Mini Rex with terrible diarrhea

[jimmywalt]

We have a approximate 10 month old female Mini Rex who is about 14 days into her pregnancy (we believe). We got her 5 days ago at an animal auction. She has been doing fine until today when we came home and found OUTRAGEOUS diarrhea. It about totally covered a 6"x10" resting pad.

I found this "cure" on yahoo and wondered if it was the best course of treatment.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 521AAaenn9

We trust you people here vs. some random post on a yahoo group.

We cleaned everything up, but wonder how best to care for her?

From what they say -
1. Remove all pellet food
2. Give lots of hay (Timothy) for the next 24 hours
3. Give lots of water.

Anything else???

Thank you!

 

[Miss M]

came home and found OUTRAGEOUS diarrhea. It about totally covered a 6"x10" resting pad.

I found this "cure" on yahoo and wondered if it was the best course of treatment.
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/inde ... 521AAaenn9

Oddly enough, there's some really good advice on there. I haven't read the whole thing, but I was shocked. Trust me, this would be an abnormal situation. Normally, the rabbit-related answers I see on there make you want to :wr_shake: .

We trust you people here vs. some random post on a yahoo group.

1. Remove all pellet food

Yes, do this immediately.

2. Give lots of hay (Timothy) for the next 24 hours

Yes, unlimited hay, and for a lot longer than 24 hours. And it doesn't have to be Timothy. Any good horse hay that has been kept under cover (not rained on) will do just fine. Smell the hay. If it's musty, don't use it -- it could be moldy. If it smells green and sweet, it's good.

Not just hay, either. Regular old-fashioned kitchen oatmeal is very good at helping stop diarrhea. Also cooked or canned pumpkin, I saw that suggested on that site as well. There are also weeds that help. Plantain (the weed, not the banana-like thingie), I think Maggie says shepherd's purse, blackberry, raspberry, or strawberry leaves...

3. Give lots of water.

Yes, but it doesn't have to be just water. Just like humans with diarrhea, the rabbit is losing more than just water. Electrolytes, etc. You can give Pedialyte, Gatorade, make your own electrolyte solution, diluted tea, water with a little molasses (especially blackstrap) mixed in, etc. You may have to syringe fluids into the bunny.

Anything else???

Ooops, did that already.

Good luck, keep us updated! :clover: <br /><br /> -- Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:33 pm -- <br /><br /> I will say that the top answer on there is off the mark in one big way. He compared human response to diarrhea with responding to a rabbit with diarrhea. You can't equate the two. Humans know or can be told to force themselves to drink. We can take an Immodium, drink some Gatorade, and wait it out. Most humans can have diarrhea for days, even a week before either recovering or finding that they're dehydrated and need IV fluids, because they can push themselves to drink.

With a rabbit, diarrhea is always an emergency. There's just not much to a rabbit, and so it will fail very quickly if you can't stop the diarrhea. Okay, maybe you don't run to a vet -- most vets don't know how to treat rabbits very well, anyway -- but you do act quickly.

 

[grumpy]

Miss M. is correct in all that she suggested.

1) Remove feed.

2) Stemmy hay.

3) Old fashioned oatmeal. (Keep a big container on hand at all times.)

4) Water with additives.

With diarrhea ==minutes count!!== Don't wait to respond. It may
be too late if you do.

Even with all of the above, the bun's got "maybe" a 50/50 chance of survival.
This stuff is nothing to fool around with.

Best of luck and I "hope" she survives.

Word of advice from an old-timer.....Stay the blazes away from auctions.
At the very least.........don't buy any animal.
Most folks send their culls there to get shed of them.

Grumpy.

 

[jimmywalt]

Thank you for the help.

How do we fee the Quaker Oats? Just put it plain in a dish?

If she is pregnant (14 days now), will this have an effect on the unborn kits?

Thanks again!

 

[MaggieJ]

Just saw this.

I think Maggie says shepherd's purse, blackberry, raspberry, or strawberry leaves...

