Having to rehome our babies

[jenna14]

We started our bun family with two Netherland dwarfs (male, Lunar and female, Solar). Unfortunately we lost Solar last year due to dental problems but we found Nova (female) at a rescue and she bonded perfectly with Lunar and we were over the moon that we had two happy little buns.

Unfortunately, since we’ve rehomed Nova in November 2020, she’s gone into gut stasis three times with each vets visit costing us nearly a grand. It’s gotten to the point now where the vets bills are becoming too much, the stress of how quickly she deteriorated is becoming too much and I feel anxious the whole time. We’ve spoken to the rescue and they’ve said that they will have her back and also Lunar too as they are a bonded pair.

I’ve spent the last week crying myself to sleep. They are my babies and the thought of them not being at home is bringing me to tears just thinking about it. They’re both beautiful buns and I know that they’ll find another lovely family but I just feel guilty that I can’t cope with them. I work 13 hour shifts and my partner is going away for work in the next couple of months and it stresses me out that I might miss her deteriorating and not catch it in time.

Am I doing the right thing? I feel like I’m giving up, I don’t want to lose them but I feel like she needs someone who is around a bit more and able to care for her complex little tummy. I just hate the thought of them being at the rescue by themselves, without their normal routine or their treats or a fuss from us.

We want them to go as a pair as they’ve bonded so well and they need each other more than they need us.

 

[KCG]

No one can tell you whether this decision is right or wrong. But I can only advise you. People don't just have financial needs. People also have emotional and spiritual needs. If you feel hesitant about this decision, it shows that something is not right. So don't be in a hurry to decide.

 

[Zoobec]

I’m sorry you have found yourself in this position, if it helps I can relate to a lot of what you are going through. I lost one of my bunnies recently and his partner was single for a little while, she was ‘ok’ on her own but it occurred to me that it might be a bit selfish of me to keep her like that when she could have a fantastic home with a friend. I had less time to spend with her with one of my elderly dogs needing so much nursing, and since we then lost her, Alfie our German shepherd needed a lot more attention. He’s 12 himself, so he’s very old too, and is also needing nursing. So that was why I couldn’t take on another bunny as a friend. Coupled with the fact I’ve had to work more hours. I ended up trying to juggle everything and struggled. so I took the decision to rehome her with another RU member. She is very happy with a new husbun now and although I’m very sad I no longer have her, I also know that it was the best for her, so that helps a lot. Sometimes when we have pets what is best for them is not best for us, but if the rescue will take them back then hopefully they will find a new home soon.

Alternatively if you are considering keeping them, I used a webcam to keep an eye on my bunnies in case they went into stasis or anything else. You may be able to find the cause of the stasis and eliminate it too. Is your vet rabbit savvy? Sometimes stasis can be caused by issues with teeth, moulting, gut slowdown caused by eating cardboard for example, or something in their diet that they cannot cope with.

Whatever you decide, I’m sure you will do what’s best for them.

 

[jenna14]

Thank you so much for your reply. I think what we’re doing is best for them although is breaks my heart.

We thought about just taking her back to the rescue and keeping Lunar (he’s my absolute baby and losing him is killing me) but in our eyes, they need each other more than us.

this time we paid for additional blood test analysis and nothing has been found, there’s nothing wrong with her teeth and we’re very proud of the diet that we are able to offer them. The next step is CT’s which are just beyond our budget. We’ve got a webcam at home but we’re not able to just up and leave work if something is wrong

I just hope that someone is able to love them as much as we do and able to cope with her gut issues. If it wasn’t for the cost of it all, we wouldn’t have even considered this.

 

[jenna14]

No one can tell you whether this decision is right or wrong. But I can only advise you. People don't just have financial needs. People also have emotional and spiritual needs. If you feel hesitant about this decision, it shows that something is not right. So don't be in a hurry to decide.

The only reason that I’ve resulted in this is the financial costs. I’d do anything to keep both of them but unfortunately we can’t afford to be spending £500+ on one rabbit every month. I wish I could almost give them to the rescue for a couple months to see if she has another case (it tends to happen like clockwork every two months) and see if it’s something we’re doing wrong but I know I can’t do that.

 

[Omi]

I completely understand your position and the decision you are facing. I can appreciate that it must be heartbreaking. Not everyone is in the position of having a never-ending pot of money to pay vet bills and also there's the risk that you could miss her starting to have another spell of not eating while you have to work.

