# Please help my rabbit



## shoji8 (Jan 5, 2011)

Hi there, my lop earred rabbit (about 3-4 mths old) is not interested in eating since yesterday, & display signs of boredom & tiredness. She grinds her teeth occassionally too. She drinks water though. Is thisa sign of stomach discomfort? I fed her pellets & hay. Since I got her 2 weeks ago, her poops are dark coloured, a little moistured (not mushy or diarrhoea types) as compared to normal round dry poops. But she was active as ever prior to yesterday & I didn't change the pellets (the same as those fed by the pet shop), will slowly change it later to makeheradapts to it.

Should I feed her Oxbow Critical Care or some carrot juice for now? Idon't have Oxbow Critical Care on hand now & I don't have a rabbit savvy vet located here. Please advise what should I do now? Thanks. ray:


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## tonyshuman (Jan 5, 2011)

Sounds like she may have gas. It sounds like she is still pooping, which is good, but you will want to treat for gas.

The typical protocol for gas is to give a drug containing simethicone (and only simethicone). This can be found as a liquid gas drop made for babies, or as a pill for adults. Brands in the US include Gas-X, Phazyme, Mylicon, and store brands. She will need approx 1mL for a dose if you have the liquid, and 1/2-1 tablet. I have not used the capsules--the tablets though work well as many bunnies like the taste of the cherry-flavored ones. Doses should be given hourly for 3 hrs, and that should improve things. 

It sounds like she is also in pain because of the tooth grinding. If you have any pain medication prescribed for her, perhaps when she was spayed (?), that would be good to give. You can also give ibuprofen or aspirin. Children's liquid versions are fine, and you can also grind up tablets and suspend them in liquid to give. They usually won't eat tablets of pain medicine because they are not good tasting. Do not give tylenol. Dosing info can be found here:

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html

I would give her one dose with the first dose of simethicone. A few mL (~5) of water or pedialyte (infant rehydration drink, also called dioralyte, do not use gatorade or similar) would also help. You can also do gentle tummy massages and offer a heat source, like a heating pad, hot water bottle or rice sock (old sock full of dry rice, microwaved for 1-2 min).

A final thing that can help but is often hard to find overseas is a probiotic. Here we have Bene-Bac and ProBios available. Sometimes you can find acidophilus capsules at a human pharmacy--those can be opened up and force fed in water, like the ground up pills.

Critical Care contains probiotics as well, so if you can get that and get 1mL or ore of that into her without causing too much stress, that would be great. Make sure it is reconstituted well--use more water than the package describes.

I would hold off on the carrot juice since she is still drinking. The infant rehydration drink is a better option than carrot juice, as carrot juice contains a lot of sugar. If you can find canned pumpkin or squash baby food, that is a good food for bunnies in this situation.

The question remains to why she got gas in the first place. Gas is caused by bad bacteria in the GI tract. If the gut slows down for any reason, the bad bacteria can produce gas. Stress, food change, or wrong food can cause this. Is she still eating hay? The stress of adapting to a new environment could have caused it, or the bag of pellets you are feeding may have gone bad--check for expiration dates. I would have expected a more sudden gas episode though if it were due to adapting to your home.


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## the fluffies (Jan 11, 2011)

Hi Shoji8, how is ur bunny?
I hope the Critical Care and the vitamin helped!


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## shoji8 (Jan 11, 2011)

Hi there, my rabbit is back to normal & as active as ever. I actually sent you a sms on this good news immediately on Friday night when I saw her eating! The road to this success was: 
1. Fed her critical care after I got it on Thursday night, not eating as usual, ears still cold.
2. Next morning, I fed her Nutri Drops in the morning b4 I work. Tooth grinding sound detected.
3. Lunch time I came back to feed her Gripe Water as she still looks like not eating & one side of her ear was cold. Tooth grinding.
4. After work the same day (Friday), she was a little active but not really interested in eating. Ears cold. Tooth grinding. Fed her Nutri Drops again around 8.30pm. Guess what? By 10pm I see her eating as usual, as b4. No tooth grinding sound.

Well I'm not sure which thing worked this round (Critical Care/Nutri Drops/Gripe Water) but I'm sure it helps the situation when the signs were detected at early stage! 

Thanks so much for your help :biggrin:arty0002::hugsquish:


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## Nancy McClelland (Jan 11, 2011)

:biggrin:


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## shoji8 (Jan 11, 2011)

Thanks Tony...  Btw does Critcal Care contain probiotics? She seems to like it very much too! 
I would think that Critcal Care/Nutri Drops/Gripe Water need be stored as part of the rabbits first aid kit at home.


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## jujub793 (Jan 11, 2011)

:highfive:


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## tonyshuman (Jan 11, 2011)

That is good to hear! Critical Care does contain some probiotics, so it's a good option if you can't get rabbit-specific probiotics where you live.

I usually don't recommend Gripe Water because in some places it contains an antacid--some kind of carbonate--and reducing the acid in the gut is the opposite of what we want to do. Maybe the kind you got is ok and contains mostly simethicone. I actually got some Gas-X (simethicone) drops that contain an antacid (Maalox, bicarbonate) by accident the last time I went to the store, and gave them to a bunny in tummy distress before I noticed. He pulled through fine, so maybe the antacid isn't so bad or it doesn't have as much of a bad impact as I thought.


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