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Obese bunny-advice needed!

mudchild

mudchild

Warren Scout
:D

My mum has recently rescued a bunny who has been in a hutch on her own for about 4 years and has had no exercise whatsoever.
She is seriously fat and flabby. My mum is looking after her until she is slimmer and will then try to rehome her as she cant keep her permentaly-she just wanted to get her out of her situation.
Anyway..she is feeding her on hay and veg at the mo with no hard feed to try and get her weight down. She is in a hutch with a run and has about 3 hours in the garden everyday. She cant lie down properly like my Ozzy does because her chin gets in the way and she cant clean herself properly.
Its so sad as she has got the sweetest temperament ever and is so so friendly considering.

Is there anything anyone can recommend? She does seem to have lost weight as you can feel her spine but she has lots of huge flab hanging off her. Is this right as her spine is quite bony. She looks like a English bunny to me.

Any advice really appreciated!
Thanks xx
 
Thats great news that your mum has rescued the bunny.

I rescued one that had obviously lost weight drastically, she now has excess flab around her neck and a ruff around her bottom like a skirt. She is lucky in the fact I have bonded her with a neutured male so the grooming is not too bad.

I dont think there is too much you can do with the excess flab, is there liposuction for rabbits??!!!!! Personally I would give her a few good quality dried pellets to re introduce her to hard food.

A big thumbs up to your mum, hopefully someone else will have better suggestions.
 
I think your mum already has the right idea by cutting out pelletts, lots of hay and lots of exercise. The only other thing I can suggest is to think about what veg is being fed - remember things like carrots are very high in sugar so can be fattening.
 
Thanks for the replies and advice.:) I will def check what beg she is being fed.
Its weird as she feels very slim round her spine but has so much flab on her. Do you think maybe she has lost weight a bit too quickly?

Wow I cant believe they can have tummy tucks -thanks for that info.
I am a bit worried she will never lose it and will have trouble being rehomed because of it.
She is a serious sweetie so fingers crossed she can lose it and start the rest of her days as although my mum loves her she cant keep her permanently.
xx
 
One of my boys had a 'tummy tuck' once - although not because he was overweight (much :oops:). He just had very deep folds of skin around his boy bits so he kept getting infections in the skin and a type of urine scald where he'd wee on himself. The vet trimmed back all the excess skin and neatened everything up and Scoobs was absolutely fine thereafter. So it can be done!
 
mudchild said:
Thanks for the replies and advice.:) I will def check what beg she is being fed.
Its weird as she feels very slim round her spine but has so much flab on her. Do you think maybe she has lost weight a bit too quickly?

Wow I cant believe they can have tummy tucks -thanks for that info.
I am a bit worried she will never lose it and will have trouble being rehomed because of it.
She is a serious sweetie so fingers crossed she can lose it and start the rest of her days as although my mum loves her she cant keep her permanently.
xx
Click to expand...

It sounds like she has lost muscle, which could be due to her diet and previous lack of exercise but may also be due to an underlying health problem.

Is she eating/drinking/pooing and weeing normally?
Spaying might reduce her dewlap if she is well enough
 
She seems to be absolutly fine apart from not being able to lie down really and being huge! Her teeth have been checked and they are okay apparently. She has been spayed already. It does seem to be muscle wastage as she really hasnt had any exercise before now, bless her xx
 
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