Sick Bunny?

[schlaura]

I’ve just recently adopted a dwarf rabbit. I have taken her to the vet last week for a check up. The vet said everything was fine. This week I am noticing that she is loosing weight. She has gone from 480 grams (about a pound) to 384 grams (12.8 oz) in about 1.5 weeks. I am very concerned and not to familiar with rabbits yet. Please give me some advice. Thanks in advance.

[Monkeybun]

What kind of diet do you have her on? Do you know how old she is?

[schlaura]

I had her on pellet food and some carrots. I noticed she didn’t eat the pellets at all so I switched the food to a mixed one with less pellets and more seeds and grains and things like that. I also feed her more carrots since she seems to enjoy those and fruit like apples and pineapple.

[schlaura]

oh and the vet said she should be around 4-5 months.

[Karla]

Did the vet check the teeth?

Do you feed her hay? Her diet should consist of 80% hay. Not that, it will make her put on weight, but it is necessary for good health.

Carrots are a good source if she needs to put on weight, but otherwise you shouldn’t feed carrots as often as you do. They are very sugary and it would be the same as you eating cake.

Make sure she gets a good variety of greens so she gets the vitamins she need. 

Also, don’t feed her food mixes. She will probably pick out the things she likes and leave the healthy, nutrious ingredients. Try instead to buy a different type of brand when it comes to pellets. 

You can read much more about proper rabbit diet here:http://rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html

[Monkeybun]

The food mixed with seeds is NOT good for bunnies, no matter what the package says. Feed her a good quality timothy pellet, seeds and grains are generally not at all good for bunny tummies.

Give her lots of greens, and only small amounts of fruits and carrots, fruits are a treat only pretty much.

Hay is the most important part of her diet, make sure she has unlimited amounts of grass hay, either timothy, or orchard are generally common.

[schlaura]

I do provide her plenty of hay but she does not really eat it anymore like she used to, But thank you for your replies. Ill look into different kinds of food pellets.

[RabbitPam]

The pellets that are Timothy are the best for her. Also, she will taper off her hay intake as long as she has more enticing treats, so if you remove the nuts and seeds kind and some of the sugary fruits, she’ll have more hay. Also watch your quantity of pellets. I know this doesn’t sound like it will make her gain weight, but it’s solid growth you want, not fat, so if good hay and pellets help her digestion, she’ll eat more of the good foods and grow stronger.

Recent research has shown that carrots are nutritious after all, so some carrot pieces, or baby carrots, in small amounts daily or several times a week is fine. The fruits have much more sugar, but are good natural treats and will add to her weight. Vary the greens so she can let you know her favorites, then stick with those for a while. But don’t change her diet frequently. That can cause problems, so transition and introduce new things slowly.

Hays vary, and my bunny prefers the drier Oat Hay while most bunnies love the sweeter, softer Orchard Grass or good old Timothy, so experiment to see what she perfers.

[schlaura]

Thank you guys for all your input. It was very helpfull.

I took Baily to the vet this morning. She was weight again and the vet said she lost 20% of her body weight in 8 days (first time I brought her to the vet). He checked her lungs and digestive track, but could not find anything (no blockage or different breathing sounds). He toldme it would take a lote of care to get her to gain weight. I explained him that she just decreased her food intake. No matter what I gave her, she’d take a bite and thats it.

He gave me instructions to force feed her every two hours, so now she is on a babyfood and yogurt diet. I also changed to a different type of bedding that he recommended and bought a heating pad for her like he instructed me to. She still has plenty of pellet food and hay in her cage to eat. Also she has the choice between water bottle and water bowel, since I read that some rabbits prefer the bowel vs. the bottle.

I hope she will put on weight soon and have more energy like she used to when I first brought her home.

[RabbitPam]

That’s a lot of weight loss. Is this the only vet you can take her to?
I’m wondering if she may have some kidney trouble going on. also, babyfood (human kind?) and yogurt is new to me. perhaps a second opinion might be worth a try. I would have expected something like Critical Care for food from a vet. Or a pellet slushie, but maybe this is more common than I know about.

[Sarita]

Did he do any bloodwork on her? Did he look at her teeth?

[schlaura]

My vet is specialicing in small anymals like birds and rabits and ferrets. Small animals. Of course he sees dogs and cats also but he is pretty good at what he does. My sister went to him with her special needs bird and he is doing wonderfull.