I just wanted to say that in my view, whilst some bunnies are more prone to stasis episodes, there is generally a background cause, which is sometimes easily fixable. I fully take your point that you are providing the best diet for them, however, sometimes it is just something quite small in the diet, which can cause these sorts of problems for individual bunnies. If you would like to consider this, then post some information about what you are feeding and we can offer some suggestions. It may be that this has nothing whatsoever to do with her diet, but I just thought that if the cause is something fairly easily fixable you could maybe keep them.

 

[KCG]

The only reason that I’ve resulted in this is the financial costs. I’d do anything to keep both of them but unfortunately we can’t afford to be spending £500+ on one rabbit every month. I wish I could almost give them to the rescue for a couple months to see if she has another case (it tends to happen like clockwork every two months) and see if it’s something we’re doing wrong but I know I can’t do that.

This is a very difficult decision. You are also right about the financial situation. I hope you make the right decision. I wish both the rabbits and you will be happy.

 

[Babsie]

I completely understand your position and the decision you are facing. I can appreciate that it must be heartbreaking. Not everyone is in the position of having a never-ending pot of money to pay vet bills and also there's the risk that you could miss her starting to have another spell of not eating while you have to work.

I just wanted to say that in my view, whilst some bunnies are more prone to stasis episodes, there is generally a background cause, which is sometimes easily fixable. I fully take your point that you are providing the best diet for them, however, sometimes it is just something quite small in the diet, which can cause these sorts of problems for individual bunnies. If you would like to consider this, then post some information about what you are feeding and we can offer some suggestions. It may be that this has nothing whatsoever to do with her diet, but I just thought that if the cause is something fairly easily fixable you could maybe keep them.

So well put Omi and I agree absolutely.

 

[keletkezes]

I also agree with Omi: the best diet isn't always the right diet for a particular rabbit :roll: Finding the right balance can be an absolute nightmare. Best of luck whatever you decide to do, it's not easy and you're doing absolutely the right thing by considering what you can and cannot do

 

[bunny momma]

With Solar being so unwell, she may have a chronic condition with her GI system that makes her prone to stasis (I had two ND littermates with such a condition): so Lunar may become a single bunny even if you kept them both together as a bonded pair.
This sounds like an awful thing to say, yet under your circumstances, I may be tempted to keep Lunar and return Solar to the rescue to see if she could be placed in a foster setting to see if her tummy issues can be stabilized or for her to be adopted to a family with the means/time to provide appropriate support.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[jenna14]

I completely understand your position and the decision you are facing. I can appreciate that it must be heartbreaking. Not everyone is in the position of having a never-ending pot of money to pay vet bills and also there's the risk that you could miss her starting to have another spell of not eating while you have to work.

I just wanted to say that in my view, whilst some bunnies are more prone to stasis episodes, there is generally a background cause, which is sometimes easily fixable. I fully take your point that you are providing the best diet for them, however, sometimes it is just something quite small in the diet, which can cause these sorts of problems for individual bunnies. If you would like to consider this, then post some information about what you are feeding and we can offer some suggestions. It may be that this has nothing whatsoever to do with her diet, but I just thought that if the cause is something fairly easily fixable you could maybe keep them.

Thank you for your reply. They’ve always got access to fresh hay (we order from HayBox) and have two big boxes in the room as well as large amounts in their litter boxes which they love. We give them a portion of greens a day but split this up over breakfast and dinner. Greens include things like dill, thyme, basil, mint, oregano, spring greens, kale (tend to do one week off, one week on), lemon grass, coriander, different types of parsley etc. They also have forage type hay, a small scoop in the morning to help encourage foraging and that’s got a good source of fibre. Then in the evenings, they get a small scoop of pellets and we again, put this into one of their hay boxes to encourage foraging. Before this episode we were giving pellets in the morning and evening but to try to encourage hay, we’ve cut down. Both of them are very good at eating hay. Occasionally we’ll give them treats (2-3times a week) of either fresh fruit like a small raspberry, slice of strawberry or banana or they love dried carrot.

We’re very cautious about introducing new things because one of her cases followed introducing spinach (Lunar loves the stuff but apparently she didn’t do too well with it). Any advice is definitely appreciated!

 

[jenna14]

With Solar being so unwell, she may have a chronic condition with her GI system that makes her prone to stasis (I had two ND littermates with such a condition): so Lunar may become a single bunny even if you kept them both together as a bonded pair.
This sounds like an awful thing to say, yet under your circumstances, I may be tempted to keep Lunar and return Solar to the rescue to see if she could be placed in a foster setting to see if her tummy issues can be stabilized or for her to be adopted to a family with the means/time to provide appropriate support.

