Yes, I with you on most of that PL.
I only know 2 facts. Moulting is a big STRESS factor for a bun. In order to moult they have to increase their energy intake by 40%.
I don't know what factors trigger moult.
I had dramatic experience of the effect of dietary intake & daylight on moulting with Thumper in the early days. His winter coat was fudge coloured, & summer coat very dark. It became impossible to feed him just as he started to moult the front end 1 spring. moulting stopped completely & he was dramatically coloured fudge with black points on his body, blackhead & a small black cape over his shoulders. It was like that all summer as I struggled trying to keep him alive, until it was literally back against the wall I said "blow all this modern stuff, I've got to feed him like a wildie". The 1st attempt was with fresh wild oats (wildies love grain crops!) It kept him going but he'd wouldn't even eat home dried oat hay. (Gut too slow to manage food &
water) In fact on fresh food only Thumper didn't get stasis, but had horrendous dysbiosis - pouring olive green unseparated "toothpaste" from his bottom.
Strangely the break through with moulting was when I used the daylight lamp for myself in high exposure -2 hours a night. Thumper was similarly exposed. He started to moult copiously, literally handfuls, but the problem was that he couldn't stop!!! As soon as he started to moult at his back end he started again at his front end!!:shock:
When I eventually worked out what was happening, I stopped his exposure to the daylight lamp & he stopped moulting immediately. The trouble is that so many other things were happening at the same time, eg we discovered blackthorn leaves!! It was a couple of years before Thumps managed to get into the same season coat all over.
That year had been interesting re day light. I'm very aware of it because I've solar tubes for hot water.
The previous autumn had been very overcast all the time. There was a sudden change to very hot sunny weather in spring.He started to moult a bit more but soon needed total shading. Poor fella couldn't get any sunlight without literally boiling.
That was the year before I joined RU. It looked as if stasis was very seasonal, a mainly summer phenomenon, & Donnamt's Alvin was always the 1st bun to go down with stasis. Buns were dying in droves, with no answers. (Probably obstructing on fur balls.) Jacks Jane got that under control with a rationalised medical approach. Fortunately we haven't had a year as bad as that since.
OK we all know that wildies spend the day time underground in their burrows. But what I notice walking round the warrens in the heat of the day, is not a rabbit outside, but loads of movement at the entrance to the burrows. my theory is that they lie up inside the burrow entrance, getting their sunlight, & nip deep underground when they get too hot.
I see a definate relationship of slow gut, & the 1st thing they cut back on is fluid intake, so the ingesta get dehydrated. donnamt noticed this reduction in water consumption as the 1st sign Alvin's gut was slowing down to a critical level. Elve also noticed the dehydration aspect of paramount importance.
So behind the scenes in pm's we had the 2 schools of thought. You & I were going for the more "natural diet" of high fibre, whereas the others thought it was mainly a hydration problem. Fortunately we both respected each other as probably right but tackling the problem from different ends.
I could only tie both sides together with my "throughput theory". That per 24 hours bunny has to get enough nutrients fibre & fluid for their needs & if the gut slows down they can't.
Because they're the same species as wildies & wildies get all their fluids from dew or plant juices, they'll cut back on water intake 1st. Marie (vet) once told me that buns are very tolerant of thirst, & dehydration.
I think we all came round to the idea of using the wildie natural diet to optimise gut motility, so they could withstand natural seasonal fluctuations & maintain "throughput".
Yep I'm seeing the continuous low grade moult with Benjie, which I didn't see with Thumps. The enormous difference between them is that Benjie is too scared to go outside. The most he spends outside a day is 5-10 mins, rarely getting courage to venture off the path at the back of the house. He does frequent practice runs back indoors to check he's fit enough to escape from danger. I've also seen this type of behaviour in thumps who loved it outside, but wouldn't go out when he was ill, or stayed very close to the house.
Of course Benjie's snuffles will impair his main sense of danger - smell & possibly hearing at times.
In all this I'm not disgreeing with you about temp changes & moulting at all. I honestly haven't compared outside with inside temps, & would be fascinated to see how this fits into the picture.
I'm only saying that there's probably another factor - daylight exposure, & in fact it could well be the more minor factor!!! It's just that I'm more aware of it that I am of temp.
I'd definitely say that UK weather has changed a lot since roughly early 1990's. I see it in nature out in the fields, in trees, & had to give up gardening completely, used to grow all my veges, & although I've good soil I can't even grow weeds now. I've only about 6" of good soil on top of clay. It only takes 3 days of this unusually hot weather to set the clay like dried out concrete. Yes, you need a mattock to break it up. :shock: I can't keep the top soil moist enough for plant growth, even with mulching, cos it can't get water from deeper down through the concrete clay. I've tried breaking up the pan as it's called, but it only needs 1 week of hot weather to reform.
There is a potential effect on bunnies above ground. Although they can't sweat, when they can't lose anymore body heat through their ears, they breath more quickly & lose heat by evaporating water mainly through the upper airways as the lungs are small. Of course this presents a big problem for snuffles buns as everything dries out in the upper airways & infection can take root from lack of movement of secretions. An added problem for snuffles buns is dust, cos burrows are dust free!
I'm finding with Benjie that although he
looks as if he's improving (drying up) in hot weather, he's actually getting worse cos he's blocking up. I can't keep up with the nebuliser either! Then when it cools down a bit it
looks as if he's getting worse cos all the muck starts to drain, & he starts sneezing a lot.
But to return to stasis. I definitely noticed that as his feeding started to reduce, his water consumption fell off alarmingly. Temps in the bedroom where he usually stays have been surprisingly constant day & night over summer at 20 -22C by Galileo thermometer apart from a relatively few really hot days.
Just before his dental temps dropped to 18-20 overnight & all the muck started to come out.
If I contrast the depths of a wildie burrow, I
think that humidity is relatively constant, & suspect but don't know that temps are much lower say of the order of 12C in summer & 8C in the depths of winter.
It's obvious that wildies can thrive in a much warmer climate than ours. For the moment it seems to me that they can always escape to these optimum conditions down their burrows, which our buns can't do.
TBH I haven't enough brain power left to work out how to improve things for them without causing ridiculous counterproductive humidity indoors.
Sorry for a mammoth essay. I really must emphasise that the all stasis work has been a
joint collaberation between many people,
all of whom have made huge contributions to my own understanding, & even this needs alot more refining. For a start there's how all your work on caecal dysbiosis comes into the picture PL.
It's so self evident to say that buns with stasis have a throughput problem - They can't get anything "through":lol: But what I'm actually saying is that the whole process starts long before we see the final result, with many factors slowing down the gut, until bunny gets into a situation he can't get out of, & then everything conspires against him into a downward spiral to the inevitable result.
ETA there's the HUGE stress factor in stasis. What causes a bunny stress is a subject in it's own right. The big reason why it causes gut slow down is that one of the hormones released under stress is cortisol which has a powerful effect on slowing down the gut.
Echinacea is marketed as boosting the immune response but in fact what it does, is to reduce the amount of cortisol released only through stress. High cortisol levels also suppress the immune system. The big problem is that correct levels of cortisol are paramount to keep us healthy. We're
very ill indeed if levels are too low.
I don't know the correct dose to give to a bunny. Yes, I give an extract to Benjie because he's nervous & for his immune system & snuffles. Although they now say it's not necessary to have a rest from it to stop the adrenals failing to respond when they need to do so, I still give it to Benjie 5 days on & 2 days break. I feel we really need more facts about how to give it safely & correctly to bunnies here. Herbal
medicines as distinct from diet, are far from harmless. They are highly effective in some circumstances & need to be respected as much as any drug on prescription!