Just found some small lumps between the nipples on the belly of my female rabbit, what can those be?

[Damien_B]

My rabbit hasn’t be acting as she usually was lately. She’s been odd recently, she stopped eating her pellets for a day or 2 but she didn’t stop eating the veggies, hay and herbs that I’ve been giving her. She also stopped drinking water at all, and she used to drink almost an entire 8 oz bottle a day. I bought her a new water bottle today cause the old at approx. 5pm, its now almost 10pm and she has not had a sip of water and the bottle is full. I’m getting concerned cause she wasn’t like this before. I’ve had her for 9 years ( I bought her at a pet store and she was supposed to be a lionhead but she seems like a mix of a dwarf and lion head cause she has a bit of mane on her ) anyways she’s always been kinda lazy, not too friendly and playful. Whenever she comes out of her cage it’s for like 10 minutes and she will only come out just to lay on the floor besides her cage. 

I thought that the reason why she became so odd and sluggish lately might be due to the heat and the weather, but my apartment is cool. I have the a/c turned on and it’s never hot and humid inside. Today when I got home I found her lying on the side of her stomach stretched out across the cage which she has never done that, at least I’ve never seen it. When I was petting her just a couple of minutes ago I felt a few, maybe like 2-3 small hard lumps right in the middle of her stomach, she does let me touch her stomach and she’s not running away or biting and kicking so I guess that’s a good sign. The thing is that I haven’t left those lumps before, she didn’t have em earlier today so they seem to come and go. What I am concerned about is her ingesting some of the bedding because she never ever eats from her bowl. Whenever I give her her pellets she always tips the food bowl and eats the food from the floor of the cage. I tried those crock dishes that you hang on the wires of the cage but she never even ate out of those. 

Idk what’s wrong with her, there is one vet in my neighborhood but I don’t really like going to him cause I had a bad experience with him before and so did my friends. I’ve heard plenty of people complain about him. So I’d rather not go to that person.

Oh and she has been popping and peeing just fine. Her poop balls are smaller and they’re solid, sometimes they’ve been runny and loose in the past and she is urinating as usual. 

Any idea as to what those lumps on her stomach might be? 

[Bam]

Hi Damien! I don’t really have any advice for you, but a) it seems like your bunny is experiencing some tummy issues and you can give her simethicone (baby gas drops) + tummy massages to help with that and b) if you tell us what general area you are in, there may be people here who know of some good rabbit vets not too far from you.

Really weird about the coming-and-going of hard lumps =/

[LBJ10]

Are the lumps you are feeling deep inside? Like you have to press on her belly. Or are they like masses just beneath the skin?

[Damien_B]

Posted By LBJ10 on 8/22/2015 4:44 PM

Are the lumps you are feeling deep inside? Like you have to press on her belly. Or are they like masses just beneath the skin?

No they are not deep inside. To me they feel like sebaceous cyst that us humans gets from time to time. They are just beneath the skin and you can move em from side to side. So far today I haven’t felt them. 

[Damien_B]

First of all, thank you for your replies.
I’ve been massaging her belly and that seems to give her some relief and as far as those lumps, I haven’t felt them today and they are not deep inside of her tummy. They’re not like inside of her intestines, they’re beneath the surface of the skin which leads me to assume that those might just be sebaceous cyst. I was able to kinda wiggle it around yesterday and it does move from side to side and its wasn’t solid rock hard but there probably was some puss inside of it.
She is eating a lot more now and she’s been munching on hay and veggies today and she did eat some of her pellet, but she’s still not drinking her water. I tried putting few ice cubes in a water dish but that just made a mess cause those cubes melted quickly and she tipped the bowl over and the bedding got soiled.
I do leave her veggies quite wet, so at least that way she’s getting some liquids. I was worried that she might be getting dehydrated but if she was then she wouldn’t be urinating and she’s peeing as she always has. No problems with that. So I really don’t know why all of the sudden she just stopped drinking.

[LBJ10]

Could they be cysts in her mammary glands or ducts? I’m just speculating here based on your description. Plus she is 9 years old.

[Author]

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