It was just 11 days ago that Bunny had an enema, and today he needed one again.
I saw him straining (no faeces was passed out) this afternoon. And for the past 3 days, I saw loose stools which I guessed was his, but I guess my guess was wrong. So I wasted no time and took him to the vet’s this afternoon.
True enough, Bunny had rock-hard stools. The vet taught me how to palpate. Then the vet also let me observe how the paediatric enema was done so that if need be, we can do it ourselves at home but it would be a 2-person job.
I remember a very long time ago, we used to do Vixey’s enema by ourselves too. That was a trickier procedure with the tube but the senior vet taught me how to do it. I don’t remember how to do it now!
However, I also know that only vets should do the enemas, but I learnt today that the simplest enema (with the baby enema from the pharmacy) can be done at home – this involves squeezing in the contents of the baby enema followed by massaging the colon to break up the stools (not to push it out, but just to break up the long stool into “ketuls”). If this doesn’t work, then the next level is where the vet has to insert their finger inside to dig out the stools and only vets can do this. If this still does not work, then a higher level procedure is to insert a tube in with liquid to soften the stools – again, only a vet can do this as it is a delicate procedure which may cause rupture to the intestines (that would be tragically dangerous) if it is done by an untrained person.
Anyway, within minutes after the simplest (first level) enema, Bunny squatted and was able to defecate. He got the ketul-ketuls (blobs) out except for one remaining small ketul. Later while waiting for the bill, Bunny passed out some loose stools in the carrier and again, on the way back home in the car. I think we got them all out this round. Luckily I did not delay taking him to the vet’s.
The vet and I also discussed what we should do for Bunny, moving on. We will start by giving the 0.06ml dosage of Cisapride twice daily and this dosage can be increased gradually to a maximum of 0.3ml only if need be. Lactulose will be maintained at 2ml once a day, but can be increased to twice daily should the need arise. Lactulose doses must be given 8 hours apart. We decided to stop the coconut fiber for now since the vet and I both suspect that Bunny could be blocked due to the fiber and insufficient water. It is difficult to make Bunny drink water now as he longer wants to drink his flavoured water (those days he did). I have also increased the thrice-weekly subcut to 230ml-250ml at the advice of the vet.
We are also changing his probiotic from Gentle Digest to Maximus Pro GI from Petdiatrics. Both of these are yeast-based probiotics. There is yet another product called Allert Soft II which is a bacteria-based probiotic. We shall KIV this.
Bunny’s weight has increased to 4.4kg.
The vet also checked Bunny’s ears where he has had an allergic problem for a very long time. This time, the vet found a lot of allergic cells, definitely more than the last time. So, it is possible that Bunny is allergic to something new. But as with allergies, it is very difficult to determine what it is.