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dosage of laxatone

22 10:18:11

Question
I received laxatone from a Vet (there is non for rabbits in my town exept 10 hr drive from here) I was tols to give the whole tube within 24 hr to my lionhead bunny. He has a hairball loged and may have to be surgically removed if this does not work. This seems to be an overdose of laxative. how much should I give?

Answer
Boy not only does that seem like a lot, I'm not comfortable that giving a bunch of laxatone is even the correct solution to the problem.

Not being a vet, I generally try to not contradict what someone's vet tells them to do, but if that's all your vet wanted you to do, that makes me personally uncomfortable.  GI problems can escalate into a life threatening state.  And there's so much more that vets do now for this problem.

Not knowing what type of relationship you have with your vet, I have no way of knowing if your vet is going to be defensive if you contact your vet to revise the treatment.   But I think you and your vet should have a respectful discussion of this problem.  You can print out this article from Exotic DVM magazine.
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.pdf
and the commonly used Merck vet manual has a small bit of info on this problem as well:
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/171342.htm&word=rabbit%...

Also, hopefully, your vet is not above asking other vets for a consult.   You can ask your vet to contact the clinic 10 hours away.  Or you can look at these lists of recommended rabbit vets and see if your vet would contact one of these clinics:
http://www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/PB_vets.html
Also, contacting the nearest veterinary college would work as well.

Until you can contact your vet, I think helping your rabbit's gi system with supportive therapy is a way for you to help your rabbit.

Your rabbit may not want it right now, but always have a high fiber hay(preferably timothy) available.  Try giving some favorite vegetables and rinse them with water right before offering them.  

But where you might do the most help is with fluids

These articles contain info on how owners can help rabbits through this:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
http://www.mybunny.org/info/gi_stasis.htm

If it was me, I would give simethicone.  It can't hurt and may help your bunny feel better.  I would also syringe feed and give fluids following the guidelines in the ileus article.

Hopefully supportive care will help your bun out until you can contact your vet.

And when this has been resolved, you'll need to work with your vet to determine the cause of the gi problem.  Diet is a common cause, but there are other causes as well.

I hope this helps