Advice please - help a gut stasis prone bunny???

[bunnylover4]

Hi all

I am trying to think of things to help alex as she has gone into gut stasis twice in 5months!!!:shock:

I will tell you what she eats at the moment and any tips on things we could add to help her we will do. We are trying to think along the lines of non medicated treatments as a prevention for the future.

MORNING

ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS.
SMALL AMOUNT OF OATS
[ACCESS TO HAY ALL DAY LONG]

EVENING
ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS
SPRING GREENS
CARROT
A BIT OF APPLE

When she is out in the garden she eats the grass but she is a very fussy eater anyway so we always have problems with her. She does seem to go for brambles and dandilions so we are hoping if we get enough info we can give her the diet she needs so she doesnt scare us again :shock:

 

[Geoff's people]

I would swap the spring greens, carrot and apple with dandelions and brambles:thumb:
She is showing you what she needs IMO both very good foods for a poorly tum

Is she underweight? If not I probably wouldn't worry about oats but if she's a skinny minny then carry on

 

[Jack's-Jane]

Can you give an indication of the quantity of pellets per portion

You say she has 'access to hay all day' but does she actually eat it ?

I agree about cutting out the Oats/Carrot and Apple.

 

[bunnylover4]

Hi all

Thanks for replying. Alex is a dinky rabbit but the oats have been given for a while due to problems with gizmos tummy and teeth ( long story but people on here told me a small amount of oats might help) also it is something all four love, but saying that if you think she would be better off without it I will take it out. Answering your question about how much pellets she has, it's Only small handful (just covering the bottom Of the bowl. She is never bothered with eatting pellets , she would rather graze all day on hay or grass etc. and yes she does eat the hay when she is in her hutch. Alex is a netherland dwarf x Rex she weights about 2kg . The vet didn't say her weight is a problem but I will check it today just to be sure . When you say brambles do you mean blackberry brambles ? Also what else could I give her when dandilions and brambles are out of season?

 

[megansmummy]

One of our buns has had stasis 3 times in 8/9 months too I dont really feed veg apart from a treat but do offer fresh herbs daily...I have been pondering cutting out all fresh herbs/veg and just feeding forage and hay (with a few pellets each for brekki)...

It means i need to get my bum in gear for drying forage for the winter though!!

Last night for tea instead of fresh herbs they just had hawthorn and bramble leaves :thumb:

 

[Gothymama]

Hi all

I am trying to think of things to help alex as she has gone into gut stasis twice in 5months!!!:shock:

I will tell you what she eats at the moment and any tips on things we could add to help her we will do. We are trying to think along the lines of non medicated treatments as a prevention for the future.

MORNING

ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS.
SMALL AMOUNT OF OATS
[ACCESS TO HAY ALL DAY LONG]

EVENING
ALLEN & PAGE NATURAL RABBIT PELLETS
SPRING GREENS
CARROT
A BIT OF APPLE

When she is out in the garden she eats the grass but she is a very fussy eater anyway so we always have problems with her. She does seem to go for brambles and dandilions so we are hoping if we get enough info we can give her the diet she needs so she doesnt scare us again :shock:

Hi one of my bunnies is just recovering from stasis and it's been a long haul, like you i fed him spring greens,carrots as part of his daily veg, he also had broccoli,the occasional celery too and also cabbage. It is precisely this diet that has contributed to his stasis as well as the fact he was neutured 3 wks ago.

Cabbage,broccoli and spring greens are gassy veg for rabbits (altho i didn't know this at the time) and my bunnies were having it daily it made one of mine very poorly with stasis. I've also found out since that carrots shouldn't be fed daily as they are full of sugar and contribute to stasis aswell, carrots should only be given in tiny amounts as a treat and not a daily food. With regards to hay everyone here recommends timothy hay as it's very high in fibre and this helps keep the rabbit gut moving, when i got my rabbits they were used to having meadow hay, so to help their diet i am now mixing timothy hay with the meadow hay as it gives them a good mix. Fruit should also only be given as a treat and not daily, i never give my rabbits fruit as too much is very bad for them, if you want to give them apple then maybe cut it down to once a week and only one or two slices as a treat.

