Bertie again, I'm afraid - u/d Back home & well

Big hugs for Bertie Hope the vet finds out what is wrong with your little guy xx

Hugs for bertie and you

As Sooz says, Bertie is in very capable hands and hopefully he won't have to be too long under anaesthetic. I hope that the Xray can get to the bottom of Bertie's tummy problems.

Loads of hugs, Jay. Will be thinking of you and Bertie tomorrow xx

Sounds like he is in excellent hands, Jay. Hoping he is a well bunny soon. Nose rubs to him when he comes home.

Blimey Sending a million vibes for your little lad - This vet sounds like he knows his stuff though, which is the key to every recovery! Loads of love xx

Hi Jay. From first hand experience am sure Bertie is in the best hands and John will look at all options and hopefully identify and fix the problem. He says loads of information doesn't he - you almost want a dictaphone so you can go home and listen to all the stuff he said again! I remember a lady on another forum who had been told her rabbit had stasis and all sorts and then went to specialist (might have even been John) and found out it had a broken pelvis and had had it for months. keep us posted - sending lots of vibes for Berts.

I'm taking a dictaphone when we collect him, I'd already thught about it

Thanks Rachel, I do feel reassured

Hi Jay x

Will be so pleased for you when you get Bertie home x
Hope he has been a big brave bunny x and hope his daddy's have been ultra big and strong too x
Lets hope we get some answers and get our bouncie Bertie back x

Huggles x

Thanks all so much for your support and help, it's invaluable and very reassuring

I've had a call from John, Bertie is still under, but is still alive (pheww!), and it seems he has some arthritis on his lower spine. First priority is to get him pain free, anmd I'm to give him 10x the amount of Metacam he'd normally have for 3 days. Then I call John again. I'm sure we'll have more info later when we collect him but that was the gist of the phone call.

Interestingly his GI looked fine, but he could see some tissue inflamation from the compaction as was. It is likely that the original compaction was caused by the pain, once that went, the pain slowly took over again, and brought him to this point. Poor guy

I'm off to do some research, any tips for arthritis would be very helpful in the meantime I'll let you know what happens later x

That would make perfect sense, much in the way I was indicating that if he had ulceration as a result of the stasis episodes it would be contributory to him developing further stasis issues, the arthritis pain would also be making him miserable and the impaction compunding the issues.

I am so pleased you finally have a probable answer, it just goes to show how easy it is to become obsessed with the symptoms rather than the cause (a case of not seeing the wood for the trees).

Not too sure on it's useage in bunnies but perhaps ask John about Glucosamine supplements, I am pretty sure a couple of ladies dealing with elderly & special needs bunnies have told me they use this for them.

Thanks Sooz, I feel very relieved it's manageable and not more serious, or that he needs surgery etc. but in a bit of shock as well, wasn't really expecting that.

It makes sense to me too, your experience has been very helpful, in directing me to other possibilities, so Thank-you x

how old is bertie Jay? x

2 and 1/2, that seems young to me, but I know humans with chronic arthritis in their 20's.

reason i ask, is Peanut is veru reluctant on his back leg and drags it a bit and its stiff but the vet said hes too young to have arthritus. hes 3, so i guess its not out of the question.

He may be a bit older, by the time we got him he had already had 2 homes, so they weren't certain of his age, it was an approximation.

If PB has to go under at any point in the future, it may be worth getting him X-rayed? x

i'm pleased that at last you know whats going on.Give bertie a nose rub from me when you get him home.

he has been previously but i think ill ask for it if he goes under again.

Im glad you have found out whats wrong with bertie. i hope he can go back to being his happy self now

A few links for you Jay:

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Bone_diseases/Osteo/arthritis.htm
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Bone_diseases/Osteo/osteophyte.htm

and this one has lot's of good sublinks (veterinary articles and such):
http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html#arthritis

Thanks Sooz

Sorry I've not been around much the last couple of days so only just caught up with this thread. I'm really glad that you've got some answers, and now you can move forward and manage the situation. Hopefully he'll soon be back to his normal self and be binkying/eating properly again

So pleased you've got some answers, Jay! I hope you are able to make Bertie very comfortable and pain free now that you know more what's going on.

I am so glad to hear you now have some answers Jay. Hopefully now you can treat the cause and thus lessen the symptons.
A big nose rub for Bertie for being such a brave bunny xx

Hi Jay and Paul, I am so pleased you have some answers and I more than pleased that it was nothing more sinister, as you say it is managable, for some of my elderly bunnies showing signs of arthritis I use glucosomine, the stuff I get is pure and it's amazing, I first used it on Harvey and Harriet and it changed their lives, it made them both much more agile, I can give you the details if you would like them, just let me know

So pleased that you have an answer and can now plan a course of action. Arthritis is a horrible thing to have. My mum had it in her spine and it does make you just want to stay put and now move at all. No wonder he was so uncomfortable and it would just look like stasis.

Give him a big noserub from me.

Thank-you, he's back home now, seems well enough, I'm giving him massive doses of Metacam, he's eating fine and playing and seems glad to be home.
I feel exhausted
I'll give you some more detail tomorrw,
Thanks again for all your support, help and advice, I'm very grateful