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tori4thewin · 5 years

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Rabbit Care.

08152019

Diagnosed with Intermittent Soft Cecotropes. Thinning fur patches on Mopsy’s backside.

Treatment: all hay/grass diet 2 weeks - 3 months until stools return to normal. No treats.

Personal treatment plan:

DAILY

Change the litter box in the morning and evening. Extra hay.

Change the water twice a day.

Fresh cut grass every morning. Use scissors.

No fruit. ½ cup veg fed from hand every evening.

MORNING

Change litter boxes, freshwater, measure pellets/oats

Cleanup poops. Remove soiled linens.

AFTERNOON

Pickup each rabbit and bring outside. Brush out fur.

Wipe fur with a damp cloth; Starting with eyes, body, feet, bum

EVENING

Change litter boxes. Freshwater. Fresh grass.

Cleanup poops.

Sit on the floor with my book and pyjamas.

SLOWLY INTRODUCE ADDITIONAL FOODS BACK INTO RABBIT’S DIET AFTER 1 WEEK OR POOPS LOOK NORMAL AGAIN.

STEP 1: Hand-feed ¼ cup dark, leafy greens. (parsley, cilantro, romaine, green leaf).

Then ½ cup, 1 cup, 2 cups.

STEP 2: 2 tbsp, hand-fed treats per day (apple, berries, banana, etc)

STEP 3: ¼ cup pellets; ¼ cup oats every morning.

* Start rabbit garden. Grow grass in our home. Purchase AeroGarden and pods.

SPAYING and RECOVERY

Supplies: X-pen, easy access litter box, critical care, cones, oral syringes, PAIN MEDICINE post-op, warm water bottle/heat pad

Road Trip to the Vet: Sit in the back seat with bunnies, bring cage for at the vet office, purchase a bag of nice Oxbow hay, water bottle, water dish, pellets, cilantro/parsley, blankets, towels, puppy pads, carry rabbits into the office - minimize stress!

Recovery Post-Op: clean x-pen set-up with white towels/blankets, clean litter boxes 2x/daily, clean water 2x daily,

**Rabbit Savvy Vet**

https://rabbitrescue.ca/useful-info/vets/

Rabbits should always have an annual exam, which will help detect problems early.

Why: Not all vets treat rabbits. Not all vets that treat rabbits KNOW rabbits! Many vets are trained in cat and dog medicine and often do not know enough about rabbits to medically treat them properly.

When: It is always a good idea to find a vet you feel comfortable with BEFORE you have an emergency. Rabbits should always have an annual exam that can help detect problems early.

How: We offer some recommended vets here. You might also want to check www.vetratingz.com. Next check the yellow pages for veterinarians who advertise as “exotic” (includes, rabbits & rodents). The next step is to phone the vet. Let the front office person know that you are concerned with finding the very best veterinarian to care for your rabbit and that you would like to speak directly to the doctor at his/her convenience. Leave both your work and home phone number and specific times that the veterinarian can get hold of you or ask what would be a good time for you to call back (when the veterinarian is between appointments).

Emergencies: You need to be prepared for emergency situations at night and on weekends when your regular vet might not be at the clinic. This preparation starts with your regular veterinarian. What are the days and hours of operation? Some veterinarians keep extended hours on certain weekdays. Does your veterinarian refer to a certain emergency clinic? If your veterinarian works with many non-traditional animal species he/she will probably know which emergency facility in your area also treats these animals.

If you will have to go to another location with an out-of-hours rabbit emergency, have the name, address, phone number and directions posted prominently in your house. Make a trial run by driving to the facility at least once so you have an approximate idea of how long it will take you.

Ask lots of questions!

How many rabbits are seen each week? Rabbits should make up a reasonable size of their practice (ie at least 10%)

How many rabbits are spayed/neutered each week?

Do they fast rabbits before surgery? The answer should be NO! Anesthetic meds cause nausea BUT rabbits lack the vomit reflex. Fasting is unnecessary and very dangerous. Eat before and after surgery. Lots of hay, cilantro, and green leaf lettuce; Clean fresh grass and dandelion leaves.

Do they know what drugs are dangerous for rabbits? IE Amoxicillin, Penicillin – unless it is injectible.

What type of gas anesthetic do they use? Isoflurane is the only safe bunny gas

Have you lost any rabbits during routine surgeries?

How would you treat a hairball? Surgery should be the very very last alternative.

