GI Stasis

Hi!
I was wondering if anyone on here knows much about gut stasis? I've had three Rex bunnies and all have unfortunately experienced the illness. Thankfully it's always been caught early but I'm just not sure where to go now. Sadly, my first two Rex bunnies passes away but now I have a little 14 month old bunny called Tundra. All have been mostly house bunnies but get a 45minute run in the garden in the morning then pretty much the entire evening outside once we're back from work. All have been spayed and their diets are hay, grass, pellets, dandelions, souththistles, parsley & coriander. We cut out greens/kale and muesli incase it was that but I doesn't seem to have helped? I'm terrified it's something i'm doing? My old English bunnies have never had GI Stasis so could it be a breeding issue?? Any advice will be very much appreciated.
My vet would like to run some tests on him and though blood tests and dropping analysis are fine, I'm very reticent for them to take him for a scan as I don't like the idea of him having anaesthetic and being taken away for the day.

GI stasis can be caused by basically any health problem that causes discomfort and pain. Digestive issues are a common cause of it, but there can be other things like, dental issues, bladder issues, injury, toxins, other internal health problems. When it is due to digestive issues, it could be a sensitivity to a particular food. Pretty much any food has the potential to cause problems for a particular rabbit. I know of rabbits that can't have certain veggies, or even particular types of hay. I had a rabbit that couldn't have any type of pelleted feed or he would get stasis. Then there are parasites that can also cause digestive issues, or even physical digestive abnormalities like megacolon, that can make a rabbit susceptible to stasis. It's even possible there could be a plant in your yard that is causing your rabbits to get sick.

Has your vet done a dental exam to rule that out as the cause? If you have done elimination diets to try and figure out if a particular food is setting it off, and still can't find a solution, you may need further diagnostics done to see if there is another health problem causing this to reoccur. Blood tests, fecal tests, and xrays may be helpful in discovering the cause, especially if it isn't a diet issue, but you do usually have to have a GA done to get good xrays. Though it may be possible to get a conscious xray if your rabbit is pretty calm.

If you don't have a really good rabbit vet that you are seeing, I know of a few in your general area.

You may have already tried this but....

First thing I would try is cut pellets way back, See if there is an improvement. Try to get your bun to eating a ratio of 85% hay, 10% greens, 5% pellets. (In otherwords, mostly hay for a few days). The bad bacterias that rabbits get in their guts are fed by proteins, and sugars, which mostly come from the pellets, so by cutting back pellets and feeding hay you can starve out the bad bacteria and flush it out of the gut.

I would also get some Bene-Bac probiotics and feed a good dosing of it.

And possibly some electrolytes in the water.


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After doing those things, if there isn't improvement... it could be all the other things that are probably what your Vet is checking for:

—Coccidiosis is a protozoan infection and its fairly common. Needs to be treated with a anti-protozoan medication.

—E. coli, a common bacteria that rabbits can pick up fairly easily— even from peoples hands. Can sometimes even get into water supplies. Sometimes, a mostly hay diet can flush it out of the rabbits system, but if its bad, most rabbits need antibiotics for e. coli.

—Mycotoxins, from molds that can get into hay, pellets, and even fresh grass. So check your pellets, hay, make sure they don't have any mold. If you are using an off brand pellet, you might try slowly switching over to a name brand like Oxbow and see it that makes a difference. (I have read where a rabbitry had gotten a bad batch of contaminated pellets and all their rabbits got sick, they treated for coccidiosis, but the rabbits kept dying, then they had the pellets tested in a lab and it was the pellets. And I read a similar story where a rabbitry found out their water was contaminated with e. coli. )

—If they are outside there could be something in your lawn, grasses have endophytes which are a type of fungi, more concentrated in the seed heads and roots in August- they create mycotoxins which can be tolerated in small amounts, but in large amounts are toxic.

—There are also a whole bunch of other bacterias rabbits can get in their guts that don't belong, same things as people really, salmonella, giardia to name a few- but the ones listed above are more common.

Many thanks for your replies!
I found this morning that my little bun who is still on medicine from last Thursday, had got trapped wind again - he'd been hopping around like mad the evening before and done so many droppings. There were even loads of droppings overnight. I collected some of them to take to the vet with me and she was surprised at how normal they looked considering he had gas.
I'm beginning to think he has trouble with any kind of pellet (we use the burgess one) for this is the second time he has experienced bloating after he ate all the pellets we had given to him. I wonder if the sugars in the pellets seem to ferment in his tummy - the vet felt no blockage at all, he was just a little bloated.
The vet recommends trying to get Tundra to eat a healthy bunnies cecotropes to help build up the useful bacteria. I hope it's just his guy flora isn't quite what it should be and it's something we can fix - I just wish I could find exactly why this happens and what to do rather than being speculation!

How much of the pellets are you feeding? I ask since you stated that "he ate all the pellets we had given him."

I agree with squidpop on cutting way back on the pellet amount. An average size rabbit on unlimited hay and daily greens only needs about 1/4 cup (eggcup) per day total. The amount of pellets he does get (if you continue feeding pellets) should be the same amount and preferably at the same time each day. I think rabbits do best with consistency. Switching things up in their diet (amounts, feed times, etc) is not a good idea and could lead to issues for the more sensitive bunnies.

I would also be wondering about what they may be eating in the garden. I don't know your yard and what plants are out there, but it can be difficult to know what and how much they are eating if they can graze on whatever is out there. Are you sure all plants are safe or if they are overeating a particular type of plant?

To start with, tundra has the more muesli based food which we cut out and started to use pellets. He would have a small handful of pellets - the bottom of the bowl could be quite easily seen.
When we are outside he mostly nibbles grass, plantains, dandelions but will occasional year leaves from the apple trees??

The only way to tell if it is diet related is to cut out certain things and wait awhile to see what happens. But I'm not sure how you can do that if those things are available outside. The hay should be constant. Not sure on plantains. Is that the fruit or the greens? How much? Is there a way to cut out that and see what happens?

my recommendation is STOP pellets. No more pellets! They have the wrong fiber length and are too calorie rich, and have zero moisture. BEst thing, especially for rabbits prone to stasis, is grass hays only (and avoid those 'grain hays' that are lumped into the grass hay category, such as oat, rye and wheat hay) and lots of leafy greens. Not had any rabbit patients develop stasis on this diet. Keep up the exercise! Let the rabbits browse in the garden (most fresh vegetation is good for their guts, particularly lawn).

Thanks for your advice everyone! If seems that it is indeed and kind is pellet give my poor little bunny wind. His diet is now just lots of hay - 'regular' and Timothy (including a chamomile one soon as the vet thinks that may help sooth his tummy), grass, dandelions, parsley and coriander. Once all this is over I may try and introduce some more greens very slowly and just one at a time. We will also be giving him a probiotic to help boost his gut flora which I think must have been stripped away over the past month or so.
Thanks again!