Pet Information > ASK Experts > Exotic Pets > Rabbits > I think my rabbit is in gi status

I think my rabbit is in gi status

22 10:44:14

Question
My rabbit is 7 years old. We took him to a vet and they gave him a injection and some oral antibiotics. The vet told me that it is a GI-Status. After this, he won't eat his pellets at all. For the past 7 years it was his main food. I don't know why he won't eat it know but he still eats leaves and baby food. The poo is less than normal and not really on a daily basis as before. The vet told me that he is very old and that his "insides"may come to a standstill because of his age and that there is nothing that we can do. He is not in pain at this stage as we are trying to feed him leaves exc. I feel that he is still happy and we love him very much and I feel that there must be something we can do for him. Please can you give me some advice as the vet is not of much help. Kind regards


Answer
It strikes me as odd that your vet would give him antibiotics.  That's just not something that comes across as normal protocol for gi stasis.  And a lot of oral antibiotics are unsafe for rabbits, so it just makes me wonder what it was for.

The first thing I would do is make an appointment with another vet for a second opinion.  While 7 is old for some rabbits, it's middle age for others.  Each rabbit is different.  But I'm uncomfortable that the vet would give up if the only issue is gi stasis.  I've never heard of a rabbit's insides coming to a standstill due to age.  With gi problems, there's usually another issue that causes it.

Well, the first thing to do is try to entice him to eat on his own things that will help his gi stasis.

You'll always want to have a quality timothy hay available.
Hopefully his pellets are a high fiber timothy based brand.
And always have fresh vegetables available.  I assume this is what you mean by leaves.  Wash them with water when you put them in his cage.  This will give him extra water.  Fiber and liquids are very important for stasis.

And speaking of liquids, when you find another vet, your rabbit may need to be given fluids under the skin.  The fluid helps with the stasis.

If your rabbit stops eating completely, there are some recipes out there for syringe feeding.  Also, you can buy Oxbow Critical Care from vets to syringe feed rabbits.  It's very good for this type of situation.

But all of these things are more supportive care.  It really needs to be nailed down what is causing this.  The new vet may want to take xrays, should check his mouth for problems,  and may take blood work.  Then the vet may prescribe some medicine to try to get your rabbit's gi system going.

It's great that you're not going to give up on your bun.

Here are some articles on gi stasis that will help you better understand the possible health causes:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html
http://www.mybunny.org/info/gi_stasis.htm

And here's some recipes that you can try:
http://www.rabbit.org/care/recipies.html
http://carrotcafe.com/n/syringefeed.html

Good luck, your bunny is lucky to have an owner that will fight for him