Tips for caring for senior bunnies?

[Meg]

Hi everyone!  Thanks to the wonderful advice and support I’ve gotten here, plus some luck, my two beloved bunnies, Athena and Teddy, have made it into their golden years!   They’re both 8 and Athena’s about to turn 9 next month.  They’re the first and only bunnies I’ve ever had, and I adore them, and am so grateful.  

Because I don’t have any prior experience caring for senior bunnies, I just wanted to ask whether you have any tips for us, or whether there are diet or other care changes I might want to make for them to help them be healthy older buns.  They’ve both started to have just a bit of mushy poops on and off the past month or so — thankfully pretty small-scale and short-lived.  

I also think they might be losing some of their hearing a bit, because they used to always come running for their breakfast when their heard the sounds of me putting it down for them, but now they don’t unless I rattle the containers extra loud for a while, or come over where they can see me with some of it.  Then they’re just as excited as usual, generally, which is why I think it might be a hearing issue.  (They’re also not as scared of the vacuum, which is the upside I guess. &nbsp

So regarding the hearing thing, or anything else, is there anything more/new I could be doing to make their lives better?  I just want to take the best care possible of these two precious and wonderful bunnies.  (They seem happy and healthy in most other respects, thankfully. : )  Both bunnies are spayed/neutered shelter mixes whom I adopted in 2009: Athena is a female Lionhead/Dutch mix who’s sweet, smart, and affectionate, and Teddy is a male Lionhead/??? mix (Jersey Wooley maybe?) who’s adorable, hilarious, and devoted to Athena.  Neither has had any chronic health issues, thankfully. 

Here’s what I’ve been doing throughout their adulthood so far: They have litterboxes so no cages, and a couple of rooms to run around in (bunny-proofed of course), hidey houses and toys, etc.  They get fresh hay (oat and meadow; they’ve never liked timothy) with flower topper morning and night, pellets and an Oxbow Digestive Support tablet for lunch, and a big pile of fresh greens (parsley, romaine, some mint, and a teeny tiny bit of kale) for dinner.  They also get a small Sherwood Digestive Support tablet at night, which they are crazy about, and they have fresh water in a dish. Every few months they get one of those willow wreathes with the dried leaves on them from Binky Bunny.

Thank you so much!  I really appreciate your help and advice.

One note to make before I close is: while I’d really love any advice about what I could do to help care for them, I’d like to ask that we please hold off on warnings or stories about things that can go wrong, or preparing for the end, etc.  I’m pretty sensitive and I know that stuff would make me worry way, way more than is helpful.    (I already angst about it way too much.)  I’ve read that bunnies’ lifespans are 8-12 years, so I don’t really know what to expect in our case, and there’s probably no way to predict accurately how long any one individual bunny will live within that range.  But I figure I just want to take the best care of them that I can, and fully enjoy every day we are lucky enough to have together.  

Thanks so much!!!   

[Azerane]

That’s lovely that they’re doing so well and you’ve had them for so long

The only thing I could think of was to keep an eye out for arthritis and other movement issues. Especially in the case of using a litter tray, the sides of the tray can be too high for an arthritic bun or even since they’re free roaming, the tray(s?) may be too far away to make it worth the trip, so you may need to add additional trays so that there’s always one nearby The other thing with arthritis is that they have trouble getting to their cecal poops, so you may find those lying around if one has joint trouble.

Do you weigh them regularly at all? I know senior buns often have trouble keeping their weight up, so it might be something to keep an eye on as well

[Meesh]

You seem to be doing a lot to take care of your buns. I would say to keep doing what you are doing, and love them. Spending time with them is good, and like Azerane mentioned, maybe get toilets for every room (like the ones that go in the corner of cages as they have pretty short sides to jump over) in case they can’t make it back to their usual spot.

Cheers!

[Bianca]

Until recently I had a couple of senior buns. We don’t know their exact ages but suspect they both made it to 11. These rabbits didn’t even have a great start to life.

I didn’t do much different. Focused a bit more on keeping them cool in summer and warm in winter. Made sure I always had critical care on me just in case. To be honest I didn’t realise how old they probably were until recently when I quizzed my husband on exactly how long he ago he adopted them (before I met him).

Diet I kept the same. I didn’t provide extra litter trays but that definitely would be something to keep an eye on.

[Meg]

Thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

I don’t weigh them regularly at present, mainly because they *so* hate being picked up, but I could try combining this with nail clippings. If their weight were starting to drop, what would be a good/healthy way to help them gain some more? I have noticed that they’ve started to not finish their daily pellets just in the last month or so.

I’ll keep an eye out for joint issues too. Both bunnies are still pretty sprightly (especially Teddy), but it’s a good thing to watch, and perhaps Athena’s a little bit stiffer than before — she hasn’t binkied in a while. In addition to accommodating arthritis, by making litterboxes more accessible and plentiful, is there anything I can do to help prevent/treat it? I just today discovered Sherwood Joint Support and it has promising reviews, so I think I will try it out (and make sure adding one tablet a day wouldn’t be too much sugar for them). Is there anything else I could do?

