Help with recurrent stomach issues

[taylor_wt]

Hi everyone,

I was hoping to get some advice! It seems like about once a month for the past few months my bunny has been having some stomach issues. When it happens he refuses to eat and will just lay down during his play time. Since I feed him at night before I go to bed, every time this has happened he is fine by the morning (eating, pooping, moving around like normal) so I haven’t had to take him in to the vet. We have had one scare with stasis about a year ago but with a quick vet visit we were able to get things resolved quickly. So anyways, I was wondering if anyone had any tips or advice on how to avoid these episodes or can point out anything I can do differently, since I’m sure it is very uncomfortable for him. I will try and provide as much information as I can think of!

He is a 2 ½ year old neutered Holland Lop.

His daily food routine:

Morning: Fresh Hay and water (available 24/7)

Evening: Greens (1-2 leaves romaine lettuce, about 5-6 pieces of cilantro, 1 basil leaf)

Night: 1/8 cup pellets, 1 oxbow papaya support tablet, more fresh hay

Occasionally he’ll get a little bite of an apple, a blueberry, or small piece of pineapple but this is pretty rare.

At minimum he gets to come out of his cage at night for at least an hour if I have a really busy day. Most days he comes out to play and free roam at least 2-3 hours in the evening and he has been getting to go outside a lot recently since the weather has been nicer. (I would love to let him free roam all the time but for his own safety he needs to be in his cage when I’m not around)

The only thing I can think of that may be causing his stomach issues is possibly him ingesting fur. He hates being brushed and I have yet to find an efficient brush (I’ve gone through at least 3 and all were a waste of money) so normally I’ll just gently pull the loose fur off of him when I’m petting him most nights and he doesn’t seem to mind.

I’m totally open to any advice/tips and if you notice anything I can change that may help him with these stomach episodes I would really appreciate it! Thanks for taking the time to read this.

 

[Blue eyes]

When this does occur - that he refuses to eat - do you mean that in the evening when you give him his pellets that he refuses the pellets but that the pellets are eaten by morning?

 

[taylor_wt]

When this does occur - that he refuses to eat - do you mean that in the evening when you give him his pellets that he refuses the pellets but that the pellets are eaten by morning?

Yes, each time I have noticed it in the evening when I give him his pellets. He will refuse to eat and lay his stomach on the ground and not really want to run around and play like normal. But when I check on him the following morning his pellets will be gone and it's like everything is back to normal. It has happened about once a month the past 3 months and scares me so bad every time!

 

[JBun]

With reoccurring stasis episodes when it seems to correlate with eating and could be diet related, you want to try and determine if the discomfort seems to coincide with a particular food that is being fed. It could be the pellets or a certain veggie, usually it's not hay unless it's a new batch being fed when this all started.

I had one rabbit that kept getting stasis. I started noticing that within a half hour after feeding pellets, that he would start squinting, belly pressing, and changing positions not being able to settle. Once I removed pellets from his diet he never had stasis again.

Other things that could cause reoccurring discomfort soon after(or during) eating when it's not a certain food in particular causing the discomfort, are gastric ulcers, dental problems, or bladder sludge issues. When it's not just after eating that this is happening, it could be some other health issue causing pain and thus a lack of appetite, which a vet would need to do further diagnostics to determine the cause.

 

[taylor_wt]

With reoccurring stasis episodes when it seems to correlate with eating and could be diet related, you want to try and determine if the discomfort seems to coincide with a particular food that is being fed. It could be the pellets or a certain veggie, usually it's not hay unless it's a new batch being fed when this all started.

I had one rabbit that kept getting stasis. I started noticing that within a half hour after feeding pellets, that he would start squinting, belly pressing, and changing positions not being able to settle. Once I removed pellets from his diet he never had stasis again.

Other things that could cause reoccurring discomfort soon after(or during) eating when it's not a certain food in particular causing the discomfort, are gastric ulcers, dental problems, or bladder sludge issues. When it's not just after eating that this is happening, it could be some other health issue causing pain and thus a lack of appetite, which a vet would need to do further diagnostics to determine the cause.

Thanks for the info! I’ll go ahead and make an appointment for him to see if the vet can figure out what’s going on.

 

[zuppa]

Hi, your diet and routine looks good to me, excluding papaya tablets, I've never used them and see no need for them, especially on daily basis, but I can be wrong since I simply don't know them.

What you described doesn't sound bad to me, he doesn't need to eat all pellets straight away, if he eats them over 24 hours it's fine. My rabbits when getting older sometimes changing their habits, including their passion for pellets. In fact it is not bad when they eat pellets not all immediately but little now little later that I would imagine is not bad at all.