Are there other veterinarians in the practice that can treat your rabbit in case the primary vet is not available? And if not, then to whom do they refer these cases?

Does the vet refer difficult cases to anyone else?

How does the vet check molars? An otoscope or a videoscope is the only acceptable answer. Visual inspection is not enough.

Hello, I am located in 100 Mile House. I have 2 female rabbits and I am unsure of their age. I want to get them spayed. I am searching for a rabbit savvy vet to take care of them. They are a huge part of my life and contribute to my overall happiness. I would not leave them overnight. I need a trustworthy and careful vet to spay my girls. How much does it cost to have 2 adult rabbits spayed, including an exam, pain meds, and possible cones to go home with? My bunnies' names are Flopsy and Mopsy. Flopsy is a Dutch breed and Mopsy is a Holland Lop (I am fairly sure of the breeds). They are (mostly) litter trained, minus a few territorial droppings. They are in good health, eating lots of fresh hay all day. I feed them 1/4 cup pellets to share every day and 2 servings of leafy greens. A month ago I noticed loose stools and proceeded to put them on a hay-only diet and it seems to have fixed the issue. My bunnies are mostly okay with being handled but lived most of their lives in abysmal conditions. They now live in my living room, no cage. I am concerned about their stress level with the procedure and the car ride home. I have gotten them a bit used to car rides in order to minimize the stress for their upcoming surgeries. I know I have spoken in length but I am concerned about losing a rabbit. I need to know they are in caring, educated, and experienced veterinary hands. Thank you. -- Victoria Smith 778-239-8688.

List of Rabbit Savvy Vets

Dr. Mike Lavroff and Dr. Kathy Rasmussen at Vetcetera Pet Hospital in Kelowna, BC

250-762-7181

(250) 371-3236

SPAYING PROCEDURAL NOTES:

Pre- and Post-operative care of Rabbits

Dana Krempels, Ph.D.

University of Miami Department of Biology (updated 3 January 2011)

Any surgery can be physically and emotionally hard on both you and your companion rabbit since there's really no such thing as a surgery that is 100% risk-free. I hope the following information will help you and your rabbit get through either emergency or elective surgery with maximal safety and minimal stress.

Pre-operative Care

1. Be sure to schedule surgery with a veterinarian who is very familiar with the rabbit's unique anatomy and physiology, and who has had a great deal of experience and success with rabbit anesthesia and surgery. You might wish to start with the House Rabbit Society veterinary listings at the House Rabbit Society Veterinarian Listings. Veterinarians specializing in "exotic" species are often rabbit-savvy. But before you commit to surgery, make sure. The House Rabbit Society has an excellent site on how to find a good rabbit vet that should make this easy.

2. If possible, schedule the surgery so that you can bring your bunny home with you the same evening. Spending the night in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by strange people and the sound and smell of potential predators, can add unnecessary stress and lengthen your rabbit's recovery. Very few veterinary hospitals have 24-hour monitoring staff, and your bunny will probably not be watched for at least part of the night if s/he stays in the hospital. Home, where he can be monitored lovingly and regularly, is almost always best.

3. If your rabbit is bonded to another rabbit, it is important to bring them to the hospital together so that the mate can offer moral support in the pre-operative waiting period and during recovery. It also will help prevent the dreaded un-bonding phenomenon that sometimes occurs when one member of a bonded pair comes home smelling of Strange and Scary Hospital. The last thing you want your bunny to suffer after surgery is violent rejection by his/her own mate! Unfortunately, this goes for bonded groups, too. It is best to bring everyone in for moral support and to prevent post-operative social rejection.

4. DO NOT FAST YOUR RABBIT PRIOR TO THE SURGICAL APPOINTMENT, even if the person scheduling your appointment tells you to do so. (Receptionists giving such instructions often recite the rules for dogs and cats, not realizing that the rules are different for rabbits.) Here are the reasons why some (inexperienced with rabbits) clinic staff might suggest fasting, and why these reasons do not hold true for rabbits:

a. Some surgical anesthetics can cause nausea. One of the reasons veterinarians fast most animals pre-operatively is the risk of vomiting during surgery or recovery. This can cause accidental aspiration, the breathing of liquid into the lungs, which can be fatal. However, rabbits lack the vomiting reflex and are physically almost incapable of regurgitation. In rabbits, the risk of aspiration due to vomiting is negligible. b. Feeding your bunny before surgery helps the gastrointestinal (GI) tract remain active, which will speed recovery. Rabbits who become inappetence (i.e., not wanting to eat) after surgery are more difficult to "jump-start" back to normal eating habits. Even relatively brief periods (24 hours) of anorexia can result in GI stasis and some liver damage in rabbits. c. Some veterinarians may be concerned that food in the intestine will interfere with their obtaining a correct body weight, necessary for calculating the proper dose of injected anesthetic. This should not be a concern with rabbits because

