Getting worried I might be doing something wrong????

Sorry for long worried post.....

So I have 3 bunnies, all neutered/vacc'd and on a good diet of unlimited hay, various treat hays, fresh and dried forage, and recently I have cut out fresh veg altogether for forage, plus SS pellets. I also have 2 foster bunnies fed the same.

Up until a month ago my 3 buns had never had any problems with stasis or anything tummy related. Then about 4/5 weeks ago Noah suddenly had a bad bout of diarrhoea and bloat and was hospitalised for 3 nights. He has made a full recovery.

A couple of days after my foster bunnies came, one of them (who is over 6 and NO history of stasis) went into stasis, quickly remedied by pain killers, gut stimulants and a syringe feed. Back to normal the day after and fine since.

About a week later Woody had a bit of a funny episode, I went in the morning and he had had a small amount of diarrhoea and he was covered in it, plus he had sat in his own wee, and generally a big mess. However he was bouncy, bright and active as usual, and took his breakfast as normal too, so I cleaned him up and kept an eye on him. Was fine after that and has been since.

2 weeks on, and yesterday evening Jessie was tummy pressing and refusing food. Managed to get an appointment at the vets and she was given metacam, emperid and baytril (bit of discharge around her nose so as a precaution). She has always had small spurs, and the vet checked her teeth and said she does still have those but no worse than they have ever been, so unlikely to be causing this. This morning she was still refusing food, so another syringe feed, emperid and metacam has been given. OH is going to check on her when he gets home at lunchtime. Hopefully she will want to eat by then else I think she is going to need to be admitted and have IV fluids and more intensive therapy, more investigations etc.

All this has happened in such a short space of time, and with bunnies that have no history of stasis/tummy problems, it's hard not to worry whether I'm doing something wrong of whether this is all sheer coincidence?? But how on earth can I even pinpoint what the issue is?

Doubt you're doing anything wrong - sounds possibly a 'bunny bug' could be doing the rounds of your buns - some sort of infectious disease prehaps? Just guessing though - and probably only blood tests would tell.

If it were me - I would cut out all food except for a bit of SS and hay - but it can be so difficult to pin point a reason for stasis and dodgy tums.

Huge vibes for Jessie - hoping she is better by lunch time.x

Two possibilities come to mind- Coccidiosis or maybe mycotoxins in hay/hard feed.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Protozoal_diseases/Cocc_en.htm

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Parasitic/Coccidiosis_Hedgehog.htm

http://www.micotoxinas.com.br/Boletim44.pdf

Both unlikely really, but I'd want to rule them both out. It may just be an unfortunate coincidence that the problems have occurred. I hope that Jessie will feel better soon xx

Thanks both. Noah was tested for Coccidia but came back negative (he was the first one ill).

I'm going to get a fresh hay bale at the weekend, and may consider trying to find an alternate source incase it is that. I've been getting hay from the same place for getting on 3 years now and it's always nice and fresh but I suppose that doesn't mean it doesn't have toxins in.

Am nearly due another bag of SS too, so may chuck out whats left and just get a new bag this weekend.

Thankfully, none of my boarders have been ill, but they are the opposite side of the garden well away from the other bunnies, and I'm very careful with cleanliness etc between them. Plus I have been away recently so shut down for a couple of weeks.

There is one bunny that hasn't yet been ill, one of the fosters, so I suppose if she gets ill it would pretty much confirm it is something going around. Wouldn't the time between the illnesses have been shorter if it was something infectious? We're talking 1 week min between each episode

I just hope this is all a coincidence...

Jack's-Jane said:

Two possibilities come to mind- Coccidiosis or maybe mycotoxins in hay/hard feed.

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Protozoal_diseases/Cocc_en.htm

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/Parasitic/Coccidiosis_Hedgehog.htm

http://www.micotoxinas.com.br/Boletim44.pdf

Both unlikely really, but I'd want to rule them both out. It may just be an unfortunate coincidence that the problems have occurred. I hope that Jessie will feel better soon xx

Click to expand...

I agree with Jane. With multiple rabbits experiencing GI issues, mycotoxins and mold would be my concern as well. If it is the hay it might not be very apparent and there may just be a bit of a sour smell to the hay, little black spots on the stems, or a paleness/white dusting to the hay. If it is in the pellets it might not even be detectable except by the pellets being tested. If you are going to get a new bag of pellets, you will want one from a completely different batch, as a bag from the same batch could be contaminated as well, if in fact it was contaminated.

Another possibility that comes to mind is if some toxic plants might have been in the hay. Something else it might be is the rabbits chewing on something common in all their environments that could be harmful. I believe it was on FHB's site that I read of a rabbit having unexplained GI problems, when they discovered the rabbit had chewed off paint flakes with lead in it.

I'd be looking at a possible issue with food contaminants if nothing else has changed, very odd though.

I hope you get it sorted out soon

It's def not they hay being mouldy. I'm super vigilant checking and smelling hay before I give it to them, always have been.

I'm going to get new hay tomorrow, and get some new pellets at the same time.

Jess is at the vets at the moment on fluids and they're doing a blood test. Got to go back at 8pm to see where to go from there

Well funnily enough I've had the same. Two of the youngsters who were born and brought up here who I therefore know have had a healthy diet from day 1 suddenly had a day of diarrhoea out of nowhere. Both carried on eating and bouncing about as normal but what was coming out the other end definitely wasn't. By the time I picked them up from the vets that evening (I dropped them off on my way to work) they were both back to normal. Then 3 days later Snowdrop, who has been here since February, suddenly went into stasis. She had no gut sounds at all for a while and didn't produce poos for about 12 hours. It took about 4 days for her to get back to normal. First time I've ever had random problems for no reason. I wonder if it's something in the way that forage is changing at the change of season that upset their tummies?

