colitis-fibrotic, hypertrophic

Question
Our 2.5 year old rabbit has been diagnosed with colitis-fibrotic, hypertrophic.  Our rabbit vet put her on cisapribe which only made her worse.  We are giving her Critical Care and sub-Q fluids.  Is there any information that you can provide us so that we can help her.  Our vet  is prescribing another medication but he too is at a loss.  We are desperate to make her feel better.  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Susan

Answer
Hi Susan,

I have to tell you I'm not a vet and haven't seen your gal, so you have to take what I am saying with a grain of salt.

I had to look up the terms he used.  So apparently he is saying that her intestines/gi tract has been inflamed/irritated, for awhile (fibrotic) and one or more of the organs in the gi tract appear enlarged (hypertrophic)?  Hopefully I am getting the gist of what the diagnosis is.

This cna be caused by many things.  Antibiotics can really throw off gut bacteria and if you don't replenish it things can go really bad in there.  If she has too much high carb/high sugar items bad gut bacteria will overgrow and cause real problems.  Also trapped gas can occur in the stomach, or cecum.

Did she ever get an xray to see if there was trapped gas areas in any of her gi tract?  Did he rule out partial blockages?  I am thinking about what would cause the enlargement he is saying is occurring.  Is she still going to the bathroom?  What kind of input and output does she have (solid and liquid)?  Does she move around at all anymore?  Does she have an appetite still?  What breed is she, how long is her fur?

Has the vet ruled out her having any kind of infections?  Bloodwork would reveal if her immune system is working hard, indicating an infection or virus she could be fighting.  Has she been spayed?  If not, did he rule out pyrometria (infection of the uterus/uterine lining)?  That could account for some symptoms and pain and organ enlargement...

It does appear that trapped gas can be a cause of organ enlargement and bloating in the gut, and a source of pain. Increased intestinal gas is a symptom of colitis.

Does she sit compactly, tight, not moving much?  For us this is a major symptom of gas problems.  My suggestion would be to pick up baby gas drops (simethicone) from walgreens or the grocery store, give her three full plastic dropper doses, and while having her sit on your lap with a pillow, lift her front legs off the ground, and with the other hand, start doing tummy massage for 1/2 hour.  If not better, another 1-2 droppers full, and another 1/2 hour massage.  Generally the simethicone may need time to get to the gas and start breaking it down into smaller, frothy bubbles that cause much less pain.  The manual tummy massage may also get it there, and possibly break up some of the gas too.  

The other things you have to think about is diet.  What she eats can cause gas problems.  She should not be having high sugar, high carb items right now.  Greens may be complicating things too.  Sometimes a 'safe' green causes gas in rabbits.  For example I don't feed my rabbits cilantro because it causes some of them to have gas (just like people).  She really should just be eating hay and hay type products (low energy foods).  

If it seems like she wants to eat, but cannot or hardly does, and her output is low or nothing, I would suspect some kind of blockage somewhere between the stomach and the cecum.  She is hungry and wants to eat, but the stomach is full because nothing can get to the cecum because of the blockage between the stomach and the cecum.  Lack of solid fecal poops shows nothing is getting into the cecum to be processed out.  

Finally if she's ever been on antibiotics a while, they probably wiped out a lot of good bacteria in the gut.  If she is eating and output is occurring, I'd get some Bene-Bac (beneficial bacteria) from the pet supply store and start giving her a whole tube (day 1), and then a few squirts from another tube every day, a couple times a day.  Put the tube nozzle in between the gap between the front and back teeth and squeeze slowly there, and she will eventually lap it up with the tongue.

In the meantime, I would ask the current vet to give her a prescription for metacam (pain med).  It is generally safe for rabbits and it will help her feel better during this. Often when rabbits are in pain they don't want to move (thus, not eat).

My other suggestion is to find another vet, a better rabbit vet.  Quickly.  I would start here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society-recommended vet around where you are.

If it does turn out to be a blockage, in the future, give her petromalt daily to help prevent it from happening again.  Don't give it to her now if you think it's a blockage because it won't help at this point.

Write back anytime, if you can reply to some of my questions I may be able to help more.  But seriously, start looking for a better rabbit vet and get her there first thing tomorrow morning.  Call them in advance and tell them you're coming in with an emergency case so they can prepare for you.