Barely Eating/Barely Pooping

[Leese1015]

Dex is acting normal but is hardly eating, pooping (when he does it’s tiny little poops), or peeing. He is hopping around the house as normal and chewing/eating his cardboard houses, and some paper bags that he likes, but he will only sort of touch his greens, and hay and it looks like he hasn’t touched his pellets at all. He won’t take treats, but he will drink some water if we add some apple juice to it.

 

What should I do? I have heard that maybe I should limit his cardboard/paper intake so that he will be forced to eat his regular food. I almost took him to the vet yesterday but he started eating a little so I thought he was doing better. I am worried but his behavior seems normal and that confuses me. What would you do?

[Sarita]

What did the vet say? Is that why you took him in?

[Elrohwen]

How long has this been going on?

Personally, I would see the vet if it’s been more than a day or two of this. It could be that his teeth are bothering him enough that he doesn’t feel like eating.

[Sarita]

I reread your post and thought you had taken him to the vet – I agree w/Elrohwen that you SHOULD take him to the vet.

[Leese1015]

I will call the vet today and see if I can get him in. Unfortunately I am at work until after the vet closes. 🙁
If his teeth are bothering him would he still be eating his boxes and papers? We have always tried to give him a good variety of safe boxes and papers to keep his teeth in good shape. Maybe we gave him too much and now his little system is all gummed up.

[Sarita]

Hay is what is needed to keep rabbit’s teeth trimmed. You could call the vet’s office and see if you can do a drop off for tomorrow if you have to work. That’s what always do with my rabbits.

Hay also is important to help with keeping the gut going as well – so it serves a dual purpose.

[Leese1015]

He always has plenty of hay, and he ate a little of it yesterday. Usually he goes through a handful in a day or two though.

[Leese1015]

Ok, I have made an appointment to drop him off at the Vet’s tomorrow. Hopefully he will eat a little bit today and start feeling better. I would like nothing more than for him to be right as rain tomorrow and have to cancel the appointment,but I would rather be safe than sorry.

He is going through a big shedding right now, could it be a hairball like cat’s get? I know bunnies can’t throw up but I am not sure if they get hairballs.
I hate feeling so helpless, I just wish he could tell me what was wrong and how to fix it.

[Elrohwen]

When I first got Hannah she had molar spurs that I didn’t know about. She ate just fine, but was very slow and didn’t always finish her meals, and didn’t eat much hay. She was new to me, so I thought that might just be how she was, but when she went to the vet (about a week after I got her) I found out about her teeth. Once they were fixed and she was feeling better, she turned into the biggest piggy and inhaled all of her food.

As for hairballs, there’s some conflicting information out there. Generally, I think vets agree that hair can back up, but it’s a secondary symptom of GI issues, not the cause.

[Leese1015]

Good to know! Thanks I will have the vet check his teeth to be sure. He was eating like a horse last week, almost twice what he normally eats and I thought he was going through a growth spurt or something. It’s just so disconcerting to have him go from eating so well to hardly eating anything.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Good luck at the vet. Hope he’s feeling better soon and that you can get him to eat tonight.

[Kymbirlee Rose]

Anytime that you are dealing with a digestive issue it is very important that you see a vet immediately. His digestive system should ALWAYS be moving.

[Leese1015]

Well, Dex went to see Dr. Casey today and he did great. I was worried that he would give them fits since he greatly dislikes to be held, but he was a champ and let them weigh him and check his stomach and even did well during his x-rays. The vet didn’t see any obvious blockages but he does believe he has GI Stasis and some gas. He gave us some medicine and we were instructed to get some Oxbow Critical Care food so that we can force feed him something with lots of fiber to get his system moving at the right pace again, and were also told to try canned pumpkin since it’s relatively sweet (so he will think it’s a treat) and it is very high in fiber. I had to go to right work after taking him home and he was sitting in his cage mad at me and pouting when I left, but I think he will forgive me. Fingers crossed that he will have eaten some of the pumpkin by the time I get home. Thanks for all of your support and advice. I will update again when I have more news.

[tanlover14]

Just sending some healing vibes for your little boy. Hopefully the next update is a positive one!

