Top tips for approaching the poorly rabbit and managing owner expectations

The 'sick' rabbit presents to the clinic subdued and hypothermic, with non-specific gastrointestinal stasis signs, what do you do? This lecture walks you through the approach to these challenging cases from maximising the value of your clinical assessment, to considering the order of priority for your stabilisation plan, to what key achievable diagnostic tests are likely to yield the most reward and what treatments to utilise (and which to avoid!) By the end of this lecture you should feel more confident in your approach to these tricky, yet often rewarding, cases.

Learning objectives:
1. Apply the principles of how to perform an effective clinical examination in a rabbit, by following a systematic approach
2. Understand when and where intravenous catheter placement is necessary to facilitate IVFT 
3. Be able to create a supportive care medical plan, with consideration to multimodal analgesia, prokinetics, nutritional support and the most appropriate routes of administration e.g. subcutaneous, intravenous, orally, nebulisation, etc.
4. Be able to describe techniques and tests for urine, faecal and blood collection.
5.  Outline the technique and indications for performing diagnostic imaging in practice with radiography and ultrasonography.

Presented at London Vet Show 2024

Please note this session is not RACE-approved but you can still earn a CPD certificate