With pellets the recommended amount to feed is about one eggcup per day, my bunnies were having more than this and i have now cut it right back to the recommended amount, manufacturers tend to put larger amounts in their feeding guidelines on the packet so that we buy more, yet too much can cause other problems for bunnies including them getting too much calcium from the pellets and causing kidney stones. To correct this first feed the normal amount you've been giving once a day (the normal morning or evening portion) for about a week, then gradually reduce this amount until you get to the recommended egg cup full once per day.

I'm still correcting my bunnies diet and it's still trial and error, but as your bun is on his 2nd episode of stasis then i recommend that you cut out all gassy veg straight away and certainly don't feed them during a stasis episode as it will prolong his/her recovery, i no longer feed those type of veg as seeing my bunny so poorly really did upset me terribly, i've only had my bunnies for aprox 7 weeks and they had a terrible diet before i got them so his problems were probably already starting before i got them, it's very much trial and error on getting the diets right as all bunnies are so individual and it takes time, brambles are great for helping a bunny recover from stasis as they have a large amount of fibre in them, also if you can get it many RU members recommend willow aswell. Be careful with over feeding dandelions as they are a diretic, but if you give them a good mix of wild food and herbs you should be ok.

Good luck

 

[Elena]

I also agree that cutting out spring greens, oats, carrot and apple may help. Replace with herbs or foraged foods.

Also though, we find with Smudge it'll be something else that sets it off. Last time it happened something had fallen off the desk and spooked him, then he hides instead of eating and after a while his tummy starts hurting so he still wont eat. If we catch it early enough and give him a treat it staves it off, since we've been more aware of what spooks him the episodes have decreased and so far this year he's only had one I think.

 

[Gothymama]

One of our buns has had stasis 3 times in 8/9 months too I dont really feed veg apart from a treat but do offer fresh herbs daily...I have been pondering cutting out all fresh herbs/veg and just feeding forage and hay (with a few pellets each for brekki)...

It means i need to get my bum in gear for drying forage for the winter though!!

Last night for tea instead of fresh herbs they just had hawthorn and bramble leaves :thumb:

Do you know what the fibre content of the pellets you are using are? i'm only asking as my bun has now just got over his stasis and i found burgess excel pellets sensitive formula today (altho i didnt want to buy that brand name again) and altho it is a sensitive formula it has a higher fibre content which is 46% so i'm going to try gently swapping my buns from harringtons pellets to these to see if it helps cut out any more stasis episodes, i can't yet vouch for these pellets, but you might want to look at the fibre content of the ones you use and shop around to see if you can change to one with more fibre as stasis prone buns need a higher fibre content pellet, it may be something that is worth looking into as you have a bunny that has had a few episodes of stasis and it may make a big difference, or may not depending on what is setting the little fellow off x

 

[Gothymama]

Do you know what the fibre content of the pellets you are using are? i'm only asking as my bun has now just got over his stasis and i found burgess excel pellets sensitive formula today (altho i didnt want to buy that brand name again) and altho it is a sensitive formula it has a higher fibre content which is 46% so i'm going to try gently swapping my buns from harringtons pellets to these to see if it helps cut out any more stasis episodes, i can't yet vouch for these pellets, but you might want to look at the fibre content of the ones you use and shop around to see if you can change to one with more fibre as stasis prone buns need a higher fibre content pellet, it may be something that is worth looking into as you have a bunny that has had a few episodes of stasis and it may make a big difference, or may not depending on what is setting the little fellow off x

just an update my buns refused to eat the burgess excel sensitive, the pelllets were much larger and pale in colour,they turned their noses up at it

 

[SarahP]

My experience is to go as simple as possible with the diet - almost exclusively hay-based (but obviously you have to ensure that the bunny eats enough hay). Some bunnies don't seem to be able to cope with pellets at all, and oats would be at the top of my suspects on the list you mentioned.

edit: I've just realised this thread is a few weeks old. Not sure if it's still relevant

 

[bunnylover4]

Books

thank you all for the replys. we are looking at doing a few things to try and help. Obviously everything has to be a gradual thing to avoid upsetting their systems.

