My Bunny's Diarrhea Dilemma

[cinna]

Hi. I am at my wit's end with this.Can someone possibly help me ? ray:

My almost 14 year old Dutch dwarf bunny has had diarrhea problems for several months. I don't suspect that it is any vegetable that he is sensitive to, as I have monitored his food for months now. Some days hegenerates good bowel movements - round and dry, and then he will go through bouts of diarrhea and the cage will be all smeared. I have been through homeopathic and natural remedies with him that always helped in the past, but this timenothing's helped. It's really frustrating. I have tried giving probiotics, digestive enzymes, and silver.

I have a question. Can I just feed my bunny hay? Can they alone survive on this? It seems he does really well with the hay, and I am wondering if maybe I should just take him off all vegetables for a while? The only thing is that he is always very hungry, and I am not sure that the hay would be enough to satisfy him.

I'd be really happy to receive some feedback . I love my bunny so much. I know he is old, but he still has so much life in him.



Thanks very much, Cinna

 

[Flick]

Your rabbit may have a parasite in his digestive tract. I suggest you take him to a rabbit experienced vet. If possible take a sample of the diarrhea. Digestive parasites go through a life cycle during which the feces looks normal, then there's a run of diarrhea. If there is a parasite, it will take at least 2 doses of medication to kill it off. The first dose will kill off the adult parasites, but not the eggs. So another dose is given in 2 weeks to kill off the newly hatched batch before they mature to egg-laying adults. A third dose may be needed.

Really, no fooling... VET VISIT!!!!

 

[missyscove]

I would also really recommend a visit to a vet to check for a problem outside of the diet. That said, is he on a pellet? If you find that the veggies are what's causing the issue and want to just feed hay, that might be okay, but I'd worry that he won't get all the nutrients he needs off of just hay without pellets to go along with it.

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree with the above. At his age, some blood work should be done to make sure all his organs are functioning properly, as a shutdown in one system can lead to problems in others. A bunny can live on hay and water only, but older bunnies will do better with a pellet as they sometimes need a richer source of nutrients than hay.

 

[maxysmummy]

hay should make up 90% of the diet... are you using a good quality pellet? i also reccomend going to a vet asap

 

[cinna]

Hi Everybody.

Thanks for all your suggestions, you were bang on!!!!! ray:

My bunny's diarrhea was the worst yesterday, and I had him only on Timothy and Oat hay (I have always given him lots of hay) . So, because of that, I went to the closest Vet Hospital right away. The technician I spoke to told me to try giving him only pellets for a couple days to see if that would plug him up. I hadn't been feeding him pelletsfor over 8 months because he was allergic to soy, and it was making him sick. I went then to one of the more specialized pet stores hoping tofind a better brand of pellets,and found to my surprise a brand I had never seen before. It isorganic (no pesticides) and is free from soy and wheat!

When I gave my bunny the bowl of pellets he attacked it right away. It took a while with his stomach still making loud noises but eventually, like in2 hours,his stomach stopped gurglingand was producing perfectly round and dry poopies! WhooHoo!:biggrin2:

I still do not really quite understand this.. If you look at bunnies in the wild all they eat is veggies, leaves, grass etc.. There is no hay or pellets.. Perhaps a dometicated bunny who has lived on a diet of pellets and hay does not have the same digestive system as the bunnies in the wild? I dunno.

Anyways, I will continue to monitor him and hope that things continue to improve. My bunny has lost so much weight, but he actually already looks so much better! Hopefully I can eventually introduce a few veggiesbackinto his diet, but I have to be really careful now with that...

Thank you!

Best Regards,Cinna

 

[maxysmummy]

cinna wrote:

Hi Everybody.

Thanks for all your suggestions, you were bang on!!!!!  ray:

 My bunny's diarrhea was the worst yesterday, and I had him only on Timothy and Oat hay (I have always given him lots of hay) . So, because of that, I went to the closest Vet Hospital right away. The technician I spoke to told me to try giving him only pellets for a couple days to see if that would plug him up. I hadn't been feeding him pellets for over 8 months because he was allergic to soy, and it was making him sick.  I  went then to one of the more specialized pet stores hoping to find a better brand of pellets, and found to my surprise a brand I had never seen before. It is organic (no pesticides) and is free from soy and wheat!

When I gave my bunny the bowl of pellets he attacked it right away. It took a while with his stomach still making loud noises but eventually, like in 2 hours,his stomach stopped gurgling and was producing perfectly round and dry poopies! WhooHoo!:biggrin2:

I still do not really quite understand this.. If you look at bunnies in the wild all they eat is veggies, leaves, grass etc.. There is no hay or pellets.. Perhaps a dometicated bunny who has lived on a diet of pellets and hay does not have the same digestive system as the bunnies in the wild? I dunno.

Anyways, I will continue to monitor him and hope that things continue to improve. My bunny has lost so much weight, but he actually already looks so much better!  Hopefully I can eventually  introduce a few veggies back into his diet, but I have to be really careful now with that...

Thank you!

Best Regards,Cinna

 

 

unfortunately i think the difference is, we try to elongate the lives of our domestic rabbits because we love them. more than likely the weak rabbits (hope i'm not offending you with that term) die out quickly.