Under normal circumstances, the intestine of a healthy rabbit is never empty, and should not be. Rabbit GI passage time is relatively lengthy (approximately 12 hours), so to get the intestine completely empty would take a very long time. Also, since an anorectic rabbit can begin to suffer liver damage in a relatively short time when the GI tract is empty, it is not advisable to fast the rabbit before surgery.

If the veterinarian is using isoflurane or sevoflurane, the gas anesthetic of choice, bodyweight is not an issue, since the gas is administered through the respiratory tract. Even though isoflurane gas is more expensive than injectable anesthetics, it is worth the extra cost to ensure safer surgery and faster recovery. IMPORTANT NOTE: Although intubation allows much more precise administration and monitoring of gas anesthesia, and is safer in case of an emergency cardiac or respiratory arrest during surgery, please be aware that the intubation of rabbits is a delicate procedure requiring a great deal of practice and expertise. If your vet is NOT experienced with rabbit intubations, it is probably much safer for the isoflurane to be administered via a mask. You might wish to ask your vet about this before you schedule the surgery.

Injectable pre-anesthetic doses are not likely to be affected by the slight difference in the weight of a rabbit with a full intestine.

5. Take a bit of your rabbit's normal food (pellets and hay) along as well as a small bag of favourite fresh herbs. Ask that the foods be offered to your bunny after the anesthesia has worn off. The sooner the bunny starts nibbling after surgery, the quicker the recovery.

Post-surgical Care

Pain Management

Any surgery, including neuter or (especially) a spay, will make bunny sore for one to several days.

Pain management in rabbits is critical to an uneventful recovery.

Most experienced vets routinely administer analgesics such as Metacam/meloxicam, Banamine (flunixin meglumine), buprenorphine, tramadol, etc. before or shortly after surgery, so the bunny will be as comfortable as possible while waking up.

Ask the veterinarian about this before scheduling surgery. If no pain medications are going to be given to your rabbit, you should probably seek a different vet!

Before bringing your bunny home, ask your vet about follow-up pain management at home, when the initial dose wears off. Post-surgical monitoring and care 1. Warmth

Immediately after surgery, keep your bunny warm and quiet.

Provide a warm water bottle or another heat source (that can't leak, burn, or cause injury) wrapped in a soft towel for the bunny to lean against or move away from, at his/her discretion. DO NOT use any type of electrical heating source that could be an electrocution risk, should bunny chew on it!

Rabbits will tolerate a soft, light blanket better than a heavy one.

2. Post-surgical Contact and Handling

Don't hover. A bunny after surgery may feel groggy and unhappy, and not in the mood for cuddling.

Unless you know that your rabbit wants to cuddle, it's best to let him/her recover quietly and without more human interruption than is necessary to ensure that all is well.

3. Post-surgical Monitoring for Trouble

Be sure to carefully (and gently) check the sutures daily for a few days after surgery to be sure the bunny isn't chewing them.

Many vets use subcuticular (under the skin) sutures that cannot be chewed out, and may even put a line of surgical glue over the incision for extra strength. Ask your vet about this before surgery, so you will know what to expect.

Be alert for excessive bleeding (a bit of oozing is not unusual, but outright bleeding is a cause for concern)

Excessive redness or signs of infection such as swelling or pus are not normal.

If you see anything that causes concern, call the vet immediately for further instructions.

The Healing Process If all goes well, your bunny will start to perk up noticeably by the second day after surgery. Healing begins quickly; adhesions (normal tissue repair) usually start to form within 24 hours of surgery in rabbits. In the case of spay/neuter, a male will usually recover more quickly, since neuter is less invasive than a spay.

A male is usually ready for normal activity within a few days of surgery.

A female might take a bit longer to recover from a spay.

Recovery time will depend on the type of surgery, the surgeon's technique, the surgery itself, and any complications. 1. Post-operative Preventive Care

Under normal circumstances, rabbits do not require post-surgical antibiotics to prevent infection.

