Jack's-Jane
Wise Old Thumper
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Just to add, wouldn't it be terrible for us people who have loads of house bunnies if they could vomit like cats. Think of all the furballs all over the house :mrgreen:
But if the same mechanical process is involved in burping and vomiting why dont we vomit every time we burp :?
I think rabbits cant vomit due to their highly developed cardiac sphincter.
But if the same mechanical process is involved in burping and vomiting why dont we vomit every time we burp :?
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwww !! :mrgreen:
I do!!:lol:
Rabbits can't vomit due to the highly developed cardiac sphincter as you say, it is unlikely that even gas can be passed through this.....and therefore I expect this contributes to gas build up in bloat? I don't know this for sure :?
I don't think that rabbits can burp....sadly if they could it might help them when so ill with a distended stomach I wonder if perhaps they also lack a vomiting centre in the medulla of the brain???
rabbits (and horses, who have a very similar digestive system
The cardiac sphincter thing is correct, but as i think Jane says, is it is mainly due to the gut design thing. Because they are "hindgut fermenters" - i.e. the breakdown of cellulose etc is in the caecum and large intestine, all the gas from fermentation is produced in the lower gut so gas generally passes out the back end (as some have experienced) but can build up, for various reasons, causing bloat. The stomach is simply too far away for gas to travel that far and be eliminated via eructation (burping to you and me!). With vomiting, because of their diet, being herbivorous, and their gut design, the stomach is very small and although never normally empty, holds very little contents at any one time, so vomiting isnt a useful process in rabbits (and horses, who have a very similar digestive system) so the reflexes (as someone mentioned about vomiting centres in the brain) are absent or poorly developed.
Yes please Jane, i'll have a scone! :lol:
The cardiac sphincter thing is correct, but as i think Jane says, is it is mainly due to the gut design thing. Because they are "hindgut fermenters" - i.e. the breakdown of cellulose etc is in the caecum and large intestine, all the gas from fermentation is produced in the lower gut so gas generally passes out the back end (as some have experienced) but can build up, for various reasons, causing bloat. The stomach is simply too far away for gas to travel that far and be eliminated via eructation (burping to you and me!). With vomiting, because of their diet, being herbivorous, and their gut design, the stomach is very small and although never normally empty, holds very little contents at any one time, so vomiting isnt a useful process in rabbits (and horses, who have a very similar digestive system) so the reflexes (as someone mentioned about vomiting centres in the brain) are absent or poorly developed.
Yes I know that gas is produced by hind gut fermentation in the caecum I was referring to inability to pass gass from the stomach during bloat episodes only which is, I think, a shame, but I expect that wild rabbits do not get bloat, hence why evolutionary speaking vomiting is not important or necessary to eliminate toxins from the body, and also that few toxins are ingested purely as we do as rabbits are selective feeders, on top of this their gastric acidity is far higher and more likely to neutralise anything untoward ingested
The vomiting centre is sited in the medulla and it is likely I agree that this autonomic reflex does not exist or is poorly developed in rabbits
Thanks for that explanation Vicki
........and will have have cream and jam with this scone ? :wave: