Well, that was unfun.
Noticed on Thursday & Friday that Anya was a little more subdued than usual. I thought it was on account of my giving her her run time a little later at night than she's used to... then I noticed she wasn't nearly as interested in her pellets Friday night. "Have to keep an eye on that," I thought.
Came home from a long day of work Saturday evening, looking forward to nothing but a few beers, a bath, & bed. Instead, I was greeted by a still mostly-full bowl of pellets & a litterbox w/ only a few teeny poops in it. Hooray. Last time I came home to these symptoms, they were accompanied by a dead rabbit. :(
Why do critters so love having medical problems on the weekend? I've yet to find an emergency vet anywhere near here who treats rabbits, & taking a bun to a vet who isn't familiar with them is worse than useless. All I can say is "thank god(s) for teh intarwebs!" After refreshing my memory of everything regarding GI stasis, I hit the local grocery for fresh kale, spring mix, & simethicone drops. Luckily, Anya was still eating (though not as much as she usually does) & drinking, so it wasn't difficult to get some more liquid & fiber into her via water-covered greens. The simethicone was a little more interesting, since it's been quite awhile since I used an oral syringe on anything smaller than a horse. ;P The first dose, I ended up shooting right through both sides of her mouth & getting it all over the couch. I kindof swished her around & used her to mop up the puddle, so she'd be forced to groom it out of her fur. ;} Anya never did seem to decide whether she liked simethicone or not. Sometimes I just had to hold the syringe up to her mouth & she'd eagerly lap the stuff up, while sometimes she'd try her damnedest to hide her widdle bunny mouf so I couldn't get any meds in her. The best was when she'd get so pissed off at me poking at her, she'd try to bite the syringe, and SQUIRT! Meds administered. ^_^
Tummy massages were fun, too. I'm not sure I ever got it right, but she was pretty tolerant of all of my fumblings.
Called into work on Sunday (luckily, since I work at a horse stable, they're pretty understanding when I phrase things in horse terms: "can't come in... bunny's colicing!"), posted to a bunch of rabbit forums seeing if anybody else knew of bun-savvy emergency vets in the area. Nobody did. More simethicone, more kale, more tummy rubs & head pets & pep talks. Anya had pooped some during the night, but they were still pretty small & irregularly-shaped & now mostly strung together w/ fur. She about gave me a heart attack by not pooping at all between when I got up at 6am & about 7pm at night (everything I read insisted that 12 hours w/o pooping was a Get-That-Bun-to-a-Vet-Immediately Emergency), but she finally produced some still-not-normal but fresh poops.
Sunday night Anya seemed to be feeling a lot better, but I was still uber-paranoid & called in to work again today, just in case. I ran out of simethicone, & since she never really seemed to be gassy in the first place, I didn't buy more (though I'm going to, soon, just to have it on hand for future "what ifs"). She pooped a lot last night, mostly normal-sized, but still connected w/ hair. Didn't poop during the day today, either... I'm wondering if maybe she doesn't poop much during the day normally (I've never watched her *that* closely). Pooped some more tonight, is eating like a proverbial horse, & I even caught her doing a little happy dance for the first time since Friday. I'm tentatively declaring her "cured", though she'll be getting extra run time & attention for awhile, yet, just in case.
That really, really sucked. I kept wondering if the universe was giving me a chance to somehow "redeem" myself for Meat Bunny's death by letting me successfully nurse a rabbit through (what I assume is) the same illness, or trying to show me that even if I had been paying more attention to Meat, it wouldn't have made a difference. :(
The single worst moment was last night. Anya was chillaxing against the back door, I was sitting on the couch, reading out loud to her, as I sometimes do. She was giving me a relaxed ear for awhile, then I happend to look up as she very slowly rolled over onto her side, eyes half-closed. I'd seen Meat fall asleep like that, but Anya usually sleeps kindof upright. When she flops, she flops all at once. Cue heart attack number two. Anya was mighty peeved at me for scooping her up while she was trying to sleep. :P
I need a new brush for Anya. For some reason, the Zoom Groom just doesn't pull the fur off of her like it did Meat. I'm thinking that was a contributing factor, but mostly I blame the fact that Squeezums & I have gone out of town 3 times in the last month. Each trip was only for a couple of days, & a friend came by to feed & look after the critters, but it was still a lot of routine upset for Anya.
