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some interesting reading about Bromelain

C

coco1200

Warren Veteran
Just been trying to do some research about bromelian because my poor Oscar is suffering from a very heavy moult. His appetite has slowed down slighty, but not a worrying amount and his poos are very stringy (necklace beads anyone?!) so I thought he could really benefit with a supplement to aid the digestion. Its getting a lot warmer now and he still has a massive winter coat, he looks like a fluffy teddy bear! :love: Noisette is okay though... she never formed a winter coat despite being an outdoor bun all her life :(

Found this though if anyone is interested in reading it! I was pulling that 'oooh thats so interesting' face throughout :lol:

The medical use of pineapple for rabbits

I did a lot of research about hairball in rabbits after Poppy passed away last year. One of such work is this article which I sent to a local rabbit rescue. After sitting in my harddrive for over a year, I saw it again today and thought I might share this with the rest of the world in hope that somebody will find this useful. So here it is attached below.

The medical use of pineapple for rabbits

There are many myths circulating around the internet regarding the health benefit of pineapple for rabbits, especially for hairballs. So I did some research of my own using medical journals and trustworthy sources.

It seems that bromelain, the actual enzyme in question, is most abundant in the stem of the pineapple, the center part that we throw away. Fresh pineapple are best as the enzyme can be denatured once frozen or processed.

Although there are no definitive evidence that bromelain intake helps with hairball or GI stasis in rabbits, there are other positive results. They are summarized below.

From the study of [1], it seems that bromelain is good for diarrhoea. The effect is that it will reduce intestinal fluid secretion, which is the real cause of death from diarrhoea as patients literally excrete out all their nutrients and water.

From [2] and [3], these could be the direction to extrapolate that bromelain helps with hairball. They suggest that bromelain has mucolytic and digestive properties. So it’ll dilate the mucus coating of the GI tract as well as helping to breakdown proteins. The Ontario Rabbit Education web site [4] implies that the mucus is the source of the obstruction as it’s like adding gel with hair. However, if the hairball is big enough to obstruct motility on its own, then reducing the mucus coating would have the adverse effect of removing a protective layer of the GI tract and could pose other health issues as the it grinds with the hair. The risk is location dependent as thickness of the GI tract decreases further along. So the use of bromelain during GI blockage is risky and not advised.

Lastly, [5] concludes that bromelain acts as an agent to complement tumour therapy because of its metastasis efficacy. And they also suggest that it accelerate wound healing.

These attributes of bromelain apply to human and other pets as well. In summary, eat some pineapple if your rabbit have diarrhoea, receiving tumour therapy, or wounded. And be careful of feeding your rabbit pineapple during GI blockage.


References:

[1] T.L. Mynott, et al., Bromelain prevents secretion caused by Vibrio cholerae and Escherichia coli enterotoxins in rabbit ileum in vitro, Gastroenterology, 1997.

[2] A. Bernkop-Schnürch, et al., The Use of Auxiliary Agents to Improve the Mucosal Uptake of Peptides, Medicinal Chemistry Reviews-Online, 1994.

[3] G. S. Kelly, Bromelain: A Literature Review and Discussion of its Therapeutic Applications, Alernative Medicine Review, 1996.

[4] http://www.ontariorabbits.org/health/healthinfo8.htm

[5] H.R. Maurer, Bromelain: biochemistry, pharmacology and medical use, Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, 2001.

[6] K. Suzuku, et al., Experimental study of the effects of bromelain on the sputum consistency in rabbits, Nippon Yakurigaku Zasshi, 1983
Click to expand...

http://poppy-rabbit.blogspot.com/2007/06/medical-use-of-pineapple-for-rabbits.html

:wave:
 
donnamt said:
im a bit thick :oops: so they reackon not to use pineapple when a bunny has a hairball?
Click to expand...

what I have interpretated is that when bunnies eat loads of fur, mucus is produced to try and bind it all together! When bromalien/pineapple is added to the situation, it can help with more mucus production which eases the GI tract!... I think at least :? :lol:

It does say to be careful when feeding buns pineapple if they have GI blockage, but I would never give it to a bun with statis because the sugar could potentially lead to bloat!
 
I had understood that the use of bromelain in fur ball, was to digest the mucus/food mass which is holding the fur ball together, so it breaks up & can be passed. Please can you clarify for me?
Obviously it should usd in conjunction with the basic principals of maintaining gut motility with high fiber, good hydration, & reducing ingested fur as much as possible.

ETA Sorry Coco we cross posted. I also prefer bromelain in purer tabletform because of the issues of fruit sugars which you outlined..
 
