I would tend to agree with Dana Krempels and Dr. Brown. Dr. Brown is a leading rabbit vet and I would definitely think she knows better than me which is what I base my decision on after reading her article. Dana Krempel’s also refers rabbit owners to Dr. Brown’s article on gut motility.

I have had experience with blockages. My rabbit Pepe had a sonogram done when he wasn’t eating – it showed mainly pellets and other matter causing the blockage. His blockage was due to many things though – poor dental health, not eating hay, etc…

Bobby was getting some string of pearls recently as well and he’s fine actually. He’s not a big hay eater but he eats it – he’s not a big eater of anything really.

I’ve never had any of my rabbit experienced vets call a blockage “wool block” either – they’ve always describe it as a gut motility issue. I used to have a rabbit name Mango who got frequent gut stasis episodes when he was young as well…it was never “wool block” – Dr. Effie treated him for this. I bet if you asked her she would probably say the same thing that Dr. Brown says…

Now I have had some vets call this a trichobezoar which is a term for a mass stuck in the gi system.

And quite honestly it seems that all the vets that I see who I trust about rabbits seem to think that pellets are more of an issue than anything else. When a rabbit has a blockage, this is the first thing from their diet that they want you to eliminate.

Is there really such thing as wool block? Dr. Krempels and Dr. Susan Brown both say no or at least that fur block is not the problem, instead the sluggish motility of the GI tract.

I think wool block is sort of a catch-all term that inexperienced vets use for GI problems. Sort of like the term Snuffles. My rabbit vet is of the same opinion as Dr. Krempels and Brown.

Dr. Brown also believes that a rabbit with a diet of unlimited hay and daily greens won’t have any GI problems unless there is some underlying issue causing it

I disagree with this. I feed my rabbits by the book. Im very careful with their diet and they only get a tiny sprinkle of pellets and Ive had GI problems and gas episodes with no cause found. But I agree that pellets cause most GI problems.

She also says that house rabbits that are not being bred don’t need any pellets in their diet

My vet is anti-pellets. They are designed to fatten up farmed rabbits quickly and not meant for health or longevity. My vet is very adamant that my buns be fed pellets very sparingly. She suggests pellets be sprinkled like croutons on their salad. My buns only get about a tsp of timothy pellets daily.

It seems like it’s too sides of the same coin. Cats can spit out hairballs, rabbits cannot. Therefore, their GI tract is designed to be constantly moving and working the fur through. Rabbits are supposed to groom themselves and the GI is supposed to work well. If one thing gets thrown off, the whole system goes down.