But if you are going to your vet for tests anyway, I would also ask if they could run some tests for parasites, just because you mentioned that it occurs about once a month so could be related to pinworms life cycle, when the eggs hatching and there's times when there are old and newly hatched pinworms and they can create blockages or discomfort anyway. Maybe he doesn't have any but in theory since you say he has his time outdoors it is possible that he could pick up some eggs, not that unusual.

How is his poos? Are they all nice and round, no misshaped, no mucus, can you post some pics of his poos? I would try a simple carrot test, pinworms are getting out in bunches after you feed a good piece of a carrot, there's no consensus on why, some people say that pinworms cant stand carrots, others say that they love carrots, anyways they are coming out and you can see them on fresh poos immediately after he had his carrot, they are very visible, but just you have to inspect within say 10-15 mins because after that they will disappear on air just will dry out and sometimes even tests not showing them. So you can just try it for yourself if you wish.

Just one thought on your issue, other cases already were mentioned above.

 

[taylor_wt]

Hi, your diet and routine looks good to me, excluding papaya tablets, I've never used them and see no need for them, especially on daily basis, but I can be wrong since I simply don't know them.

What you described doesn't sound bad to me, he doesn't need to eat all pellets straight away, if he eats them over 24 hours it's fine. My rabbits when getting older sometimes changing their habits, including their passion for pellets. In fact it is not bad when they eat pellets not all immediately but little now little later that I would imagine is not bad at all.

But if you are going to your vet for tests anyway, I would also ask if they could run some tests for parasites, just because you mentioned that it occurs about once a month so could be related to pinworms life cycle, when the eggs hatching and there's times when there are old and newly hatched pinworms and they can create blockages or discomfort anyway. Maybe he doesn't have any but in theory since you say he has his time outdoors it is possible that he could pick up some eggs, not that unusual.

How is his poos? Are they all nice and round, no misshaped, no mucus, can you post some pics of his poos? I would try a simple carrot test, pinworms are getting out in bunches after you feed a good piece of a carrot, there's no consensus on why, some people say that pinworms cant stand carrots, others say that they love carrots, anyways they are coming out and you can see them on fresh poos immediately after he had his carrot, they are very visible, but just you have to inspect within say 10-15 mins because after that they will disappear on air just will dry out and sometimes even tests not showing them. So you can just try it for yourself if you wish.

Just one thought on your issue, other cases already were mentioned above.

The vet recommended the papaya tablets when he had a scare with stasis about a year ago. So I decided to keep him on them regularly for prevention measures.

Interesting about pinworms! I'll definitely give the carrot test a try.

As for his poop, I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary except for the occasional stringy poop with a little bit of fur. That usually only happens when he is shedding really bad though. (I'll post a picture but will need to switch over to my phone for that)

Thanks so much for your input!

 

[taylor_wt]

Hi, your diet and routine looks good to me, excluding papaya tablets, I've never used them and see no need for them, especially on daily basis, but I can be wrong since I simply don't know them.

What you described doesn't sound bad to me, he doesn't need to eat all pellets straight away, if he eats them over 24 hours it's fine. My rabbits when getting older sometimes changing their habits, including their passion for pellets. In fact it is not bad when they eat pellets not all immediately but little now little later that I would imagine is not bad at all.

But if you are going to your vet for tests anyway, I would also ask if they could run some tests for parasites, just because you mentioned that it occurs about once a month so could be related to pinworms life cycle, when the eggs hatching and there's times when there are old and newly hatched pinworms and they can create blockages or discomfort anyway. Maybe he doesn't have any but in theory since you say he has his time outdoors it is possible that he could pick up some eggs, not that unusual.

How is his poos? Are they all nice and round, no misshaped, no mucus, can you post some pics of his poos? I would try a simple carrot test, pinworms are getting out in bunches after you feed a good piece of a carrot, there's no consensus on why, some people say that pinworms cant stand carrots, others say that they love carrots, anyways they are coming out and you can see them on fresh poos immediately after he had his carrot, they are very visible, but just you have to inspect within say 10-15 mins because after that they will disappear on air just will dry out and sometimes even tests not showing them. So you can just try it for yourself if you wish.

Just one thought on your issue, other cases already were mentioned above.

 

[Diane R]

I would drop the greens (and definitely the fruit) for a couple of weeks, then if everything OK, add one at a time, just a tiny quantity, wait two weeks again. It may not be diet related at all but good to eliminate it as a possibility. I also wouldn't give papaya tablets, doesn't do anything other than add sugar.

 

[JennysMama]

Hello, I try to put my bunnies on a Timothy hay only diet when notice that they are starting to shed. I call it flushing the system. Hope that helps

 

[JennysMama]

Also daily gentle belly messages help a ton throughout the day when you start to see the bracelet poops.