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From the study of [1], it seems that bromelain is good for diarrhoea. The effect is that it will reduce intestinal fluid secretion, which is the real cause of death from diarrhoea as patients literally excrete out all their nutrients and water. they do secrete/lose water in diarrhoea,. but they dont excrete nutrients - rather they fail to absorb them from the food in the gut

From [2] and [3], these could be the direction to extrapolate that bromelain helps with hairball. They suggest that bromelain has mucolytic and digestive properties. So it’ll dilate (assuming s/he means dilute? to dilate the guts is a whole different thing!) the mucus coating of the GI tract as well as helping to breakdown proteins. The Ontario Rabbit Education web site [4] implies that the mucus is the source of the obstruction as it’s like adding gel with hair. However, if the hairball is big enough to obstruct motility on its own, then reducing the mucus coating would have the adverse effect of removing a protective layer of the GI tract and could pose other health issues as the it grinds with the hair (maybe just use of language, but i doubt that fur is sufficiently abbrasive to cause "grinding" against the gut i.e. damage to the mucosa? rather that the lack of lubricant creates sufficient friction to prevent movement of the hairball). The risk is location dependent as thickness of the GI tract decreases further along (only partially true, and only applied to the small intestine. If the hairball passes into the large intestine, where the walls are thicker, it will almost certainly pass out of the rabbit anyway. So the use of bromelain during GI blockage is risky and not advised. (Donna, here they're saying using bromelian removes the protective mucus so using pineapple in a suspected blockage is not a good idea)

Lastly, [5] concludes that bromelain acts as an agent to complement tumour therapy because of its metastasis efficacy. And they also suggest that it accelerate wound healing. This kind of contradicts itself - if it aids wound healing the presumably they are suggesting that it aids cell proliferation? in which case it would make tumours worse not better as it would encourage the tumour cells to proliferate???

These attributes of bromelain apply to human and other pets as well. In summary, eat some pineapple if your rabbit have diarrhoea (or presumably get your rabbit to eat it, its not going to do much good inside the owner! :lol:), receiving tumour therapy, or wounded. And be careful of feeding your rabbit pineapple during GI blockage.

I've not read the actual articles, but just thought i'd add my comments to what they have summarised from it :wave:
 
im to stingy to buy the buns a fresh pineapple anyhows.. i bought the carton stuff to hide meds in but i never thought about the hairball thing :oops::lol::lol:
 
coco1200 said:
what I have interpretated is that when bunnies eat loads of fur, mucus is produced to try and bind it all together! When bromalien/pineapple is added to the situation, it can help with more mucus production which eases the GI tract!... I think at least :? :lol:
Click to expand...

Actually Janak its the reverse - they're saying the bromelian removes the mucus (mucolytic means to break down mucus), removing its protective lubrication on the gut, so can cause friction ("grinding" as they put it) with the gut wall and therefore damage and irritation, and makes it harder for the hairball to move
 
VikkiVet said:
Actually Janak its the reverse - they're saying the bromelian removes the mucus (mucolytic means to break down mucus), removing its protective lubrication on the gut, so can cause friction ("grinding" as they put it) with the gut wall and therefore damage and irritation, and makes it harder for the hairball to move
Click to expand...

brilliant, thanks for clearing it up Vikki! :thumb:

Its very confusing now! :lol: Is it worth giving Oscar something containing bromelain for his moult? Or would it be worth increasing something like fluid intake?
 
I think the question is how mucolytic is it? If bromelian has positive effects but is also mucolytic, a normal healthy rabbit having a moult may benefit from the other benefits and not suffer from the mucolytic effect.
I'd only "medicate" Oscar in any way if he seems to be affected by the moult. If he's just shedding slowly then i'd leave him to it.
Is it loose? i.e. if you pull on it gently does it come away in your hand? in which case a furminator or similar type brush my help him shed more quickly without having to groom it all out himself. Likewise running damp hands over him will pick off any loose hair onto your hands, so if done every few days might just speed things along
 
May I make the point, that mucolytic doesn't mean that it stops all mucus production, it makes the mucus more runny, so water can get through it easier & rehydrate a dried out mass.
It's the same in the respiratory tract - a mucolytic makes the thick mucus gunk that won't come up, runny; so we can cough it up easier.
 
thumps_ said:
May I make the point, that mucolytic doesn't mean that it stops all mucus production, it makes the mucus more runny, so water can get through it easier & rehydrate a dried out mass.
It's the same in the respiratory tract - a mucolytic makes the thick mucus gunk that won't come up, runny; so we can cough it up easier.
Click to expand...

:shock: I can't deal with that level of detail at this moment in time :lol: So in conclusion of both these aspects that you and Vikki have bought up, it won't harm Oscar giving him some bromelain?

and Vikki how funny, I was just looking at furminators for him and my next question was if they would be suitable! :lol: Pretty cheap on ebay so I think I will order a small one :)
 
I have always been of the belief that bromelain in fresh pineapple was supposed to break down keratin, the strengthening protein contained in hair. However, there seems to be no scientific proof that this occurs. Papain enzyme in papaya is also suggested as having the same property.

My view is the the rabbit gut almost always contains some hair from grooming and is designed to cope. The problem with trichobezoars stems more from initial overall reduced motility of the gut, allowing hair to become mixed with ingesta creating a drying mass because of lessened fluid intake, which in turn cannot be moved through the GI system.
 
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