The worst 24 hours of our lives

It was such a bad day

Molly is sick

It all started with the fact that yesterday we discovered that Molly did not feel well. We came to cuddle and care for the rabbits as we usually do but it was there that the worst 24 hours of our lives started and from that second on we would experience a variety of incidents. Most of them were negative and bad and some you never want to experience again. We immediately started nursing Molly. She should be back on her feet as soon as possible. But Molly had tried this before and so she was good at handling it or else she hadn't eaten as much of what made her sick as Sandy had but that doesn't mean they should ever experience it again if it can be avoided. We will of course do everything possible to avoid it in the future. Some water was boiled for her which stood and cooled for about 5-10 minutes. We have discovered that the rabbits really like cooled boiled water when they don´t feel well. She drank a lot of water and when she was done we had to get her digestive system going so we made her run around in the rabbit hutch so she could move a little. When we had done what we could at the time we let her rest so she could gain control of the pain herself.
By the time we got home she was completely healthy again as we had hoped but instead of Molly Sandy was lying and feeling sick. The reason why they won't eat when they don´t feel well is probably because they have nausea.

Sandy is very sick

Sandy rolled over on her belly all the time and couldn't find rest. We were up most of the night to watch her. We had to keep an eye on whether it was getting worse or if it was actually getting better but she remained sick until the next day. We let her sleep last night and hopefully she would get better the next day and we went home at 3am but we came back to them again this morning to check up on her. She still didn't eat and she didn't move either. We did everything we could to get her to eat. We gave her everything we could think of to tempt her but it didn't really work. It was important that we kept her digestive system running because otherwise it will star to shut down and then it is almost impossible to save the rabbit and that of course shouldn't happen to Sandy. We encouraged her to eat by coming up with praising and positive words. When she had taken a few bites of the food. We tried to mix some of their dry food with water so it became liquid and then we poured it into a syringe and she ate as we sprayed it into her mouth. She would even drink the liquid dry food herself in drop form without us having to force her to it. Sandy was so good and she managed so well. Molly was very worried about her sister's life and she would eat poorly because Sandy would not. So when it was all over they both started eating a lot of hay and straw but they would much rather sit and eat together. It seemed completely wrong to Molly to sit alone and eat.
Everyone in the family was worried and neither of us could think of anything but getting both rabbits on their paws again so they could run around in their rabbit hutch as they used to. Sandy had barely eaten for 20 hours and it can be critical after just 4 hours.

Sandy's digestive system is beginning to fail

One of us stayed home to keep an eye on Sandy while the others went to the local vet store and bought Critical Care that is powder that can be mixed with water and it contains much fiber that keeps the digestive system going. However, Sandy didn't want it all when we gave it to her but she got to eat a part of it. A little was better than nothing. At first when she tasted it she didn't really want it but it was probably just because she thought it was the dry food we gave her earlier and then she couldn't quite figure out what the new flavor was and where it came from. But after a while she began to get used to it and ate a little more of it. We gave it twice over a few hours.

We need at vet now!

But we got to a point where we couldn't control it anymore and didn't know what else we could do to get Sandy back on track. So we took both Molly and Sandy to the local vet to have them examined. Sandy was examined first and she received two injections to help her. One injection was a pain-reliever and the other was to help get the digestive system up and running properly again. The vet said it would be hours before it would show an effect but just when we got back to rabbit hutch with both rabbits they both ran out and went straight to the hay and ate. They ate a lot of hay and straw and it really surprised us a lot that it were going so fast with Sandy getting better. We all became so relieved and happy that she had now started eating and walking around again. It seemed a lot faster than expected but it was so nice to see that she was okay now. Both rabbits now sat together and could eat quietly again. They get dry food such as hay and straw over the next few days so we're sure they'll get the right amount of fiber. We just need their digestion to function properly again. It was a very long and hard day for all of us both rabbits and humans. We were afraid of losing Sandy countless times. It was an unbearable thought. If we hadn't done as we did Sandy might not be able to handle it the way she did. The rabbits are so strong and enduring. Thanks for that sweet friends. You are always part of this family. There is no one in the family who could stand the thought of ​​losing the rabbits. We have learned a lot about how important the composition of their diet is and we need to be careful about what we give them in their diet.

The end of it

It was probably gas pain or digestive problems that caused the sudden abdominal pain and the nausea they probably experienced when they both were sick. In this case it was Sandy that had the pain longest but we can't forget that Molly also had the pain. It all lasted about 24 hours but they seem to be doing much better now. They continue to eat lots of hay and now they just need to rest on both a stressful vet visit and the entire episode when they had digestive system or/and gas pain.

Sandy is getting food from a syringe

Molly is helping Sandy by cheering her up and taking care of her