Except in very unusual cases, an E-collar ("Elizabethan collar" -- that plastic cone around the neck that prevents suture chewing and makes your companion look like a satellite dish) is not necessary for a rabbit and will cause more stress than it's worth.

If your bunny does try to damage her incision and ends up wearing an E-collar for a day or two, you will have to hand-feed cecotropes, since s/he will not be able to reach them for normal ingestion.

This is how much we love our bunnies. 2. Monitoring the Poop: Signs of Recovery or Trouble

It is not unusual to see a few soft or mucus-covered stools after surgery. Fecal pellets should return to normal within a day or two, once your bunny has regained normal eating habits.

If you continue to see mucus in the fecal matter beyond a day or two, or if fecal production stops, consult your veterinarian immediately.

If your rabbit hasn't eaten anything within 24 hours of surgery, contact your veterinarian.

Monitor the output of fecal pellets closely. If fecal output slows or stops after surgery for more than 36 hours, your bunny may be suffering from ileus, an uncommon but serious post-surgical complication. If this happens, refer to Gastrointestinal Stasis: The Silent Killer for emergency information. Post-surgical Social Interaction

Keep your rabbit quiet for a few days after surgery, but try to maintain normal feeding and bonding times.

There is no reason to separate bonded pairs or groups as long as the bunnies interact calmly.

A post-surgical bunny will usually manage his/her own activity quite well and knows not to "push it" too soon.

If your bonded pair continues to mount or play too roughly after surgery, then it might be necessary to physically separate them for a day or two to avoid injury. This is almost never necessary.

However, if you must separate the bunnies, be sure they can see, smell, and touch one another even if they don't have full physical contact.

Remember: the rabbit who has undergone surgery needs the emotional support of his/her mate for an uneventful recovery. Allowing them to be in contact reduces the chances that they will fight upon full re-introduction. Post-surgical Nutrition

Offer your rabbit a heavy ceramic bowl of water, even if you usually provide a sipper bottle. A rabbit needs to drink after surgery but often won't do so if s/he has to "work" for water. A well-hydrated bunny recovers more quickly and feels better in the process.

If your bunny is reluctant to eat after surgery, offer a favourite treat. Fragrant herbs such as basil, parsley, dill and mint seem to appeal to a bunny recovering from surgery.

Rabbits seem to prefer healthy foods such as fresh greens and hay while they are recovering, rather than starchy treats, which is all for the better.

If your bunny does suffer complications from surgery that cause him to stop eating, you may need to hand-feed for a few days afterwards to help get the GI tract back to normal. Ask your veterinarian for advice about whether this is necessary. Products made specifically for recovery feeding include Critical Care (Oxbow Hay Company) and Critter be Better (American Pet Diner). Or you can make your own recovery food: Pour warm water or chamomile tea over a 1/4 cup of pellets in a bowl

Allow to sit for about five minutes, letting the pellets "fluff"

Add additional water or chamomile tea and mix well to make a pudding-like slurry

Always use any type of recovery food "slurry" with caution:

Never force too much. Allow bunny time to chew and swallow.

Use a wide-bore syringe or plastic dropper with the narrow tip cut off to safely administer

If the tip is too narrow, larger bits can get stuck. Forcing a stuck chunk through the tip can cause a huge blob of food to enter the mouth too quickly, and could cause aspiration.

Squirt the food into the mouth sideways, behind the incisors, not straight back.

NEVER try to force-feed an animal who is not swallowing normally. Consult your veterinarian immediately if this is the case.

Special Notes for Neuter Surgeries The de-sexing of a male animal is known as castration or neuter. It involves removing the testicles and some associated structures. (Some tubules and other structures are left behind, as they are located in the lower abdomen.) The purpose of neutering is to remove the main source of testosterone and to permanently stop the production of sperm. While testosterone has its subjective benefits, it also has its risks: it suppresses the immune system, increases aggression, and generally shortens the lifespan of the individual producing it. For this reason alone, your male bunny may live a longer, more peaceful life if he is neutered.

Although most rabbit-savvy vets perform pre-scrotal neuters, in which the scrotum is not cut, a few old-fashioned practitioners still remove the testicles directly through the scrotum. If your male bunny has undergone scrotal neuter, he may be very sore and swollen (which is why the pre-scrotal method is preferred; ask your vet beforehand, so you will know what to expect.)

A sitz bath in a dilute solution of betadine (about 1 tablespoon of povidone iodine per cup of lukewarm water) can be very soothing to a bunny who has undergone a scrotal neuter. But wait until a day after surgery to do this, to allow some recovery from anesthesia and the stress of the surgery itself.

