my 6 month old lopeared bunny

Question
I adore my wee bunny.6 months old  .she is a house rabbit and has enough hay to feed a horse.. . plenty of pellets . . . . the run of the house 24/7. . . loads of veg variety and company for hours on end. . .she is soooooo laid back. . .but today she seems unwell. . .we have been snowed in for the last week and despite trecking to 3 local shops I have not been able to get the usual'complimentary' food she has been used to. . .nothing else has changed except the temperature,freezing outside, tho it is very warm indoors. . .bottom line is she has not been eating at all today and very lethargic. . .still peeing but hardly any poo [understandibly]. .. I live in Scotland, but I'm asking you coz you seem to care so much. . .what can I do?? Thankyou. . .I will take her to the vet tomorrow  if I can dig my car out of the snow,so only want to know what to do over night. . .many thanks. ..God bless

Answer
Hi,

you have a serious situation.  I would try to call your vet and see if they are open.  Or when they will be because you need care from them as soon as they are open.

SHe is having gut problems, possibly gi statis.  You need to force water into her, she is probably dehydrated.  You need to use a feeding syringe and slowly, very little squirts at a time, get her to drink.  You also should give her baby gas drops if you have any.  If you can take her temperature you need to see what it is, chances are her temp is low (99 degrees Fahrenheit or lower).  Check her gum and tongue color, if they are white, bluish or grey, not the normal pink, she's at some kind of shock and you need to keep her temperature up by putting her on a covered heating pad on the lowest or second-lowest setting (too high can burn, even covered) and putting a little towel over her.  You might want to put an extra light towel over the heating pad to make sure it doesn't get too hot in spots and burn her (rabbit skin is very thin and delicate).

Water is critical, ifyou haven't seen her drink for awhile you need to give her about 20-30 ml every 12 hours.  You can spread it across 12 hours, you don't have to give all at once she may not take it all, that's a lot of liquid at one time.

If she acts like she's in pain (teeth crunching sounds, loud teeth crunch sounds, and is sitting funny), she probably has gas pain, so the gas drops would be important to give, as well as some tummy massage to manually break up the gas trapped in her system.  She may not have this right now, it might develop or she is too far hurting now to care.

But you have to get her in to the vet.  If they are open today I'd call them and compare what I've told you to their instructions nad if you can get to them today, I would try.  Not drinking enough (weather changes can do this) leads to gut stasis, gut stasis leads to dehydration, which leads to shock, which leads to death.  So this is extremely serious.  Keep giving her water, keep her warm so her temperature doesn't go down.  But make sure you give enough water because the heating pad will make her need extra water.