Rabbit not eating

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hln917

hln917

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Location
, New Jersey, USA
My rabbit stop eating yesterday. He's drinking some water and has very little poop and very little pee. He's been acting normal, running in the morning when we let him out of the cage. We have baby romaine lettuce, carrots, blueberry in his dish that he would normal have, but he hasn't touched it. He's also shedding alot. I read that it may be hairball. If so, do those hairball rememdy work?
 
Sorry I'm new to this site and just saw the following.

Location: New Jersey

- Description: Dutch, harlequin

- Age: 1 1/2

- spayed/neutered: no

- Notes on Fecal and Urinary Output
- are the bunny's poops and pees normal? Very little
- When did they last use their litterbox? today 1 hr ago
- Any unusual behavior? not eating

- Medical History -- has s/he been to the vet or been sick before? when we first adopted him. had broken leg

- Diet - what does your bunny eat? alfafa hay, baby romaine lettuce, blueberry, carrots, pellets, sunflower seeds.
- when and what did s/he eat last? 2 days ago

- movement - any unusual movements? Is s/he hopping normally? yes running/hopping normally

- are there any plants, chocolate or other substances within reach? no

- has the rabbit been outdoors? yes but carried.
 
Sounds like your bunny is in stasis. None of the experts for the infirmary are online right now. I just checked.I hope they get to you soon. It's not fun having a sick bunny.



They'll prob want you to give Simethicone Drops. Do you have any?



Do you have pure pumpkin (not pie filling) ?

**These are couple things they may recommend. But wait for them to tell you what to do. just seeing if you have them on hand.
 
Hi,

Rabbits do not get "hairballs" as they are normally thought of. Rabbits haved a unique digestive system (similar to horses). Due to several possibilities, there may be several things that cause their GI to slowdown (stasis) or stop (ileus). Pain, illness, infections, tumors, stress or diet can cause the hair, food, hay andmucus in the gut (called ingesta) to bind together to form what is similar to a hairball. The commercially available hairball treatments are contraindicated in rabbits. While products lke Petro Malt and Laxotone will many times help a dog, cat or ferret.....in a rabbit just the weight and viscosity of the product will compress the ingesta into a much denser mass that is dehydrating rapidly. This is the opposite of what is needed andwill lead to a rapidly cascading series of events. The idea in this situation is to hydrate and break up the mass. Our first line attack here is always a large amount of favorite greens. Since he isn't eating what he would normally eat quickly....try something different. Dandelion greens are always a favorite around here. The idea behind the greens is the hydration contained in the greens. If you are comfortable in doing so, you can syringe water or Pedialyte. If you have the capability of either sub-q or IV infusions, that would be even better. And this isn't clinically proven but we have been successful with it.....we use pineapple juice. It is important that it be fresh squeezed fromthe real fruit.....not canned, bottled or concentrate. Keep him moving as much as possible without undue stress. Moving will many times stimulate the muscles in the GI. If you have a vet, I would suggest making arrangements for a visit if things don't improve. Many vets will use motility drugs but I have been doing this for decades and consider motility drugs totally inappropriate and do not allow any vet to use them on my rabbits.

I am very concerned about the diet. It's not exactly what would be generally considered proper. I have no problem with the alfalfa hay but there should be a high amount of grass hays in the diet. Carrots and blueberries in very small amounts are OK but not so good in large amounts. And sunflower seeds are not something we offer our rabbits at any time. Stasis is always a symptom of something else. While I don't know the entire story of this rabbit from your post, I would certainly review and modify the diet to a healthier and more appropriate rabbit diet. In my rescue, we make every effort to mimic a natural diet.....we know that the artificial diet we feed is not usually the best. Our rabbits get unlimited amounts of various types of hay, limited greens, and very limited pellets and fruits.....and never any treats. It is rare we have GI issues.

Randy
 
The hairball remedies are NOT good. And that long without food is definitely cause for concern. I'd get him to a vet.

