Not eating/drinking....

[snap]

So some of you may have seen my post a while ago about my NZ buck dying, and, well, now his sister is sick too. :/

For the past few days she hasn't been eating or drinking very much, not even hay. She'll eat veggies/treats most of the time, but she turned down a carrot and a raspberry. Normally she will jump on the door to be fed, and then try to climb in her feeder but now she just...hops over and nibbles a little and then stares at me. She's also normally very energetic, and now she's still jumpy but not so much of the exciting jumping. She nibbles enough to poop some, I think, but she's outside in a wire floor hutch and I keep forgetting to put up something to collect her poo to look at it...

I think it might be her teeth, but I can't grab hold of her to check them accurately and can only just look at them.

Could it be a) the heat, or b) depressed from the loss of her brother?
a) I have three other rabbits outside, and they're not eating as much either but they do still drink a lot
b) her and her brother have ALWAYS been together for their entire lives((1.5 years)). I don't think they've ever spent more than two days without being near each other. They liked to lay against their divider with each other. I don't know anything about this in rabbits, so I'm very much just tossing it out there.

Also, I'm planning to have my mother call the vet and schedule an appointment because I'm really worried about losing yet another rabbit. I put this up to see if anyone had any input on what it could be, and what I could do until the appointment.

 

[Amy27]

I am glad you are taking her to the vet. Could you have gotten a bad bag of food?

I would try to keep her hydrated. Especially with the heat. I would try flavoring her water. You can also syringe her some water and mix it with pedialyte. You can also soak her veggies. I soak mine for about an hour. They will soak up the water so that when she does eat them she will be getting more water. Keeping her hydrated until her appointment is raelly important.

I am sure a mod will be along soon who will be able to offer better advice. Good luck and keep us updated.

 

[tonyshuman]

It's hard to say. Are tooth issues common in her lines? It's important for you to determine if she's pooping, because that can be a real issue. Try to cool her down to see if that helps. Did she see her brother's body? That can help them deal with the loss, to know that the other rabbit is gone. You may want to syringe her some water--I'd say about 10mL/5lb of bunny (not sure on her size-10+lbs?). I think you have to do some more detective work to figure out what's going on here, like checking for poop, feeling her ears to see if she's too warm, cooling her down some. Without knowing these things, it's hard to figure out which of the possibilities it is.

 

[snap]

If it was a bad bag of food, I would have known by now. I have 8 rabbits and I'm halfway through the bag. Everyone else eats.

Flavouring water like, squeezing raspberries in it or something? Or vanilla?
I'll soak some veggies for her today, she'll eat most of her veggies.

I have no idea what is or isn't common in her lines. She's from a mass meat rabbit breeder, I got her through my FFA so she's really not even expected to be alive this long.

She IS pooping though. Seems she nibbles enough to poo, as she's been inside because we're redoing the siding((note-we've been redoing siding for 2 days, but this has been going on for longer than that. I wanted to clarify that it's not her being stressed from that)). It's not as much as I would expect, but it's there. She is also peeing a bit.

Her brother died overnight, so yes she saw his body. I also took him out and laid him on the ground and examined him, and she was watching.

Ah, syringing water won't be easy((can't hold her, if I could I would know if it was teeth issues or not)) but I'll try my best, especially if nothing else works.

 

[tonyshuman]

You can add a drop of vanilla to it, or some fruit juice.

Since she's a NZ (how old is she?), I wouldn't expect much tooth issues in her genetics, although it's not unheard of.

If she is pooing, then you don't really have to worry about syringing her water.

It's a matter of ruling out what could be causing her decreased appetite and decreased output. Since it's probably not full-blown GI stasis, and isn't likely to be mourning or tooth issues, some other things to look into are parasites--do you worm on a regular schedule? If not, it may be helpful to give her a dose of panacur. Try to get a look at least at her front teeth--mostly you can't see the teeth that cause most of the problem, they're too far in the back.

 

[snap]

Okay, I took her to the vet but I don't particularly like/trust him((our old vet place burned down & went out of business so we're still trying to find another good rabbit vet)).

But he said she had a temperature of 104((I think normal is around 102?)) and nothing showed up on the fecal test. So she's just got some antibiotics, 2mL twice a day((which looks like a lot to me...)). No tooth problems, no abnormal sounds/lumps. Again though, I'm not really sure he is a 'rabbit vet' I think he just will see them.

Now that you mention it, there's a high possibility of it possibly being parasites. If I get the panacur can I give that to her with the antibiotics or no?

 

[tonyshuman]

What is the antibiotic? Some of them have anti-parasitic effects as well, like metronidazole (Flagyl).

 

[snap]

Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole.

Where can I get panacur? Just at a feed store?

 

[Maureen Las]

I have to look it up but i think104 is a high normal temp but i will get back on this...

 

[tonyshuman]

Yep, Panacur can be found in the livestock medicine section of a farm supply store.

I'm not a fan of trimethoprim sulfa--it can mess up the GI bacteria, causing the bad ones to overgrow and the good ones to die. It's not appropriate for gut slowdown in my opinion.

A probiotic might help. Many farm stores sell ProBios and many pet stores sell BeneBac. They're equivalent and both good at getting the good GI bacteria to do well. That can get the GI moving somewhat.

 

[snap]

I'll be making a trip to the feed store tomorrow then!

As I said before, I don't like this vet too much, he doesn't seem to know much. >.< That's the whole reason I wanted to post what he said here, because I wouldn't be very happy if the medicine he gave ended up hurting her more.

Are both of these medicines under rabbit labels, or no? What's the dosage per pound? And should I give the ProBios along with the medicine from the vet((for our livestock we give them stuff to kill bad bacteria and grow good bacteria at the same time, wondering if it applies here))?

Sorry for all the questions! I'm just really worried I could lose another bunny. :C

 

[tonyshuman]

I would give her the ProBios whether you continue with the antibiotic or not--1g a day is good. My guys prefer the ProBios paste, which is marketed for horses, but they also make a powder for dogs/cats/rabbits. Mine are not as big a fan of the powder, but will eat the paste out of the tube. Some people's bunnies will only eat the powder if it's sprinkled on wet veggies, and won't eat the paste.

The Panacur I think is also a horse product, but I would get the smallest tube they have. Goat or sheep should be fine too.

 

[snap]

Okay, thank you very much.

She hasn't had much change at all, but it's a little soon to know if the antibiotics will help.