I have been racking my brains trying to think of similarities between cases :?
I have never in my 12 years of bunnykeeping ever experienced bloat OR gi stasis until February of this year, and I am wholly guilty of feeding ‘bad’ muesli type food for the first 1-2 years with Sassy and later not noticing Lily had eaten things like daffodils, lilly of the valley and even ants (ANTS for crying out loud!!) until it had already gone in her mouth and she never had a single digestive problem. So why all of a sudden with so much more care over what goes into their bellies is this happening?
I don’t think its pellets. I fed Luna on Excel and she passed away from bloat (no signs of stasis whatsoever but I am aware it could have moved extremely quickly to bloat within 2 or 3 hours overnight) Sora is on SS and has just gotten over GI stasis :? so either neither brand is guilty, or both brands are guilty.
They live in totally different environments, Luna died as a housebunny wheras Sora is outside, so I can rule out the two of them eating something in the house (eg carpet) to cause a blockage. Luna did not go outside for a week before she passed away so I know she couldn’t have eaten anything bad in the garden as it would surely have affected her sooner than it did.
The *only* thing Luna and Sora had in common food-wise was
hay (from the same place but different ‘batches’ if you will as I threw it all away after Luna died just in case). So my husband is blaming the hay across the country for it.
He reckons farmers are putting different fertilizer on it (or different fertiliser on the organic veg we buy for them) he thinks farmers are suffering from the recession and buying cheaper fertilizer and other things to try and save on costs. However I am keeping an open mind about the cause.
But then Smudge didn’t get it, and he eats just as much of everything (including hay) as Sora :?
I do wish there could be a study or something, collecting statements from owners and trying to pinpoint the things that these cases have in common. There HAS to be something linking the cases, it can't just be 'Oh just because' or 'coincidence' that so many are coming down with it.