Rabbit won’t eat his hay anymore

[Nyqmex]

Hi All! 

My Rabbit has recently stopped eating his hay, this is very unusual as he usually eats a ton of it. It’s been about a week or so since he was stopped though he takes some if i annoy him with it, I recently took him to the vet (last month) and all was fine, his teeth were fine as well. Not sure how it is that from one day to the next he just wont eat it anymore. I have tried a different variety of hays but no luck on any. Oat, Timothy, Alfalfa, Botanical, and Orchard hays. Other than this he is acting like his normal self IE playing, eating veggies (Cilantro and Parsley), drinking water etc. The only oddity here is a few misshapen poops. 

Has anyone been through this before? Our local vet for him is out until Wednesday so i’m trying to figure this out before taking him in later this week (though i did send him an email this morning). I’m thinking of feeding him pellets again, but he hasn’t liked those in the past as he used to urinate on hi bowl before. Any help or tips would be greatly appreciated, thanks!  

[LBJ10]

How old is he?

Just based on your description, the only thing I can think of is a problem in the mouth. How well did the vet look at his back teeth? Sometimes even a small spur can cause enough discomfort to make them avoid things like hay. Since hay requires a lot of chewing and grinding, it would be less desirable than nice soft veggies.

[Bam]

Problems with the teeth is what I’m thinking too. Small spurs may be very difficut to see without anesthetizing the bunny. Even very small spurs can cause a bunny to refuse to eat, especially hay. I have a bunny of that type, the vet thought his molars looked fine, but the bunny just kept refusing to eat, I had to syringe-feed him. Then after 3 weeks of syringe-feeding, when nothing else was found to be wrong, the vet decided he should be anasthetized and have his teeth burred just in case. And that resolved the issue. After about 5 more days, my bunny just snapped back to being his old self again.

Long story just to say the same that LBJ just said =/ But dental issues is something we hear rather a lot about here on the forums.

[Nyqmex]

Thanks guys! he is about 6 years young now, he’s never had issue like this before so this is unfamiliar territory for me, i’m definitely taking him to the vet later in the week, but syringe feeding is close to impossible for him as he scratches and bites and wont stay still. Are there typically any symptoms other than this for diagnosing issues with his molars? 

My brother once has a rabbit with a dental issue and he drooled a bit, but that was an abscess i believe. thanks for all the help!  

Oh he also seems to eat carrots just fine. not sure if that matters i just figured if he can still eat something that hard it may not be a dental issue then. But since dental issues in general are new to me i may just be ignorant on it. 

[Bam]

Refusal to eat is the most common sign of dental trouble. It’s not uncommon in aging bunnies (I don’t really want to call him aging, but he’s not a youngster so for lack of a better word. I don’t mean he’s geriatric), because the bones in the skull becomes less dense with age (for completely natural reasons), which may cause the jaws to become slightly misaligned, the teeth are not ground down as they should from eating and spurs form as a cosequence. rabbit teeth grow very fast, 1-5 mm per week, so if they’re not properly worn, a problem can become manifest after just a few weeks.

When my Yohio had his dental issues he would eat some things and not other, but I don’t remember if carrot was sth he would eat. He went off pellets and hay, that I remember though.

The vet will try and check your buns molars with an otoscope, that’s not the easiest thing to do with an awake bunny (obviously), but if there’s sth apparent, it can be spotted. An experienced bunny vet can also gently move the lower jaw from side to side to “hear” or “feel” how the teeth slide against each other.

The oddly shaped poops you see are probably due to too little hay. You don’t want it progressing into real tummy trouble, so it’s good that you’re seeing a vet.

And if your vet decides a tooth grind is warranted, ask for a pain-killer (metacam, meloxicam) that you can give at home afterwards, even if the teeth don’t have nerves, the gums are often sore after a burr/grind and the bunny may not want to eat for that reason.

[Author]

Messages