnies. Ever.
This is Prim (l) with Clover (r). This was taken when she was still on the mend but not quite there. Now, she’s all the way there.
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