Yes, the leaves of raspberry, blackberry and strawberry all fight diarrhea. Also the lawn weeds plantain and shepherd's purse. They really help and they are safe bunny food as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsella_bursa-pastoris

 

[Miss M]

How do we fee the Quaker Oats? Just put it plain in a dish?

You can give them to her plain if she will eat them that way. If she won't, you can tempt her by giving them a very light coating of blackstrap molasses. It has some nutritional value, in addition to all the sugar. Just use a little, and stir, stir, stir. You can nuke it for a few seconds to thin it, to make mixing easier, if you want.

If she is pregnant (14 days now), will this have an effect on the unborn kits?

She may very well abort. She may just reabsorb them. But who knows... she may go on to kindle. Only time will tell.

 

[TwoAcreDream]

I just went through this with my mini lop Molly mommy.
She currently has a litter of 7. I walked in the bunny room and
there she lay with her bottom all wet.
First thing I grabbed that J feeder off the cage. Dumped it,
and put corn, oats, wheat mixed in it. Put dry oatmeal is a
separate dish. Put hay in the cage from the hayrack.
Gave her fresh water. Gave her a piece of bread.
My friend gave me a packet of sav a chick powder. I mixed
it in a gallon of water. That went into her water bowl.
She seems to be okay now, but I was really sweating it.

Pellets were KENT. I am in the process of weaning the herd
off of this brand. Bunny 16, a blue seal product made by Kent.
There are no polite words left in me to describe this product.
Molly was my stubborn rabbit. She loved the Bunny16.

Advice. Stay away from auctions. You never know what you
will bring home.

 

[Zass]

I'm going to add my opinion to the pile. If you value your existing your rabbits, stay away from auctions.
There are some highly communicable diseases that can wipe out every rabbit you own.
Sometimes people send sick animals to auctions to get rid of them.

 

[jimmywalt]

UPDATE it's 9:15PM. It's been about 5 hours since I got home and found this sick rabbit.

We gave her a lot of hay starting a couple hours ago and she has barely stopped eating it. I also gave her the oatmeal (rolled oats) and she's eating a bit of that too.

My wife noticed that her feet were full of diarrhea so she took her out of her cage and washed her feet in a shallow pan of water. Now they are clean.

Once she put her back in the cage we noticed that she was having a "normal" looking waste. We will check on her again first thing in the morning. Hopefully this was a one time thing and she will be ok from here.

Does it make sense that everything would be back to "normal" so quick? Of course we don't know what time she had the terrible messy diarrhea since we work from 8 to 4.

Thanks again. We will keep updates coming. We appreciate how friendly you all are and all the help you give us newbies.

:gnight:

 

[Miss M]

What wonderful news!!! :bouncy: :bouncy: :bouncy:

That was the perfect thing to do for her feet.

Sometimes, yes, they can return to normal just that fast. It isn't terribly common for it to happen this fast, but it can. I would advise you to keep her on just oats and hay for the next couple of days, just to make sure everything stays okay. Then you can mix some pellets in, and increase her pellets over the following couple of days, watching her for any change. This is a little faster than I would normally recommend, only because she's pregnant. If you see any squishiness coming back to her poop, back off the pellets.

Hopefully this was a one time thing and she will be ok from here.

YES! I sure hope so! It's so scary to see diarrhea like that... and it's just so touch and go with them in that condition.

We will keep updates coming.

I look forward to seeing how she does, and what happens two more weeks down the road! :cheer1: :cheer2:

We appreciate how friendly you all are and all the help you give us newbies.

We have the most awesome members here. I'd say we work hard to keep this a friendly and helpful forum, but I'd be lying! The people here are just friendly and helpful. :hooray:

I learned almost every thing I know about rabbits right here, myself. It's a great place to be.

 

[jimmywalt]

6:30AM - She's doing pretty well. More normal stool this morning. She ate ALL the oats and most all of the hay so I refilled both. We will see how it goes today. Sure hope she's ok and didn't loose her kits if she is pregnant.