At first I wasn’t too sure about the diet either. But it is my last change since she is only 340grams…

[schlaura]

Yes he did. He looked at everything. her teeth are perfect and no obstructions in the digestive track, nothing visible in the blood work.

[RabbitPam]

Well the diet is certainly worth a try, especially feeding that frequently. Just keep a close watch so you can report any changes in poo or pee as it may be a clue to what’s going on. I would expect some change due to the diet he’s perscribed, but he may want you to keep track so anything uncommon stands out.

[Sarita]

Keep us updated. It certainly sounds as if he’s covering every avenue.

[schlaura]

Thank you guys. I will. I weigh her daily so I will keep you posted.

[jerseygirl]

Try something like canned pumpkin in place of baby food as it has good fibre. I’m a bit wary about the yoghurt prescription but if your vet seems experienced, then following their advice is best. It has been used in the past by vets and breeders…

Diet changes should always be gradual so hopefully when her appetite is back, you can start modifying her diet. Giving what she is used to then tapering it off and introducing new feed. I think at her age and current weight, alfalfa based pellets might be worth feeding for a while.

Has she been producing normal looking poop since you’ve had her?
What a rough ride for only just having got her. Healing (((vibes))) for your bunny girl!

[Karla]

My bunny lost a lot of weight recently again…vet checked the teeth and they looked okay. Then I brought him back in again as he was obviously not feeling well, and the vet did some x-rays which showed that he had a tooth growing sidewards under the other teeth causing a lot of pain. Not something that was visible during a regular check, and my vet is actually a European expert in dental problems. Of course, this is quite a rare incident, but perhaps an x-ray of the teeth might also be worth a try.

Anything in particular that you bunny eats and doesn’t eat?

I hope she is getting better soon.

[schlaura]

Hello everyone. So I took Bailey to a different vet today. I noticed that she was just sluggish and no energy what-so-ever. This vet I went to my sister also uses for her birds and spoke very highly of so I had to try it. The vet examined her and decided to keep her for the day to do some testing and to get stool samples. She just called me back and explained that Bailey had diarrhea but that gave her the chance to get the sample. In the sample she found that Bailey had two kinds of bacteria. First she explained that she has pinworm which she gave Bailey a deworming medication and that took care of that. The second parasite bailey has is coccivia (pardon my spelling). The vet said in order to get rid of that I’ll have to give Bailey medications for 10 days.
Bailey is still at the vet now and I will get her later on tonight since I have to wait for a delivery and can’t leave at the moment. 😛 But i’m to finally know what was going on with her.

[Sarita]

Coccidia is very common in young rabbits. I’m glad you went for a second opinion. You will get some kind of sulfate medication for the coccidia.

[jerseygirl]

Thanks for the update. Are they giving her fluids?  Hopefully her appetite will be returning soon. As Sarita has said, coccidia is really common and thankfully treatable. Hope you have your baby bun home soon & on the road to recovery!

[Karla]

Good that the cause was finally found! Healing vibes to your bunny.

[schlaura]

Hi guys. I posted a update on bailey in the lounge forum. It’s a bad up date tho :'( thank you all for standing by me.

[KatnipCrzy]

I know that you are very sad and probably upset- but you should contact whoever you got the bunny from to let them know that the bunny had coccidia and died.  Any other rabbits housed with your bunny would most likely also have coccidia and it can easily be spread thru a rabbitry, pet store, etc- so if you can be calm (which would be hard) you should let them know as maybe that can prevent another sick bunny or another bunny from dieing.

Griff tested positive for coccidia and I emailed his breeder to let her know- and she was thankful for the info- the rabbits had been at the fair for 4H- so she knew she needed to treat all her bunnies and contact those that purchased littermates.

[schlaura]

Thank you. I will let them know when I’m able to keep composure while talking about Bailey. I’t still hard since I didn’t really have the time to think about it but had to go to work right away. Most likely this evening of tomorrow morning I will give them a call.

[Beka27]

I’m so sorry. I didn’t read the update yet (I haven’t gotten that far on the forum…) but big hugs for you. Binky free sweet Bailey.

[OhBellaBunBun]

I’m so sorry that your bun passed away I won’t go read the update, I can’t. I will cry my head off for days. But I’m really so sorry that Bailey didn’t make it Poor baby! But you were a good mom and did everything you could to help her. Even though she didn’t live long, I’m sure she had a happy life thanks to you! I’m sending out happy vibes to you. I know how hard it is to lose a pet.

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