04 May 2012

Byoki no usagi (or "Sick Bunny")

We have a sick bunny here. He has been feeling badly for a week now. At first, we though it was just "run of the mill" sort of GI stasis; a common bunny malady. I took him to the vet on Monday where they examined him thoroughly and gave me a variety of medicines for him. He was prescribed Laxatone, Meloxicam and Propulsid. Laxatone is a veterinary grade laxative that also helps animals to break down/pass any furs they may have ingested. Meloxicam is a sort of "Tylenol" for animals and Propulsid helps to get bunnies' digestive tracts moving on a more normal rate. All three are administered orally, by tiny little syringe. In addition, I had to feed him Critical Care, which is essentially powdered hays which I mixed with a little carrot juice and water to make a little slurry. I fed him that by syringe also. All those medicines were supposed to get his little gastrointestinal tract moving along nicely. He'd had a similar incident before, about 2 years ago. That time, by the second day, Tuzi was clearly better. He was much more energetic, eating on his own and happy. This time, there seemed to be little change. After I administered his morning medicines, he would perk up some, but spent most of the day sitting/lounging on the floor next to me in the crafting room. So I took him back to the vet yesterday (Thursday). We got to see Dr. Stahl, the main doctor. He was great. He spent over an hour with Tuzi. Tuzi was sedated and Dr. Stahl filed his teeth to make sure they won't cause him any discomfort as he starts to eat on his own again. While Tuzi was out, Dr. Stahl had a chance to feel around his belly and discovered some blockages. Dr. Stahl concluded that Tuzi has Megacolon disease, which is common to Hotots. Megacolon (also known as Cow Pie Syndrome) is a gastrointestinal disease which is caused by a buildup of fecal/cecal matter in the intestine which causes a blockage. It makes the bunny very uncomfortable and likely causes quite a bit of pain. The photo shows the various medicines that we will be administering twice daily to help Tuzi get through this.
1) Critical Care 2) Laxatone 3) IV bag of fluids 4) Proviable; the probiotics 5) Buprenex; the narcotic pain killer 6) Meloxicam; the regular pain killer 7) Propulsid

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