We have purchased some books from bunnybazzar
Rabbit Nutrtion by Virginia Richardson
The Hay & Green Diet by Fiona Campbell
Green Foods for Rabbits & cavies

They werent expensive but to be honest they are more like thick Panflets than books:roll:

But at the end of the day if they have information in them which can help then they are worth the money. They cost £22.00 including postage so its not too bad. I will share information on here if i find anything thats worthwhile sharing


Alex is doing well now and is back to her old self. She seems to eat loads of grass now which is good to see. We tried them on a bit of bazil the other day but they werent interested in that. They also are enjoying brambles and hazel branches and leaves

 

[Schtoffen]

Poor you! My bun had this problem twice. Here's how we (hopefully!) fixed it.... the second time he got it my vet asked us EXACTLY what we were feeding him and recommended that all pellets and veg be fed in the morning and never after noon or evening. She said the evening is when they naturally eat their hay and soft poos and feeding them in the evening will impact on this.

So we now feed the buns their pellets and veg first thing and give loads of hay morning early evening and before bed and we haven't had an issue since. Hope this helps.

 

[Gothymama]

Poor you! My bun had this problem twice. Here's how we (hopefully!) fixed it.... the second time he got it my vet asked us EXACTLY what we were feeding him and recommended that all pellets and veg be fed in the morning and never after noon or evening. She said the evening is when they naturally eat their hay and soft poos and feeding them in the evening will impact on this.

So we now feed the buns their pellets and veg first thing and give loads of hay morning early evening and before bed and we haven't had an issue since. Hope this helps.

thats a good point as i have also moved onto feeding fresh food and pellets in the mornings as previously they were having pellets twice a day which i now know is too much so this has been reduced to once a day and mornings only, any fresh food they have is given in the mornings and every other day they are having green oat and dandelion mix from wilkinsons mixed with dried herbal wild forage from PAH,which i mix together and put in a dish for them to nibble during the day (which gives them a change from fresh food as i dont want them to get bored) as well as their hay, i think you may be right in what you are saying about this kind of feeding routine as both bunnies poos are a much better colour for doing it this way.

 

[Lucy1666]

take spring green out

 

[bunkin]

Very informative thread as my bunny keeps getting episodes of stopping eating and his gut slows down but he has not YET gone into full stasis.
Vet thinks it could be his caecum( spell?) slowing down and has advised me to keep a dairy of all his food and cut out spring greens and broccoli and feed more herbs and fresh forage.
I also have always split his pellets and fresh food into morning and evening but will now try only feeding this in the morning and just dried forage and hay at bedtime.

 

[Lady Logamorph]

This thread is also informative for me...my Bluebell goes into statis far to often so now I have halved the pellets and give her only a small amount of veg. I also collect more forage and have taken all my plants up and now grow, grass, plantain, dandilions, clover and I have planted two small cherry trees. I am also growing herbs indoors as well. When you think about it rabbits in the wild just eat forage so i think thats the diet which is best for them. Its just a bit of a pain having to collect it and my rabbits nom it all so quickly!

 

[Shinysun]

frequent stopping eating but not letting it get to full stasis so far.

I've had my buns over a year now, been feeding in the same way since day one: hay, veg, small amount pellets morning; more hay, veg, small amount of pellets evening. Just this last month, Holly has stopped eating twice, first time end of July she would only eat hand picked hand fed grass and totally lethargic, then last weekend, nothing at all could get in that mouth and very lethargic again. Both times coincided with 7 or so days after me starting a new bag of hay, and me noticing that her poops were fewer and smaller (but she always varied since day one). Motility drug, metacam for pain, fibreplex and 5 hours = back to normal happy bunny.

Thing is, the first time I immediately went and bought a new bag of hay after getting back from vets and the pair of them were knocking it back, poop everywhere everyday. That ran out in 3 weeks, I got the next bag and wham, 7 days later despite me noticing poop issues, buying hay cookies (they love), feeding extra grass trying to stave it off, she stopped eating again, off to vets again. I got another new bag of hay, and she's not eating much of that either! I went and got excel forage, and am giving hay cookies, but frankly I'm not happy with output or the amount of leftover hay. I don't really want to have to keep getting new bags, my shed is filling up with 3/4 full bags of hay!

