Please help. poorly baby rabbit

Hi All,

could really do with some advice. I have a litter of baby rabbits (6 weeks old tomorrow) and one's not eating. Mum stopped feeding them at 4.5 weeks old, and despite my best efforts with bottle feeding, lost 1 almost immediately. Then a 2nd one started to go down hill, had jelly poop and a foul smell, but was taking the milk twice a day. His poops went back to normal, smell stopped and he's lively enough, hops around the cage and snuggles up with brother and sisters, but just will not eat any solid food what-so-ever. I've tried readygrass, there's a constantly supply of clean fresh hay, there's 2 types of food in there excel pellets and chudleys, but he wont touch either, even tried him on his own with dandelion leaves, but he wont touch them or anything else. All the others are straight on the food which I'm filling up 3/4 times a day to make sure none go hungry, but this little one I just cant get to eat. I've been mixing an electrolite powder which I had some left from when Patch had his dental, and been mixing that in with the goats milk, and seems to have helped, he's not grinding his teeth or anything any more, but obviously he should be eating some solids at 6 weeks old... any ideas on what else I can do?

He needs to see the vet, it sounds like he has gastric enteritis which is a very serious condition in such a young rabbit.

Can you syringe feed him with critical care or science recovery formula? A pro and prebiotoic will also help.

Not eating is the first sign of pain so even though he is not grinding his teeth I would still be offering him pain relief personally.

Is he toileting?

Hiya,

I tried the science recovery, wont touch it and wont swallow it if I try and drip it into his mouth - just goes everywhere and we're no further forward. Even tried making this up with the goats milk instead of just water - no difference. Dont have any critical care.

Yeah, his poops are back to normal, there's no smell and no jellified stuff any longer, and as I said, he's bright enough, hopping around his cage, but is smaller and generally less energetic than the other 3 - which are totally fine.

Could he have deformed teeth?
Rabbits naturally grind their teeth when they eat but if the teeth are deformed (could come from injury or be genetic) the teeth grow too large making it difficult for the rabbit to eat.

I think you should get him to a vet and have his teeth checked, if it is deformed teeth and not caused by injury, do not breed the parents or siblings again, as they may carry the gene for deformed teeth. Rabbits with this tooth-deformity need to have their teeth clipped regularly at the vets to keep them from growing too big again.

I didnt assosciate the not eating with him being in any pain because he is so young, and I never saw him eating the dried mix. As a small baby - between 2-4 weeks he was nibbling on the hay and readygrass and still getting fed by mum, but that's not happening now.

What's the treatment for enteritis???

No, teeth are fine - they're not very big as he's only 6 weeks old, but I have checked them myself from what I can see they're perfectly aligned. Both parents are show quality rabbits from top lines, and both are vet-checked regularly and have never had any teether problems with them. I dont know much about the mother's line before here / her siblings, but do about the father's and there's no dental problems at all for at least the last 4 generations, so I really dont think it's the teeth.

Generaly intensive nursing with antibiotics, pain relief and fluids, possible also some gut stabilisers though not sure in such a young rabbit :?

The fact his poop has cleared up would indictae he is feeling better but is he still pooping?

Also if its his molars causing issues you wont be able to see those without an octoscope but I dont think thats the issue here.

Okay,

I phoned the vet and she said if he isn't grinding his teeth and will still take the milk, continue with that and keep trying with the science recovery and we've got him booked in for tomorrow to see her. She's no appointments at all today and said it's not an emergency because he seems to be getting better slowly, but she does want to see him.

She always checks all of my bunny's teeth whenever I take them so she said she'll do that with this little fella too, just it souds more gut related that dental.

Yes, he is still pooping, they're small and hard, but there's enough of them, and he doesn't feel bloated at all, so guess that's positive enough.

thanks for the advice. will keep you posted on what happens.

Just a quick update, decided I wasn't happy with the vets advice and said so, said I felt it was an emergency and that the little one needed to be seen right away, so I took him down there. As I suspected, it's not his teeth - they're all nicely aligned and developing okay, but he's not developing properly in himself, they said that whenever something goes wrong with a rabbit's gut, it's 50-50 whether you'll get them through. They've admitted him and giving him intravenous antibiotics and pain relief and said to call back in the morning. Didnt confirm / dismiss enteritis, but didnt suggest anything else either. they said that i've done the best thing I could do drip / bottle feeding and giving pro-biotics, but what they're doing now is all they can do too so it's really just hope and wait to see what happens.

Got my fingers crossed for him

Sadly at his age it could also be enterotoxemia which is common in weanlings.

X

A rabbit should normally stop taking mum's milk at about 4-5 weeks of age. Mum's will sometimes let them suckle longer but they don't need to. At that point they should be fine on just solids and eating well.

Substitute milk is a last ditch try for babies without access to mums milk, it's not ideal though as it doesn't match what a rabbits milk is like - it's much more likely to upset their guts.

Sudden changes aren't good though so you'll have to cut out the milk over a couple of days replacing with recovery powder or mushed pellets. The fibre content will help get the guts going. A probiotic would also be good as that will also help the guts get started.

Tamsin