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Advice please about underweight bunny

C

Claire&Phil

Warren Scout
We are concerned about Candy our lion head. Ever since she came to us from a re-homing centre she has been skinny and seeming to be underweight. We feed her plenty of Oxbow basics pellets and occasional veg but she appears not to be putting on weight. We were told she was only feed veg whilst in the care of the rehoming centre and it would seem this is her preferred food as she looks uninterested in the pellets although I have observed her eat them. We do not know how old she is so we have considered her weight could be related to old age. We are also concerned that if she does not put on weight she will suffer during the colder months as she lives outside.
 
Usual questions:

Has she had her teeth checked?
Does she drink/urinate a lot?
When, if ever was she last wormed?
 
She does drink a lot. not sure about the other questions, will have to check those out with my partner. she does always seem hungry as she awalys runs up to me begging and nibbling at my fingers.

Phil
 
I would have her checked over by the vets and get her onto a 28 day course of Panacur just incase.

EC can cause excessive drinking and urinating as a side effect from renal problems which inturn cause weight loss.
 
Also to add to Sooz advice..just in case she is Ec active..keep her away form other rabbits and wash well inbetween handling..if she has shared areas may be worth Panacuring all your bunnies....
in the meantime you could offer her some moistened porridge oats as the add weight..good luck
 
Candy has always been a fairly thin rabbit. She had a course of panacur while she was here just in case of EC, her teeth are fine (checked when she was neutered), we also had her blood tested just in case of liver/kidney problems and that came back normal ;)
 
Has she lived with another unwormed rabbit since?

Remember EC is a carried protozoa which can manifest without symptoms and another unwormed rabbit could pass it on, Panacur is only effective against current EC infections....it cannot protect against re-infection at a later date.
 
Sooz22 said:
Has she lived with another unwormed rabbit since?

Remember EC is a carried protozoa which can manifest without symptoms and another unwormed rabbit could pass it on, Panacur is only effective against current EC infections....it cannot protect against re-infection at a later date.
Click to expand...

Candy has lived with Jasper for quite some time now and he was treated with Panacur at the same time. They have not been bonded with the other rabbits yet ;)
 
Good.

I would monitor her weight and if she still seems to be loosing some place her on a 28 day course of Panacur, as if she had an active infection 9 days would not be enough to destroy it (something to do with the cyclical lifespan of the oocysts, Anita explained it to me but it went a little over my head :oops: ).
 
Still check her on worms, since recent studie's have showed dat even snales can pass them to a rabbit.
Is that candy in your banner?
 
It sounds to me like Cheryl covered all the bases while Candy was in rescue regards her health, I would try her on science selective pellets although oxbow are 'the best', SS are probably the 2nd best - and more importantly for Candy, rabbits go mad for the taste :)

If you want to get a bit of weight on her, just a fortnight on porridge should do it - I put a few ss pellets in a dish, plus a heaped teaspoon of porridge oats, some boiling water from the kettle and leave it to soak and cool so the oats don't expand in her tummy - mash it all up when cooler and feed warm, mine love it.

veg should also really be fed daily rather than occasionally, although they don't need a lot - just a medium leaf of greens, small chunks of carrot and brocolli - it's less likely to cause tummy upset if they have it daily.

Does she eat much hay or isn't she interested in that either?
 
sgprescue said:
Candy has always been a fairly thin rabbit. She had a course of panacur while she was here just in case of EC, her teeth are fine (checked when she was neutered), we also had her blood tested just in case of liver/kidney problems and that came back normal ;)
Click to expand...

Hi Cheryl,

Sorry for not responding sooner but I have been ill. Thanks for the reply, just to let you know that we took Candy to the Vets today and it is believed that Candy might be impacted therefore leading her to lose weight. We have been giving liquid Parraffin and science recovery in which she is to take for the next 3 days:?

Candy was fantastic at the vets. We even took Jasper to keep her company. It seemed Jasper was more nervous than Candy.

We will keep you up to date with how she is doing.

Claire & Phil
 
elve said:
It sounds to me like Cheryl covered all the bases while Candy was in rescue regards her health, I would try her on science selective pellets although oxbow are 'the best', SS are probably the 2nd best - and more importantly for Candy, rabbits go mad for the taste :)

If you want to get a bit of weight on her, just a fortnight on porridge should do it - I put a few ss pellets in a dish, plus a heaped teaspoon of porridge oats, some boiling water from the kettle and leave it to soak and cool so the oats don't expand in her tummy - mash it all up when cooler and feed warm, mine love it.

veg should also really be fed daily rather than occasionally, although they don't need a lot - just a medium leaf of greens, small chunks of carrot and brocolli - it's less likely to cause tummy upset if they have it daily.

Does she eat much hay or isn't she interested in that either?
Click to expand...

Hi, I have to admit I haven’t seen her eat much hey although it usually all disappears but that could mean Jasper is eating it all. Nor do we feed veg on a daily basis although it's giving often during the week.

Which pellets are you describing when you say 'Rabbits go made for it?’

Phil
 
Science selective pellets - I get mine online but there are a few places you can buy them, but not widely available like the burgess pellets. Mine are from ukpetsupplies. I only give them a small handful morning and slightly less in the evening, but when Maa was very skinny I gave her much more - couple of handfuls I guess till she was up to proper weight (she just won't eat hay much and would rather starve - almost did!)

Also, my bunnies literally dive into their hay (even Maa for 5 mins) like it's a pile of sweeties, so if she's not enthusiastic, try as many different types as you can, from riding stables, farm shops, online, timmy hay, herb hay - there's loads of variation in hay - the biggest headache I've had since getting rabbits is finding hay they eat as they need to eat their body size in hay daily. I split this amount into 2 bundles morning and evening, as they won't eat stale hay either.

I have never heard of a rabbit losing weight from an impaction - do you know how rabbit savvy your vet is?
 
As rabbits almost NEVER survive surgery on the gut I think you should ask in rabbit chat on the forum and see if anyone local to you knows a good rabbit vet.

Did you try making her some porridge like I suggested?
 
elve said:
As rabbits almost NEVER survive surgery on the gut I think you should ask in rabbit chat on the forum and see if anyone local to you knows a good rabbit vet.

Did you try making her some porridge like I suggested?
Click to expand...

Yep, it went down like a treat. Although I cannot tell if Candy ate it all or shared it with her buddy as we gave it to her this morning before going to work :?
 
Can you take her out during the time she needs to feed? I had to separate my two when Molly needed plumping up and when Charlie needed to sim down lol... In the end (since charlie was furious that molly seemed to have more food than him) I hand fed them science selective, which they literally tackle me for when I have a bowl in my hand!!
As for Hay.. have you tried 'The Hay Experts' ??

http://www.thehayexperts.com/product_info.php?products_id=32

They do a sample pack which has several hay types for your bun to chose from. (FOR ELVE TOO)
The dried grass that they sell is also adored by my buns and piggies. Sweet but full of fibre!!
You could also try diff types of herbs to find smthn that is a fav... dandelion leaves, basil, parsley (v medicinal) etc... ?

Hope Candy feels better soon :D
 
I use oxbow Timothy hay which goes down like a treat. I also use hay from a local farm for bedding ect which they to enjoy nibbling on. At present we take Candy indoors for feeding as she is having a course of Science recovery feed.

Phil
 
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