Bengi is a seven year old Holland Lop. He has always been a small bunny, but over the past couple of months I noticed he seemed to be getting skinnier than usual. I thought he might just be looking small because he was shedding his summer coat before growing in his winter one, but he still felt skinny after his winter coat came in. I gave him some alfalfa hay to fatten him up a little and a few days later his eyes started to water and the fur under his eyes crusted a little. I thought it might be from dust in the hay, so I took the hay away and washed off his eyes.
I was hesitant to take him to the vet because I don’t know of any incredibly rabbit-savvy vets where I live, but then his eyes crusted more and started to ooze white, fishy smelling pus under the tear ducts. AND his upper teeth looked too small, like they had been worn down or something. He was still eating his pellet food, the hay when I gave it to him, and the occasional banana or apple for a treat.
So I took him to my vet (he treats my dogs and cats, I haven’t taken a bunny there before), and he said that Bengi had an upper respiratory infection. I told him that Bengis teeth looked worn down and he dismissed me saying that every rabbits teeth look different. I told him that Bengis teeth haven’t always looked this way, they seem to have worn down recently, but he still wasn’t concerned. Bengi got a steroid shot, an antibiotic shot, and some liquid antibiotic that I gave him twice a day for ten days. I brought him inside (he and my other two bunnies live outside in separate cages right next to eachother) because it is getting pretty cold outside, and I wanted to be able to keep a closer eye on him. I soaked his food in water at first to make a kind of mush in case he was having trouble eating with his teeth, but the food swelled up so much with the water I was afraid he would end up eating less food because he felt fuller faster. He didn’t seem to have trouble with the dry food, and I had to take away his toys a couple of times because he was having too much fun being loud while I was trying to sleep. But now that he has been off his anti-biotic three days he is very lethargic, and barely eating. He is even skinnier than when I took him to the vet. I blended his food with some apple to make a sweeter mush to tempt him to eat more. He is eating it but only a tiny bit.
I don’t know what to do for him. From the research I’ve done online it could be a million things, I’m really worried.
If anybody could give me any advice I would really appreciate it!
Thanks.