Extremely sick bunny. I can’t do anything.

[NunusOwner]

It all started back in august when she stopped eating and pooping for a few days. Got antibiotics, probiotics and a hunger enhancing drug. Was cured in 2-3 days.

Fastforward to now.

Same issue cropped up two weeks ago. Fine then, back to the vet we go. She got the same drugs and also some drug that enhances bowel movement + IV under the skin with minerals and vitamins.

Was fine for about 3 days. Ate, played, was generally well…

Now, saturday came and the same thing started again. Eating less and less, becoming more lethargic, just sitting there… By monday she didnt eat anything again. She honked every time I wanted to touch her belly.

Back to the vet. Same drugs. Doctors thought it could be bad diet, so I bought the most expensive pellet there is, eliminated fresh greens (which I only gave sparingly anyway) and she has unlimited access to hay.

However, ever since monday, she only ever eats a few pieces of straw. Also a tiny amount of apple I gave her today just to test, which she left the half of.

She also makes these (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=309VRAG5XsA not my video) honking noises every time now people get close to her.

I’m at the end of my vits here.

What can I do?

[lorree]

I’m not sure about sicknesses etc
But have her teeth been checked, front and back?

My rabbit is eating less, losing weight and seems to be in pain, I’m going to the vet tomorrow but as far as we know it’s teeth problems which are making it hurt when she eats

Not eating could definitely be teeth related if u haven’t already checked that

Also I dont know about others but my rabbit honks when she’s upset

[NunusOwner]

Her teeth are seemingly perfect (she is young as well).

[LBJ10]

Veggies are actually recommended for stasis because of the high moisture content (and sometimes it is the only think that will encourage the bun to eat). Unless there is some medical reason your bunny doesn’t get veggies, I would include them in her diet. What was she eating before? I wouldn’t introduce anything new while she is not well, but you could definitely offer her what she is already used to eating.

Is she exhibiting any other signs of gas? Does she push her belly to the floor? Grind her teeth? You said she honks when you try to touch her belly. Have you tried massaging it?

I agree with the thought that there could be an underlying dental issue. You said her teeth are seemingly perfect. Do the vet to a thorough exam of her molars. Even small spurs can cause pain which starts a chain reaction ending in stasis.

[Bam]

I agree with LBJ, it sounds like it could be a molar issue. I have a bunny who had the tiniest molar spurs, but they made him not to want to eat. Once they were burred he went back to normal. It’s common in bunnies. Vets may underestimate the impact very small molar spurs can have on a bunny’s appetite, my vet didn’t think spurs were the cause of my bunny’s persistent appetite/tummy problem, but it turned out they were.

So get his molars thoroughly checked, it’s often not possible to see the molars properly without sedating the bunny. It’s very typical that they refuse hay when their mouths are sore. Then they get tummy issues, as a result of eating too little hay, and the molar spurs get worse because a bunny must eat hay for the teeth to wear properly and so on, in a vicious circle.

[NunusOwner]

Hello.

Not sure about pushing belly on floor but she lays down most of the time. Haven’t noticed grinding of teeth. Several vets looked at it and said her teeth were perfect.
We only eleminated veggies to see if they were the cause of the problem, along with too many seeds. Now she gets pellets that are expensive and heck and cover every need, but which she does not eat.
Even that being said, I did give her some veggies today (a bit of an apple) and I did sprinkle some seeds that she likes on top of the pellets.

She is also very smelly because she has been peeing herself for the last 2 days (doesn’t get up from laying down while peeing is my best bet). You can see yellow discoloration on both hind legs and under the tail. Very smelly.

I fear it could be genetics and there is nothing I can do. And yes, several vets have massaged her tummy, as well as I tried to a couple of times.

[ergodic]

I would concur it can still be the teeth. I got a call this morning about Gracie saying they actually noticed a spur that was impacting the cheek. This is after 3 vets stated that her teeth looked okay. One looked a little more. The other thing I would recommend is doing some blood work.

[kirstyol]

What seeds are you putting on her food? seeds aren’t good for bunnies

[Bam]

Don’t despair just yet. My vets didn’t know what to do with my Yohio and were about to send him to a specialist vet quite some way from here, I had to force feed him for three weeks and he didn’t get any better. Then they decided to anaesthetic right him to have a proper look at his molars, and found some tiny irregularities, which were ground away. A few days later, after some Metacam, he started eating again and his tummy sorted itself. He made a full recovery. This was a year ago. As I write he’s sitting at the foot-end of my bed happily munching away on a hay-cake.

[sunshinesocks]

Is she squinting?? Its a good way of telling whether your rabbit is in pain.

Our vet (who has been brilliant with Oz) suggested that we feed him whatever he will eat to start with (short of anything actually poisonous of course) and so he ate mushed raspberries. We’ve always fed quite a lot of greens (always carefully watching the poo situation of course) because the thing that was threatening them was the fact that they were so underweight. There’s a lot of advise out there about what not to give rabbits based on keeping them from becoming overweight so we were told not to worry about some of it so much – they need to be eating a high proportion of the time so if anything convinces them to eat its worth it – we have had particular luck with sunflower seeds, rabbit pellets, raspberries and small amounts of oats.

[HAR13]

Hi, sorry if this is a late reply. My bunny has had extremely similar problems. She stopped eating pooing etc, very lathargic. First time she was given some meds and she bounced back. But it happened again…this time a urine sample was taken which tested positive for blood so it looked like systitus, and because she was in pain she developed statis as a secondary problem.

She has been on a variety of meds and now just on a bladder one. She has since had a urine test that tested negative for blood but still on the med. Sadly she has developed a runny eye and sneezes possibly stress.

[Author]

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