Sunday, February 11, 2007

Want to see the insides of my bunny?

When you have bunnies - the main focus is to always keep them eating. Going in for surgery? Make sure they eat. No matter what happens. Make them eat. If they stop eating - bad things happen.

Don't worry - this isn't going to be one of those dreadful blogs that talk about pets dying.

So, Saturday morning we woke up to find our bunny Fudge had not eaten all his before bedtime treats. No biggie. Start him on motility drugs, give him pain meds, swap his box, and vacuum his cage. This is where the problem started. He started screaming.

When bunnies scream - bad things happen. We look at the clock. 45 minutes before the vet closes, so we rush him down. Turns out it was a backup - but not in the way we have ever seen. He decided to keep eating even though he wasn't moving anything. So his belly was horribly distended.





Usually their stomach is empty and full of gas. We all were very surprised -including the vet, because normally when they start feeling sick they stop eating. Not keep eating until their chest cavity won't fit any more. It was then my vet uttered the words I didn't think we would ever hear. "Stop his food until tomorrow night". What-What-What?

This goes against all conventional wisdom for rabbits. Once there is nothing in the pipe it's really hard to get it going again. Especially after a day and a half without food. But clearly eating would put pressure on all his internal organs because his stomach was so full. We decided to feed him small amounts, but it just so foreign to withhold food from a rabbit who will eat. He seems to be returning to normal.

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