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Temporary anorexia

Fellie

Warren Veteran
My lion head Harley seems to go through bouts of temporary anorexia. For example - last night I came home from work at around 7pm, immediatly went to feed buns their evening pellets and Harley was not at all interested in the food - and gave off signs of stasis - eg.looking withdrawn, tummy pressing, tender when I gently pressed her tummy although it wasn't bloated.

I immediatly phoned our emergency vets but also remembered that she has done this in the past and has gotten better very quickly. So I quickly changed her litter tray and swept out her hutch so that I could watch out for new poops and whilst I did so she hopped out for a run and when she came back in, she seemed quite a bit brighter and started nibbling on a strand of hay, followed by a few of her pellets. Within 1/2 hour she looked back to normal, had drunk water, eaten all her pellets and some hay - and did a nice pile of poops for me. I cancelled the vets - it would just stress her out and she was absolutly fine - and fine again this morning, gobbling down her breakfast as usual.

She has done this before as well - got my all worried and stressed and then gone back to normal in a very short space of time.

I wonder if she goes through bouts of constipation or tummy ache or something - don't know. Anyone else experience this with their buns?

This is her 3 hours after not wanting to eat or do anything - as you can see - looks fine :roll:

 
She may have had some trapped gas in her gi tract and the hopping about shifted things and so she felt OK again.

As she is very long haired I'd make sure you groom her daily and remove any lose felts of fur. If he gi tract is on the sluggish side then ingesting lots of fur will make things worse.
 
Trapped gas would've been my guess too. I've had a few instances with my buns where they won't eat or move, but after forcing them to move around a little they're fine.
 
Great - thank you:thumb:

She is a hairy beast - as is her husbun Bobo - so I do brush them both every day (and hence they really don't like me at the moment :(;)) and I try to make sure they have lots of high fibre (have cut back on their pellets and treats a little bit to encourage them to eat more hay) to help get hair through their guts.

I'll be keeping a closer eye on her and Bobo I think :thumb:
 
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