He's a young bunny so the most likely culprit is the molting and the hair. He's going to need fluids and fiber. A vet can give him fluids by injection.

If you can't get him in, I'd start giving him Pedialyte (childrens electrolyte replacement drink) and canned pumpkin -- which is a great source of we fiber. And keep him moving. Exercise is good.

If he starts acting like he's in pain, the gut slowdown is probably causing gas build-up, so Simethicone drops (or tablets) will help with that.

For the record, I don't think alfalfa hay is a good idea, I'd start switching to timothy or other grass hays, high fiber and less protein and other things he no longer needs.

He also sounds a little treat-heavy there. Is he overweight?


sas :clover:
 
Here is a discussion we had last week on stasis

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=50040&forum_id=16
it is worth it to at least scroll down and read what other members do to take care of it
this is a problems that if caught early can be remedied by the owner

All of us do it a bit different

I,too, use fresh pineapple juice and syringe maybe 5 cc 2 times per day. It needs to be squeezed from a whole pineapple as Randy stated.
Fresh wet freens was already mentioned but will usually tempt a rabbit to eat
If the rabbit won't eatI syringe baby electrolyte drink ( pedialyte here ) to the rabbit usually as much as he will take per syringe. throughtout the day. Always make sure that the rabbit is swallowing when you syringe fluids. Don't turn the bunny upside down in a towel to syringe as he could choke or aspirate the fluids into the lungs
I usually get down on the floor and place the syringe in the side of the bunny's mouth behind the teeth and gently push in small amounts . my rabbits like both pineapple juice and/ also pedialyte.

Encourage the bunny to move about but first give simethicone . There are varous tradenames depending on location which is the Infrmary Mod discussion link .

I usually give 1 cc of liquid infant drop simethicone ( Mylicon orGasX here) and then wait an hour or so before I repeat the same dosage. if the bun is not showing improvement .

you can repeat about 3 times within a several hour period if the bun is still quiet and not acting normal.
you can massage the tiummy gently and applly heat ( describedin the link) if the bunny looks in pain. If you have metacam for pain this can aso be administered as long as the rabbit has already been given a lot of fluids. prior to the metacam dosage. metacam is hard on the kidneys so the bun should be well hydrated.

I usually don't give the pure pumpkin right away but since your rabbit has not eaten for 24 hours you might want to try that. The pumpkin must not have any sugar or seasoning in in it. Try about 5 cc at a time . One of my rabbits will eat pumpkin out of a bowl.

At this point the fluids is more important than the food and if he has gas and /or hair is his gut and the above helps dispelit your bun should be eating on his own soon
if you can get a probiotic like benebac or it has helped my buns to get a dose of that although I dont know why. it will reestablih the good bacteria in the gut . Certain products sold for horses in farm stores can also be used instead of benebac as they are basically the same. Probios is an example of that .

Please lt us know how your bunny is doing but remember that fluids is most important right now...
if your bun shows no improvement then he needs to see a vet ...
 
Thank you all for your help and suggestions! This is truly a wonderful site. Baci wasn't eating any of the pumpkin, dandelion, or pineapple juice. He's a very stubborn rabbit. We were able to feed him some Pedialyte via a dropper. He did pee right after. Just 15 minutes ago, he finally started to eat the baby romaine lettuce that we left in front of him. I've noticed he's also been cleaning himself more frequently. Is this normal? I'm just concern because he's still shedding his fur quite a bit.

We're keeping an eye on him and see if his appetite slowly return. Unfortunately the vets are closed for the holidays until tomorrow and I don't trust just any vets who does not specialize in rabbits.

Also a couple of you mentioned this Simethicone drops. Is is a prescription or over the counter? Will it harm him if his stomach is empty?

He spends all day free in the house and only back in the cage during the evening. He's still very active; running and hopping. It's just his lack of appetite that is the concern.

