RavenousDragon
Well-Known Member
Hey guys! I need some help. So Brandy, my female rabbit, had a bout of ileus last night (I'm watching her play and eat all the hay she can find right now, so we made it mostly clear- poops are still a little small). But she's never had ileus before and I'm wondering the cause. Whiskey, my male, had it in November (similar, lasted about 12 hours and then was over with treatment). I just don't know what could have caused it- it seems unlikely that two rabbits in the same household get both get ileus in a 4 month span without it being the owner (my) fault in some way.
Her diet: unlimited Timothy hay (2nd or 3rd cut, Oxbow), 6 Oxbow Natural Science pellets in the morning and up to 5 additionally as treats (she's a 3.5 lb rabbit), fresh veggies every night (varies, but all are listed as rabbit safe of course). And periodically she gets PIECES of Oxbow brand baked treats or dried fruits for training purposes (I'm a HUGE proponent of a bored rabbit is an unhealthy and destructive rabbit, so we do lots of training of stupid tricks in our house). She also periodically gets Flax seed (used to be every day, but she kept getting soft cecotrophs, so that mostly stopped) as an antinflammatory supplement. Further treats include Oat Grass Hay and Orchard grass hay. For her teeth (as per the vet) she gets one timothy hay cube from Kaytee every other day (does have some alfalfa, but not a lot, mostly timothy to help keep those teeth filed down).
Medical history: She has to have her molars trimmed monthly (she's going in Thursday for this, so we are going to talk to the vet about her ileus too), but she's never actually had ileus from bad teeth in the past (we caught it before she had GI issues!). She has had (and periodically still does have) cecal dysbioses where her cecotrophs are too numerous and so we simply cut out all treats and sometimes even pellets until it clears up. Recently we found elevated liver enzymes (AST in particular- a hepatocelllar enzyme, indicative of hepatocellular damage) and so we treated with albon and milk thistle/lactulose in the hopes it was simply an ascending coccidial infection. She got some blood work that came back as even worse (this could be an artifact from sitting too long- it was free from my school and it sat a while, so we may retest on Thursday when we go to the vet).
Exercise- she has a total of about 20 square foot cage (but over a total of three floors with ramps to climb) and gets free run of the entire apartment (when we are home to supervise) about 4-8 hours per day depending on work schedules. She's a generally lazy bun, but she does periodically run around (she mostly comes out for the snuggles).
Stressors: my boyfriend recently left for a work trip on Sunday morning (she had obvious ileus signs Monday night about 7-8pm to put it on a timeline). He's been gone before with no issues. I've been struggling with depression issues (animals are great at reading body language, so she may be stressed because I'm different form normal ). It's been VERY windy here (75 mph gusts) and even though she's an indoor bunny, she doesn't seem to like the wind (however, this has never caused ileus before). Otherwise, it's a fairly quiet apartment and she's not an easy to stress bunny.
Whiskey, who had ileus 4 months ago is under the same conditions. Can you guys think of anything I'm doing wrong with my bunnies to cause them to have ileus? Thank you guys!
Her diet: unlimited Timothy hay (2nd or 3rd cut, Oxbow), 6 Oxbow Natural Science pellets in the morning and up to 5 additionally as treats (she's a 3.5 lb rabbit), fresh veggies every night (varies, but all are listed as rabbit safe of course). And periodically she gets PIECES of Oxbow brand baked treats or dried fruits for training purposes (I'm a HUGE proponent of a bored rabbit is an unhealthy and destructive rabbit, so we do lots of training of stupid tricks in our house). She also periodically gets Flax seed (used to be every day, but she kept getting soft cecotrophs, so that mostly stopped) as an antinflammatory supplement. Further treats include Oat Grass Hay and Orchard grass hay. For her teeth (as per the vet) she gets one timothy hay cube from Kaytee every other day (does have some alfalfa, but not a lot, mostly timothy to help keep those teeth filed down).
Medical history: She has to have her molars trimmed monthly (she's going in Thursday for this, so we are going to talk to the vet about her ileus too), but she's never actually had ileus from bad teeth in the past (we caught it before she had GI issues!). She has had (and periodically still does have) cecal dysbioses where her cecotrophs are too numerous and so we simply cut out all treats and sometimes even pellets until it clears up. Recently we found elevated liver enzymes (AST in particular- a hepatocelllar enzyme, indicative of hepatocellular damage) and so we treated with albon and milk thistle/lactulose in the hopes it was simply an ascending coccidial infection. She got some blood work that came back as even worse (this could be an artifact from sitting too long- it was free from my school and it sat a while, so we may retest on Thursday when we go to the vet).
Exercise- she has a total of about 20 square foot cage (but over a total of three floors with ramps to climb) and gets free run of the entire apartment (when we are home to supervise) about 4-8 hours per day depending on work schedules. She's a generally lazy bun, but she does periodically run around (she mostly comes out for the snuggles).
Stressors: my boyfriend recently left for a work trip on Sunday morning (she had obvious ileus signs Monday night about 7-8pm to put it on a timeline). He's been gone before with no issues. I've been struggling with depression issues (animals are great at reading body language, so she may be stressed because I'm different form normal ). It's been VERY windy here (75 mph gusts) and even though she's an indoor bunny, she doesn't seem to like the wind (however, this has never caused ileus before). Otherwise, it's a fairly quiet apartment and she's not an easy to stress bunny.
Whiskey, who had ileus 4 months ago is under the same conditions. Can you guys think of anything I'm doing wrong with my bunnies to cause them to have ileus? Thank you guys!
, with her cecal issues, she actually seems to to better with the dried stuff- do you think I should switch over anyways?
