Bunny not eating again..possible causes?

Pebbles had a another molar dental to fix his molar malocclusion and spurs about 4 weeks ago and started eating straight away. A week ago today, he stopped eating and had his teeth checked and a gut stimulant and pain relief straight away and was eating pellets again within 2 hours. I put it down to moulting (as his poos were joined by fur). I have been brushing him every day since and his poos have been larger with very little fur in them.

He has been eating fine all week, and was even eating hay last night. I got some pro-fibre which I have been giving him last 2 days ( a few with his pellets). This morning, he has refused his pellets, carrot tops and even bread which he loves if he can get hold of it. I don't feed him bread, but was just testing to see if he would it some.

So, I'm going to take him to vets in a minute to get him straight in. But, are there any reasons that would cause gut slow down and refusing food, as I'm concerned this is going to happen every week. Although I am sure my vets are good with buns, I would like to know what sort of things may cause this so I can know what to ask, if they don't offer suggestions.

Thanks

Does he have his Dentals done under GA ?

Ingestion of fur is seldom the cause of gut slow down, fur is a normal finding in a Rabbit's GI tract. So it is more that gut slow down cant cope with a normal phenomena- fur in the GI tract

There are several possible reasons as to why he is refusing food again. As you have introduced a new food (profibre) in the last 48 hours it may be that it does not agree with him

He may have more Dental issues going on

He may have pain elsewhere

Hopefully the Vet will be able to identify what is going on

Hope he feels better soon xx

Has he had an xray to see the extent of any potential root problems?
Sometimes a bunny will need daily metacam to control the pain of root problems.
Ny cousins bun need it as his tooth roots are a mess.
But you can only see under xray the full extent of the damage.

Thanks Jane. the vet has just given him pain relief & gut stumulant but has said that if it happens again, they will do x-rays under GA to see if there are any other additional problems. Although the pro-fibre pellets could have caused a problem over the last 24-48 hours, it doesn't explain last weeks episode :? I'm going to have to find some money from somewhere, cos I've paid £200 in the last 4 weeks, and the x-ray & dental estimate they just gave me was £250 :shock:

His last dental was done under GA 4 weeks ago. What I don't get is that if he was in pain, he wouldn't continue eating normally after the painkiller injection wears off. :? He seems Ok in himself, and although he does lounge around a lot (which is normal for him), he doesn't seem to be showing any other signs of being in pain.

2 hours after injections, he is eating again :thumb: I will get his x-rays done just to be certain it isn't anything else.

Glad he's eating again Hope there's nothing serious going on xx

We went through a very similar thing with Harley. Every 6-8 weeks he would just all of a sudden refuse his food and his favourites but within an hour of pain relief and gut stimulant he was eating fine and normally it did occur when he was having a heavy moult.

The 4th time he did this we agreed to put him under GA and they did a full body x -ray as well as taking and testing his blood for pretty much everything. Whilst he was under they did also find /file down some spurs on his teeth.

The x-ray and blood came back negative. However, when we got him home we bought him a much larger indoor hutch - it was basically a puppy pen and gave him the box room to free range in. We cut down his pellets as well to about 40g-50g a day (he weighs about 2kg and we feed roughly 25g per kilo of body weight) and changed hay to meadow hay from the hay experts. After this he hasn't had an epidsode since and we have even bonded him with one of our females.

We never conclusively found what was causing it but my suspicion was a lack of sufficient space /exercise, which was easily changed.

Update: booked in for x-rays tomorrow

Just spoke with Practice owner/head vet and he was great..he has agreed to do x-rays tomorrow and look at his teeth for free. If he sees a tumor that is operable, he will do it while Pebbles is under GA. He is letting me pay half and the rest in instalments as I have already paid £200 in the last month. If he sees anything that is going to affect Pebbles quality of life, like needing dentals every few weeks, then he will discuss it with me.

Re laura...Pebbles doesn't eat hay, so reducing down pellets is not an option (last time I did this gradually, he continued to not eat hay and went into stasis and went down from 2.3Kg to 1.6 Kg) I have managed his teeth with increasing SS pellets (to 60g a day) so dentals were every 9 months. He is also free range in the house with his wifey bun, having the run of the living room & dining room 24/7...so lack of space can't be a factor.

So at the moment, he is eating SS piggy pellets fine and had a couple of strawberry tops, has tried a few SS high fibre bunny pellets (his normal food) but then turns his nose up at them. His poos are still tear shaped and he has had a couple of diarreah slapts (not ceacotropes) ..

Pebbles seems very perky still...trying to hump Poppy all the time at the moment, which is unusual behaviour for Pebbles, so don't know if this is related somehow :?

fruitandnutcake said:

Re laura...Pebbles doesn't eat hay, so reducing down pellets is not an option (last time I did this gradually, he continued to not eat hay and went into stasis and went down from 2.3Kg to 1.6 Kg) I have managed his teeth with increasing SS pellets (to 60g a day) so dentals were every 9 months. He is also free range in the house with his wifey bun, having the run of the living room & dining room 24/7...so lack of space can't be a factor.

So at the moment, he is eating SS piggy pellets fine and had a couple of strawberry tops, has tried a few SS high fibre bunny pellets (his normal food) but then turns his nose up at them. His poos are still tear shaped and he has had a couple of diarreah slapts (not ceacotropes) ..

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Ah ok - I know everyone's circumstances are different and not all buns are kept free range as it were. I hope that the x-rays and if necessary any ops go well and I'm sorry I coulnn't be of more use!

lauraj27 said:

Ah ok - I know everyone's circumstances are different and not all buns are kept free range as it were. I hope that the x-rays and if necessary any ops go well and I'm sorry I coulnn't be of more use!

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Any ideas are appreciated..thanks :thumb: I'm just trying to think of anything at the moment..must be even worse if x-rays and blood tests come back negative, so glad your bun got better eventually. It could just be a coincidence that he got better the same time you changed his diet and housing.

Just Hoping he comes through GA tomorrow...it is always a worry that he won't wake up At least he is eating and pooing now-even if he is consuming all the piggy food instead of his own food! I even tried moist ss pellets and he wouldn't even try them.

Good luck tomorrow. Hope all goes well xx

I'll be thinking of you all tomorrow hope everything goes A OK xxxxx