 

[Miss M]

That is so good to hear! Excellent that her stool is still normal, and she's eating! Is she drinking well?

:clover:

 

[jimmywalt]

That is so good to hear! Excellent that her stool is still normal, and she's eating! Is she drinking well?

:clover:

Yes she's drinking good.

 

[Miss M]

That is awesome! It's so great to see a bun come back from something so serious... diarrhea is so quickly devastating to a bunny.

Keeping my fingers crossed, hoping the trend continues! :clover:

 

[grumpy]

Glad the little one turned it around.....Be vigilant....she's not out of the woods yet.

"What can happen """fast""" Can Un-happen just as quickly. Not very often
but it does every once in a while.

It seems there's been a lot of that stuff goin' around this year.

grumpy.

 

[jimmywalt]

UPDATE -

She "seems" to be doing fine now. We have only given her oatmeal (rolled oats) and lots of hay. We have given her about a nickel-size of rabbit pellets. She eats them down right away. There have been a couple really small but loose stools. We are nervous about switching her back to pellets. But if she's pregnant and due on 8/12/14 she probably needs to be converted soon.

Still not out of the woods yet..................

 

[speakingtruth2you]

Hiya everyone,
I'd posted earlier this morning in another part of forum but initially before signing up your posts are what I had seen.
My mini rex is or was having diahrea. Currently he isn't and it appears he may be clogged up now.
I'm giving stemmed alfalfa, timothy hay, oatmeal with plenty of water. I went and got the 'sav-a-chick' electrolytes and probiotic. I mixed up a gallon per instructions and filled his water bottle. Now he isn't drinking anymore. Doesn't appear dehydrated yet and don't feel his spine. He still is his slightly plump self but shedding like crazy.
I added a bowl of plain water which he drank at first but tends to nudge with his nose till it tips over. I went ahead and put some of the water with 'sav-a-chick in a syringe and gave it to him after cleaning his bottom last time. I will continue to do so each time I take him out to work on his bottom.
I'm getting him out of his cage every few hours now and gently applying a warm wet wash clothe to his bottom and rubbing vaseline around all areas compacted. He had a large piece of poo on his tail earlier and that did fall off but am concerned if he's constipated now due to dried poo. I see urine but no poo not even normal.
I'll keep working to clean off gently his bottom and hope it clears off.
Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks in advance. :bunnyhop:

 

[jimmywalt]

We found the SLIVER BULLET. A person who has been raising rabbits for 30 years told us this.............

Immediately get the bunny some water/sugar mixture. Give it to her with an eye dropper. This will start up the electrolytes and give her energy.

About 2 hours later give her some yogurt with an eye dropper. Might have to force it into her cheeks, but after a few hours it will give her the necessary organisms in her belly to make her well again.

We did this and within 24 hours she totally turned around. She started eating like crazy!!!!

 

[Miss M]

SpeakingTruth, what Jimmywalt recommends may very well work. The key is, no matter what it is you get into your rabbit, you must get something in. If he hasn't stopped eating already, he will soon now that he has stopped drinking except for what you are syringing into him. This is an emergency.

You must get fluids into him by any means possible. Whatever fluids. Preferably something like Gatorade or Pedialyte, but certainly anything like sugar water, molasses water, diluted tea, fruit juice, something. He's got to start taking something in, even if you force it with a syringe, like you are doing.

He must keep eating, too. If a rabbit stops eating for too long, the GI tract shuts down and cannot be restarted. Of course healthier rabbit foods would be best, but in an emergency situation you just want him eating. Tempt him, if necessary, with oats lightly coated with molasses. Maybe he'd take dandelion, plantain (the lawn weed), blackberry canes and leaves, or willow twigs. Even chunks of pineapple or apple or banana. Maybe mix oats with mashed banana. Whatever he'll take. Then dial back on the sugary treats as soon as possible.

You are doing the right things. Keep it up and keep us posted! :clover: