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Please help bun not eating, and messy bottom

S

sunflower4357

Young Bun
I have a 3 year old bunny - sophie who has been having nothing but problems latley.

She has a messy bottom and has done a few times over the last few weeks.

I have cleaned her a few times and taken her to the vet who put her on antibiotics and she was fine for a week till it all started again.

The vet said it could possibly be because she is having problems with her teeth.

She doesnt seem to be eating anything at all now and im really worried, normally she runs to me when its food time but she just stays at the other end of the hutch.

Also looking at her behaviour today she doesnt seem very happy and is just sat in one place.

I am taking her to the vets again first thing tomorrow morning but im not sure what to do as i dont think the vets will advise anything besides giving her antibitoics again, but this doesnt solve the root of the problem.

any ideas anyone?
 
It does sound like a teeth problem, and antibiotics won't help that sadly.
Is there a different vet you can use? Whereabouts are you - perhaps someone can recommend a good vet near to you.

Has your bun eaten or pooped at all today? If not, I would suggest she needs to see an emergency vet now, as she doesn't sound like a happy bunny at all. They can go downhill very quickly.

Good luck.
 
Is she outside? If so please bring her into the warm as soon as possible....sick rabbits cannot regulate their body temperature and it's horrid out there :(.
 
HS - so you rekon it could be teeth problems, if so is there anything that can be done for them?

im in the teesside area, i have been to a number of vets in this area, but tbh they seem useless, and half the advice i have got of some of them is ridiculous. The vets im going to tomorrow is the one that said it could be a teeth problem so atleast im getting somwhere i hope.

she hasnt eaten but she has pooped as far as im aware, she shares a cage with another bun so hard to tell really.

Sooz - yes they have a large hutch/run outside in the garage, out of the cold and wind/rain etc, i cant really bring her inside at the moment :( :(
 
sunflower4357 said:
HS - so you rekon it could be teeth problems, if so is there anything that can be done for them?

im in the teesside area, i have been to a number of vets in this area, but tbh they seem useless, and half the advice i have got of some of them is ridiculous. The vets im going to tomorrow is the one that said it could be a teeth problem so atleast im getting somwhere i hope.

she hasnt eaten but she has pooped as far as im aware, she shares a cage with another bun so hard to tell really.

Sooz - yes they have a large hutch/run outside in the garage, out of the cold and wind/rain etc, i cant really bring her inside at the moment :( :(
Click to expand...

I live in teesside and i would personally recommend Roslyns Vets, they specialise in small animals and were great with my poorly bunny when i had to get hm put down. Only thin is they are a bit pricey. I use Oaklands Vets now near yarm as they are cheap and do seem to know about rabbits :) Weather they will know about unusual illnesses or teeth etc i don't know as i've only taken my bun twice for vacinations and a castration, they seemed to be rabbit savvy. the vet advised me to get a VHD jab done after the myxi which was a good sign :)
 
Rossyln vets was the first one i tried but the advice given when she wasnt well last time was really bad according to the vets im with now which is bridge street vets.

I will go in to bridge tomorrow and see what they say if not i think ill take ur advice and join oaklands.

Its funny how one vet says one thing then another says the previous vet was wrong and so on, i dont get it, maybe its just my luck :(

meanwhile, have put a few heatpads in place for the evening incase sophie gets cold and she seems to be moving around a little but still hasnt touched any food :(
 
Maybe you could try and tempt her with some easy to eat food - pellets with some water on to soften them up and a dash of apple juice, or grated carrot and apple.

Do you have any recovery food you could offer her?
It's difficult to know what the problem is - a bunny not eating is a bunny in pain. If it is a teeth problem, then it can be sorted.
Is she dribbly around her mouth, dropping food, or have dirty front paws? This is often another indication of teeth problems.

Does she eat a lot of hay usually? A couple of mine have a history of teeth problems, but they love their hay, so we've manage to keep the spurs at bay!
 
sunflower4357 said:
Rossyln vets was the first one i tried but the advice given when she wasnt well last time was really bad according to the vets im with now which is bridge street vets.

I will go in to bridge tomorrow and see what they say if not i think ill take ur advice and join oaklands.

Its funny how one vet says one thing then another says the previous vet was wrong and so on, i dont get it, maybe its just my luck :(

meanwhile, have put a few heatpads in place for the evening incase sophie gets cold and she seems to be moving around a little but still hasnt touched any food :(
Click to expand...

Thats a suprise o_O Which vet you see, do you remember? i get my rats treated there and they seem to know alot about them, it's an unusual animal to know about and since they were brilliant with my bun when he got fly strike an got ill i presumed they would be good. been to the bridge and personally i don't think they have a clue about any small animals. i would deffo go back to rosslyns or rin them up and ask if there's anybody who knows about bunnies. but if you feel that the bridge is better then im not gunna argue s i ont have experience with bunnies at the bridge :)

I think if i had something really bad happen to my bun such as not eatin etc i'd take him to rossylins because i KNOW they are ok. but thats only from experience with one bun :)
 
Hope you manage to get to a savvy vets soon - but you need to do something for your bun tonight. You need to get her to eat something - or at the very least get some fluids into her, they dehydrate very easily.

Try putting water in a bowl and top with cooled boiled water - or if you have a syringe, try to get her to drink some from that. You'll need to place the syringe across her mouth not down it.