NOTE THAT MALES MAY HAVE VIABLE SPERM FOR SEVERAL WEEKS POST-NEUTERING! Do not place your male with an intact female until a minimum of three weeks after his neuter surgery! Some males can retain viable sperm for even longer.

Click here for a complete technical overview of rabbit spay and neuter procedures provided by DVM Newsmagazine.

Return to Rabbit Health Central

Help H.A.R.E. rescue needy rabbits!

https://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

Notes:

The condition can last for months or even years. Affected rabbits are often still bright, alert and eating well. The soft droppings stick to the rabbit’s hindquarters, causing irritation and a foul odor. Defecation and urination can be hindered if there is sufficient buildup of feces.

The soft stools are actually malformed cecotropes that should have been eaten directly from the anus by the rabbit. You will notice that the soft cecotropes have a strong odor and contain mucous like normal cecotropes. When the contents of the cecum are retained for longer than normal periods of time the cecotropes are eventually excreted in a more liquid state and it is impossible for the rabbit to eat them. Not only is the condition messy, but there is a concern that the rabbit may be missing vital nutrition if he cannot eat the cecotropes.

The most common cause of ISC is an inappropriate diet that is too high in carbohydrates and/or too low in indigestible fiber.

During a physical examination, many rabbits with ISS are significantly overweight with obvious fecal staining of the hindquarters or feet.

The treatment of uncomplicated ISC (meaning the cause is primarily an inappropriate diet) is based on converting the rabbit to a healthy diet that is high in indigestible fiber, which normalizes the motility of the GI tract and lower in carbohydrates, which helps normalize the flora in the cecum. A healthy diet for a house rabbit consists of unlimited grass hay as its primary component with additional green foods and limited high fiber/low energy pellets.

This is not a difficult diet to feed, but it requires a commitment to removing high carbohydrate foods from the diet and never giving them again. If you do choose to slip some high carbohydrate treats to your pet from time to time, it is highly likely that the ISC will return within a short time and you will be cleaning the rabbit and cage all over again. The benefits of a healthy diet are not only getting rid of the ISC, but also improving your rabbit’s dental, GI and mental health. Only you have control over the success of this treatment.

The treatment of ISC is based first on a serious diet restriction to grass hay, which acts to return the GI tract to normal, and secondly a gradual reintroduction of additional foods after normal cecotropes are produced for at least a week. This would mean you are no longer seeing the soft cecotropes in the environment or on the rabbit. You will see the normal round, dry waste droppings and only the occasional formed cecotrope in the litter box or cage floor.

The hay acts to return normal motility to the GI tract and normal flora to the cecum eliminating the soft stools entirely. If you cheat and feed treats during this process, the treatment will not be effective and you will only perpetuate the problem. There is no doubt that your rabbit will not be happy with you for a while and will probably throw a few tantrums. After all, when you remove the pellets and treats from the diet, it is like taking chocolate away from a chocoholic! You need to resist your pet’s attempts to manipulate your emotions and remember that this treatment is for her benefit and for your benefit as well when you have the freedom from cleaning up the mess every day!

Another important benefit of feeding the grass hay to the exclusion of other foods initially is that your pet will experience a healthy weight loss. Many rabbits with ISC are overweight, and not only do they feel sluggish because of the GI problems but because of their weight it is more difficult for them to exercise. Rabbits do not become underweight on this diet so you do not need to monitor the weight. Many of our clients comment that after the treatment for ISS their rabbit experienced a new “lease on life” and was as active as a young bunny again! It must feel good to shed the excess weight and to have normal GI function again!

NOTE: How do you know your rabbit is eating enough hay? You will know because the waste droppings (the round, dry droppings in the bottom of the cage) will continue in a large number and will stay a large size. If these droppings decrease to half or less in size or greatly decrease in number or become greatly misshapen, then your rabbit is not eating enough and you need to check with your veterinarian to make sure there is not some other disease process going on.

Part 2: Adding in Other Foods

Once the soft droppings have resolved for at least a week, it is time to try adding in some additional foods. Although technically a rabbit could survive on good quality mixed grass hay, it is likely that it will not be complete for the life of the rabbit and will be missing some trace nutrients. In addition, rabbits are used to eating a wide variety of textures and tastes and it is much healthier mentally to have a variety of foods in their daily lives. We need to add these foods back in carefully though, because your bunny has a history of GI unbalance and we don’t want to return to that state. Remember that from here on out, your rabbit should ALWAYS have grass hay available as the basis of a good diet.

