Grumpy bun has holiday blues

[rosieannie]

Hi all! Sorry I only seem to come here with problems!

I recently went on holiday for 5 nights and found a perfect holiday home for Fifi for 6 nights, via a friend recommendation. They gave her her own room (utility room), a proper bed, and she went outside for the first time ever in her life (she’s 3) round their lovely garden and liked to sleep under a lilac bush apparently. They did say that she had taken a dislike to her normal pellets during her stay there. Their set up meant that her room had direct access to the garden, I don’t have that, I have a yard which is only accessible via kitchen which she refuses to enter.

Now she’s come home, the first thing she did was retreat to her castle and sulk all night (Wednesday). Then (Thursday) she refused the orchard grass hay I’d got her which she has loved in the past. But was still eating some food and drinking. Friday, she ate a tiny bit of breakfast pellets then left the rest. Yesterday, she point blank refused them and actually shoved the bowl back at me. I rushed out to pets at home to stock up on fresh Timothy hay and her favourite apple and pansy cookies and a fresh bag of excel pellets which the boarding lady said she’d enjoyed (I’ve moved her onto Allen and page last year), in the hope that she was just being extra fussy.

She has drank very little water, yet eaten a whole cookie (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Rosewood-Apple-Nibble-Treats-Animals/dp/B00EXM42SC) yesterday. However, she’s still hopping round fine and pooping albeit smaller harder poops due to less hay intake and water intake.
This morning I panicked as she still hasn’t touched any pellets down from night before and her water has hardly gone down (she is normally very greedy) but on advice from the boarding lady she has been happily eating small amounts of wet kale and mint leaves and she’ll happily nibble on a cookie when she thinks I’m not looking.

What I’m wondering is, if this is just a sulk because she preferred her holiday home (I think it may be ), and how long will it take for her to come round and start eating normally? Do I keep pandering to her and just feed her her favourite greens? She tends to have a very sensitive tum so that’s at the back of my mind too. Im also concerned that if I rush her off to the vets it will be added stress.

She’s definitely in a bad mood with me because if I pet her she hops away and flicks her back feet in my face in disgust.
Thanks in advance.

[Roberta]

Can you buy some lilacs ? The smell may help.

[Bam]

You could try giving her a tummy massage. It may help get things moving. If she has a sensitive tummy, it may have been disturbed by the boarding-situation. Not that she’s not been properly cared for, She seems very well cared for, I just mean any environmental change can have an effect on a sensitive tummy. A tummy rub can help if she has a little gas f ex. Gas can definitely make a bun grumpy.

[rosieannie]

Thank you both! she’s not allowing me to touch her tummy too much, but I’ll keep trying. I just had a panic a couple of hours ago as she’s drank hardly any water since yesterday so just rushed out for fruit juice to sweeten her water. I’ve given her a tiny bit of pineapple juice in her water and she’s drank some of that now and followed it with a bit of hay several times ? fingers crossed. If not much change tomorrow I’ll take her vets but really hoping to avoid the additional stress!

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