Gassy belly or something else?

Hello all. My Betsy bunny has not been herself the last few nights. She seems fine in the morning, waiting for her pellets and greens. We give her more greens when we get home from work in the afternoon. At night she gets a few more pellets at "bed time". (1/4 cup total day & night) The last few nights she just wants to lay in her card board bunny tunnel and doesn't want to come out. She doesn't want to lay at her normal spots and wait for pets. Her belly feels hard, so we give her gas drops, which seems to help. She's eating, drinking & pooping (she just had 90+ poops in about 3 hours). I'm going to call her vet in the morning to get her in when we get home from work. Any suggestions to what could be going on is appreciated.

Have you given her any new greens lately? Any possibility she is pregnant?

We had been giving her green leaf lettuce instead of romaine because of the romaine recall, but we stopped a few days ago. She is spayed, so no chance of pregancy. Thanks for your reply! We just got a fresh bag of Oxbow pellets and Oxbow hay that we started giving her.

Maybe check the pellets and hay and see if anything is different about it. Looks different, smells funny/different. If you can't find anything out of the normal then I would call oxbow and tell them the type and ask if they have changed anything. Like maybe a new ingredient in the pellets or using a different location for hay. Sometimes you can call the company and give them the serial number or some kind of number (they will ask you for it) and they can tell you exactly where it was made/came from.

My husband just said a little while ago that he wondered if it could be the pellets or hay. I will give that a try tomorrow. Thanks so much.

Check them for a sour or musty smell. Also any discolored pellets, or white or blackish spots/clumps in the hay or pellets, or white dust. Those can all be signs of mold, and if you find them then stop feeding that food immediately. You may also need to call your vet as organ damage can sometimes result from bad food.

It could also just be her gut is slowing down too much, such as when they molt. I usually will feed more hay and less pellets to help get the gut moving better. Provided the hay isn't bad, and also that your rabbit is eating the hay really well. If your rabbit isn't eating her hay well, or her other food, check for signs of dental issues as the cause such as drooling, dropping food from the mouth, lumps, eye or nasal issues, or odd chewing behavior, and call your vet if you suspect this is the problem.