Nursing a Rabbit Through Stasis

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Rabbittude

Not quite my usual perky feisty self

Any time a rabbit absolutely refuses to eat or drink, get serious about it right away. Rabbits are constant foraging eaters and need that to keep their intestines moving. Anything that stops movement through the intestines can quickly lead to the death of the rabbit. This is one of those times to get thee to a vet ASAP since the causes of GI stasis can vary. You might be dealing with a tumor, infection, hairball, tooth problems or something else entirely.

Expect if you are dealing with stasis that there will be a time of nursing your rabbit. This can include medications, force feedings, forcing fluids, getting subcutaneous fluids at the vet or possibly being shown how to give them at home. You will have to monitor how much your rabbit eats on its own and how much bunny is urinating and pooping. This can mean adjusting the rabbit’s living space or possibly separating a pair temporarily so that you can know who is doing what.

At first while your rabbit is really ill, they may not be themselves at all. It may be a real struggle to get the bunny to cooperate with being medicated, force-fed, having their tummy rubbed, being cleaned up, so basically being regularly picked up and messed with. You know how you feel about people poking and prodding if you don’t feel well. The bunny may be listless, uncaring, grumpy, irritable, scratching, biting, wildly fighting or any combination back and forth. Keep your calm and your patience. As your rabbit recovers, their usual personality will return. They just may seem like they really hate you while you are trying to save them. Again, think about whether you have ever chewed out the doctors or nurses when you were ill.

Tigger is currently on a number of medications and holding her own. She is eating and drinking on her own now and alternating between very tiny or very messy poops. She is very grumpy and irritable today which is pretty normal for HRH Princess Tigger. She has another vet visit early next week. We will see if she needs further diagnostic tests or treatment. Last August, she needed to have some sharp tooth points filed down. That required anethesia for a good exam and to do the filing. Anesthesia is risky at her age. So, in conjunction with the vet then and now, we decided on other treatments first.

Here is a great article to bookmark: Nursing Your Rabbit Through Gastrointestinal Stasis (Information And Tips To Be Used In Conjunction With Ongoing Care From Your Rabbit Vet).

Working Through Stasis

Posted on May 21, 2011 by Rabbittude

This has been a rough week. Tigger sometimes has tummy issues where she is a little off and gassy. However, last Sunday, she went more than a little bit off and towards serious stasis.

A vet visit brought us home with lots of meds, a four page set of instructions and a lot of dread. We have been through this before with her last August and almost lost her.

It has been a stressful and tiring week, fighting for a bunny and with a bunny to get meds and food and water into her, then watching for bunny poops. We have kept her moving and thankfully at this point have her eating again, running around and have some poops coming back.

Later today, I will have more on nursing a bunny through stasis.

Litterbox Evolution

Posted on May 16, 2011 by Rabbittude

The one thing that really shows the stages of a bunny’s life are the changes in litter boxes that we have had over 10 years with our rabbits.

With two month old two-pound baby bunnies, we started with high-backed triangle or square pans made for small animals. Those were just the right size to encourage litter box training, yet still gave them a roomy place to flop or eat some hay.

Then Shadow began to develop some serious digging tendencies and he would use the litter box and excavate it out afterwards. We switched them to larger litter boxes with tops. Since they were still pretty little, we had to give them kiddie footstools to help them get in with ease. The footstools also allowed little bunnies another place to crawl under. They both loved to take advantage of that. Tigger and Shadow both liked the flat-topped box as it gave them another place to hop up and hang out. We put a small rug up there to make it a more comfy, less slippery spot.

The bunnies moved into their adult size and we were able to do away with the footstools. Then Shadow showed less interest in digging as he aged and we removed the litter box covers and just left them with the round or rectangle bottoms of the litter boxes.

After they turned six years old, we noticed that they were less inclined to hop over the sides of their pans. They had a few accidents beside their litter boxes. We realized they were probably beginning to experience some of the aches, pains, and loss of flexibility that comes with aging.

We went back to the store and found some dog training pans with lower sides and one side with a low entry. They liked these litter boxes. However, with these pans, Shadow developed a renewed interest in digging them out. So I went back to the stores to look for a fix. I found a long tray used for drying boots that was exactly the right size. Placed at the front and sides, Shadow can do his dig out, and I can easily dump the litter back into the pans. It becomes a game with him to see how fast he can dig it out again after I dump it back in. If I don’t do my cleanup fast enough, some bunny will decide that the boot trays are fair game for litter box use.