Thanks again!!

[LittlePuffyTail]

That’s great that your bunnies are in their senior years and that they have such an attentive caregiver They are lucky.

I want to second the weighing them. My senior, Bindi, is 10 and I weigh him once a month and write it on the calendar. A few ounces is hard to notice sometimes but it’s important to keep track, especially with an older bun. Some older bunnies just have a harder time keeping weight on or it could also signal problems like an illness or dental issue.

My Bindi needs regular molar trims and has a hard time keeping weight on. Some people suggest rolled oats, but my vet doesn’t agree. I give him several TBSP of Oxbow Critical Care per day when his weight starts to drop. This has been pretty helpful but, unfortunately, it’s pretty expensive stuff.

[Meesh]

My bun (not senior) recently had a vet visit that concluded in her teeth growing too much. The signs started with her not finishing food at night, and then a bit of a runny nose. If your bun has a runny nose, you should get a vet to check out it’s teeth. Basically we were given a “cheap” medicine for pain, which allows her to eat more, until her jaw muscles are a little juicier. I’m not saying that this is a problem in your bun, I am just saying to keep an eye out on how much it does/doesn’t eat if that seems to already be a problem, and watch for a runny nose.

(I don’t want to worry you with this, I was just horribly upset for how long I had signs of my bun being in pain and not even knowing, when it was so easy to fix…)

The cure was to keep giving her lots of hay and the proper amount of food and things to chew on while on her meds.

[Meg]

Thank you so much! I’ll keep an eye on their weight and make sure their teeth are in good shape. I was also reading around on the forum today about introducing a bit of alfalfa pellets (as a treat) to help seniors keep their weight up, so I think I will try that. The Sherwood baby pellets have more wholesome-sounding ingredients than Oxbow, but they’re very high in fat, so I’ll just try them out in small quantities as a treat.

[jerseygirl]

Hi Meg
Its nice to hear about your two again. It sounds as if they are doing really well!

You mentioned their hearing already, the other thing that can deterioate quite quickly is eyesight. I noticed this with Rumball a few years ago. All of a sudden he stopped using a chair that I had as a half-step up onto a piece of furniture that the buns sat on through out the day. Initially, I thought he was less agile for some reason. His activity level didn’t really decrease though. I put a ramp there instead of the chair and he was tearing up and down it right away. Eventually, it clicked that it was actually his eye sight changing that had him less confident about the jump.
Rabbits adjust really well with limited sight anyway but there are some little things that help. ie, not moving things around too much so they can rely on their mental map.

@LPT, can you get Rabbit Recovery (by Supreme pet foods) at all? I don’t know how it compares cost-wise, but it does have a bit higher protein, fat and fibre then CC.

The vet mentioned recently that older rabbits (and animals in general I think he meant) don’t absorb nutrients from their food as well as they might have when younger. So that contributes to the weight loss.

[Meg]

Hi Jerseygirl!! It’s so nice to hear from you! Thank you so much for all your help and advice along the way!! You’ve been so kind to us.

Thanks, that’s a good thought about the ramp and other ways to accommodate their eyesight as well as hearing loss.

I’ll try supplementing their diet more (and hope the alfalfa pellets might be OK in small doses?). Thank you so much for everything!!

[Meesh]

If alfalfa pellets are the same as the hay in general, I know the alfalfa hay I get as a treat usually ends up like dust (very small pieces) and they still go crazy for it. When my one bun was not wanting to eat as much I would sprinkle a bit on her food and she ate it all no problem.

[Meg]

Thanks, that’s really helpful!!

[Meg]

Hey everyone!  I wanted to come back and update this thread to say I made some diet and routine changes that have (knock on wood) seemed to work really well!    

In the morning, I don’t raise the gate that lets them into the bedroom (where they like to spend the morning under the bed) until they’ve had their hay and treats.  I’ve added a little sprinkling of alfalfa hay onto their normal hay, and they do go nuts for it, which is great.  Then I’ve been giving them each one of the Sherwood digestive support tablets, which they love (it took Teddy a while to come around but now he’s sold) and a bit of the Oxbow digestive support too.  Once they’ve had a good breakfast, they’re allowed to go play (so they don’t forget to eat . 

For their lunchtime pellets, they get a little Sherwood Adult Professional and a little Critter-Be-Better (timothy pellets with probiotics).  They like that a lot better than the Oxbow I was giving them before.  

Then, at night, I first give them another Sherwood digestive support, and Athena gets Sherwood joint support tablets, which seems to have helped — she seems more sprightly and not stiff anymore.    Then they’re usually excited for their hay and greens for supper.  They usually polish off their greens again now!  (Before they were leaving like half of them uneaten.)  

So that’s the deal!  I’m so grateful because they’ve been eating well again and seeming like happy, energetic bunnies again (knock on wood).  I know that their new food is not entirely as healthy as what they were eating before, but personally I’ll take the tradeoff since it seems to keep them happy and with a good appetite again.  Anyway, I just wanted to share in hopes it might be helpful!  : )

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