Green Foods

After your pet’s cecotropes have returned to normal for at least a week, it is time to introduce green foods into the diet. These foods provide a variety of nutrients as well as moisture.

We suggest adding one new green food every 48 hours to make sure no soft stools are being formed. You can easily determine which items are problematic if you only feed one green food every 48 hours, then remove the offending item if needed. Once you have tested several green foods, then you should feed at least three types daily to your pet Feed a maximum of about 1 packed cup of green foods per 2 pounds of body weight at least once a day or this amount divided twice a day.

Examples of Green Foods

Baby greens

Basil

Bok choy

Borage

Broccoli (leaves and top)

Brussels sprouts

Cabbage (red, green, Chinese)

Carrot/beet tops

Celery (leaves are good)

Chickory

Collard greens Dock

Dandelion greens (and flower)

Endive

Escarole

Kale

Leaf lettuce

Mustard greens

Parsley (Italian or flat leaf best)

Radicchio

Romaine lettuce

Swiss chard (any color)

Water cress

Healthy Treat Foods

When your rabbit returns to normal stool production and after the introduction of green foods you can try feeding small amounts of fruits and other vegetables as treats. As with the green foods, if you see any soft stools, remove the item from the diet. The maximum amount of a treat food is one tablespoon per two pounds body weight of any combination of the following:

Apples

Bean or alfalfa sprouts

Blackberries

Blueberries

Cactus fruit

Carrots

Cherries

Cranberries

Edible flowers from the garden (organically grown and NOT from a florist) such as roses, nasturtiums, day lilies, pansies and snap dragons

Green or red bell peppers

Kiwi Fruit

Mango

Melons

Papaya

Pea pods (flat, NO peas)

Peach

Pear

Pineapple

Raspberries

Squash

Strawberries

Pellets

After introducing greens and fruits and vegetables back into the diet for two weeks without any relapse to soft cecotropes, then it is time to try pellets again. It is important that you only use the grass-based pellets and not alfalfa-based pellets because you increase the likelihood of a problem with the high calorie alfalfa-based pellets. You can try adding in about 1/8 cup per 4 lbs of body weight initially and go up to no more then ¼ cup of pellets per 4 lbs body weight per day maximum. If the soft cecotropes return, remove the offending pellet and you may try a different brand of grass-based pellet. If the soft cecotropes return no matter what brand you feed, then you may have a rabbit that simply cannot tolerate pellets. In this case you can increase the consumption of greens to twice the amount listed above per day. This happens in a small population of rabbits and if necessary they can live successfully on a free-choice grass hay and moderated greens/vegetable/fruit diet without pellets.

Forbidden Foods

Never again feed commercial rabbit treats or high carbohydrate snacks which include those found in the following list:

Beans (of any kind)

Breads

Cereals

Chocolate

Corn

Nuts

Oats

Peas

Refined sugar

Seeds

Wheat

Any other grains

Vitamins

Your veterinarian may prescribe a vitamin supplement during the initial treatment for ISC, particularly if this has been a long-standing problem. If a rabbit cannot eat the cecotropes, then she may be missing vital nutrients those special droppings provide. Vitamin supplementation should be short term and need not continue once the pet is on a healthy diet and is producing normal cecotropes.

Some veterinarians feel that giving vitamin C during the treatment of ISS is helpful in improving the integrity of the wall of the cecum and decreasing toxin absorption into the body. Most rabbits will readily take chewable vitamin C tablets, should they be prescribed.

The dose is 100 mg per 5 pounds of body weight one to two times daily. Vitamin C should also be discontinued once the cecotropes return to normal.

Working with Your Veterinarian

It is important to keep any recommended recheck examinations and phone reports for your pet as suggested by your veterinarian. The progress of treatment can be evaluated and detection of any other diseases can be made. If the condition of ISC cannot be resolved with dietary treatment then your veterinarian will need to perform further diagnostic investigation to determine if there is additional disease. If you are having difficulties converting your rabbit to the diet suggestions made above, please consult your veterinarian and work with him or her so your rabbit can be monitored during this process.

Conclusion

ISC is most often caused by an inappropriate diet and in these cases it is not difficult to treat.