Happened here too First was Jasmine (upstairs bun) refusing food, tummy pressing and obviously in discomfort after being normal all day. So off to out of hours vet with husbun who was fine, for an overnight stay and meds.
Then Belle (downstairs bun) with same symptoms. Treated at home after vet call. And this past week Tilly, who spent 4 days at vets. Blood tests came back clear. She has never been a dental bun but there were small spurs at the back so they burred them and let me bring her home that night. All in the space of 3 weeks :? and yet their partners were ok.
I've changed all my hay and forage just in case.

Do you all feed the same brand of pellets and if so can you all compare the batch number from the packaging ?

Interesting that others have had the same...

Sadly I throw the packaging away as I decant the pellets (SS) into a storage tub.

I think I will lay off the forage for a while.

Jessie is staying at the OOH vets overnight, she's got a drip in and they're syringe feeding her too. Picking her up at 7:45 tomorrow to transfer to my normal vet who is going to sedate her, X-ray and proper look at her teeth (that is unless she starts eating tonight)

Absolutely shattered after a long week at work so off to bed!!

I also feed SS and I also decant them into storage tubs so don't have the packaging either - but for me it's been 3 out of 11 buns who have had problems so if it was the pellets I'd have expected it to be more widespread maybe. I figured that the forage is likely to be changeable at this time of year and more variable in which rabbit gets given what so more likely to be the issue than the pellets. Or possibly something getting into their runs in the wind which they had been eating but shouldn't have been (elder berries possibly), or even something lurking at night and stressing them out? Fortunately all of mine turned out to be relatively minor and bounced back to normal quickly without a recurrence so far... Fingers crossed for yours xx

Rotavirus infection maybe ??

'Rotaviral infection on its own is mild and self limiting; some rabbits will develop mild diarrhoea but most are unaffected. However, in conjunction with opportunists or bacterial pathogens, infection can be more serious.'

http://wildpro.twycrosszoo.org/S/00dis/viral/Rotavirus_inf_in_lagomorphs.htm

Right, sorry for the really late update, it's been a bit of a chaotic weekend to say the least....

Jess was transferred to the emergency vets on Friday evening, and was kept there overnight until 7:45 Saturday morning when I transferred her back to my vet. At this point she still hadn't eaten for herself or done any poos, despite 15 hours of intensive therapy and fluids. At 4pm Saturday she passed her first poo, and started nibbling food shortly after. Thankfully, by saturday night, as she didn't need intensive nursing, she could be kept in by my vets (with a nurse coming into medicate 2x in the night) and I went to see her yesterday (Sunday) morning and talk to my vet. By that time she was eating quite well and passing lots of poos, albeit pretty small and dark. Both me and vet are convinced there is something underlying, as this is very unlike her, and she has moments where she is fine, eating pooing and then next minute she is hunched up and looks in pain, despite heavy pain relief. Mark (vet) has looked at her teeth with otoscope and there are small spurs but no worse than she normally has and not really severe enough to cause all this, plus with her eating pattern (ie not eating at all until 3 days in, despite lots of pain relief) we both don't think it's dental related.

So today (she stayed at vets again last night) she is having a GA and Mark is going to have a better look at her teeth, and get a dental and full body Xray. I'm not sure if I'm doing the right thing as she is seemingly better but I have that niggling feeling that there is something underlying and if I don't investigate now, we might take her off all the drugs and she will go into stasis again, back to square 1.

She is 6.5 years old and so I am a bit worried today, but hoping she pulls through the GA ok and there is some kind of explanation for all this that can be treated.

I discussed Coccidia with my vet, and he agrees that considering both Noah and Woody have been poorly recently, and now Jessie (even though her symptoms aren't classic Cocci), they are all getting treatment for it, starting today, as a precaution.

Yesterday I threw away my last batch of SS and hay, and bought new of everything. The farm had their new hay cut in too, so totally different hay.

I hope that all will go well for Jess today and that all your other Rabbits remain well now. It is so stressful when we are in a 'not sure what's wrong' situation.

What hay are you using? As you know, we've had no end of tummy issues with Rupert, all started with SS pellets. Then we were using ings hay, which I think caused the majority of his problems. Touch wood, since reverting back to Burgess Excel and stopping ings (I now just buy hay from local garden / pet place they love it).
Good luck hope Jess is ok x

I think going with your gut is fine - you know her best and it's totally reasonable that you have a hunch something is wrong. I would want to know too.

Thanks all. Still not heard anything as yet :?

Kirsty, I buy my hay in bales from a local horse feed merchant. I honestly don't think it's the hay thats the problem, they've been having the same hay for the past 3 years. I'm now leaning towards the Cocci explanation or that my batch of SS had toxins in (now changed), although Noah was apparantly tested negative for Cocci at the animal hospital (although I really don't always trust what the OOH clinic says). Might get more explanation when I get the results of Jess's investigations today.

Just a thought, but even though 7.5 yr old Tilly had no history of dental disease, my rabbit savvy vet did see small spurs so I agreed to a GA and he did say they were a lot worse than what they thought. She came home that night and has not stopped eating (and pooping) since