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Worried about Gypsy :-(

sparklefairy

Wise Old Thumper
Is my little girl getting old already? she is 7 and a bit. Some days everything seems normal and she is running around fine, but other days she seems to have slight trouble with her back legs. I think it's just one leg and she seems to lean a bit to the side and move a bit slower.

I know this description is vague but it's hard to describe what I mean. My hubby has not noticed any difference in her, so it's not very obvious. I've been noticing that Gypsy seems a bit more fragile recently. I'm getting worried now :cry:

Hubby says I probably need more to go on to take her to the vet. I'm not so sure :?

What could be happening to my beautiful little girl? :cry:
 
Perhaps it's arthritis? A vet check would put your mind at rest at least. Sending vibes that it's nothing serious xx
 
My Bunny was 7 when he first started showing signs of age and it seemed to happen quite suddenly. Fingers crossed she's only slowing down a bit, it catches up with us all. I'm only 39 but feel like a creaky old lady some days - lol. As CH said, a trip to the vets won't do any harm and will put your mind at ease.

Hope all is OK with Gypsy. :bunny:
 
thank you Helen. I did too think of arthritis. Is there any thing I can do to help Gypsy if it turns out to be this?

I'm going to try to take her to the vets next week as hubby will be home which means not having to struggle on the bus with her and a toddler :shock:
 
Thanks bunbun :D

Yes, I feel like an old lady some days :lol: I think having kids did that to me :?

Aww, it's hard to accept that Gypsy is getting older, it doesn't seem like 5 minutes since I met her :(
 
It sounds as if it could be age related for Gypsy.

Like you say, best to get her checked out and take it from there.

Barnaby (RIP), was a bunny I owned, he was at least 11years old when he was pts. He was just all tuckered out. :(:( Bless him. xxx

It is sad when they start to show signs of age.................I know as I am middle aged!!!!!!!!!!:(:(:(

I am sure that you will do your very best for Gypsy.
 
Hope Gypsy is fine. Sounds like age. Sunshine is 7.5 or 8.5 :shock: he seems fine. Had another bunny live to 9. They slow down but still active.
 
I'm rather new here, but I saw this post and couldn't just go on by, I have a 4 year old (approximately) Holland lop neutered male who is developing arthritic hips. We've had him x-rayed and you can see the thickening of the joints and he is also slowing down, sticking one back leg out at an angle and leaning to one side to take weight off it. He isn't broken anywhere, just creaky. Hard to believe, as he still seems so young to me since I haven't had him long, but when I look at older photos of him, I can see how he's aged.
Delicate and fragile are excellent words to describe them too. It seems like they just being to age before your eyes. :(

I have tried using myristol pellets, but these seem to upset his tum too much so we haven't been able to get them in him long enough to see a change. For the most part, he is allowed 0.1-0.2 ml of metacam as needed per 24 hour period. It probably wouldn't hurt if he'd get more exercise, but he's always been an absolute slug in the xpen...finds a hiding spot and won't move, even when he was spry.
It pains me to see that he doesn't twist into his favorite sleeping positions or binky much anymore. He just really seems uncomfortable most of the time. But when he's not, he happily eats and grooms himself and does bunny things. I also notice he tends to wee his sleeping pen most nights. He's just had a dental, because he was drinking a lot of water while his mouth was sore from spurs, so I'm hoping it's not related to his arthritis or a UTI, but I have seen a marked change in his motion and attitude in just 6 months.

I'm in the USA btw, so I am not certain myristol pellets are available to you. The local website, bunspace.com, sells them in their online store though, and may know where to get them in the UK. (Hope it's okay to mention that, if not please feel free to delete with my apologies.)

Good luck to you, and I do hope some relief can be found for Gypsy soon and that she's back to the happy bunny she should be in short order. :)
 
Thank you for your replies

Mimzmum, it is so sad to see our bunnies age :( I hope your little one will be comfortable and with you for a lot longer.

I have not heard of myristol pellets. How are these different from other bunny pellets? I feed mine on science selective for mature rabbits and also burgess pellets for mature rabbits. The burgess one has added glucosamine to aid joints.

Gypsy doesn't binky as much as she did, but seems quite happy in her self. It is strange as I thought that Storm, being a big french lop, would age faster than gypsy, who is a lion head cross. Storm is 6 and Gypsy 7.
 
Ah, yes myristol pellets are a glucosamine concentrated pellet, you need only give two pellets twice a day to help with aging joints and arthritic conditions and it takes about 6 weeks before you're supposed to see any results. (I think the formal name for the product is cetyl-myristoleate and the manufacturers have their own website.) From what I've read it is used in horses and is tolerated well by them, so the formula was suggested for rabbits also since their digestive systems are so similar.

I wish Mimzy had been able to tolerate these better in himself, he used to have a cast iron stomach, but I suppose that is deteriorating too. I just noticed that the myristol pellets seemed to give him an upset tum after eating them for a week. He wasn't eating well before his dental, so I didn't want to cause any further inappetance. Perhaps in the future we'll try them again, with something else on his tummy to help cushion it.

Of course, thinking he's so frail I don't expect many quick moves, and today he showed me, made a point of hopping right out onto the pen door while I was cleaning his habitat and trying to do a bunk off the storage box underneath and out the bunny room door! >.< Silly old bun! He doesn't think there's anything wrong with him apparently.

My search for something other than daily doses of metacam for the rest of his life led me to these. I hate having to medicate my animals to keep them comfortable. :(
 
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