• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Mucoid enteropathies

Its a term used to describe various GI diseases in Rabbits. These conditions usually involve the Bun passing lots of mucus and its caecum (large bowel) often gets impacted. Although some Buns may get a distended stomach which in turn effects the lungs as they are not able to inflate due to the stomach pressing up on them. There is often no currant pellets passed and Buns deteriorate rapidly. Sometimes you can hear the Buns guts slosh around when you pick bun up. Sounds a bit like a half full hot water bottle. It is a very painful condition and usually progressive and fatal :cry:
ME can be caused by lots of different Bacteria,Viruses, Coccidiosis and by a genetic contion which effects the nerve supply to the GI tract (horses get a similar problem known as 'grass sickness'. In Buns its known as Dysautonomia)
Stress is meant to play a major part in causing ME which is why newly weaned kits are at risk.
Hope none of your Buns has this :(

Janex
 
Rabbits that do not get enough fiber in there diet can get mucoid enteritis, this is what happend to Dougal.
 
if i am getting through 4 bales of hay per WEEK and they are still not getting enough hay i will start eating it myself! :shock: :shock: :shock:
 
When i was younger i bought a baby rabbit from a petshop ,it had this he was dead within 3 days,the vet said it was caused by stress and that it was highly contagious :shock:
 
Sorry, in baby buns it can be a lack of fibre and a combination of stress.

Not contagious, just depends on your rabbit.

Going to be nosey, do any of your buns have this?
 
nicole said:
Rabbits that do not get enough fiber in there diet can get mucoid enteritis, this is what happend to Dougal.

It can be fatal in young rabbits. I lost one to this a couple of months ago.
It can present itself as various other conditions first, and in the 4 days that I was 2ing and fro-ing to the vets Ziggy deteriorated at a rate of knotts.

Poppy was exactly the same age as Ziggy, had the same diet (rich in hay and a mixed diet) lived in the same place and most definately was not stressed out.
 
vets are running tests as we speak so cant even be sure that it is ME hopefully will know more soon, but stress :shock: :? i would be dam surpirised if it was and will bloody give the whole game up if it is :roll: she lives free range in a large enclosure with a male neutered partner, no one has changed in the enclosure they are all the same bunnies that have alway been in there, get ss for dinner and unlimited hay and dried grasses not much fresh left in the enclosure :roll: and small mounts of veg, yes therer is possibile foxes out there but no much i can do about those visiting other than giving her hidy holes which she has plenty of, what more can i do!
 
My vet took a blood sample and also gave Ziggy a shot of antibiotic in case it was an infection. We tried allsorts to treat her, but to no avail.

Perseverance and catching it in time seem to be the answer with this problem.
 
I only experienced this with dougal.
And that is what the vet told me.
It usually does affect baby rabbits, but Dougal was not a baby.
It was the fact he was not eating hay (and prob never will) and not getting enough fibre, to keep his guts going.
I got the problem sorted with probiotic and grass.
He was stressed because his 2 brothers went to a new home and this left Dougal on his own. The lonleyness stressed him.

I in no way wanted to cause upset :)
I hope your baby is well soon.
 
I just hope your vet can get you some cisapride for her. This is what Snowbelle had, but she died before I could get my hands on any :cry: :cry: :cry: Metacloprimide just didn't work for her, nor any of the many other things we tried :?
 
Back
Top