Weight loss and GI stasis.

Hi there,

Sorry this is going to be a long thread! I have a 2 year old female french lop who has been poorly for roughly 8-12 weeks. She has visited the vet three times now for GI stasis and I am managing that pretty well.

My rabbits live outdoors, but are free to roam the garden during the day. Over summer, particularly during the heatwave, Pippa started to show signs of severe lethargy and discomfort, she would not eat or drink. I have nursed rabbits through stasis before so took her straight to the vets. She was given fluids and meds to kick start her digestive tract, I also syringe fed her water and critical care food on my return. She started to show signs of improvement, but for many weeks she didnt really eat many pellets, she preferred eating her leafy greens which I made sure she had plenty of. Over the next few weeks, she had episodes of looking back to full health and then there might be an off day where I had to syringe feed etc.
I went on holiday and left her with my mum and dad. I came home and noticed she had lost tons of weight. This was 3-4 weeks ago. She was taken to the vets and given the same treatment, the vet could feel impacted matter in her stomach and gave me some pain relief meds, a tonic to boost her gut and advised me to keep supporting her with the same care as before.

My bun is so boney, I can feel her spine and her ribs. She had a few relapses were she has the stasis again so I reduced her amount of garden time incase she was eating plants that might be upsetting her. I have only been giving her pellets and very few limited greens. This has proven to stabilise her now for 2 weeks with no bad episodes of stasis. She is eating loads, drinking plenty and eating her hay. I wondered if her diet had perhaps been lacking in fibre before.

Although she is much improved, my old bunny has not returned, there are no binkys, she is not her usual self. I havent weighed her but I can still see and feel her bones, he stools are irregular, at times the are normal, others are small and hard or sloppy!

I am keeping her in the cage more to monitor her intake of food, water and her stools.

Her coat is dull and she looks a little scraggy.

I have checked her stools for worms, but there is no signs of this. I will mention that one of the first bad episodes of stasis included some stringy masses in her stools, very unusual. She is not in pain as far as I can see. Her front teeth look fine, but obviously I cannot check her molars.

Not sure where to go from here,

Any advice would be extremely welcome!


Pippa Pots

GI stasis is caused by pain in the body. It's a reaction to a symptom, if that makes sense.

Your vet needs to be looking at what this cause may be. Have the teeth been checked? It could be a dental problem of the back teeth (ie a long way back inside the mouth).

edit: sorry, just noticed in your post that you mentioned the teeth. Back teeth could still be an issue.

Are you happy with your vets? If not, it might be worth starting a thread asking for recommendations in your area.

I think further diagnostics are now needed. She may have some Dental problems (molars) or there may be another source of pain/discomfort.

My advice would be another thorough examination by a Rabbit savvy Vet, including a full blood profile. I would want the Vet to pay particular attention to her heart and lungs as well as her teeth. A good check in her ears would also be advisable

You dont mention hay in her diet, this should form 80-90% of her food intake.

Jack's-Jane said:

I think further diagnostics are now needed. She may have some Dental problems (molars) or there may be another source of pain/discomfort.

My advice would be another thorough examination by a Rabbit savvy Vet, including a full blood profile. I would want the Vet to pay particular attention to her heart and lungs as well as her teeth. A good check in her ears would also be advisable

You dont mention hay in her diet, this should form 80-90% of her food intake.

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Thanks for your replies,

She has access to timothy hay which she does eat, but she tends to not want it most of the time, she has always been a cheekie bunny and a very fussy eater, she prefers all the bad things! I have been allowing her more pellets lately though to increase her weight, but after two weeks of eating well, she has not filled out at all. I am not sure if bad stasis can just take a while to recover from, or if there is an underlying problem.

The vets we take them to are fantastic and very rabbit savvy, but the last 3 visits just dealt with the stasis and not an underlying cause. I was given advice on feeding, so I stopped giving them cabbage and broccoli and started introducing more leafy greens like parsley which are meant to be less gassy. the male rabbit (Jasper) is thriving, he looks so well.

I will take her to the vets tomorrow,

Many thanks

Pippa Pots said:

Thanks for your replies,

She has access to timothy hay which she does eat, but she tends to not want it most of the time, she has always been a cheekie bunny and a very fussy eater, she prefers all the bad things! I have been allowing her more pellets lately though to increase her weight, but after two weeks of eating well, she has not filled out at all. I am not sure if bad stasis can just take a while to recover from, or if there is an underlying problem.

The vets we take them to are fantastic and very rabbit savvy, but the last 3 visits just dealt with the stasis and not an underlying cause. I was given advice on feeding, so I stopped giving them cabbage and broccoli and started introducing more leafy greens like parsley which are meant to be less gassy. the male rabbit (Jasper) is thriving, he looks so well.

I will take her to the vets tomorrow,




Many thanks

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Just wanted to add to this, that this problem began shortly after her first VHF/myxomatosis jab. Not sure if this is a coincidence or not. She keeps having a messy bottom so I am now having to clean her, I've read about mega colon and do believe her stasis bouts have brought this on now.

Please help! She is one of the friendliest buns in had, we have a great bond. Hate not being able to help her. I just wonder if periods of bad stasis can take time to recover from.

To me it sounds like gut problems, yes, but it sounds like the problem is probably being made worse due to a poor diet (not enough hay) which would also cause the messy bottom. It could be that she is not eating hay due to pain or due to being fed too many pellets and greens.

I would also say that you need to check all the garden plants before you let her out in it again - most gardens have poisonous ones and they can cause gut problems or worse.

She definitely needs a proper dental examination and if there are no spurs then I would advise blood tests and an ultrasound and/or an xray of the gut.

Thanks Nessar,

I agree she needs to be eating more hay, its hard trying to get her to eat it though. Prior to the stasis episodes (the most recent ones) she barely had any pellets, a handful at the most a day. She had access to hay, plenty water and ate a mix of dried dandelion and green oat, parsley, basil sometimes curly kale. I'm wondering if I should buy a hay rack so I know what she is eating.

She has been much better with the stasis when I have increased her pellets :S she has excel burgess pellets. Iv read so many conflicting reports about diet and from what I can gather, small amount of pellets, hay, water and a few leafy greens would be the best?

She never suffered with a messy bottom up until recently when shes become poorly, its like her colon isnt working well after so many episodes of stasis. Ive been doing my research on the plants and she currently has limited time in the garden and then I lock her behind the garage where there is just turf and no plants she absolutely devoured my mums garden this year, and along with the heat im wondering if she ate something bad? Perhaps started this whole thing off.

She was eating my mums lavender plants and forest flames. THe only toxic plants I think we have are rhodedendrums which after checking them they dont seem to touch


Many thanks for helping me with this guys,

Sarah