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any ideas why my bunny is rapidly loosing weight?

frankie14

New Kit
sorry im very new to this so dont know if i am doing this right but i am very concerned about my rabbit Queenie, she is a mini lop, i recued her about 4 months ago and she was severely underweight, took her to the vets for a general check up and he said she was underweight and roughly 3 years old.

she managed to put on a ton of weight and went up to a good size however she has sudenly gone down hill again, she is an indoor rabbit and is fed on exel pellets, hay and fresh veg, ill admit she likes a tiny bit of choky here n there :D , i have another rabbit (female) which i brought at 10 weeks old, she is a neverland dwarf called Clay, clay adores Queenie and vise versa but i have had to seperate them due to queenies weight loss, although they ghave been seperated a while and queenie doent seem to be improving much??

please help!!

thank you!
 
Hello

Is she spayed?

How much hay does she eat?

Did you mean chocolate? If you did, do you realise that this is highly toxic?

Do you know about EC?
 
sorry i dnt mean to offend anyone, but i have never realy had bunnys so i dont know what EC is? sorry and yeah i know chocolate is very toxic :/ but i cnt resist her face lol, sorry sounds very bad, but she only has the tinyest nibble very rarely....

no she isnt spayed, and i give her hay ad-lib but she doesnt seem to eat alot of it??
thanks for the replies... could somebody please fill me in on EC??

thanks again :)
 
sorry i dnt mean to offend anyone, but i have never realy had bunnys so i dont know what EC is? sorry and yeah i know chocolate is very toxic :/ but i cnt resist her face lol, sorry sounds very bad, but she only has the tinyest nibble very rarely....

no she isnt spayed, and i give her hay ad-lib but she doesnt seem to eat alot of it??
thanks for the replies... could somebody please fill me in on EC??

thanks again :)

If you know chocolate is bad...don't feed it! You must resist the cuddly faces!!!

Just follow the link I sent you in the last post and it will explain. :D
 
ok thanks very much!! i will resist next time! i didnt realise it was that bad for them ... thanks for the help, and if anyone knows of anyway to help her put on some weight would be much appreciated as she is so fragile and i am concerned!! :(
 
Hi.

It is possible that the rapid weightloss could be attributed to a number of things - one being uterine cancer. As she is three, she would be a candidate for this.

How is her appetite? Does she appear to be in pain? How is her poo? I have a rabbit I am nursing currently who has had uterine cancer because her previous owner didn't spay her. The tumor was removed when she was spayed but as she has recently suffered from rapid weight loss with no other clinical symptoms; we suspect that the cancer has spread - classically to her lungs. We can't prove it without an xray or scan, but she is now too frail to put under an anaesthetic so this is a no go. In any event the only treatment would be chemo and it would not be an option.

EC is a parasite that when active can have many and far reaching symptoms, including weight loss, head tilt, mucky bottom, weeing indescriminately, eye problems, and others. Easily treated by worming in most cases.

Tell us a bit more about your bunny and we can see if she has any symptoms that might help.

What foods do you typically feed her and when?
 
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my miffy lost alot of wieght and it was due to a blockage in her bowel. is she pooing ok?
can you not put them back together as seperating them will stress them more. i seperated mine and now REALLY regret it. :cry:
 
her appetite as always is good, eats alot of veg, i give her carrotts and orange and various other greens, shes also drinking alot and peeing and pooing fine, she seems her normal self, inquisitive, loving and nosey its just the serious weight loss :/ i really hope it isnt anything serios :(
thanks for your help
 
Are you able to take her to a vet good with rabbits? Not just any old vet.

You might be able to get a recommendation via the forum for someone who is good.
 
her appetite as always is good, eats alot of veg, i give her carrotts and orange and various other greens, shes also drinking alot and peeing and pooing fine, she seems her normal self, inquisitive, loving and nosey its just the serious weight loss :/ i really hope it isnt anything serios :(
thanks for your help

i only give mine a hand full of green veg and herbs, a eggcup full of pellets and the rest they eat hay.
how many pellets are you feeding her? carrots should be limited and i never feed mine fruit as the sugar isnt good for them. sorry to be negative on her diet but this could be the problem. rabbits have extremely sensitive tummys.
has she been speyed? i take it she must have been to be bonded.
have you thought about putting them back together?
i think porrige oats help put wieght on.
 
her appetite as always is good, eats alot of veg, i give her carrotts and orange and various other greens, shes also drinking alot and peeing and pooing fine, she seems her normal self, inquisitive, loving and nosey its just the serious weight loss :/ i really hope it isnt anything serios :(
thanks for your help

Orange isn't a brilliant idea for rabbits. Probably best to stick with the greens and carrots.

I agree with Sky-O, I think you should try to find a really good vet and get her checked out.
 
Whereabouts in Essex are you? Anywhere near the Dartford Crossing? Just if so you are near me and I know an excellent bunny savvy vet. If not then it might be worth you starting a new thread with 'Vet in **** area recommendations needed' and hopefully someone will be able to recommend you a bunny savvy vet near you.

I definitely think you need to get your rabbit seen by a vet who knows what they are talking about.
 
i am ringing the vet tomoro, hoping they will be able to refer me to a veterinarian that is good with rabbits, i am in brentwood, essex, i should be albe to find a good vets for her near me, thank you all for your comments, i will try porage oats and i havent put them back together purely because when she gained weight in the past i put them together and she seemed to loose it again? this lead me to think it was due to stress of clay (my other bunny) dominating her leading her to not eat but she is not putting the weight on again :/

many thanks for the comments, any more recomendations/ info would be much appreciated.
 
One of my buns, Sue, suddenly lost weight. The vet thought it may be EC and we panacured her but it made no difference. He then X-rayed her and found she only has half a kidney working - the other one and a half are calcified:(

He intimated that poor Sue wouldn't be around for long but I've put her on a high calorie, high moisture, low calcium diet (including wholemeal bread which I know isn't great for buns but in her case the vet has agreed it is OK as she loves it) and she has put some weight on. I know I have limited time with Sue but all the time she is happy and has a good quality of life I will keep on with her diet.

I also give her Excel pellets for mature buns as they have cranberry in them. They are slightly higher in calcium than the SS she had before but I think the cranberries are good for her. She sometimes has pineapple juice in her water to encourage her to drink more and I give her carrots and pear and sweeter food to bulk her out.

Sue had got to the point that if she lost any more weight the vet was going to suggest PTS so I had nothing to lose by changing her diet and so far, thank God and the patron saint of bunnies, it seems to be working.

I think it is important to find out what is causing your bun's weight loss before you start adjusting her diet as what has helped Sue could make your bun a lot worst if she has something completely different causing her weight loss.
 
thank you very much for that!! i am sorry to hear about sue but it is good news that she is happy :) make the most of it (im sure u will) and i am definatly going to call the vets tomoro, hoping it isnt anything to seriouse..
thank you!...
 
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