Do we need to go to the emergency vet?

[Samara87]

He’s had an issue with his poops all week, they’ve been irregularly shaped and filled with hair, and not as frequent as I’d like. I’ve been feeding him mashed pellets, mixed with pumpkin and simethicone. He’s been gobbling it up. His poops are better, and he’s never stopped eating or anything. Earlier, he just wanted to sleep, looked very grumpy, and isn’t eating anything. I’m not sure what to do, but he just seems really off. Should we take him? I don’t know what would have happened. 

[HerculesandMolasses]

If he hasn’t eating or pooped in 12-24 hours. Then take him to the emergency vet right now. Also, maybe the hair in his poop was from eating to much fur? Maybe he’s shedding. Try to groom him more but take him to the vet.

[Samara87]

It hasn’t been that long, I don’t think. Maybe six? But he was just acting REALLY tired, not really moving, not doing anything. Now, for some reason, he’s up, chewing on cardboard, actually alert and seems to have some energy. But he keeps turning his nose up at everything I’ve tried to give him, except a couple of raisins. I’m not sure if this is something he’ll snap out of or not.

[Roberta]

Yes, please take him to the vet. He will need pain meds and possibly antibiotics.

[Samara87]

And now he’s eating romaine like nothing is wrong o.O I don’t understand. He was grumpy and all puffed up, but he wasn’t grinding his teeth and just seemed really sleepy. And then he started running around, chewing on cardboard, then he started eating some things. I don’t get it.

[jerseygirl]

Is he still eating hay and drinking?

Sometimes they’ll go for cardboard as a way of getting easy fibre.

(((Mr Binkins)))

[Samara87]

Hmm. I didn’t realize that. He hasn’t eaten any hay super recently, because I always given him an evening salad and Ive been giving him the pumpkin mix 3x a day, per Bam’s suggestion. Both those things were in his cage for over 2 hours, untouched, and he just slept and ignored it. His poops look normal again. Is it possible he just got too cold? It’s not super warm today, but I had the ac on while I took a nap, and when I woke up it was FREEZING in here.

[Eepster]

Lethargy is vet ER worthy.

[Eepster]

Rabbits tolerate cold much better than humans, it’s not the AC.

[Samara87]

I didn’t think so, but I didn’t know for sure. And he’s acting perfectly fine now, could I maybe keep an eye on him for a while longer before taking him in? He went to the vet a few weeks ago for a checkup, and he had a pretty hard time. It was his first vet visit for anything other than a nail trim. The last half hour he’s been running around the bedroom, he’s eaten some greens and some pumpkin mix. Now he’s grooming his back feet on my bed, and making little grunty sounds. He seems a lot more himself now. I just don’t want to put him through the car ride and all the poking and prodding if he is acting normal again.

[LBJ10]

Sometimes gas will cause them to act lethargic-like. If he is behaving more normally, eating, pooping, drinking, peeing, etc. then the emergency vet may not be necessary. The simethicone may have helped and he could be feeling better. I would watch him very closely though and keep in mind that tomorrow is Sunday so it might be a little more difficult to get him seen. I don’t know if you have a 24 hour vet there that is familiar with rabbits. If he even hints that he isn’t feeling well again, definitely get him in to be seen ASAP. It might be a good idea to call your regular vet on Monday too.

[Samara87]

We have an emergency vet nearby that I’ve called after hours a few times. Not specifically a rabbit vet, but I’ve always had my questions answered pretty well, so I’m fairly comfortable with the idea of bringing him there if needed. And I’m calling my vet first thing on monday. Even if he acts normal the rest of the weekend, I’ll still see if my vet wants to bring him in to be seen.

[Samara87]

So, he ate a decent amount of his pellets and pumpkin, although not as much as I’d like. But I had my bf go to Walmart, and got fresh romaine, spinach, and kale. He hasnt had the spinach or kale for a while, so I was hoping it would encourage him to eat more. He inhaled it. And there’s about 20 new poops in his litter box, so the back end seems to be working too. I’m going to wake up a couple of times throughout the night to check on him. Thankfully I can still stay in my bed instead of on the floor. His cage is less than three feet from my bed. So, that’s convenient.

[LBJ10]

Sounds good. Glad he was interested in his veggies.

[Samara87]

Yea, I think the fresh stuff he hasn’t had in a while helped. He wasn’t feeling bok choy, so I stopped giving it to him. And the romaine and red lettuce were probably pretty boring. I’m so happy he’s feeling better.He had me worried. I’m going to just assume he was gassy, and keep an eye on him and keep up with the simethicone.

[Samara87]

And BINKIES now!

[Bam]

Yay for binkies! It does sound like a bout of gas. Gas can be very painful to rabbits but when the gas comes out (ie the bunny farts), relief is immediate.

I still think you should call your regular vet on Monday and book him in for a check-up or at least hear what they have to say, since this has been going on for a while now. He could have a dental problem, that’s often the underlying cause for things like this.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

If he’s eating/moving/peeing and pooping all is OK, he may be off-whether that’s due to shedding, stress, illness, diet change, teeth issues etc-but if things are going in and coming out-he’s not due for an emergency vet trip. Much better to see a good rabbit vet during regular hours to see why things were off Of course as others have said, if you don’t see poops, or he’s ridiculous lethargic it’s vet time. And you know what’s normal for your bunny.

Let me qualify, I have a fat lazy rabbit who really is always lethargic. But I can tell when something is wrong because even though he’s lazy he will ‘snark’ at me if picked up. Whether that’s a dirty look or a foot flick, there is discontent registered. If he’s not feeling well, I pick him up, put him down and he’ll settle right down with no snark-that’s trouble and the vet for us. So yes he’s always lazy, but I can tell when he’s happy lazy or in trouble lazy. Knowing what’s normal for your bunny is key. Often we observe something we haven’t before and get nervous and get worried about everything we see, doesn’t necessarily mean something is wrong-so if this is a false alarm-observe well and often so you know next time!

[Samara87]

Thanks This has happened a few times before, so something was definitely off. But he snapped out of it after a little while, and ate his veggies and pellet mash. I went to bed at 2 and he was normal. I woke up at 5:30, a little bit ago, and gave him a raisin to see how he took it. He inhaled it, so I made him a salad and pellet mash, and he devoured almost all of his veggies and a little of the pellets, and now he’s all loafed up on his tile bed. He hasn’t eaten any hay since I opened the new bag. He ate the last bag of Kaytee timothy just fine, but I think he’s had enough of it. I was going to try to find a better source of hay than that, but then he started feeling under the weather and I didn’t want to mess with his diet any more than I had to. :/

[Eepster]

Glad he’s doing OK. Running around definitely doesn’t count as lethargy, LOL. Lethargy is you can pick him up with no resistance at all, put him down, go do something, comeback and he’ll still be laying still exactly how you put him down.

[Samara87]

Yea, he was only like that for maybe 45 minutes after I woke up. Not sure how long he was like that while I was sleeping though. But he was normal all day yesterday, other than the fact that he really isn’t interested in his timothy hay. The only hay available around here really is Kaytee, it’s all the stores carry. I’m going to order some Oxbow Timothy from a website tomorrow when I get paid. He still isn’t pooping what I consider a normal amount, and its so frustrating, because he’s eating good, and he chugged a bunch of water last night before bed, but since he’s not pooping as much, I’m worried that he’ll eventually stop eating and drinking too. It’s frustrating not knowing whether or not I’m handling any of this right.

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