It does, however, require a commitment by you, the caregiver, to provide a healthy diet for your pet for the rest of the pet’s life. It won’t be easy at first as your pet becomes frustrated at the loss of the unhealthy but tasty treats, but the end result is a rabbit who is more active, more responsive and no longer needs high maintenance care. By successfully treating the common dietary cause of ISC, many rabbits can be saved from unnecessary euthanasia and the owners saved from unnecessary anguish.

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topicprinter · 7 years

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TL;DR -- In prep for my first visit to SaaStr Annual, I binge-listened to all 95 podcasts and wrote down the highlights. In the original blog post we built a simple search app of the data set I created along with images of all the SaaS resources mentioned on the show. The rest of the text is below. Hope some might find it useful....Who needs a #drinkwithharry?Over the past few weeks, I tasked myself with listening to all ~32 hours of the SaaStr podcast, in preparation for the SaaStr Annual conference. Each show is an incredibly dense, 20-minute nugget on the business of SaaS. IMHO, it is totally and completely worthwhile to meander through twice-weekly.However. Powering through them all in one go was the equivalent of a Brain Blaster—more like binge-watching Planet Earth than Portlandia. Do as I say, kids, not as I do.So, what did I learn? Well, a ton. Let’s try to unpack the highlights with the Data, the Recommended Resources, the Words of Wisdom and, finally, the Personal Lessons.To the Data!As part of this journey, I put together a file that combines data from the RSS feed along with my own note-taking on each episode (typos and dirty data notwithstanding).[Note: Due to reddit formatting, here are the details of the data set]:The CSV file is available on GitHub.The Search App is inside the original post.The how-to on getting dynamic data into a static set using our cloud data pipes is in a secondary post.Fun facts:54% of episodes featured a CEO and/or Founder21% of episodes featured a VC or other InvestorThe remaining episodes (with a few exceptions) were with VP of sales, marketing or customer successOf the non-VC interviewees, there was a diversity of SaaS products on display. HR and Marketing companies were most prominent (~30%), but others ranged from security-guards-on-demand to shipping APIs to a Slack bot. It’s a big world out there.There were only two repeat guests (Jason Lemkin and John Barrows)The “60-second SaaStr” was nicknamed “the Churn” for a few early episodes. The “Good, that’s perfect, I think we’re warmed up” audio snippet appeared 43 episodes in. Were these the experiments and casualties of lean podcast methodology? We’ll never know.Recommended SaaS ResourcesThis is probably a good time to note that Harry Stebbings, the wunderkind interviewer, is a natural. In addition to tight, relevant questions, the brilliance of the show really comes down to the editing. 20 minutes is a perfect length and a huge differentiator compared to other tech and startup podcasts.One question Harry often asks (~55% of all interviews) is simply: “What are your favorite SaaS resources?” Interviewees answer with various blogs, books, podcasts, among others. I compiled each resource and grouped them by number of mentions. To make things a little easier to read, I also highlighted the books in blue:[NOTE: All the SaaS resources mentioned I grouped and, due to lazyness, just took a screenshot. Top four were SaaStr, Tomasz Tunguz blog, David Skok blog, & Mark Suster blog, but a long-tail of other interesting reads; for the full list, see the original postThere is a clearly a preference for SaaStr on these Saastr podcasts (weird!), but you clearly don’t want to miss out on Tomasz Tunguz or David Skok either. When you go to google "How to Castrate a Bull" make sure you add "business book" to your search criteria.Words of WisdomAs for actual content, where to begin? It’s an embarrassment of riches. So as not to write a novel, let me give you a taste by simply quoting from a handful of interviews (with gentle editing for clarity):Nick Mehta, Gainsight, Episode #24 on What Companies are Getting Wrong with Customer Success“#1 they think it is just about churn reduction… just the beginning of the story… it’s about upsell, expansion and most importantly about advocacy and getting your customers to be your best sales people…#2 they hire the wrong leader… maybe passionate about the customer and product, but not operationally focused…#3 they put it under another exec… part time responsibility of marketing or sales… #4 they make it all about people and heroics v. process… #5 they think about it as just the CSM team’s responsibility, when in reality that customer success team is the quarterback… but you need the whole company to rally around it.”Aaron Ross, Author, Episode 46 on the Most Common Reason Companies Struggle to Grow“Because they haven’t nailed a niche… you can have a big vision, but it means being very focused—baby steps—around the type of customer segments… who today you can find, talk to and who need you enough to buy from you… so you can double-down and grow fast.An old story, company has a product, anyone in the world can use it and get value from it, but no