We have definitely learned that one litter box is not equal to another and have adapted as needed due to bunny age and size. So who is training who here?

Is a Real Rabbit For You?

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Rabbittude

From istockphoto.com

Do you love mysteries? A few years after Tigger and Shadow hopped into our lives, I read an article that said rabbits were a good pet for lovers of mystery. The reason they gave is that rabbits aren’t very predictable. You can expect them to do the unexpected.

I do love mysteries and rabbits. The article was right on in saying rabbits aren’t an open book. The photo here says it all for me. Somebunny always has to be different and do the opposite of what is wanted or expected. That can add a lot of fun and joy to your life as they go from comedy, to drama, to athletics, to romance, to all out bunny daredevil stunts.

If you think about rabbits as a prey animal, the mystery of them makes a lot of sense. If a potential attacker can figure out their next move, they will be lunch.

So when considering a rabbit as a pet, it is important to recognize they like to hide things. That includes issues with their health. A rabbit owner needs to like solving mysteries and playing detective. To catch rabbit illnesses early on, you have to be aware of and catch sometimes slight changes in their mood, behavior, appetite or energy levels.

Rabbits are a lot of fun, but keeping them in peak form does require really getting to know them well when they are healthy and happy. Then you can more easily recognize when your little friend is trying to hide a problem from you and help them before it is too late.

Bunny Tastes

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Rabbittude

Yesterday I wrote about diet challenges with Tigger. Shadow has been a completely different bunny when it comes to eating. He hopped into our lives a couple of months after Tigger and has been such an easygoing little fellow.

We call him “Buddy” and “Bubba”, because he is such a personable little guy to hang out with. For the most part, you put food in front of him and he will eat what he needs. He doesn’t over or under do it. He has always loved to race around, so has maintained a sleek athletic figure throughout his life.

There is only one recurring diet challenge with Shadow. The poor bunny has seasonal allergies. During the spring and fall seasons, he will sneeze and swallow a lot. So you know he has a post nasal drip going on. During those seasons, he gets a bit skinny. I know from personal experience, it is hard to eat when your nose is stuffed up. So after allergy seasons, we make sure Shadow gets a bit more food than usual to gain back lost weight.

Shadow appreciates and savours his food. He also has some well developed tastes. He loves bananas. If I crack the peel on a banana and turn around, I will find him right behind me begging for a piece. Tigger loves bananas too, but Shadow actually hears that first snap of the peel and comes running. Tigger only comes after she smells the banana.

He also gets particular tastes for things in mind. We have given the rabbits dried fruit pieces as treats. Sometimes Shadow will have a particular flavor he wants. One time Blaine put a dried raspberry down in front of Shadow. He sniffed it and looked back up at Blaine. Then Blaine put down a piece of dried mango. Shadow looked at it and then looked right back up at Blaine. So Blaine put down a blueberry. Shadow wolfed it down. Nothing but a blueberry would do that evening.

Shadow stays active, so he needs more food than Tigger. That can make feeding time difficult. We have to make sure the bunny who needs more gets more while keeping the dieting bunny from getting too much. At meal times they will be in the kitchen pushing and shoving each other to get to the plate or treat first. Tigger is literally throwing her weight around. Sometimes we put two plates down on opposite sides of the room to keep them from fussing so much with each other over the salad greens. Other times we have to station ourselves as guards to keep Tigger from hassling Shadow and taking more than her diet allows.

It is a balancing act when you have multiple rabbits who have different dietary needs. We have done lots of reading over the years and had good veterinary input. By following guidelines to the best of our ability, we have been rewarded with two rabbits who are now both 10 years old.

Diet is a Four Letter Word

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Rabbittude

Taking Tigger to the vet for the first time was a huge relief. He felt the only problem was that our baby bunny was malnourished. Alfalfa pellets and hay were recommended to get her to a good weight. Then as she reached adult size, her diet would switch to timothy pellets and hay. We thought we were good to go with a great diet plan for our Tigger.

