Chronic Stasis/Current bout under vet care

Question
Hi Dana,

One of my two bunnies, Mr. Edward Hopper, is currently having gas/stasis, it has been on and off since Saturday.  He has been to the vet and is currently on medication.  He seems to get stasis every couple of months. I will get into his history in a moment but I will tell you what is going on right now. He started showing signs of stasis on Saturday and because I am very aware of his symptoms I gave him simethicone and a dose of metaclopromide right away. I continued the metroclopromide every 8 hours and he was improving but by Monday morning was worse so I took him to the vet, they started him on subq fluids and meds and he improved through the day and then overnight seemed to get worse. The vet noted this Tuesday morning and through the day he was pooping and eating hay so I took him home Tuesday afternoon.  He ate hay willing and seemed to be back to himself by midnight and then in the morning he gets worse (both Wednesday and now this morning).  I go to bed with him eating hay and pooping almost back to normal and wake up to a gassy uncomfortable hunched bunny.  I have been giving him his metroclopromide every 8 hours, the vet prescribed baytril 2x a day and cholestyramine 2x day (for 2 days).  I am feeding him only timothy hay and he is drinking water.  I did give him a small piece of fresh pineapple last night with a little pineapple juice which he gobbled right up and he even came running for his treat, which I did give him 1/2 of an Oxbow papaya plus tablet.  I did have his blood work done while at the vet and am awaiting the results today.  

As for his history, I adopted him almost four years ago and added a mate for him 3 years ago. I estimate his age to be about 5-6 years old.  He had his first bout of stasis about 3 months after we got him and thanks to your articles on stasis  I got him to the vet right away which helped save his life.   I feed him only timothy hay (I order online from Washington State or Oxbow), I give him 1 tbs of Oxbow pellets 2 x day, fresh veggies 2x a day and only papaya treats.  Over the years because of his stasis, I have cut his veggies to only romaine, green leaf and a little italian parsley.  This current bout I discussed with the vet to going on a hay only diet.  And he has had nothing but hay since Saturday.  His mate, Dharma Blue has been perfectly healthy on the same diet and has had only one bout of gas that one dose of simethicone cleared right away.  

I can contribute some but not all of his bouts of stasis to stress as I believe is what is happening this time since we traveled last week (with him).  However, this is the first time he has not steadily improved and keeps getting worse overnight.  

Any thoughts or ideas as to what is happening at night (and I am giving him his last dose of metrocloprimide right before he goes to bed)and what else could be causing this chronic stasis would be helpful.   This is very stressful on him and me and I hate to see him like this.  I do take him to a vet listed on the HRS website and if he does not improve throughout the day as much as I hate to put him back in the car, will take him back and possibly have him xrayed unless the blood work indicates another problem.  

Thanks for you help.
Kathy

Answer
Dear Kathy,

Chronic GI slowdown/ileus is a big red flag that your bun has some chronic source of pain/stress that's triggering it.  I don't see anywhere in your email that the vet has checked his teeth for molar spurs or other problem (some rabbits with painful spurs eat normally, so do not assume he doesn't have spurs because of normal eating habits).  Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

and

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html

Also see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

for more in-home treatments you can use to jump-start his gut.  I've found that of all the treatments we use, a gentle, careful enema is the BEST for getting things going.  But don't do it unless you are confident in the method, and/or have the vet show you.  Instructions are in the article.

But first, have those teeth checked.  If you're not sure your vet is up to this, you might find another vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Hope this helps.

Dana