bunny still not eating or drinking anything after treatment from her local vets

Question
hi there lee, am just wondering if you would be able to help me with a few questions please, last Saturday i gave my bunny a bath in some proper insectial rabbit shampoo and i normally rinse her off in the sink but i thought it would be a better idea to rinse her of in the shower just to make sure i rinse all the soap off,well that following night she was on the landing cleaning her self and then running up and down she was fine untill about 12.00am in the morning,i noticed she was not her normal self she just wanted to lay down all the time and everytime i picked her up she was putting all her weight on me it was like she had no strengh at all,so i was really woriied at this point, so i layed her in bed at the side of me cause she was still quite damp and cold then later on i put her back in her cage and left her, the next day i noticed the was no poo and she wasnt eating or drinking anything but there was nothing i could to because vets wasnt open it was bank holiday, anyway on that day i looked on the internet and found something about rabbits having GI.Statsis i read the part where it said if they don't eat anything withing 12 hours its really fatal and that there internal organs will shut down this bit really upset me,so i kept trying to force her to eat and drink and was even doing massage movements on her stomach to try and get her intestine to start moving again but nothing was working,so tuesday i rang up my local vets and got her in straight away, he felt around her stomach and checked everywhere else i explained she wasnt eating anything or drinking, and he told me that it was this GI.Statsis and said it could kill her,but gave her two injections which was called METOCLOPRAMIDE and BAYTRIL and also gave me this tuff to put in her mouth i think its called PROKOLLIN and told me to give her that twice a day, and also give her one teaspoon of pineapple juice daily until iv used all the PROKOLLIN up,and said bring her back tomorrow cause i need to give her two more injections of the same stuff,he also said she seems alot more lively but again still a risk of this condition killing her,and told me to bring her back again for some more injections and to see how her progress is agin said she looks more better to keep up the good job of what im doing and also said if your worred bring her back tomorrow and ill check her agin for you, but i got very worried cause she sounded like she was in alot of pain so i took her in friday just gone and explained that its probablly just me worring about nothing but she sounds likie shes in alot of pain so her gentley pressed around her stomach and she was kicking slightly he said there is some discomfort so ill give her some more injections he gave her NOROCARP and again the and the other two he gave her before because i told him she wasnt eating much except a bit of carrot and the cardboard out off the middle of toilet rolls he said that her appatite shold pick up now and that she should hopefully be ok if not youd have to bring her back in and we would have to serdate her, but i dont understand cause friday night just gone she was back to her normal self running around digging and also twanging the bars on her cage, but yesturday she seemed more nosey shed be listnen alot more and eating bits of hay,till the afternoon when i gave her that PROKOLLIN and the pineapple juice she'd stopped eating again and didnt want nothing to drink now shes just layed there she doesnt want to do anything its not like her at all i miss seeing her being so lively what should i do vets are closed im only a student and dont earn that much money to pay for all these vet bills just dont want to see her like this im hopeing shes going to pick up and be her normal self again how can i force her to eat and drink? shes only 1 year old do you think i should keep giving her the PROKOLLIN stuff like he told me too he said try and not give her anygreens cause it could upset her stomach even more, i didnt stay at home last nite but my mum was checking on her for me and she said she was quite all last nite and that her fresh veg had not been touched and her dry food hadnt either! will she start eating on her own when she wants too? should i take her back to the vets tomorrow or will it cause more stress? should i just leave her to relax on her own? i forgot to mension she has started pooing agin and sometimes i can see mucus wrapped around it shes not pooing like shes supposed too but stuff is still coming out sometimes, hope you get back to me with some helpfull advice

thankyou for listnen
from shaz x

Answer
UPDATE

Hi Shaz,

I would recommend picking up The House Rabbit Handbook, and also reading the excellent archive of articles at the House Rabbit Society online (www.rabbit.org).

Lee


Hi,

you made two mistakes as far as I can tell.  First, you really never should give your rabbit a bath/shower and get them wet.  There are extreme cases where it is unavoidable, but this was not one of them.  Second, you didn't get her dry enough.  This is what is throwing her off.  She was okay immediately afterwards, but she stayed wet for a long period of time and that can get her sick and kill her.

The vet is doing what is normal for a rabbit that won't eat.  If the vet isn't a good rabbit vet they may not have picked up one what you did as the cause of her problem.  Now you can't really do anything but try to get her to eat and give her the pain meds.  

If she is in pain, she will be crunching her teeth hard and not wanting to move arond a lot, sitting very still and compact, legs tucked under tight. (Teeth crunching is not like teeth purring, which is very light chattering she would do to express happiness.)  I would ask the vet to give you some metacam (drug: meloxicam) for her if she appears to be in pain as I described above.

Never bathe your rabbit.  The problem is drying them properly, you can easily burn their thin skin if you overdry, and you can have them catch sick if you don't get them dry enough.  It isn't like bathing a dog.  If you ever have to try to warm them up or cool them down, you use cold water or warm water in a heating bottle (looks like an enema bag/hot water bottle), with a dishtowel wrapped around it so that they don't get too hot or too cold (yes their skin is that delicate).

Lee