Foo hasn't eaten much today

[whitelop]

She hasn't eaten much at all. I gave her 2 cups of greens at about 5pm, romaine, cilantro, and about two leaves of kale. She hasn't eaten all of it yet, its now 9:48pm. She normally blows right through her greens.
I gave her her 1/4 cup of pellets at about 8, she hasn't touched them. I don't know how much hay she has eaten because I locked out of her cage with her hay box and she dumped it all in the floor. I just gave her fresh hay and it looks like a little is missing, but not much.

I gave her a tiny sliver of banana yesterday and a little less than an teaspoon of apple the night before and her poop was a little off yesterday. It seems to be back to normal, but its strange she hasn't eaten much. She never gets fruit, other than the dried papaya things, and she usually gets 1 or 2 a day.

She has been pooping and peeing and drinking. Her pee is normal, not gritty or thick.


Oh and she's a mini lop, shes 2 and weighs about 5 lbs. She gets 1/4 or less a day of timothy pellets, unlimited orchard grass, botanical hay and timothy hay. This weeks greens are kale, romaine, green leaf, cilantro and curly parsley. I know kale and curly parsley are high in calcium, she gets them alternately.

Should I wait it out a little and wait for her to eat more, or is there something I should do? She HAS eaten, just not a normal amount. (I may be over reacting a little)

 

[Imbrium]

have you tried a bit of simethicone? can't hurt, at any rate. dosing is 1-2cc per hour for three hours, then 1 cc every 3-8h if needed.

btw, according to Geoff, calcium from veggies doesn't actually have anything to do with whether or not a bunny gets bladder sludge, so you should be able to feed both high calcium veggies if you want.

I would try the simethicone and keep a close eye on her... if she seems to eat very little overnight, you might try critical care if you have it or homemade pellet slurry if you don't. you could also offer 1-2 tsp of plain canned pumpkin as a fruit treat.

 

[whitelop]

I know how he feels on calcium and I've read somethings on it. What I mean about alternating the high calcium stuff is, she gets kale one day and parsley the other, that way she gets some variety and shes not eating the same thing every day. Those are the only 2 things I switch around.

Hopefully I still have some simethicone from when my son was little!

 

[Imbrium]

I was SO happy to hear the info about the calcium... Nala-bunny almost never eats any veggies except kale. she LOVES kale. I don't dare ever run out of it; I buy it two bunches at a time (it's also Gazzle's favorite, though Gaz will eat almost anything green)

 

[PupTheRabbit]

Call the vet! Similar situation with Pup made me call and they said when rabbits dont eat, it's an emergency. He ended up having a fever and now I'm giving him 4 medications

Hope your baby feels better

 

[Imbrium]

how is foo doing today? does she have her appetite back or did she end up taking a trip to the vet?

 

[whitelop]

She has her appetite back! I gave her a dose of simethicone last night, left for like an hour and when i got back her greens were gone nd she had eaten a few more pellets.

Today i waited on giving her greens and pellets and gave her some fresh hay, she did a number on the hay. I just gave her some greens and pellets and she went to town!

Pooping and peeing like normal still. I think whatever was going on last night the simethicone helped. Still keeping an eye on her though.

 

[agnesthelion]

Glad she is doing better. Phew!!

 

[Geoff]

Kale is OK to give to rabbits but I might not give it exclusively or even daily. The calcium content of Kale is pretty high, but for most rabbits without a sludging problem, it should not matter. With those that do, it probably realistically will not matter either for THAT reason. However, Kale, along with a few other dark green leafy veggies, is very high in oxylates, which may or may not be clinically significant (there is a lot of debate about that). Oxylates can be tough on kidneys if ingested in huge quantities. So just to be safe, I would rotate a lower-oxylate containing green leafy veggie frequently (parsley and spinach are also high in oxylates- both good foods, but might also avoid feeding daily and exclusively).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:clapping:

 

[whitelop]

So the more I think about it, the more I think Foo has some GI issues. She has been pooping strings of pearl poops all night and that scares the crap out of me. I don't think she was cold earlier, I think she was having some kind of tummy issues.
So I'm off to give her some pumpkin and some simethicone.
I'm going to cut the pellets down even more and make sure she has more than enough hay.
I'm going to make sure to wet her greens down a little more than usual to ensure she's getting enough water. I'm also going to put her water bowl back in her cage.

This is such a nerve wracking thing! I'm nervous and freaked out.

 

[JBun]

Is she molting right now? Decreasing the pellets so she eats more hay should help. I know you are doing more veggies for her. If you are feeding any cruciferous veggies, you may want to stop those for now since they can cause gas problems. And maybe give her a really good brushing every day to reduce as much as possible, any hair she might be injesting when she grooms.

 

[whitelop]

I don't know if she is in a full blown molt but she's shedding. I've noticed her grooming more, so I know shes ingesting more fur. The last 2 days she's been eating A LOT more hay which is great.

Just syringed her some pumpkin and simethicone, hopefully that helps a little. She is not a happy bun with me right now, she doesn't like pumpkin or the syringe.

Oh and she doesn't get the "gassy greens" she gets only the leafy ones. No cabbage or broccoli or anything like that. I'm not sure if kale is considered one of those, but she has been getting kale for the last week or so. But only every other day. I just got her some green leaf lettuce and cilantro, so I'll limit her kale even more.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, kale is a cruciferous veggie.

frequent groomings would help a lot with the shedding/hair ingestion as well. the strings of poops are cause for taking precautions like extra grooming and more hay, but not for outright worrying - the important thing is that the hair is passing through!