GI Stasis help

Question
My dutch rabbit mix hasn't voluntarily eaten, nor has she pooped any fecal
pellets for at least 40
hours. She's excreted cecal pellets, but I don't think she's re-ingested any,
and the amount she's
excreted is very small (maybe 9 tiny pellets total).   From the onset of the
symptoms, my husband
and I have been regularly giving her simethicone drops and massaging her
tummy with no visible
change in her appetite or her demeanor (lethargic-- not her normal self).

We took her to the vet yesterday and were shown her X-ray,  which we were
told, looked normal
accept for a mass of undigested matter in her stomach.  The vet said this was
likely hay and was
probably what was making her uncomfortable. The vet agreed with our GI
Stasis diagnosis and
told us to start force feeding her an assisted feeding formula, fruit juice and two
antibiotics (just in case). We did this twice yesterday. Although she hated it,
and appeared to be very uncomfortable (I think in terrible pain), we were persistant, with the belief that
this was necessary in order to
get her system
moving again.  This morning I woke up to her making little quiet high pitch
noises (which she
doesn't usually make) while sitting on her litter box.  I got my hopes up
thinking maybe she was
excreting lots of fecal pellets, but there was only about three cecal pellets
which were likely left
behind from a previous visit to the litter box.

Should I keep feeding her as the vet recommended? How much can a rabbit
eat without her
pooping?  I'm very worried about the pain she may be in, and the anxiety she
feels while being
force fed.  I'm afraid of possibly making the problem even worse. What would
you suggest as the
next step?

FYI - She has recently eaten a lot of covers of discarded paper back books.  I
got the idea that
rabbits could eat and chew on paper as much as they pleased, and our bunny
seemed to really
enjoy chewing on the books, so I just let her have at it.  Since our rabbits
illness,  my husband  
read that you should remove the shiny covers from paperback books before
letting her chew. If
this paper is what the mass in her stomach is, will she eventually be able to
digest it? This is our
first rabbit which we have only had  for four months. I hope I didn't make a
terrible mistake in
letting her eat the books.

Thank you very much for your help.

Answer
Hi, I suggsst getting her back in to your rabbit vet right away.  Or finding another good rabbit vet.  She needs hydration so the gut doesn't dry out and that paper material becomes an impassable blockage.  They should show you how to do a sub-q drip.  Also they should do another x-ray to get a more current picture of what is going on inside her.  If they don't see a blockage, ask the vet about giving her a motility drug for her intestines so that she can start passing something.  But they first MUST (MUST!!!) absolutely rule out a blockage or else this could kill her.  And I also would make sure that before it was given, that they hydrate her so that fluids are not being abosrbed out of her gut to the rest of the body.

If she isn't passing any or very few fecal pellets, but seems to want to, there may be a blockage either in the cecum, the ileo-cecal junction (where the cecum, small intestine and large intestine meet) or a partial blockage in the large intestine.  I am thinking that the cecum may have had some trouble processing the paper material from the books properly.  Make sure they xray this area and carfully check what is going on there.


Please don't wait.  

Lee

And yes, don't let her eat paperback books.  Hay only.  Don't care what other people say.  Don't do it.