Really wondering what to do, they have had the same brand and type of hay since I got them, the two panic-bought bags I got from different shops to try make sure I wasn't buying more of the same batch of apparently unpalatable hay, (well, unpalatable to 'The Picky One')

I'm wondering about farm hay, is it any good for rabbits or is it not fibrous enough/ designed for rabbits (in a growing, sifting, harvesting kind of way)

 

[katie88]

I've had my buns over a year now, been feeding in the same way since day one: hay, veg, small amount pellets morning; more hay, veg, small amount of pellets evening. Just this last month, Holly has stopped eating twice, first time end of July she would only eat hand picked hand fed grass and totally lethargic, then last weekend, nothing at all could get in that mouth and very lethargic again. Both times coincided with 7 or so days after me starting a new bag of hay, and me noticing that her poops were fewer and smaller (but she always varied since day one). Motility drug, metacam for pain, fibreplex and 5 hours = back to normal happy bunny.

Thing is, the first time I immediately went and bought a new bag of hay after getting back from vets and the pair of them were knocking it back, poop everywhere everyday. That ran out in 3 weeks, I got the next bag and wham, 7 days later despite me noticing poop issues, buying hay cookies (they love), feeding extra grass trying to stave it off, she stopped eating again, off to vets again. I got another new bag of hay, and she's not eating much of that either! I went and got excel forage, and am giving hay cookies, but frankly I'm not happy with output or the amount of leftover hay. I don't really want to have to keep getting new bags, my shed is filling up with 3/4 full bags of hay!

Really wondering what to do, they have had the same brand and type of hay since I got them, the two panic-bought bags I got from different shops to try make sure I wasn't buying more of the same batch of apparently unpalatable hay, (well, unpalatable to 'The Picky One')

I'm wondering about farm hay, is it any good for rabbits or is it not fibrous enough/ designed for rabbits (in a growing, sifting, harvesting kind of way)

Sorry just to clarify - do you think it's starting the new bag that's causing the problem, or do you mean it's a problem when the hay isn't new? If the latter, I guess it's possible the hay is going stale so the bun goes off it? The hay experts do cotton 'hay bags' that supposedly keeps hay fresh. Works well for me but I guess any tie-up cotton bag would do.

Farm hay is generally better than shop bought hay - greener, fresher, smells nicer, longer strands are good for teeth etc. Just as long as the farm doesn't use any pesticides.

Also what veg are you giving? Some veg can cause gas in some bunnies. I've removed all veg and replaced with forage since misfit had stasis, and so far so good. I've also bought a mixture of fancy hays from the hay experts which has really got her eating more hay.

 

[lauraj27]

Harley went into stasis about four times in a 12 month period; within half hour -forty five minutes of being given metacam he would start eating and going to the bathroom again. Now it turned out that he did have spurs on his teeth and so he went in for a dental, whilst under GA we had an xray done and blood taken to see whether there were any other underlying issues. Luckily these were clear. We also moved him into a much much much larger hutch and run, complete with ramps and shelves to jump up onto. We have also bonded him with one of our females and between them they get an endless amount of hay (meadow hay from thehayexperts) and 75g of Burgess Excel pellets once a day between them (collectively they weigh about 3.5kg) and I've always worked on the basis of 25g per kilo of body weight.

I always have infacol on hand in case of stasis and my vet lets me have a big bottle of metacam and a small bottle of gut motility agent at home in case of stasis.

I hope that helps

 

[Shinysun]

Sorry just to clarify - do you think it's starting the new bag that's causing the problem, or do you mean it's a problem when the hay isn't new? If the latter, I guess it's possible the hay is going stale so the bun goes off it? The hay experts do cotton 'hay bags' that supposedly keeps hay fresh. Works well for me but I guess any tie-up cotton bag would do.

Farm hay is generally better than shop bought hay - greener, fresher, smells nicer, longer strands are good for teeth etc. Just as long as the farm doesn't use any pesticides.

Also what veg are you giving? Some veg can cause gas in some bunnies. I've removed all veg and replaced with forage since misfit had stasis, and so far so good. I've also bought a mixture of fancy hays from the hay experts which has really got her eating more hay.

I think starting the new bag, for over a year they've never gone off a bag assuming it meets initial approval It seems to keep very well and a bag lasts 2-3 weeks. It's Nature's Own Devon Meadow Hay and until the last few weeks I've not had a problem with it. I've been feeding the same veg with a bit of variation every day since getting them, so I didn't think it was likely a problem with gas as she's always tolerated veg well and intake hasn't changed, but brocolli, cabbage, tiny bit of carrot, cauli and celery in the standard recommended quantities for my two buns. And daily grass access.