Bun refuses all food. Went to vet. 24 hours later and she's still won't eat anything.

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Ggg Ridd

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Hi all,

We have a 6 year old female. We recently adopted a 6 year old male. Both are fixed. They mostly ignore each other but sometimes the new bun chases. He's not very aggressive but our female is very skittish. They're separate at night and when nobody is home by a metal fence that splits our apartment in half in a hallway.

On the 2nd night after adoption, our old bun, the female, stopped eating. She didn't eat pellets (very unusual), treats, she even ignored a piece of banana. I have seen her drink a little water this morning. She hasn't taken a single bit of anything on her own for 36 hours so far. Yesterday morning, around the 12 hour mark of no eating, we took her to our rabbit vet.

The vet said her eyes, ears, and teeth look healthy. Her stomach is empty, she has few poops on the way. She said it could be stress from the new bun but she doesn't know. We were sent home with a Meloxicam and Metroclopramide and Oxbow critical care. The vet said to give her critical care 4x/day and things should improve in a couple days. We've been doing that. I would say nothing has gotten better or worse in the 24 hours since.

The two buns have stayed separated since she stopped eating and one thing we've noticed is our female, who isn't eating, has started peeing all over her room in different areas. She was litter box trained and now she's peeing everywhere and has no interest in eating.

It's been 24 hours since we've been to the vet. She still hasn't eaten anything on her own. I guess I'm here wondering if there's anything else I should be looking out for or paying attention to? Her urine seems normal in color and consistency. Her energy levels are a bit low but she doesn't appear to be in pain. She can still hop around when she wants to. Should we take her back to the vet? Should we get bloodwork or an xray? How long until she should be eating *something* on her own?
 
Update: No real update. It's been 48 hours and she hasn't eaten anything other than the critical care we give her through a syringe for the last 36 hours. Her behavior otherwise seems normal.
 
Just do what the vet says if she still isn't eating in maybe a day or 2 or isn't getting any better go to the vet again unless it starts getting worse. If it starts getting worse bring her to the vet again.
 
Hello, I think you should get her to the vet soon if it gets worse, and then they can suggest if your rabbit should have a xRay or bloodwork... In the meantime you can call your vet about how your rabbit is doing. I also recommend you read this : https://www.thesprucepets.com/why-pet-rabbit-not-eating-4134274.
And about the peeing thing, It may be a urinary infection, or bladder stones... Make sure you clean up your bunnies mess throughly... For rabbits, I'd use white vinegar to clean their mess.
 
After a bout with stasis, it can sometimes take several days for them to get back to normal as their digestive tract starts moving again. But it's also possible for there to be some underlying illness causing the continued lack of appetite. If you are concerned there is something more going on, best thing to do would be to talk to your vet.

The peeing could be due to her abdomen hurting. Rabbits that are in pain won't necessarily care to use the litter box.
 
Have you tried giving simethicone (baby gas drops) and has she been pooping at all? If so, do the poops look normal? Are any of them strung together with hair?

Stasis is a symptom rather than an illness... if she's showing zero interest in food still (as opposed to reduced/somewhat improved appetite), then it's possible that the underlying cause of the stasis is still ongoing. The website that @TheyDemandFood linked has a very helpful list of potential causes (though it doesn't list gas, which is a common cause, nor does it mention hairballs/blockages). If she's not showing some sort of improvement in the next day or so, I would ask the vet about additional testing to see if the root cause can be determined.

I really hope she feels better soon! Stasis is worrisome stuff; it always stresses me out to the max :(.
 
Update: Things are getting better! :)

At the 48 hour mark, after 36 hours of Critical Care, she seems to be on the mend. She starting pooping a lot more and she even started nibbling on some fresh herbs. We're at the 60 hour mark now and she's eating whole springs of cilantro and a little bit of a hay. Her appetite isn't back but any appetite is a very welcome sign after 48 hours of refusing to eat. We're continuing with the treatment and I'm optimistic.

Thanks everyone for the comments. I read through them and have been reading all of the attached articles.
 
Excellent! So you know, pellets are usually the last thing they get back to eating after regaining appetite... nibbling on hay and veggies is how it starts. It definitely sounds like she's on the mend! :)
 
Update 2:

Things are sort of the same for 3 days now. She'll nibble on small amounts of foods she likes but she isn't eating hay or pellets. She'll eat a little parsley or cilantro but not always. She'll eat small amounts of dried flower petals. Her poops are still small and dry looking but she's definitely still pooping. I'm starting to get worried that I haven't seen progress. It's been 6 days since she started refusing to eat.

The medication says 3-5 days for each but we're going to continue through the weekend and try to see the vet on Monday. We're still giving her critical care 4 times/day.
 
Yes it can take some time, our Hayden was recently treated for about a week and a half before he'd eat on his own. We did take him to the vet quite a few times though for x rays and blood work to rule things out. I definitely understand how nerve wracking it is.
 
Update 3:

Unfortunately, things seem to have gotten worse. She now refuses to eat anything again. Not even small nibbles of banana. She started drooling a tiny bit at times. She just drooled on some cilantro but didn't eat it. Does that mean she's hungry but won't eat? We took her on an emergency vet appointment yesterday and they took blood and temperature. Her temperature is slightly elevated but they don't think it's too far out of the range. We have to wait on blood results. Unfortunately, the vet isn't open today.

They gave her some opioid type injection and she was pretty out of it all night. She pooped a lot last night at least. But today is still refusing to eat anything. The vet said her teeth and gums looked fine from a visual exam and doesn't think it's that. I don't understand, today is day 8 and she's not eating anything on her own.
 
I'm sorry to hear about what you're going through, but it's great you're being very attentive day to day and while worrying is a terrible feeling, it's giving you a good sense of urgency and attentiveness during this time. Stay strong!

I'm sorry in advance if I've overlooked details from all your posts, but here are my thoughts:

For the vets visual exam of the teeth, did they only lift the lips and look at the front? Molar spurs, which appear in the back of the mouth, are difficult to assess via a cursory visual exam. Drooling is a symptom of dental distress, as the rabbit produces saliva to lubricate the sharp spurs it's experiencing in the mouth. Considering your rabbit is trying to nibble, not eating, and drooling, I am very curious about how well the teeth were examined.

If you look here: http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/pix/molar_spurs.jpg
... You'll see a great example of spurs, and you'll notice how invasive this view is in the rabbits actual mouth -- it's not something you'd be able to see very well unless a vet used certain tools to really spread open the mouth. You'll see that discomfort can come from spurs hitting the cheeks, as well as spurs hitting the tongue, so saliva production and not wanting to eat are common dental distress symptoms.
 

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