Heat Mat ‘Baked’ Potato!

Tilly enjoying her heat mat.

On the run up to Christmas, Tilly was ill. She had two bouts of gut stasis over two days. I did manage to get her over them within a few hours but two over two days is too many for me.  I took her to the vets & I wanted a full Mot of her & in particular to check she had no blockage. The vet did a thorough check & there was no blockage & she seemed well enough.  The only thing was her guts weren’t making a lot of noises which was to be expected given the last two days. I was sent home with some more gut meds just in case she had another attack but in the meantime I had to continue her on the gut medication Emeprid.  This was just for a few days or until I deemed I thought it was safe to stop. The day after she was fine but on Christmas morning she was ill again with her guts. She looked uncomfortable & wasn’t interested in any food. Immediately I gave her the gut meds & her Metacam.  I also opened her pen so she could have a mooch about the shed. My aim from this was to get her moving in the hope it would help get the guts moving too.

Within three hours of the medication she was back to normal. I checked her faeces & she had done a blow out, which was great as I felt confident things would be back to normal. Usually after a blow out, I find any bunnies who have gut stasis return to normal.  The blow out faeces are usually wetter, smaller & softer than normal faeces. Just to be on the safe side I did carry on with the Emeprid for another day & to date she still has her little plays around the shed everyday but has had no more bouts.

I suspect the reason for her gut issues was probably caused by the fact she had become a heat mat ‘baked’ potato especially with that cold snap. I mean why would you want to get off a nice warm comfy bed into the cold when you can stay warm & snug?

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