Protein levels in blood: what problems?

Sooty is a petite mini lop who in the past 7 weeks has slowed down her eating considerably twice. The first time appeared to be due to an ear infection and teeth problems, both were dealt with. She was doing brilliantly, eating TONNES (to get her weight back up as she'd dropped to 1kg) and cheerful.

And now she's slowed her eating again... We've been back to the vets who checked her teeth again (still fine) and took some blood tests. Kidney, liver, calcium etc etc are all fine. The only thing the vet can see is possibly an issue with protein levels but it was inconclusive - one indicator was high and the other (PCV I think) was normal - but could somehow be linked to dehydration. Sorry I dont have the full details (I should learn to take notes!) but has anyone had something like this in a rabbit, what did it turn out to be? Basically any pointers I can throw into my next chat with the vet?

Vet's advice is, in the absence of anything else to go on, just to keep a close eye on her for now, check she doesnt lose weight again (which may mean syringe feeding her if she doesnt eat enough in herself) then repeat the blood tests in a couple of weeks.

No-one has any ideas?

Without more details it's difficult to say, ie which proteins are low and which high I think :?

An increase in Total protein occurs with dehydration and GI problems often cause dehydration.

Sorry I cant be of much help xx

Thanks Jane, that's pretty much where we'd got to: protein levels might be high which could be linked to dehydration.... But it's not certain that she's dehyrated nor that her protein levels are high!

She does eat - if I leave her with a bowl of veg and pellets, it all disappears (the veg within 30 mins, the pellets over a few hours). She's just not 'right' tho :? She normally scoffs everything at once, races around whilst you prepare food, and chomps lots of hay too.

I had a similar thing with one of my buns- slowed eating- no apparent sign, but bloods came back DOUBLE what they should be for protein/liver/kidney function. Looking back on it, it was quite a hot period, and she was only drinking what she normally drinks- normally she'd drink more in hot weather- so it could be to do with dehydration? The vets had no idea what caused it, we spent a week ruling things out, and by that time she seemed to recover, and new bloods came back normal.

How is she within her self? Mine was normal other than cutting down food a bit for that week.

Well it'd be nice if she got better by herself And at least the blood tests didnt show up anything awful.

She's definitely quieter than normal, not excited at mealtimes and not playing in the garden. But not desperately quiet. (And she did seem to have perked up a little bit last night/this morning but I need to observe her more to be sure.)

She is getting through a LOT of food - 30g of pellets during the day, 4 bowls of veg, nibbling at hay tho not as much as normal. (Bear in mind, she's lost weight already so I'm in the process of trying to feed her back up to her normal weight. Normally it'd be half that quantity of pellets/veg.) The differences: not excited at mealtimes, not scoffing it all quickly/one go, less hay.

Oh well, just have to keep going I spose...