I wanted to share our experience with a terrifying and extremely serious occurrence that may (sadly) happen to other rabbit owners: GI blockage, also known as bloat.
Felipe is our almost 3 year old (here in the picture with his rescue lionhead friend, Borg) lop. He's a lovable, picky and affectionate motherfluffer. Always been healthy, besides the occasional GI slowing, mostly due to ingested fur (he sheds A LOT and has A LOT of fur), always resolved within hours.
On Feb 7, at roughly 4 AM, I went in the kitchen and gave a look at their night enclosure. Felipe was nowhere to be seen since he was tucked in his little hideout. It's rare to see him hidden, it only happens if some sound spooks him. I went to investigate and he was restless and – unusually – didn't want to be picked up. I offered him favorite treats and he refused them altogether. I stayed up for an hour, trying to see if he calmed down, but he kept on refusing any food and remained hunched (I realized this the day after) in the spot where I put him down. Hoping he was just spooked, I went back to bed.
At 9:30 AM, I woke up and went back to check on him: he was exactly in the same spot where I left him. No poops, no desire to eat a thing. I informed my girlfriend and left for an appointment. Throughout the morning, he refused all food and never pooped. The usual remedies weren't working: belly massages and forced-fed Critical Care (which he deeply, deeply hates). By lunch time, he became lethargic and, for the first time, we felt his stomach was swelling. Like a little baloon. At 2:30 PM, we rushed to the vet.
Upon checking his temperature, the younger resident worried instantly and took a blood test. The results were "unsatisfying". As Felipe was held in a heated cage to restore his temperature, the resident called the senior doctor (who luckily, very luckily answered). He shared the X-rays and the blood tests and they immediately informed us that an emergency surgery was in order. The only other option was euthanizing him. The rays revealed a true, complete blockage of the stomach. The senior rushed to the clinic as well.
The surgery took roughly two hours. We were called when it was over and when Felipe woke up. We've been informed that a really big, dried, felt-like mass of fur and hay was completely blocking the access to the pylorus. There was no chance to manually push it all through the intestines as it was too big. So they had to perform a gastrostomy. We've been also informed of the high risk of the procedure and that there were chances that, despite the removal of the mass, Felipe's GI tract could've never restarted.
The next day, a Sunday, we called and Felipe was alive, hooked up to IVs for hydration and meds but wasn't interested in food and wasn't pooping, beside looking very lethargic. On Monday evening, we went visiting him at the clinic. The senior immediately warned us that "Felipe isn't well". He wasn't, indeed, well: lethargic, laying still in his steel cage, stressed by the noises and the two dogs in the adiacent cages. To our great surprise, he immediately accepted one raisin (among his favorite treats) and very tiredly licked some banana off of my finger. The vet also noticed that he had dropped 4 lone poops, prior to our arrival. Little yet positive signs.
The next day, Tuesday, the vet called us: Felipe had been seen munching on some hay and he dropped more poops. So we could take him back home in the evening.
Back at home, in his stress-free environment, he immediately looked much more interested in food. He destroyed some parsley and some dandelion. Yet he wasn't interested in hay. For the first two days, he was extremely tired. He ate and pooped mini, little poops but after a few seconds of any activity, he laid back to rest. From the third day onwards, he began regaining some energy and some sass, most importantly.
It's been 13 days now and he's back to eating hay (although he's never been a true lover of hay, unlike his buddy Borg) and passing satisfying poops (not full size yet, though). His energy levels are pretty much pre-surgery and the wound is healing perfectly fine. He's been off meds for a couple days now.
It's hard to spot a blockage. Especially if you're used to stasis and slowings of the GI tract. On top of being harder to spot, the usual remedies for stasis will end up being counterproductive in such a case. We've been feeling guilty for days for having tried to resolve it as a beginning of a stasis but the vet reassured us. It's mostly a matter of luck and even if you're a bit more expert than us, it's hard to say if it's a blockage until the stomach bloats. One thing that we learned from this is that, unlike stasis, a blockage will probably show no warnings at all. It will be sudden, hyper-acute. Felipe was perfectly fine just three hours prior. It will be just a moment: the object in their tract will move and, in a second, it's a blockage.
We don't know what the future will hold, of course. But we can share this positive experience for others that may go through such difficult times, as it isn't too rare with rabbits. Again, we're far from being in the clear but going from being sure that your pet is about to die to see him recovering so much in just days after such a heavy procedure, well, it's really amazing. Our exotic vet has been incredible and he can't really hide a proud smirk knowing that his emergency surgery ended up so well. Felipe had only one chance to stay with us and he went through that little hell like a champ.
Thank you for reading and sorry for the reeeeeaaally verbose dump!
by Smatto36