We rescued Baci from the "death row" at a local vet. He was left there in the middle of the night by the previous owner with a broken leg. After 2 weeks of no interest, the vet was going to put him to sleep. I was in tears when we bought him home and saw him hopping with difficulties b/c of his broken leg. However after a couple of months of letting him run around, his leg slowly healed itself. Even the vet was surprised to learn he now runs up and down the stairs and chases us like a dog. So you can see how special he is to us.

And yes, their diets are changing as of today!
 
The simethicone is bought over the counter at any drugstore. . You can get mylcion infant drops or Gas X infant drops at Walgreens
be sure to read the back of the label to make sure that simethicone is the active iingredient ( Not Mylanta or Maalox which contain aluminum and magnesium hydroxide )

You can buy any liquid gas drop that has simethicone as the only active ingredient.
it will not hurt your rabbit at all. it is not absorbed by the body at all and we all use it on this site a lot.

We conssider it a wonder drug for gas attacks

All it does is break up gas bubbles into smaller bubbles so they can be released from the body ...
Very safe.

if you are going to change pellets do that slowly mixing the new pellet into the ones that you are feeding
you can change the hays without any problem..
rabbits that have been on alfalfa will prefer it so you may need to mix hays with a little alfalfa just to get him interested...

it was great of you to save this bun
you sound like a great owner!!!:)
 
I'm glad you got some pedialyte into him and he started eating! Baci is lucky that you guys found him. Keep us updated, as it can sometimes take quite a while to recover fully from stasis.
 
Baci starting eating a bit more after we gave him some Pedialyte and simethicone drop, however he still wasn't peeing and pooping as much. We bought him this morning to the vet and he did confirm it was Statis. He's on Baytril Cisapride, Bene bac and Critical care. His appetite returned and we changed his diet.

Thanks to everyone for their advice and suggestions, the Vet said it was good that we started the home remedy treatment this weekend for him. Been a stressful last couple of days, more or less put everything on hold just to keep an eye on him, even taking time off from work. But they are all worth every second and penny!
 
Hoping someone can answer this. With the above medication, should we still give him simethicone? He's taking his critical care and greens but still not as much hay nor pellets. His pee and poop daily are also very little. Still not back to normal
 
From what I can remember, Cisapride is a gut motility drug. If I'm right, then I would personally take my rabbit off of this medication. It is designed for cats, who have a different digestive system, and it can cause a lot of painful cramping of the intestines.

The baytril is also something I would not give my rabbit in this situation. Unless the vet found an infection somewhere and did a culture to find out that Baytril is the correct antibiotic. Baytril can be very hard on the gut flora, and is not something that is going to really help stasis.

The Benebac is great. It will help to acidify the gut and promote a healthy gut flora which is essential for a happy bunny tummy.

I would focus on getting as much fluid into him as possible. If he's eating greens, then soak the in water for 15 minutes before serving them to him. Try syringing him some more pedialyte or finding something he'll take willingly on his own.

The critical care is good, but I would make sure it sits and absorbs all the liquid before serving. And when I use it with my buns, I put in a lot more water than the instructions say. It is capable of absorbing a lot of water, I would rather it did that before entering my bunny's digestive system.

And yes, I would continue with the simethicone. It is inert and should not react with the other medications and should help to deal with any gas that comes up from his digestive tract not moving as it should.

--Dawn
 
Agreed. Sorry I was too busy to come on today until now. I agree that cisapride is probably not a good thing to give him. I'd keep up the Baytril for now because if he's on a probiotic, it shouldn't cause problems with his gut flora. Fluids, veggies, Bene-Bac, pedialyte, pumpkin puree, and nothing else with sugar are good. Also put out new hay--it smells better than old for some reason.
 
Thanks again for the replies.

I took him off both the Cisapride and Baytril last night and just gave him the Bene Bac, Critical Care and some simethicone and pedialtye. He seems to be feeling a bit better running around and gave us a good amount of poop. (That made our night!)

