How do you know your bun has poor thermoregulation?
I would say that most buns (especially indoor buns) have quite extreme peripheral temperature changes, but their core temperature stays far more constant than we realise. When you say she gets too hot or too cold - are you judging this by her surface temp? Fur is highly insulating and the ears have huge veins in them that radiate heat away very efficiently so cold ears, although a useful indicator, are not a precise science. The best way to check bun's core temp is either a thermometer up the bum! :shock: (NOT recommended unless you know what you are doing) or popping your fingers through the fur to feel her core heat.
What symptoms are you experiencing?
Okay, that does sound cold then. The genetic
link is interesting.... i'm glad your vets are looking into it. All I can say from my experience is that lack of activity but more importantly, a bun not eating is a cold bun. I have always believed that buns are very much like horses digestively and their metabolism relies VERY much on food going in. I see this with Nino when he has his gut slowdown from his arthritic pain. When he is not eating - he gets cold very quickly. He's quite a small bunny so he has a small volume to large surface area which means he loses heat very quickly. Hopping around gets him hungry and eating warms him up. I'm 100% that it is the eating that kicks his metabolism and body heat - but the exercise triggers the appetite.
Have you though about using one of these Gray?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/SAFE-Petnap...EVZW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291802680&sr=8-1
We have two and they are on permanently over night and BOTH bunnies love them. They work by pressure mostly so only get warm when bun sits on them but it's a lovely constant heat and doesn't go cold like a snugglesafe. The cable is armoured so as long as they don't chew things it should be fine. I hide them under a layer of fleece and poke the cable out the wire hole of the hutch/or a pen if on hols (make the bed up against the wire so the cable comes right out immediately) and the buns don't even know they are there.
Yes, I have had bunnies with this, it's not very nice for them because I think they find it difficult to deal with and it's not nice to witness.
I found it in baby bunnies that came from a neglected mother who was barely able to nurture her babies, that of course could just be coincidence, they were also taken away from their mum too early, but several of the babies had it, suffice to say thay had a horrible start to life
I used snugglesafes, towels and vet bed and then a 'cool' area, so in their run I put a couple of snugglesafes at differnt points, I put several small pieces of vetbed, I got a towl and suspended it in the air and just ley it drop so that it landed like a heap and just left it, I also had a bare cool area.
The areas don't have to be very big just bunny sized, the bunnies were able to choose where they wanted to go and learned to do that quite well, they all went on to grow up into lovely adult bunnies and were rehomed when we felt they had overcome their problems which was about 8-10 months
It might not be the same thing but sounds very similar and hope it helps
Snowy, its like a duplicate of Ginger's situation;
Ginger and her litter mates / siblings mum died when they were young.
Ginger got milk from a surrogate mum (a conti giant with babies :roll but not immediately and her siblings from the previous litter were even worse off.
if Sky-O was around, she has Ginger's siblings, she would be able to tell you more, she knows all the details, i only know the very basics.
Ah right, that explains it, a baby bunny needs it's mummies milk up to at least 8 weeks in order to get all the nutrition it needs to be a healthy bunny itself, this is why hand rearing is such a nightmare
Hope you can find a solution, I have explained what I did and it worked, don;t know if you can try the same
Ah right, that explains it, a baby bunny needs it's mummies milk up to at least 8 weeks in order to get all the nutrition it needs to be a healthy bunny itself, this is why hand rearing is such a nightmare
Hope you can find a solution, I have explained what I did and it worked, don;t know if you can try the same
Definitely this. Foundations for a healthy properly developed, immune-strong, bunny.
Definitely this. Foundations for a healthy properly developed, immune-strong, bunny.
Absolutely, that's why it annoys me when breeders sell their baby bunnies from 5-6 weeks old, and Pets at Home have them in that young as well and they really aren't old enough to be away from their mums