Diet became a four letter word for us, because we didn’t allow for Tigger not wanting to participate in the plan. We bought the alfalfa pellets, but she didn’t want anything to do with them. We would mix the rabbit pellets with the guinea pig food she had been eating. Since they were two different colors, we could tell Miss Finicky Bunny was eating the guinea pig food and ignoring the rabbit food. A month later, we were down to our last handful of guinea pig food when Tigger decided to give us a break and try out her new rabbit food diet.

That did not mean smooth sailing from then out with Princess Tigger’s diet. For the first five years, we were constantly following our anorexic model bunny around with food begging her to eat. She would go on hunger strikes and turn up her nose at things for no reason we could determine. She would be on her food, off her food and stayed very slim. We called her “weasel” and “hipless wonder”, because of her snaky thin body.

One time a shipment of pellets and hay was from a season where the weather had really changed the taste. Our other bunnies Shadow and Portia resisted for a couple of days and then accepted the new batch. Tigger reacted for two weeks as if we were offering her poison. We had to get a batch of old pellets from a friend and mix them in with the new. We upped her greens to make sure she was getting enough to eat. Finally, she started eating the new batch too.

Then at five years old, Tigger the anorexic model bunny retired. She has steadily been gaining weight for the last five years and seems to be trying to make up for five years of starving herself. We started restricting treats and pellets. We also started keeping a close eye on Shadow to be certain he gets his fair share of the fresh greens since Tigger plows through things while he likes to save some for later.

This year has been the highest and lowest. Tigger had a bad bout with stasis last August and almost died. It could have been stress related. Our property was hit by lightning in early August. We lost utilities and air conditioning for a time. Shortly after that Tigger went completely off food, needed a lot of veterinary care and had to be force-fed for a time.

On the rebound from near death, she has dived into food again with a passion and has become quite chubby. We are trying to severely limit or remove anything fattening from her diet now, make sure she eats lots of lo-cal hays and encourage her to move around more. She is giving us four letter looks with her eyes about the diet. I am staying away from her teeth when I can tell she is hungry.

Welcome to yo-yo weight issues and diet hatred, rabbit style.

Rabbit Emergency Plans – Tornado Plan Today!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Rabbittude

We are having an uneasy day here keeping an eye on the weather which is predicted to be quite severe in Georgia later this evening. We are hearing this season already called the most active tornado season on record and the season lasts until July, so that is not good at all to be in the tornado regions of the country. I cannot begin to describe what it is like to catch, cage, and move rabbits to a safer location in the midst of a raging storm with tornado sirens going off full blast. We have fortunately to date had tornado warnings, but no actual tornadoes. So we have been able to get our drill and preparedness together without disaster as the teacher.

Everyone should have some plans in place should they need to relocate both humans and pets in a hurry or be able to sustain in place on your own for at least a week if need be. In addition to natural disasters, chemical spills or fires and terrorist attacks could lead to unexpected and speedy evacuations or an inability to be able to go home or leave home.

We looked at recommendations for what to keep on hand and where it was best stored. We don’t have a basement for tornadoes, but we do have a half bath and a room sized pantry side by side on the first floor that are interior rooms which become our tornado hiding places and storage for emergency rations and equipment. The pantry is large enough to hold the week of food and water recommended for emergencies and can also hold the bunny cage when we have to stow them safely during a tornado threat. We have always had batteries on hand and flashlights in every room, since we found out early on that sudden power losses and a roaming black rabbit aren’t a good combination. We have frozen cool packs that are kept ready in our original refrigerator that we had put in the garage, coolers are stored at the ready on top of that fridge.

In our half bath safe room, we have a weather radio with a battery backup, so that we can follow the weather to know when it is safe to come back out. One spring season, a tornado came through just a few miles south of us taking out the power. The weather radio on battery backup alerted us that there was a second storm with another tornado following just minutes after the first one ended. We stayed put where we were and thankfully there was no damage to us, but many in the area lost homes and a couple of people died in the storm.

Rabbits hate to be picked up, so make sure you practice and get them used to it some of the time so that you have some way of getting hold of your rabbit quickly should you need to. Tigger and Shadow have slowed down some with age, but planning ahead to have them already in a cage or carrier when we know a bad storm is brewing helps a lot. They are out running around now for their exercise so that we can have them calmer and caged in a safe place later before the worst weather is due to hit.

Here are some House Rabbit Society links on emergency preparedness:

Rabbittude

Rabbits + Attitude = Rabbittude

Category Archives: Rabbit Care