I've just been through this with Fozzie - good luck.
 
vegan_household said:
Thats a suprise o_O Which vet you see, do you remember? i get my rats treated there and they seem to know alot about them, it's an unusual animal to know about and since they were brilliant with my bun when he got fly strike an got ill i presumed they would be good. been to the bridge and personally i don't think they have a clue about any small animals. i would deffo go back to rosslyns or rin them up and ask if there's anybody who knows about bunnies. but if you feel that the bridge is better then im not gunna argue s i ont have experience with bunnies at the bridge :)

I think if i had something really bad happen to my bun such as not eatin etc i'd take him to rossylins because i KNOW they are ok. but thats only from experience with one bun :)
Click to expand...

I live in Middlesbrough and go to the Bridge vets as it's verrry close to me, they were great with my rats and my bun. I think they have 1 vet who is very good with small animals, and the nurses have been good with all mine too.


I hope your bun makes a quick recovery sunflower4357, the poor thing :(
 
I had a rabbit with the same problem it does sound like her teeth are giving her grief please get her to the vets asap!
 
Thanks everyone for all the advice and good vibes

I have taken sophie to bridge vets this morning and they said they wanted to give her antibiotics again but this time for two weeks, i told them that they could do that and she would be fine for the two weeks and probably a week after that the problem would occur again, as it always does.

So the vet agreed to put her under anaesthetic and while shes sedated to check her teeth and stuff and "file them" down if necessary.

I really hope its her teeth atleast that way we can get the problem sorted and she wont have to keep going through this.

The vet also said if its not her teeth then she will have to stay on medication throughtout the rest of her life, im not sure if this is normal? i was a bit taken back by it, anyone have any opinions on this?
 
Last edited:
they all said that. My vet said that too. They are bound by law to legally tell you to reduce their responsibility. So they are off "the hook" in the future.

Make sure your bun has 90% hay as her diet, and make sure the hay is mainly the stem of the hay
 
I think you are best off waiting to see what the vets say about her teeth. If this was the problem, then you know its been sorted. If it wasn't then I'd look at finding a vets surgery that can help you. (onviously you'll need to treat the not eating issue in the meantime too).

Please let us know what the vets say and we'll see what you can do from there.

Best of luck.
 
sunflower4357 said:
Thanks everyone for all the advice and good vibes

I have taken sophie to bridge vets this morning and they said they wanted to give her antibiotics again but this time for two weeks, i told them that they could do that and she would be fine for the two weeks and probably a week after that the problem would occur again, as it always does.

So the vet agreed to put her under anaesthetic and while shes sedated to check her teeth and stuff and "file them" down if necessary.

I really hope its her teeth atleast that way we can get the problem sorted and she wont have to keep going through this.

The vet also said if its not her teeth then she will have to stay on medication throughtout the rest of her life, im not sure if this is normal? i was a bit taken back by it, anyone have any opinions on this?
Click to expand...

Good on you for saying what you wanted!
Hope all goes well and you get to the bottom of the problem.
 
aw i hope you get this sorted. its good they listened to ou. some vets hate being told what the customer thinks best. :roll: but im glad you put your foot down and asked them to check :)

Hopefully she will back to normal. your obviously doing the best you can for her :):) sending lotsa vibes!

xxx
 
Just a quick update

Now im worried bigtime, I have just rung the vets and they said they havent done anything on her at all despite having her since morning.

Another vet called me to say they wont be doing the anasthetic as shehasnt been eating or pooing so theres a high rish factor therefore they cant do anything. He said he would check her out while she is awake and obviously clean the small amount of feaces that is stuck to her bottom.

I questioned why they kept sophie if it was a high risk thing in the first place and why i got told something totally different by the first vet i saw :roll: he said every vet is different and has different way of dealing with things.

15 mins later i get another call to say they couldnt check her teeth or clean her as she is having none of it, and the only option is to put her under anasthetic, i questioned this becuase he told me before that its high risk but he said theres no other choice.

Its all going ahead now and im not sure what to do or think, i hope nothing happens to her and im starting to blame myself, maybe i should have called earlier or something :( :( :(
 
They seem to be messing you and your poor bun about a bit here - doesn't sound very organised.

I agree that its a high risk having an anaesthetic when the bun is anorexic but surely they knew that before she went in? Anyway - did they manage to do anything yesterday?
 
I pull get your bun out of that place. And call around for a rabbit savvy specialist (they charge about the same), you have to know a vet that can treat dogs & cats is totally different than rabbit, as it's like orange vs. apple. Vet knows how to treat dogs/cats, doesn't know how to treat rabbits.


As to the not eating, all you need is to force feed her. It's very simple. Either:

1) Get some non-meat baby food, use a syringe to suck up the baby food, get a cup of hot water, dump the syringe in the hot water for 2 min., now the syringe is warm, so you now syringe feed the baby food to your bun.

Every 1Kg, get 100 ml of food inside him per 24 hr.

OR

2) Get some blackberry or raspberry, smash it via juicer. You need about 6 oz. Get some hay stem, cut the stem in 1 mm length, mixed it w/ the blackberry. Put the mixture in a 35 ml syringe and force feed your bun. Your bun need the fiber to survive.

You need to force feed your bun via syringe. If a bun doesn't eat, he will die.
 
So I brought Sophie home yesterday and she was all numb on her back legs and backside, she was forcefully dragging herself from behind and looked in a lot of pain.

They put her under general anasthetic and took x-rays of her teeth and stuff, and its not a teeth problem as all her teeth are healthy.

The vet rekons it is a diet problem, so Im going to look into that further, although her diet has been the same for the past 3 years and Ive had no problems.

As for feeding her, the vet gave me some vitamin/nutrient stuff to feed her through a syringe, I did that last night along with some water and she seemed ok this morning.

Thanks for the advice and help
 
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