MimzMum
Wise Old Thumper
My buns have been eating Oxbow Meadow Grass for about 6 months or more. It is currently the only dried hay they will accept. I find this last years' product to cause Pip to leave a bit of 'silt' wherever she urinates. Fiver also, but Mimzy's urine is mostly clear. All three are shedding in very odd patterns.
Mimzy's fur in particular is really ratty. It's like he's in perpetual moult. Anywhere the fur is coming off it's texture is dry and brittle, he seems to be shedding an excess of undercoat and yet his guard hairs are not coming back in some spots. Along his spine there are places down to bare skin or velvet. Brushing him is rough because he has so much discomfort already from his bone pain, so he's easily hurt. Any pressure makes him turn to snap. I can't do much plucking because that obviously makes him feel like I'm attacking him. But his fur is just coming loose everywhere and matting up wherever I can't get it out...usually around his 'skirt' area on his bum.
Fiver's fur is not only coming out in patches but seems almost oily when I touch him. He's even moulted his ears twice in the last few months. He's also got the big trough of skin/velvet down his spine. (He's a minirex, Mimzy is a Holland lop.)
Pip (half lionhead/palomino) is shedding too but most of her trouble is that she swallows so much of it before I can get to it with the comb.
Her mane, what's left of it, is really thin and skin shows behind her neck and ears.
They've all been tested, several times, for mites...always negative. The only thing they've all had is this hay. But they won't eat anything else. I even tried mature oat recently and Pip's cecals got so bad she was leaving four and five in her habitat per day and I could see she was uncomfy. So I stopped feeding it.
Could there be a connection between the ratty moults and the calcium content of the hay? I'm at a loss to explain it and seeing Mimzy looking so patchwork just tears me up. I'm afraid he'll never grow proper fur again.
Mimzy's fur in particular is really ratty. It's like he's in perpetual moult. Anywhere the fur is coming off it's texture is dry and brittle, he seems to be shedding an excess of undercoat and yet his guard hairs are not coming back in some spots. Along his spine there are places down to bare skin or velvet. Brushing him is rough because he has so much discomfort already from his bone pain, so he's easily hurt. Any pressure makes him turn to snap. I can't do much plucking because that obviously makes him feel like I'm attacking him. But his fur is just coming loose everywhere and matting up wherever I can't get it out...usually around his 'skirt' area on his bum.
Fiver's fur is not only coming out in patches but seems almost oily when I touch him. He's even moulted his ears twice in the last few months. He's also got the big trough of skin/velvet down his spine. (He's a minirex, Mimzy is a Holland lop.)
Pip (half lionhead/palomino) is shedding too but most of her trouble is that she swallows so much of it before I can get to it with the comb.
Her mane, what's left of it, is really thin and skin shows behind her neck and ears.They've all been tested, several times, for mites...always negative. The only thing they've all had is this hay. But they won't eat anything else. I even tried mature oat recently and Pip's cecals got so bad she was leaving four and five in her habitat per day and I could see she was uncomfy. So I stopped feeding it.
Could there be a connection between the ratty moults and the calcium content of the hay? I'm at a loss to explain it and seeing Mimzy looking so patchwork just tears me up.
I'm afraid he'll never grow proper fur again.
