Not eating!

Oz is worrying me a little. We took him to my partners parents this weekend, which he's done many times, it's an hour and a bit of a car ride that he tollerates well. On saturday on the way down we gave him a chunk of banana, his favorite. He ate most of it. On saturday afternoon my gf's mother tried to give him some pea pods, which he didnt want to eat, and then she gave him a little bit of lettuce, which he ate after a while. Saturday night we got home about 8, and i have him a handful of parsley for his dinner, the next morning he hadn't eaten it. We gave him his morning pellets, and he didn't touch them at all. Then we drove home, and last night I gave him some baby carrots and he didn't eat them. He may have eaten a bi of the hay in his cage, it's hard to tell but normally in the morning all the hay is gone, and it's not. He hasn't touched this morning's pellets at all.

He pee'd yesterday, i know that. I am not sure of pooping, and i've seen him drink a couple times. He seems okay behaviour wise. At my in laws he was fine saturday, snuggly sunday, which he normally isn't. And today and last night he's seemed very lazy.

ANy ideas? Should I bring him to the vet? Just watch him? Please help

If he's not eating and you don't think he's pooping he needs to see the vet, asap would be good!

If you're not sure about whether he's eaten in over 24 hours I would take him to the vets straight away. I would immediately clean his living area so you can see if he's done any poos or not too.

Lots of vibes for him - I really hope he'll be ok.

he needs to see a vet asap.......rabbits need to eat to keep their gut moving.

I just booked him in for 10:45. Which is in an hour and a half here. I'm gonna snuggle him and love him for an hour. Any ideas what COULD be up?

River said:

I just booked him in for 10:45. Which is in an hour and a half here. I'm gonna snuggle him and love him for an hour. Any ideas what COULD be up?

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Teeth problems? Make sure the vet checks his mouth.

hope he gets sorted xx

Hoppit! said:

Teeth problems? Make sure the vet checks his mouth.

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I'm such a worried bun-mum that I check his mouth regularily. His front teeth are perfect, straight, sharp as daggers but straight. I havn't been able to check his back teeth so that could be an issue for sure. I thought, probably naively that when you had a dental bun they had problems with their front teeth.

He did eat about half a crayon about a week ago I was babysitting and a crayon got lost behind the couch and he munched on it. But he seemed fine the days following. Of course I watched him and made sure he had lots of hay and veggies to flush it out, but.. I don't know.

Should i try to feed him a chun of banana, his favorite, to see if i can seduce him into food? Of just leave him be until the vet gets a look at him.

Try to feed him what ever you can at the moment, he needs to start eating again to get his gut moving.

Also it is important to keep him hydrated and warm.

Well I just got back from the vet. Oz was panicing the whole time poor little man. When the vet first went to examine him he jumped off the table and into my arms So cute and so sad.

But they checked his teeth and they are fine, he has good teeth! There are no obvious lumps in his tummy. So, we're on step one. Step one includes the vet giving him an injection of metoclopramide, and teaching me how to do it so i can do it tomorrow morning. And giving him a sulfratrim (apotex) pill, and me having to give him half a pill every 12 hours for 5 days. One in the morning and one at night.

He ate a few pieces of hay at the vets, and when we got home we gave him a baby carrot that he ate, and another which he's ignoring. But, they said he might just have had a stomach ache or something, and that if in 24/48 hours he hasn't started eating, drinking and pooping like normal again, to bring him back.

Lots of vibes for the next 2 days! Thanks everyone.

I didn't know you could give pill's to rabbits? I think that will be a challange? Hopfully the gut stimulant will get him eatting and pooing for you best of luck xx

Sending eating vibes - hope he starts eating properly soon! x

Lots more vibes for him! xx

Sending vibes for your little man

Sending loads and loads of vibes.

Sue
xx

parkfieldstud said:

I didn't know you could give pill's to rabbits?

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ME EITHER! The vet had it in something sort of like a syringe and put that in his mouth and plopped it on his tongue so he'd swallow it. She said we can try to give it to him that way, OR mush it up and put it on some water of baby food and syringe it in his mouth. Whatever is best for him. I guess we;ll see tonight.

Oh that's another thing I forgot to mention, she gave us many syringes and suggested we buy some baby food and syring it into his mouth. Just a little easy, good quality veggie mush for him. So that's good. I'm gonna go buy some veggies and baby food for him tonight.

Okay, so it turns out, giving a pill to a rabbit is VERY, VERY difficult. I mean very difficult. We had to wrap him in a towel, MANY times to try and restrain him. We crished the pill up and put it in some baby food in a syringe. Tried to give him food in the syringe, Nooo dice. He HATED it. After about 40 minutes he'd eaten a decent amount of the baby food and the crushed up pill as well. BUT, my poor WHITE rabbit now has an orange beard. We gave him a bit of a bath. Firstly because last night when he wasn't feeling well he laid in his pee, and then because of his orange beard, we gave him a bit of a bath.

He smells nice, he feels nice, his feet arn't yellow, but he definitely has an orange beard. And we have 9 more pills to give him this way. I think by the end of the week he will have an orange head. :lol::lol:

If I where you I'd ask the vet for another brand of anti-biotic something in liquid form of injection. Its not going to be much fun for either of you having to do that again! hows he doing other wise is he eatting? xx

Ditto above, trying to give him a pill is just going to stress him ( and you!) out alot and stress could send him into total gut stasis, at which point it becomes life threatening. Really he needs to be left alone In peace and quiet as much as poss ( except for tempting him with food and giving comforting strokes) so a couple of injections would be much better for him.
Did the vet give him painkillers? If not i would ask for some as its very important in getting him to eat on his own again. If a bun is in pain he wont eat which will in turn make the situation worse.
He may also need help keeping warm so if hes an ouydoor bun id recommend bringing him indoors until hes better, and supply him with a hot water bottle (not too hot obv!) to snuggle against if he wants to. The heat might also soothe his poorly tummy.
Just one more thought make sure hes getting plenty of water which will help keep things moving in his gut. If hes not drinking himself you'll have to syringe him water.
Hope hes ok, i know how worrying it can be for you SEnding him loads of get well vibes xxx

Thank you everyone for your vibes and suggestions! He's been doing MUCH better since yesterday. After we got home from teh vet he ate a bit, and took a nap, and when he woke up he was flying around the house like normal, getting into trouble. :lol: Typical. He ate his dinner last night, and a fair amount of hay over night. He hasn't drank TOO much, but his dinner was freshly washed veggies so he probably got a lot of water out of them also.

We found a new way to give him his pill, thank god!! Like you all have said, the old way was too hard and MUCH to stressful. But, things are okay. We stuck it in ahunk of bannanna and he gobbled it down, no hesitation.

Now he's sitting beside me munching on a post it, and spreading out my blanket. I'm not sure what was wrong. Do rabbits get upset tummies? Maybe he was stressed from the travel or ate something he didn't like, Im really not sure but he seems to be doing better. So here's to hoping we're out of the woods and all is back to normal. He is an indoor bun, full and full. He hasn't even been outside save for the few times he's gone from house to car to house. But this summer, when it's warmer and we can put together a run and let him tear around in the back yard.

Thank you everyone!