Marshmallow - Rabbit

'Marshmallow' the Rabbit!! Marshmallow presented to the practice recently when her owners had noticed she wasn't eating normally. Fortunately for Marshmallow she has a very knowledgeable owner, who is aware that rabbits who don't want to eat are usually very poorly and should be seen by a vet immediately.

Marshmallow was brought into the practice and examined by Caroline one of the vets. Following the examination, it was confirmed that she was very unwell, and Caroline suspected that she had an intestinal blockage. Her stomach was very dilated and full of fluid and gas, which was being caused by the blockage in her small intestine. Speedy treatment was required because rabbits cannot vomit or burp so there is no exit for fluid and gas. The stomach rapidly distends and can lead to the death of the rabbit through stomach rupture. Marshmallow was given emergency treatment, which included sedation to enable us to place a stomach tube. This relieved some of the pressure within her stomach and gave us time to warm her up, making her a better anaesthetic candidate.

Sometimes if the rabbit is lucky, the intestinal blockage can clear itself by moving along the intestine and into the caecum, but this was not the case. Two hours later Marshmallow's stomach had started to dilate again, but as she had responded well to the resuscitation fluids and pain relief it was decided to anaesthetise her for surgery. The blockage was found in her intestines and gently moved along into her caecum where it could be passed out as normal poo.

This then allowed her stomach to empty normally.
However, being a rabbit, her post operative recovery was as intensive as her pre-operative stabilisation. It was important that we got her eating again and returned to normal gastrointestinal function. Marshmallow's owner kindly delivered some of her favourite foods late that evening, which tempted her to eat as well as really enjoying her syringe feeding. She slowly improved over the next six hours, and by morning was ready to be reunited with her beloved
'husbun' Ginger, who had spent a very lonely night apart from her.

Marshmallow has made a complete recovery and is back to enjoying life, and the sunshine in her large, grassed enclosure.
This is an example of how important it is for rabbit owners to recognise signs of illness in these prey species, which do their best to hide all signs until they're severely unwell. If you are ever in doubt about whether there is a problem or not, then book in to see our vets. If Marshmallows owner had left her overnight, then there would have been a very different outcome to this story...