Good luck with your decision.

Thank you for your reply. So the rescue that we rehomed her from is also a sanctuary and they keep rabbits there that are unable to be rehomed for example, if they have ongoing health problems, are unable to bonded etc and give them a great life. We’ve made the agreement with the rescue that if Nova were to become a sanctuary bun because of her gut issues, that we’d bringing Lunar home - we don’t want him going anywhere else as a single bunny.

 

[bunny momma]

Thank you for your reply. So the rescue that we rehomed her from is also a sanctuary and they keep rabbits there that are unable to be rehomed for example, if they have ongoing health problems, are unable to bonded etc and give them a great life. We’ve made the agreement with the rescue that if Nova were to become a sanctuary bun because of her gut issues, that we’d bringing Lunar home - we don’t want him going anywhere else as a single bunny.

That sounds like a wonderful rescue, and the agreement means Lunar will either be with the bunny he loves or the person he loves.

 

[Graciee]

Thank you for your reply. They’ve always got access to fresh hay (we order from HayBox) and have two big boxes in the room as well as large amounts in their litter boxes which they love. We give them a portion of greens a day but split this up over breakfast and dinner. Greens include things like dill, thyme, basil, mint, oregano, spring greens, kale (tend to do one week off, one week on), lemon grass, coriander, different types of parsley etc. They also have forage type hay, a small scoop in the morning to help encourage foraging and that’s got a good source of fibre. Then in the evenings, they get a small scoop of pellets and we again, put this into one of their hay boxes to encourage foraging. Before this episode we were giving pellets in the morning and evening but to try to encourage hay, we’ve cut down. Both of them are very good at eating hay. Occasionally we’ll give them treats (2-3times a week) of either fresh fruit like a small raspberry, slice of strawberry or banana or they love dried carrot.

We’re very cautious about introducing new things because one of her cases followed introducing spinach (Lunar loves the stuff but apparently she didn’t do too well with it). Any advice is definitely appreciated!

Wow that's a lot! Have you tried simplifying their diet a bit? I have 4 buns, all of them have something or a couple of things that don't agree with them. 2 of mine can't tolerate any greens at all.

 

[Scrappy's Little Helper]

Thank you for your reply. They’ve always got access to fresh hay (we order from HayBox) and have two big boxes in the room as well as large amounts in their litter boxes which they love. We give them a portion of greens a day but split this up over breakfast and dinner. Greens include things like dill, thyme, basil, mint, oregano, spring greens, kale (tend to do one week off, one week on), lemon grass, coriander, different types of parsley etc. They also have forage type hay, a small scoop in the morning to help encourage foraging and that’s got a good source of fibre. Then in the evenings, they get a small scoop of pellets and we again, put this into one of their hay boxes to encourage foraging. Before this episode we were giving pellets in the morning and evening but to try to encourage hay, we’ve cut down. Both of them are very good at eating hay. Occasionally we’ll give them treats (2-3times a week) of either fresh fruit like a small raspberry, slice of strawberry or banana or they love dried carrot.

We’re very cautious about introducing new things because one of her cases followed introducing spinach (Lunar loves the stuff but apparently she didn’t do too well with it). Any advice is definitely appreciated!

I wonder if the spring greens and kale could be the issue? Unfortunately some bunnies can be quite sensitive to the brassicas, which can cause them to have gas and then subsequently stasis. I'd probably try and remove those from their diet and see if that makes a difference.

Herbs are supposed to be gentle on rabbits' tummies, so I would keep them in.

Not sure how confident you feel about identifying wild plants, but they might be worth introducing into the diet. If you can get them, bramble leaves are supposed to be excellent for a rabbit's digestive tract. Dandelions are also very popular with bunnies.

I understand how stressful it is when bunnies have repeated digestive issues. One of mine was having very frequent bouts of stasis despite having a good diet. I finally pinpointed the cause, which was their daily fenugreek crunchy treat. Since I stopped giving them the stasis episodes appear to have stopped *touches wood*. So, it can just be one thing that is causing all the problems.

 

[Mervinius]

I am sorry you are having problems with your bunny. I have 2 NDs and one in particular had bad gas issues to start with. We ended up removing all fresh greens from her diet. She couldn't cope with it. They went on a hay and pellet only diet and then we slowly introduced dried forage.

