Odd couple of minutes or an indication of a more serious issue?

I posted a while back about our adopted house rabbit Norman who was "coughing." It turns out that was due to a hyacinth in the room and he has been fine since we removed it .

But this morning we had a new issue. Both Arthur and Norman jump on top of a little wooden house in their cage whilst I am getting their breakfast ready. That happened as normal this morning but when I came back through they were both already in the middle of the hutch. Norman then threw himself on his side in his litter tray and didn't seem to want to get up. I got him up and then he kept throwing himself over and stretching out in different parts of his hutch.

Now I have seen him do this quite a lot when he is out in the evening. He likes to go around the four sides of the room he lives in doing this, especially after he has run around.

However, I have never seen him do this in the morning. He also wasn't intitally interested in his breakfast which is very unlike him but he then suddenly had a rummage in his trouser and ate a soft poo and within seconds he was fine again.

Could this have been due to gas? Both Arthur and Norman are moulting at the moment and whilst it is not as bad as our previous rabbit who had longer fur, they do wash each other and will be ingesting some fur. I have been meaning to introduce them to pineapple which greatly helped our previous rabbit so I will try that soon.

I was going to book an appointment to see the vet but I would like to have some idea of what the problem could have been. Is this an issue or could it just be "one of those things?"

Thanks

It does sound as though it could be a gut problem - do they eat plently of hay? With regards to pineapple, it may seem to help the passing of food/fur in their gut but it also has a high sugar content, which can unbalance the gut bacteria. We always advise hay as this will help push anything through the gut so gut slowdown shouldn't occur. Also some veg can cause gas to build up so be careful as to what you feed. If they eat plenty of hay but you get a reoccurrence of this behaviour, then I would advise discussing it with your Vet.

tonibun said:

It does sound as though it could be a gut problem - do they eat plently of hay? With regards to pineapple, it may seem to help the passing of food/fur in their gut but it also has a high sugar content, which can unbalance the gut bacteria. We always advise hay as this will help push anything through the gut so gut slowdown shouldn't occur. Also some veg can cause gas to build up so be careful as to what you feed. If they eat plenty of hay but you get a reoccurrence of this behaviour, then I would advise discussing it with your Vet.

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They both eat loads of hay, they are both really good hay eaters. They will happily spend hours munching away on the different varieties we give them so that thankfully isn't an issue.

Is there any veg to avoid with regards to gas? Norman is quite fussy (compared with rabbits we have had before) so they have a relatively limited veg / fruit diet because otherwise Arthur would be eating his portions as well.

RT said:

They both eat loads of hay, they are both really good hay eaters. They will happily spend hours munching away on the different varieties we give them so that thankfully isn't an issue.

Is there any veg to avoid with regards to gas? Norman is quite fussy (compared with rabbits we have had before) so they have a relatively limited veg / fruit diet because otherwise Arthur would be eating his portions as well.

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I agree that it does sound as though he had some abdominal pain, possibly due to gas. What has his poo output been like over the last day or so ? Any smaller than normal ? If so this would indicate that he has a reduced GI tract motility and this can then lead to gas building up.

As for Vegetables, all brassicas can cause gas. Fruit can also cause some GI tract problems due to the high sugar content. I seldom feed any Veg to my Rabbits now, I prefer to give them fresh herbs or edible wild plants/weeds etc. I never feed my Rabbits any fruit at all.

My Rupert has had several gas episodes and this is the exact behaviour pattern he follows when he's poorly, but with him, you can clearly his his very swollen belly. Get him checked out at the vets incase there's a blockage x hope he's ok x
His episodes were all caused by different things, swede, apple, dandelion, panacur, hamster food (don't ask hes a greedy thief, needless to say hamster cage is now out of his reach, he stills tries tho!), leaves that blow in - he can literally catch them in mid air!

RT said:

They both eat loads of hay, they are both really good hay eaters. They will happily spend hours munching away on the different varieties we give them so that thankfully isn't an issue.

Is there any veg to avoid with regards to gas? Norman is quite fussy (compared with rabbits we have had before) so they have a relatively limited veg / fruit diet because otherwise Arthur would be eating his portions as well.

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Veg which could cause gas are things like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. A small piece of apple shouldn't cause any issues.

Perhaps give them both a groom if they will tolerate it?

MightyMax said:

Veg which could cause gas are things like cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower. A small piece of apple shouldn't cause any issues.

Perhaps give them both a groom if they will tolerate it?

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Please be aware that actually, the tiniest piece of ANYTHING could cause severe issues - my rabbit's issues start even from a tiny speck of apple, or seed.

Rupert & Tia said:

Please be aware that actually, the tiniest piece of ANYTHING could cause severe issues - my rabbit's issues start even from a tiny speck of apple, or seed.

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What do you feed your rabbit if tiny specks of any food cause such severe issues?