one is buying it. Where are you a need to have vs. where you are a nice to have? It’s hard to have the internal discipline in the early days to say these customers can all use us, but they don’t need it so much that they’re going to buy… got to focus on these 1-2 very specific areas… maybe not sexy… but enough of a pain there that they’re going to need us and go through all the huge time and energy and effort—the more-than-you-expect-process—to evaluate us, buy us and deploy us.”Russell Glass, LinkedIn, Episode #14 on Marketing within the Customer Lifecycle“At each stage… [customers] have certain information needs… and if you can, as a marketer, help them with those information needs at the right part of the journey of that decision, that is when you are relevant… that is when you are able to transcend being marketing material and move into the information universe.”Seth Besmertnik, Conductor, Episode #79 on Weaponizing Marketing:“Your marketing can be a weapon and core competency and differentiator… [for a crowded market] what ends up discerning the difference is the marketing… are people finding you?… do they know you exist? There are a lot of great software companies that are dead on the side of the road because no one ever found their business, no one found their product and they weren’t good at sales and marketing. So having a great product is the start, but it’s not how you get across the finish line.”Mathilde Collin, Frontapp, Episode #10 on Content Marketing Strategy“We have a process, first try to release at least two posts per month… and then always try to write 1/3 on market we’re in… 1/3 on our journey… and 1/3 about specific use case for customers”Peter Reinhardt, Segment, Episode #80 on Turning Up Product Market Fit to Eleven“[Early on] we managed to convince ourselves that pretty meager levels of customer excitement meant product market fit, which I think is an easy thing to do… I think customers have more dynamic range in their response to a product than most people realize… “oh that seems helpful”… 7 or 8 out of 10… but when you really hit a pain point, the customer’s dynamic range goes up to 11… and their response is totally different… like holy shit, can I get access to it today? I need to call this other person on my team who has been talking about this forever, how ’bout I introduce you? and you’re like “woah, woah” it doesn’t even exist yet, slow down… I think the customer’s dynamic range is much broader than we realized and so we never actually hit that 11 and just convinced ourselves that 7 out of 10 was product-market fit.”Ryan Smith, Qualtrics, Episode #83 on Necessity of Managing Runway“Rome wasn’t built in a day… it’s going to take time, if you can keep your options from a funding or partner standpoint to actually give you a long enough runway, entrepreneurs will figure it out. The problem is when they put a stopwatch on their back… every bet that we’ve made has taken a little longer than we anticipated… you don’t want to limit yourself to one point in time… you gotta play the long game.”Leo Widrich, Buffer, Episode #89 on an Embarrassing MVP“The quote… that you should be embarrassed by your first version gets misinterpreted a lot… you shouldn’t be embarrassed because it completely breaks or is unusable… that’s the wrong type of embarrassment… the type that is good is the embarrassment of richness… like, kinda embarrassed because it’s only this one feature and you wish you had done three more… it is complete unto itself… not the base layer of the cake, but, instead, a cupcake.”Personal Lessons LearnedIf there is one thing I’ve personally learned throughout this process, it’s that the 2x speed on a podcast app is probably the greatest invention of all time.But, as far as SaaS goes, I think what you receive through drowning in all this content is a solid understanding of the conventional wisdom of running a SaaS business, from early days to scale. Things like:Hire athletes in the beginning, specialize later.Initial product market fit is when you have 10 unaffiliated paying customersSales and Customer Success need to be working in tandem, given the necessity of retention in SaaSDon’t spend money on sales until you have a repeatable processFocus early on a single personaGet people to pay you earlyMore mojitos, fasterAnother cool thing about this binge-mission, should one accept it, is that you’ll certainly find a few tidbits that speak directly to your situation. For instance, I almost fell out of my chair when Harry Glaser of Periscope Data (Episode #30) was asked about greenfield opportunities in SaaS and then went on to lay out the problem that our startup, Flex.io, is trying to tackle:“I think one thing we see that maybe other folks don’t see there’s a lot of back end data munging and processing and kinda unsexy data things going on that are really being done with a collection of hacky python scripts right now… copying data from place to place, transforming data, storing data, all that stuff is being done by people writing scripts on the side… so I think there is a big opportunity there…”Let’s hope so, Harry!…Well, I hope this proved to be a useful summary for you, dear reader. May your SaaS companies flourish and may your mojito glasses never be empty! Hope to see you at SaaStr Annual.edit: formatting

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