Massaging or vibrating your rabbit's tummy is one of the best ways to help break up gas bubbles and encourage the gut to 'get moving'. Sit bunny on your lap or on a towel on the counter and with your hands gently knead your rabbit's abdomen, as deeply as she will allow. If she reacts in a painful manner, stop.
So it's important to know that once a rabbit's afflicted with GI stasis, there's no guarantee of recovery. The best course of action is to bring your rabbit to a rabbit-savvy vet at the very first sign. Do not wait and see if they will get better on their own!
If you believe your rabbit has GI Stasis, you should give your veterinarian a call to get them medical attention as soon as possible. Remember, if your rabbit hasn't been eating or pooping for more than 10 hours, you should treat it as a medical emergency.
If treated appropriately then most rabbits recover and start to respond to treatment within 3-5 days. The earlier you seek medical treatment, the better the outcome!
Rabbits with GI stasis can quickly become lethargic and may exhibit signs of pain such as teeth grinding and a hunched posture. They may also begin to produce excessive gas and sometimes soft stool or diarrhea. If this is left untreated, severe cases of GI stasis can be fatal.
The best cure for GI stasis is prevention. Be sure your rabbit companion gets plenty of dietary fiber from fresh grass hay. Feed high fiber (22% or higher crude fiber) pellets. Be sure your rabbit is drinking sufficient water to keep ingested food hydrated and moving smoothly.
Rabbits with GI stasis will eventually stop eating, and a lack of food in the intestinal tract will exacerbate GI stasis. Left untreated, GI stasis can rapidly become life-threatening.
The most common presenting complaint in rabbits with GI stasis is a gradual decrease in appetite and subsequent decrease in fecal production. Appetite usually decreases over a period of 2 to 7 days.
Massaging or vibrating your rabbit's tummy is one of the best ways to help break up gas bubbles and encourage the gut to 'get moving'. Sit bunny on your lap or on a towel on the counter and with your hands gently knead your rabbit's abdomen, as deeply as she will allow. If she reacts in a painful manner, stop.
With GI stasis, the normal, quiet gurgling of the healthy intestine may be replaced either by very loud, violent gurgles (gas moving around painfully!) or silence. The bunny may become lethargic, have no appetite and may hunch in a ball, loudly crunching his teeth in pain.
More severely affected rabbits may need fluids under the skin or intravenously. Pain can cause gut stasis and gut stasis itself is a painful condition, so pain relief is very important. Relieving pain reduces stress and helps appetite.
Stasis at your rabbit ingests his lose fur therefore affecting his digestive tract. As a first aid, our vet recommended to syringe feed around 1-10ml of water every hour or so to help get your rabbit's gut to move.
Patients presenting with gastrointestinal stasis have a normal core temperature or mild hypothermia (98-101°F). Rabbits suffering from GI obstruction may be in hypovolemic or decompensatory shock, and are often profoundly hypothermic (<98°F).
Note that this is different from rabbits with GI stasis, who stop eating gradually . In contrast, rabbits with bloat stop eating everything all of a sudden . The important thing to note is how suddenly a perfectly healthy, happy bunny stops eating completely and looks in pain or lethargic .
Thyme is a great treatment for all digestive issues as well but is very good at treating diarrhea. It is also known to help expel worms. If you are planting thyme, try to harvest it continually, before it flowers. This way you can have soft leaves and stems to feed your rabbits.
Signs of pain include: > grinding teeth > rapid and shallow breathing > pulling hair > decreased grooming > hunched posture > lethargy > increased thirst and urination > a reluctance to move > bulging, strained, staring, or unfocused eyes.
This may be normal behavior. Sick or injured rabbits may be identified by abnormal behaviors such as lying on their sides for extended periods of time, head tilting, falling over, or inability to run in a straight line.
Don't be too concerned if your rabbit is different. However, the critical thing to remember is that no rabbit should go 24 hours without peeing and/or pooping. If your rabbit has not eliminated for 24 hours, this is a medical emergency.
One of the most common causes of GI stasis in rabbits is a diet too high in carbohydrates and fat and too low in digestible fiber. Greens and grass hay contain digestible fiber, while commercially available rabbit pellets typically contain high amounts of carbohydrate, and seeds and nuts contain high levels of fat.
Infection, usually from a virus. Certain medications that slow the rate of stomach emptying, such as narcotic pain medications. Scleroderma — a connective tissue disease. Nervous system diseases, such as Parkinson's disease or multiple sclerosis.
It is a clinical condition resulting from delayed gastric emptying in the absence of mechanical obstruction and is associated with upper gastrointestinal symptoms. Most common symptoms include nausea, vomiting, early satiety, postprandial fullness, upper abdominal pain, bloating, and weight loss.
The culprit that causes gas problems in our bunnies is believed to exist in the diet we feed them, specifically large amounts of: broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, and kale. Some bunnies are susceptible to gas more than others no matter their size or breed.
Cookies, nuts, seeds, grains, and bread should not be fed to rabbits. "Cookies, nuts, seeds, grains, and bread should not be fed to rabbits." Fruits can be fed in very limited quantities – no more than 1-2 tablespoons of high-fiber fresh fruit (such as apple, pear, or berries) every 1-2 days.