Once we recover a bit financially from various things, Anya will be going to the vet for a checkup, just in case there's something else going on.
Ah, the joys of pet ownership! ;P
Came home from a long day of work Saturday evening, looking forward to nothing but a few beers, a bath, & bed. Instead, I was greeted by a still mostly-full bowl of pellets & a litterbox w/ only a few teeny poops in it. Hooray. Last time I came home to these symptoms, they were accompanied by a dead rabbit. :(
Why do critters so love having medical problems on the weekend? I've yet to find an emergency vet anywhere near here who treats rabbits, & taking a bun to a vet who isn't familiar with them is worse than useless. All I can say is "thank god(s) for teh intarwebs!" After refreshing my memory of everything regarding GI stasis, I hit the local grocery for fresh kale, spring mix, & simethicone drops. Luckily, Anya was still eating (though not as much as she usually does) & drinking, so it wasn't difficult to get some more liquid & fiber into her via water-covered greens. The simethicone was a little more interesting, since it's been quite awhile since I used an oral syringe on anything smaller than a horse. ;P The first dose, I ended up shooting right through both sides of her mouth & getting it all over the couch. I kindof swished her around & used her to mop up the puddle, so she'd be forced to groom it out of her fur. ;} Anya never did seem to decide whether she liked simethicone or not. Sometimes I just had to hold the syringe up to her mouth & she'd eagerly lap the stuff up, while sometimes she'd try her damnedest to hide her widdle bunny mouf so I couldn't get any meds in her. The best was when she'd get so pissed off at me poking at her, she'd try to bite the syringe, and SQUIRT! Meds administered. ^_^
Tummy massages were fun, too. I'm not sure I ever got it right, but she was pretty tolerant of all of my fumblings.
Called into work on Sunday (luckily, since I work at a horse stable, they're pretty understanding when I phrase things in horse terms: "can't come in... bunny's colicing!"), posted to a bunch of rabbit forums seeing if anybody else knew of bun-savvy emergency vets in the area. Nobody did. More simethicone, more kale, more tummy rubs & head pets & pep talks. Anya had pooped some during the night, but they were still pretty small & irregularly-shaped & now mostly strung together w/ fur. She about gave me a heart attack by not pooping at all between when I got up at 6am & about 7pm at night (everything I read insisted that 12 hours w/o pooping was a Get-That-Bun-to-a-Vet-Immediately Emergency), but she finally produced some still-not-normal but fresh poops.
Sunday night Anya seemed to be feeling a lot better, but I was still uber-paranoid & called in to work again today, just in case. I ran out of simethicone, & since she never really seemed to be gassy in the first place, I didn't buy more (though I'm going to, soon, just to have it on hand for future "what ifs"). She pooped a lot last night, mostly normal-sized, but still connected w/ hair. Didn't poop during the day today, either... I'm wondering if maybe she doesn't poop much during the day normally (I've never watched her *that* closely). Pooped some more tonight, is eating like a proverbial horse, & I even caught her doing a little happy dance for the first time since Friday. I'm tentatively declaring her "cured", though she'll be getting extra run time & attention for awhile, yet, just in case.
That really, really sucked. I kept wondering if the universe was giving me a chance to somehow "redeem" myself for Meat Bunny's death by letting me successfully nurse a rabbit through (what I assume is) the same illness, or trying to show me that even if I had been paying more attention to Meat, it wouldn't have made a difference. :(
The single worst moment was last night. Anya was chillaxing against the back door, I was sitting on the couch, reading out loud to her, as I sometimes do. She was giving me a relaxed ear for awhile, then I happend to look up as she very slowly rolled over onto her side, eyes half-closed. I'd seen Meat fall asleep like that, but Anya usually sleeps kindof upright. When she flops, she flops all at once. Cue heart attack number two. Anya was mighty peeved at me for scooping her up while she was trying to sleep. :P
I need a new brush for Anya. For some reason, the Zoom Groom just doesn't pull the fur off of her like it did Meat. I'm thinking that was a contributing factor, but mostly I blame the fact that Squeezums & I have gone out of town 3 times in the last month. Each trip was only for a couple of days, & a friend came by to feed & look after the critters, but it was still a lot of routine upset for Anya.
Once we recover a bit financially from various things, Anya will be going to the vet for a checkup, just in case there's something else going on.
Ah, the joys of pet ownership! ;P