Frequent tummy upsets

I need some advice with my bun's tummy issues please.
Buddy gets bad gas pretty much every two weeks, it started about four months ago when he first started moulting. We got him from a rescue and were told he was vet checked and perfectly healthy and he was for a while. He's 13 months and neutered, they had him on muesli in the rescue but I gradually got him off it. The problem with Bud is he won't eat hay, I tried many types, he's got timothy, oat hay, barn forage, orchard hay, a mix of hay and chamomile and readigrass available at all times but really he only eats readigrass. Our vet thinks it's the reason for all Bud's trouble, he doesn't get enough fibre to break down the hair he ingests. We do groom Buddy but it's always a struggle as he hates being handled, my partner holds him for me and I brush him, it's very stressful for all of us. I also give Buddy Excell herb mixes that he likes but they are just treats although he would eat them all the time if he could. He gets 2 table spoons of Excell pellets for adult rabbits a day and a small daily salad of kale, parsley, mint, basil, coriander, watercress, rocket, slice of carrot, babycorn and red pepper. I listed this to see if you think this is the right diet, my vet says it is but I'd like some outside input please. We have visited our vet many times about it, so often she actually gave me more meds so I can put Bud on them without visiting her when he needs them. I usually start off with a 1 ml dose of Infacol every hour then he gets 0.9 ml of Domperidone and 0.24 ml of Zantac twice daily for up to five days. He had an x-ray done a month ago that showed nothing wrong, he will have his molars checked next week as I and our vet want to find if there's any medical reason why he won't have hay or if he's just picky. I'd love any input, Buddy is my first rabbit and I want to look after him as well as possible so if you think I got his diet wrong feel free to point it out. I do trust our vet and she's pretty good with Buddy although she does not specialise in rabbits, I couldn't find a rabbit savvy vet in Colchester. Thank you all in advance.

Is he maybe getting too many pellets or too many veggies, and filling up on them? If not, and if the vet doesn't find any problems with his teeth, and that he's just picky, you could try something that worked for one of my rabbits. I got a new rabbit that ended up with stasis several times, and I ended up having to stop feeding him pellets, as he had developed a sensitivity to them from first getting stasis because of stress. So I had to stop feeding pellets, but the problem was that he wasn't used to eating hay and would hardly touch it, even if he was hungry. I wasn't sure what to do, but luckily I found large bags of a plain timothy pellet used for horses, at a feed store, and got it for him. And it worked. He ate them just fine, and gradually over the last year he has gotten really good at eating hay, so that now it isn't a problem any more.

Maybe try cutting out the baby corn and carrots. Corn is very difficult for them to digest and carrots are high in harmful sugars :wave:

Is it definitely gas? Not wool block/fur blockage??

What you're feeding sounds fine, but it could be that there is one particular food that just doesn't agree with him specifically. I'd try keeping a diary of what he eats when and when you see signs of a problem and see if you can find any pattern. Cutting one type of vegetable out at a time to see if that makes a difference might help you work it out too. If he was eating hay I'd just suggest stopping the veg and gradually reintroducing whilst keeping a record but if he's not eating hay that will be a good source of fibre.

Have you tried him on fresh grass? Some rabbits that won't eat hay will eat that.

It might also be worth trying an alternative pellet, fibafirst might work if he'll eat it as that's quite hay like. Again, nothing wrong with what you are giving him, just might be worth a go on the off chance it's something specific to him that's disagreeing.

It sounds like your vet is doing all the right things, sometimes just one willing to listen and work with you great even if they aren't an expert

Thank you all for your replies. I will try and find horse pellets, I did buy some hay cakes made by oxbow, are they any similar? Buddy won't touch them. I have tried cutting back on pellets before but Bud lost a lot of weight and the vet told me to feed two table spoons a day, do you think it's too much? I will cut down on baby corn, Bud only gets a thin slice of carrot but I can stop feeding it altogether, I'll try it and see what happens. I actually got the veg list from Rabbit Welfare Association and baby corn was labeled as safe.
Willowsmum - I go by what my vet told me, she says it's gas although I find it strange she then says it's all because of the fur. She is not rabbit savvy though. As I said, we had an x-ray done before and there was no blockage, that's why I partly thought I got his diet wrong and it is gas.

Tamsin said:

What you're feeding sounds fine, but it could be that there is one particular food that just doesn't agree with him specifically. I'd try keeping a diary of what he eats when and when you see signs of a problem and see if you can find any pattern. Cutting one type of vegetable out at a time to see if that makes a difference might help you work it out too. If he was eating hay I'd just suggest stopping the veg and gradually reintroducing whilst keeping a record but if he's not eating hay that will be a good source of fibre.

Have you tried him on fresh grass? Some rabbits that won't eat hay will eat that.

It might also be worth trying an alternative pellet, fibafirst might work if he'll eat it as that's quite hay like. Again, nothing wrong with what you are giving him, just might be worth a go on the off chance it's something specific to him that's disagreeing.

It sounds like your vet is doing all the right things, sometimes just one willing to listen and work with you great even if they aren't an expert

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Thank you, great ideas there. How long should I cut each vegetable out for do you think? I do have a diary, my vet suggested it but couldn't find anything although I now see I wasn't doing it properly. She said just to write down the new stuff I feed him, I never actually thought of cutting something out to see what happens so thank you, I'm dumb, I know. I cut out all the fruit from his diet already as a precaution . He does get fresh grass but he's not very interested. Thank you

I would say cut things out for a week or two, you want it long enough to see if it's a coincidence it makes no difference. You could do several things at once.

Hay/grass is best for fibre but some plants/weeds can help. If you can find them, blackberry and raspberry leaves are good sources of fibre, dandelion, strawberry leaves, apple leaves. A lot of the fruit/veg we each is quite soft compared to the stuff they'd find in the wild, we'd find things like blackberry leaves much too chewy :lol:

Someone posted before that they dipping hay piece by piece in apple juice and then offer it to their bun to get their hay eating up - a bit time consuming but might be worth ago. If you can get him into the habit of eating it he might start for himself.

Hi, thanks for the advice, I've started cutting veg out with curly kale and baby corn. Buddy didn't want his salad without baby corn (he LOVES it) so it's still untouched I'm just about ready to give it to him just so he eats the rest as well. I've got dried raspberry and blackberry leaves and some apple twigs but I always thought they were a treat, I will give him more of those from now on, he gets dried dandelion as well. I will need to look for apple leaves. Interesting idea - dipping hay in apple juice, I assume it would have to be a no-added-sugar juice. Thank you for all your advice

Yep, just plain unsweetened juice.

Dried plants are fine, you might be able to find fresh this time of year too