It might be worth a try before you give them back to the sanctuary. Also we found she couldnt digest excel pellets, she's been so much better on a different brand.

We also give a small amount 3 times a day, so she doesn't eat too many in one sitting and get too full a tummy. We think the pellets were swelling in her teeny tummy!

They can't cope with anything too rich unfortunately.

 

[jenna14]

@scrappys little helper

Ohh that’s interesting to know! I know that kale can sometimes be an issue which is why we limit how much we give but I didn’t realise spring greens had the same thing. Maybe we just go back to basics and just stick with the herbs and see if that had any important. It’s just bizarre how it’s pretty much exactly two months and nothing changes that week if that makes sense? Thank you!

 

[jenna14]

I am sorry you are having problems with your bunny. I have 2 NDs and one in particular had bad gas issues to start with. We ended up removing all fresh greens from her diet. She couldn't cope with it. They went on a hay and pellet only diet and then we slowly introduced dried forage.

It might be worth a try before you give them back to the sanctuary. Also we found she couldnt digest excel pellets, she's been so much better on a different brand.

We also give a small amount 3 times a day, so she doesn't eat too many in one sitting and get too full a tummy. We think the pellets were swelling in her teeny tummy!

They can't cope with anything too rich unfortunately.

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it.

What pellets would you recommend/are using? We are currently with excel junior pellets and that’s what we’ve always used but I’d be willing to try and introduce some new ones and swap them over.

Did you decide to do a hay/pellet only diet on your own accord? We’ve just emailed our vets to see if they recommend anything and are also meeting with the rescue centre on Thursday to see if there’s anything else they’d recommend.

 

[Omi]

Thank you for your reply. They’ve always got access to fresh hay (we order from HayBox) and have two big boxes in the room as well as large amounts in their litter boxes which they love. We give them a portion of greens a day but split this up over breakfast and dinner. Greens include things like dill, thyme, basil, mint, oregano, spring greens, kale (tend to do one week off, one week on), lemon grass, coriander, different types of parsley etc. They also have forage type hay, a small scoop in the morning to help encourage foraging and that’s got a good source of fibre. Then in the evenings, they get a small scoop of pellets and we again, put this into one of their hay boxes to encourage foraging. Before this episode we were giving pellets in the morning and evening but to try to encourage hay, we’ve cut down. Both of them are very good at eating hay. Occasionally we’ll give them treats (2-3times a week) of either fresh fruit like a small raspberry, slice of strawberry or banana or they love dried carrot.

We’re very cautious about introducing new things because one of her cases followed introducing spinach (Lunar loves the stuff but apparently she didn’t do too well with it). Any advice is definitely appreciated!

I agree with you that their diet is good and certainly varied. However, some rabbits' digestion just seems too sensitive to certain foods. I would say that out of the foods you've listed the ones most commonly causing problems would be all of the treats (fruit and carrot) and also the spring greens and the kale. Possibly also the pellets, depending on which ones you feed. Unfortunately it could also be any one of the other foods, but in my view far less likely.

Which pellets do you feed and what do you mean by forage hay?

I imagine that you would want to determine fairly quickly whether or not you could manage her digestion, so that you could make a final decision regarding rehoming. I think therefore that I would try feeding just hay for a few weeks and see if she can go without a stasis episode. If she can, then brilliant, you could very slowly try to reintroduce foods, one at a time. I would include in the reintroduced foods either herbs or natural forage (like Dandelion, Plantain or Bramble leaves). I think this could work.

 

[Mervinius]

Thank you for your reply, I really appreciate it.

What pellets would you recommend/are using? We are currently with excel junior pellets and that’s what we’ve always used but I’d be willing to try and introduce some new ones and swap them over.

Did you decide to do a hay/pellet only diet on your own accord? We’ve just emailed our vets to see if they recommend anything and are also meeting with the rescue centre on Thursday to see if there’s anything else they’d recommend.

Those are the ones we were using and she had constant stasis! I did move to beaphar nature rabbit, but sadly they've been discontinued, which is a shame cos these were fab. We have now moved on to rosewoods meadow menu. Which they seem to be ok with. I think others on here recommend oxbow?

We also reduced their pellet allowance to 15g each a day. This made them eat way more hay!

Yes I tried it of our own accord because we were desperate to stop the stasis due to cost and our stress. Vets said there was nothing wrong with her. She had every test under the sun.

You could always try it and slowly phase greens slowly back in 1 at a time and see how she goes.