Weight loss, tooth spurs and incontinence – conflicting treatment!

[Happyjeans]

Hello everyone,

I have a 7.5 year old dwarf lop called Bertie and he is absolutely the best bunny in the world, I’m so lucky to have such a friendly funny (not so) little guy in my life. He’s a free range house rabbit with a ‘burrow’ built in to the bottom of a built in cupboard. He doesn’t have a bunny friend but either me or my partner are in the house almost all the time (even before Covid).

Anyway, on to the issues.

He has had a problem with incontinence for a couple of years now, not full wees just dribbles (although sometimes large ones). The vet has ruled out bladder sludge although he did have slightly elevated calcium in his urine, anything serious that would show up on an ultrasound and he’s been tried on a human sphincter tightening drug all to no avail. I genuinely don’t believe it’s behavioural as it mostly happens where he falls asleep, although there have been a few occasions where he’s been merrily hopping around leaving a dribble behind him. He seems to be in no discomfort from this and no urine scold. My suspicion is that it is probably calcium related and does seem to be slightly worse when I give him greens (which I no longer do). The only ‘solution’ I have found is to put seat pads down where he likes to sit.

Now the bigger issues:

He’s had tooth spurs which have required operating on I think 3 times in his life, but judging by the dread lock beard that’s starting to form he’s already facing issues again despite it only being about 6m since his last filing. The spurs have never been anything other than minimal but he’s clearly sensitive to them. He seems, to me, to be a pretty good hay eater (Sometimes tempted with some hidden herbs) but will certainly fill up on the tasty stuff if given a chance so to to keep his teeth in check he’s given extremely meagre rations of fresh and pellet food. This didn’t used to be an issue as he was prone to being on the chubby side.

However, now he is older, on his rationed food he’s getting really underweight. I know I can counteract this (and have done before) by increasing his tasty food rations but it’ll be at the expense of his teeth. I suspect he may be losing muscle tone as he seems not hugely inclined to move so much anymore. He certainly has no general appetite problems and will always appear at the kitchen door when you go in there ❤️❤️.

Although I worry he might be a bit depressed because he’s not moving about so much anymore I don’t believe he has issues with arthritis. A trial of painkillers made no difference to his behaviour/weeing and I took him back to my mum’s house recently for a week (allowed, we’re in a bubble) where she has a large garden and he was having a wild time running round and binkying. He’ll happily jump up on the sofa if he thinks there’s any chance of food though (sometimes for a cuddle, but mainly to see if you might want to share a bit of that apple).

He’s on elderly rabbit biscuits which I presumed would be better for him but on reading their website it looks like they actually might be ‘low cal’ to prevent weight issues so I wonder if it might be worth swapping to regular adult biscuits? I’ve also ordered some alfalfa to come tomorrow but if I’m right that the incontinence issue is made worse by calcium this probably won’t work out.

So my question is, if you made it this far…. does anyone have any tips for how I can fatten up my rabbit without increasing calcium or decreasing hay consumption! I want his last few years (hopefully!) to be happy and healthy ones and I’m so worried about him.

[Dface]

I dont have experience with elder buns so take my suggestions with a grain of salt!

I do have a wooly skinny bun that I used fibafirst sticks with. They are a complete “pellet” but ideal for encouraging gnawing the longer fibres in its composition need to be actively chewed, promoting dental health over pellets which can usually just be scoffed. They are expensive, but because they are hay based you dont really have to ration them with skinny buns (in my experience)

It can take them a while to get into eating them though.

Different forage might also help- different flavours of hay etc. I have also heard that oat hay can help with weight gain (although i think the hay needs to be full: the seed head needs to be part of it too in order to help with weight gain as the seed is the fatty part)

Im not sure if this table will work but :

Hay Type	Crude Fibre	Crude Protein	Calcium
Orchard Grass	34%	10%	0.33%
Timothy	32-34%	8-11%	0.4-0.6%
Oat	31%	10%	0.4%
Dried Grass	25-28%	12-14%	0.55%
Meadow	33%	7%	0.6%
Alfalfa	28-34%	13-19%	1.2-1.4%
Bermudagrass	29%	10%	0.46%

This suggests that  feeding barn dried grass might be a good option – I know the brand Redigrass sell pure dried grass might be a close second to alfalfa for protein content, without the calcium you are looking to avoid!

[Happyjeans]

Ah thank you that is so so helpful!

I haven’t seen the fibafirst sticks and they look great – I don’t mind they’re expensive a) I love him and b) dental will be more expensive 😂. He does indeed mainline his biscuits so they’re popped in a cat treat ball to make him work for them a little bit!

The breakdowns are really helpful too, thank you, I’ll definitely look in to getting some dried grass for him if the alfalfa seems to increase his wee dribbles.

[Bam]

I second everything dface said. And as for the senior pellets, I’d change back to adult pellets. The most common health issue with buns is overweight, and more so as the bun becomes less active with age. But then there are buns that are hard keepers, and who will have trouble keeping weight on as they age. You see the same thing with horses- some require supplements with extra protein as they age, whereas most adult horses that aren’t doing hard work do very well on a hay and grass-only diet. (Horses and rabbits actually have many things in common!)

6 months between need for dental burrs are, regrettably, not uncommon in older buns. Some buns need them even more frequently. And some buns really are very sensitive to even minor spurs.

It’s rather a good thing that metacam didn’t make a difference-it would have, if he had had a pain problem. Metacam is remarkably effective for f e x joint pain and can really make a world of difference for an arthritic bun.

Some fresh greens contain lots of calcium, especially the dark green ones like kale, black kale, spinach and parsley. Leafy lettuce like romaine are ok to give though, but it’s rather more of a healthy treat and a source of enrichment than an important source of nutrients.

Fibafirst sticks are very good, but they are a British make and can be difficult to find if you are in the USA. You can give a small amount of rolled oats to a bun that has trouble keeping weight on.

 

 

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