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Poppy went to see FHB!

My rabbit Poppy who was originally a stray bun seemed to have lost a lot of weight in the last few months. She was never a large bunny but I knew something was up. She also seemed to have quite a messy bum a lot which also worried me and we kept having to wash her bottom. My first thought was kidney disease but of course there can be many other explanations for weight loss.

My rabbit savvy vet left so I wanted to take Poppy to someone who would be able to give me the right answers asap. So I took her to see Frances Harcourt Brown who is one of the best rabbit specialist vets in the UK! The surgery was an hour away but that didn't phase me, I wanted to get Poppy there. I took the trip which involved a bus, two trains and walking half an hour to get Poppy there! She's quite a laid back bun so the traveling didn't bother her. :)

Anyway, when I arrived FHB was lovely. She questioned me on Poppy's poos and asked if they were unusual. I told her some seemed to be abnormal but to be honest I couldn't really tell who's poo was who's because she lives with two other rabbits. Frances told me that she seems to notice weight loss a lot in spotty rabbits and she believed it was down to a genetic problem with their gut which does not enable them to take in nutrients from the food. She predicted that this was what was wrong with Poppy so basically she wasn't getting what she needed from her food. :( She wanted to keep Poppy in to inspect her poos, I was not expecting to have to leave Poppy there so it broke my heart having to leave but I knew she couldn't be in better hands.

FHB also wanted to rule out the possibility of kidney disease so blood tests and an xray were done. She also wanted to trim Poppy's fur around her bottom as like I mentioned before, she can get quite messy down there.

So... the following day I found out that blood tests came back pretty much perfect and no signs of kidney disease on the xray either so I was very relieved. :D The x-ray was not completely normal though.... it showed evidence of the gut problem as FHB predicted. There was a lot of gas shown in her tummy. This gut problem also explains why Poppy kept getting messy down below because a symptom is leaking mucus. Poppy's poos were abnormal too. They were large soft poos as when bunnies have this problem they don't have 2 separate systems to produce 'golden poos' and cecotrophes so each poo is a mix of the two!

Poppy only weighed 1.4kg which is tiny! :( If Poppy didn't have this problem she would weigh around 2.5kg. FHB did not think it was possible for Poppy to ever reach this weight but she hoped that one day she would reach 2kg. Her target was 1.8kg. There is no cure for this problem but there are ways to manage it and that was to give Poppy a completely new diet. Her diet is pretty much the opposite to other rabbits now. As you know, hay is the main source of food for buns, but not for Poppy. She was not getting enough nutrients from hay so her main source of food is green veg. She also has to have a lot more pellets than most buns. She still has hay but just not as much as she would have used to have and not as much as the buns she lives with are getting.

Well I'm thrilled to announce that in 2 weeks Poppy has already reached her target weight!! As of tonight she has weighed in at 1.874kg!! I did not expect her to gain 400g in such a short space of time. Her new diet has done wonders for her. :)

I'm so happy she doesn't have anything too sinister and we're able to get Poppy back to being a 'healthy' rabbit. If you aren't far from Harrogate then I can't recommend FHB enough. Before she had even done the xray and poo sample she seemed to know what was wrong and she was right. I'm very impressed. :D

Oh and here's a photo of the lovely Poppy being weighed. :lol:

 
Wow. Heard there was a specialist there. How much is a consult ?

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So pleased that she's getting better, how do you manage to give her a different diet to the other buns she lives with?
 
aww how cute is she in the bowl :love::love::love: wish mine would let me do it like that :lol:



I had to give a different diet to my bridge bun Pebbles as he was a non-hay eater and needed alot more pellets than the others (he was on 100g a day) and the only way was to take him out and feed him seperately in my bedroom 2-3 times a day. Was the same when Violet started losing weight..I started feeding her extra in a seperate room.
 
Wow. Heard there was a specialist there. How much is a consult ?

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It was around £30 which I didn't think was bad as it's quite similar to most vets I have been to.

The vet fees were actually very reasonable for the 2 consultations (as there was one when I collected her too) blood tests, an xray, feces sample, trimming fur and two overnight stays (as I couldn't get there the following day) the cost was £176. Not bad at all I think and so worth the money as Poppy is now getting better. :)
 
So pleased that she's getting better, how do you manage to give her a different diet to the other buns she lives with?

Thank you!

I feed the boys their pellets in a shared bowl in the shed and fill up a seperate bowl of pellets for Poppy and put her in the run by herself until she's eaten them all. She's a slow eater so the boys would finish it before she could. When she's finished the boys go back in with her. Then in the evening I put the boys back in the shed with a little bit of veg and give Poppy a load of greens and again she won't go back with the boys until she has finished. The buns still have unlimited hay but the boys eat more as obviously Poppy is much more full up on her veg and pellets.

It works very well for my buns, they have a very strong bond so being seperate for an hour a day doesn't affect their bond. Plus Poppy enjoys the fuss from me when she's by herself. :lol:
 
aww how cute is she in the bowl :love::love::love: wish mine would let me do it like that :lol:



I had to give a different diet to my bridge bun Pebbles as he was a non-hay eater and needed alot more pellets than the others (he was on 100g a day) and the only way was to take him out and feed him seperately in my bedroom 2-3 times a day. Was the same when Violet started losing weight..I started feeding her extra in a seperate room.

Thank you. :) aww bless them, yes that's pretty similar to how I do it with my buns. :thumb:
 
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