Hot Weather Affecting Eating?

HI all

my bunny Moppy is a swarf lionhead and is pretty fluffy - she also has a history of having 'episodes' where she doesn't eat and needs pain med injection (once), followed by about a week of metacam, zantac and syringe feeding before she fully recovers. She's been doing this every 3-6 months for about 3 years now, and the vets can see no clinical signs as to why this may happen. They've suggested adhesions from when she was spayed, or said that it might be something to do with her breed and the fact that she's quite compact that she might be more susceptible to gas etc.

Anyway we thought she was having another "episode" three days ago... it usually takes her a good week to get back to normal, but after two days she was munching away happily and doing some really good poos and wees. But she's right back to where she was, she's just stopped eating and as you'd expect, her poo has stopped too. I am very well versed in the implications of ileus and we will take her to the vet tomorrow if she doesn't pick up (to check teeth, undercarriage etc), but I was just wondering if anyone else's bunnies are affected by hot weather?

She is a house bunny and she and our other rabbit are in the coolest part of the house in this hot weather in the UK. We also have a fan on downstairs to help keep the air circulating and keep conditions cool, and neither seemed bothered by it at all. Her ears felt quite hot last night so we rubbed them down with a tissue and room temperature water so that she could cool off a bit more. For now I'm giving her a smaller than usual dose of metacam (0.3 instead of 0.4) and some zantac to help keep things moving (the vet has to administer the bupracare injection), and syringe feeding watery Oxbow to try and keep her hydrated. She's not starting lying on her side or "kicking out" her legs as she usually does when there's an indication that an ileus attack might be on the way, but she is very quiet and just will not eat and obviously I know how serious this can be. She can't really go into the vets to go on a drip or anything as she just refuses to eat when she's there... she's done it before and in the end they sent her home and she started eating again. Diva bunbun!

I'm really hoping it's just weather related (she's had necrotic tissue removed about 3 years ago, and I hope to God it's not that come back again), so wanted to see if anyone else had experienced this with their rabbits, and had any suggestions about how we can make her more comfortable. But we will take her tomorrow for a check over and a pain injection. The other worry is that she's been outside but she's about 2 months behind on her Myxi jab... she has to be well before she has it and we were hoping to get them booked in on pay day this month...

Just checked on her and she's in her litter tray having a little nibble on hay, but nothing substantial. At least the inclination to have a nibble is there. It is also cooler today so I'm hoping we'll see an improvement before tomorrow. Still, any advice most welcome.

Has the Vet run any diagnostics ? Bloods ? Abdominal U/S etc ??

What sort of breed is your bunny? What is her output usually like? I ask because my bun has Megalcolon which did causes stasis every month at its worse but now only flares up around twice a year with a lot of careful care.

I know we have lionheads because of their gorgeous locks but in this hot weather I trim around their ears and skirt to help them to get more flow of air. Mine seem to feel better for it and it all grows back. Not saying its right, just something that I do

Clare-uk said:

I know we have lionheads because of their gorgeous locks but in this hot weather I trim around their ears and skirt to help them to get more flow of air. Mine seem to feel better for it and it all grows back. Not saying its right, just something that I do

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I shave my cashmere lop as he can't cope with the heat!

Hi, sorry all for the delay in getting back to you. I was away all day Sunday but my other half was looking after our bun.

She did a very squidgy, loose poo and then seemed to just perk up. I wonder whether she'd eaten something and it had just disagreed with her - perhaps the hot weather makes bacteria grow faster if they eat an old bit of food that's been out since the morning? I don't know. We have little packets of probiotics so they can be popped into her water to help. But since Sunday evening she's been merrily munching away and her poo looks fantastic. We almost can't keep up with her appetite at the moment!

Re: the questions - yes she had ultrasound and x-ray a while back but they couldn't find anything. The length of her episodes means that she's usually well within 7 days of the initial 'attack' and we've never been advised to do bloods. Originally they found nectrotic tissue and she had quite a major surgery to remove it, but she recovered from it and hasn't had any of that since (about 3 years ago).

Her output is usually pretty good and very uniform. She's a black dwarf lionhead but she doesn't quite look as plush as other lionheads I've seen... her 'lionhead' bits of fur tend to be slightly tufty and less uniform, but we never see her fur pulling or have found any evidence of it. I'll look into megacolon as it sounds a bit similar to what she goes through. Last year was a good year for her - only 2 episodes I think, whereas the year before I think she had about 4, nearly every 3 months which made me wonder whether it was somehow hormonally charged or something.