[Leese1015]

Thank you @tanlover14!

We were unable to find any Critical Care in our area, GRRRRR! So I have been making a “Fiber Smoothie” for Dex by putting hay, pellets, leafy greens, cilantro, tomatoes, canned pumpkin and a little apple juice and water in the blender, then force feeding him that until we can find some Critical Care and get it here. His poops are now odd shaped and a little watery.

Is this a good thing?

We have been giving him his medicine as well, we just hope that it’s helping and his system will straighten up soon. We just want our bunny back to normal!

[BinkyBunny]

At least some movement poo wise is happening and it’s not abnormal after gi issues to have messy poo for a bit.  Sometimes it’s covered in a yucky jelly type substance which is due to the gi irritation. 

This is an article that has a good recipe to the a Critical Care Alternative http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html  (don’t let the title scare you!  Scroll down to II -B for the recipe) 

Sending out healing vibes for your bunny!

[Leese1015]

We found some Critical Care in our area, finally! We will start giving him that tonight so we are excited to hopefully see some good results.

Dex did nibble at some wet romaine lettuce last night, and this morning so that is good. We are also still seeing a few new little mishapen poops in his litterbox every so often. He has all but stopped running around the house though and this worries me, but I think about when I am sick and I don’t feel like running around the house either so I am trying not to be too concerned.

My husband has been giving him a little bit of fresh pineapple juice because he read somewhere that it helps, but in the article that BB referenced (thanks so much, it was very informative) it says not to give them the fresh stuff because the sugar could make his problem worse.

Does anyone have any idea which is right? Give it to him or not give it to him?

Thanks for your help and healing vibes! We hope to have our boy hopping around like normal again soon!

[LittlePuffyTail]

How is he doing with the Critical Care?

Pineapple juice is sort of an outdated treatment. It was once thought to help break up “hairballs” in the gut but most vets have rebuked this as false. And the added sugar is probably not good for a bunny who is already dealing with tummy troubles. More of a treat than a remedy.

[tanlover14]

I agree with LPT. I asked about giving my hairy furball of a bun some pineapple and my vet had the same response as LPT.

[Leese1015]

Thanks to tanlover and LPT for your input on the pineapple juice! We have stopped giving it to him and we have now had three feedings of the Critical Care and Dex seems to be coming back to his normal self.

His activity level jumped a notch last night and he was hopping around the house almost as usual. He was acting out a bit though and it has us scratching our heads. Dex usually does not chew on furniture and if he does I usually just have to tell him once to get his teeth off my furniture and he does. Last night he would not stop chewing on our table and chair legs, even our floor! If I shooed him away from one piece of furniture he would hop off and find another to chew on. We were pretty happy that he was hopping around so we tried to be chill about it and chalk it up to him finally feeling better and needing to burn off some energy. He also put himself to bed last night without us having to “herd” him into his cage. Other than the weird behavior (we aren’t complaining, we are just glad he is still with us and feeling better) he seems to be pooping more, still small and misshapen but more than the last few days, so we are glad for that as well.

So good reports and high hopes for a full recovery soon. Thank you all for your input, support, and healing vibes. It’s nice to know there is a place for people with bunny friends who understand each other!

[LittlePuffyTail]

((((Continued Healing Vibes for Dex)))))

[BoBo]

Although this post is quite old, I wonder how it all turned out? My rabbit is seven months old and is acting exactly as you described- going from one piece of furniture to another, chewing, damaging, very persistent! I had him neutered a week ago, hoping to calm this behaviour. So far nothing has changed. The vet says it can take a month for the testosterone to drop- however that may not be the only cause of the destructive behaviour. Did you figure out how to stop it? I would love to know.

[Bam]

Bobo, this post is fairly old, so I recommend you start a thread of your own on the same subject. Reviving old threads can create a bit of confusion. Here’s a link if you want to start a new thread:

Link to new thread

A newly neutered bunny can actually get “worse” behavior-wise the first few weeks after the neuter. It’s perfectly normal and often referred to as a “post-neuter craze”. So you can’t really say if the neuter has had the desired impact just yet, just as your vet has told you.

I’m locking this thread now. 

[Author]

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