However he still won't eat any hay,ever since we switched it from Alfafa. I keeping bringing out fresh one. We got the Oxbow Timothy Hay mixed with some Orchard Hay. He is chewing up his straw mat in his cage and eating that instead. Any suggestions?
 
Hmmm. Is the hay in the litter box? You could mix in a bit of alfalfa at first, just to get him going on it. I know my guys go crazy when I bring out a pinch of alfalfa as a treat, so I try to hide it deep in the Timothy so they have to eat their way to it. Orchard is a very sweet grass and is usually very well liked, so I'm surprised he hasn't eaten that yet. You can also tease him with a strand of the new hay so he bites it in anger and realizes it tastes good.

yay for poop! Running around helps a lot-gets stuff moving.
 
This has been so stressful. I'm getting worried especially after reading about Simon. Baci started eating on his own and pooping a good amount on Friday and yesterday up to this morning. However tonight he's acting unusual again. He took 2 dose of Critical Care today, but took very little of the 3rd dose, spitting some out. We gave him Pedialyte and some simethicone. We stopped the Baytril and Cisapride yesterday. Do you think we did it too soon? Planning on taking him back to the Vet if he's still not eating in the morning.
 
No he hasn't pooped nor pee since this morning. He won't come out of his cage now. He is drinking water on his own. He's also been cleaning himself alot. Aside from the Bene Bac and Critical Care, he only ate some greens this morning. We did give him simethicone twice today. Do you think we should give him another dose?
 
A few months ago we had a thread started re. the use of gut motility drugs . At that time Kathy Smith (renowned author of several rabbit health books) was actually doing research on this site for her next book. She was SHOCKED that everyone on this forum did not believe in gut motility drugs as her vet prescribes them for her rabbits frequently. I also am a member of Etherbun and note that individuals on that site regularly use gut motility drugs without a lot of thought.
I am adding this to this thread because it is not our place to villify your vet for prescribing it and tell you to stop it without at least adding a comment.

Motility drugs are commonly prescribed and used for stasis in this country . There is a subset of veterinarians that will not usethem ( or rarely use them) and Randy and his team of vets at Sabrina's are one of those subsets; Randy and his team are doing 'cutting edge' medicine meaning that they are trying out new meds and learning negative things about the old ones...in other words they are moving rabbit medicine ahead .


If you do go to your vet tomorrow your vet most likely wll not know why you didn't give the Cisapride ; will have no idea.

Time and again Randy's advice has helped rabbits ( and I , like many of us on this forum have put our trust in Randy's opinion above the opinion of some veterinarians. (including my own)

Randy's thoughts on gut motility drugs are that they cause strong contractions in the gut which are painful to the rabbit and sometimes can wedge a mass in the intestines further into the bowel pockets. (sometimes but not always rupture the intestines.)He feels that stasis is a long term problem which is usually resolved slowly by hydrating the rabbit well, giving pineapple juice, pedialyte possibly benebac and simethicone and offering high fiber foods like pumpkin. In the shelter setting Randy and his vets would be giving sub q fluids to a rabbit with stasis... slowly working to help the rabbit'sGI tract start moving normally without a stimulant.

I used gut motility drugs beforeI knew this and never had an issue.I also used it on a rabbit that was too difficult to handle and did not have negative results.

A gut xray always needs to be taken prior to administering it because if the rabbit is totally blocked a drug like this will cause a rupture.

With this knowledge it is reallyYOUR OWN decision whether to administer the drugs your vet offered or possibly to talk this through with him tomorrow.
it should be based on knowledge pro and con

If you are not able to take a very active approach in giving fluids to your rabbit then the stasis may not resolve.

We are not veterinarians and are just giving you our opinions.

Randy would never under any circumstances give a gut moptility drug to a rabbit but if I had worked on the issue for awhile and there was not anyprogress I might use a motility drug ( and yes Randy would come back from his grave to haunt me LOL) although many members of this forum wouldnever use cispairde some would

talk with your vet tomorrow and then make up your mind based on knowledge from all sides.
 
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