Hello all,
My bun Roo has not been herself for a few weeks now. We've been back and forth to the vet but they can't find out what's wrong (unfortunately I live on an island with only one vet practice and I think they are more used to dogs and sheep than rabbits...) so I've come on here to see if anyone else recognises the symptoms.
Roo's background: I can't say for sure how old she is as we adopted her a couple of years ago, but she could be around 6. She wasn't spayed as a baby and the vets up here didn't want to spay an older rabbit. She has had GI a few times since we've had her, only once was bad enough to go to the vet and they did managed to get it under control again. The other times I managed to get her to eat and wiggle about and we shifted it. Not sure what caused the GI. Ordinarily a playful, energetic bun. She's a free roaming house bun too.
A few weeks ago I noticed that she started to do some odd stretching of her lower back and hind legs. She started wanting sleeping more and was stretching a lot more when she woke up. Around the same time she started to walk, or do a little run, rather than hop, out to her litter from the lounge into the hallway. Then her poo started to get really small, although she was still eating normally, and doing the same amount of poo, just smaller. So I took her straight to the vet as I assumed she must be in pain. The vet gave her medicine for GI and painkillers, which didn't seem to do much. They said she was well hydrated and her teeth looked fine. So I went back again a few days later and suggested maybe it was arthritis. They said it definitely isn't arthritis (I don't know why they seemed so sure) and gave her more drugs for GI.
Since then, Roo has definitely improved, but she is still stretching weirdly, she's not cleaning her feet very well after she's been in the litter so she keeps ending up with mucky feet, and she's not eating as much as she used to. She definitely wants to rest more too. I gave her fibreflex for a few days and the poo came back up to a decent size, which is where it's stayed, but she's clearly still uncomfortable. I wouldn't say she's in awful pain, no teeth grinding or anything like that, and she's still doing the occasional flop, purring when she gets head rubs etc. She can reach round and easily eat her cecotrophs too and she still eats nearly everything I give her, but leaves a lot of pellets, preferring grass, hay and greens/herbs.
I wondered if old age had crept up fairly fast given that it's been extra cold up here, or it's arthritis causing a dull pain. More concerning, I'm wondering if it could be something more sinister, like uterine cancer, given that she is an older unspayed female. I'm resisting the vet visit again as I'm not confident that they can help and it's such a stressful situation to put her through if it's to no avail. I've started giving her rabbit joint biscuits from Oxbow and I'm wondering if that is helping ease any inflammation.
If anyone recognises these symptoms or has any thoughts, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.
My bun Roo has not been herself for a few weeks now. We've been back and forth to the vet but they can't find out what's wrong (unfortunately I live on an island with only one vet practice and I think they are more used to dogs and sheep than rabbits...) so I've come on here to see if anyone else recognises the symptoms.
Roo's background: I can't say for sure how old she is as we adopted her a couple of years ago, but she could be around 6. She wasn't spayed as a baby and the vets up here didn't want to spay an older rabbit. She has had GI a few times since we've had her, only once was bad enough to go to the vet and they did managed to get it under control again. The other times I managed to get her to eat and wiggle about and we shifted it. Not sure what caused the GI. Ordinarily a playful, energetic bun. She's a free roaming house bun too.
A few weeks ago I noticed that she started to do some odd stretching of her lower back and hind legs. She started wanting sleeping more and was stretching a lot more when she woke up. Around the same time she started to walk, or do a little run, rather than hop, out to her litter from the lounge into the hallway. Then her poo started to get really small, although she was still eating normally, and doing the same amount of poo, just smaller. So I took her straight to the vet as I assumed she must be in pain. The vet gave her medicine for GI and painkillers, which didn't seem to do much. They said she was well hydrated and her teeth looked fine. So I went back again a few days later and suggested maybe it was arthritis. They said it definitely isn't arthritis (I don't know why they seemed so sure) and gave her more drugs for GI.
Since then, Roo has definitely improved, but she is still stretching weirdly, she's not cleaning her feet very well after she's been in the litter so she keeps ending up with mucky feet, and she's not eating as much as she used to. She definitely wants to rest more too. I gave her fibreflex for a few days and the poo came back up to a decent size, which is where it's stayed, but she's clearly still uncomfortable. I wouldn't say she's in awful pain, no teeth grinding or anything like that, and she's still doing the occasional flop, purring when she gets head rubs etc. She can reach round and easily eat her cecotrophs too and she still eats nearly everything I give her, but leaves a lot of pellets, preferring grass, hay and greens/herbs.
I wondered if old age had crept up fairly fast given that it's been extra cold up here, or it's arthritis causing a dull pain. More concerning, I'm wondering if it could be something more sinister, like uterine cancer, given that she is an older unspayed female. I'm resisting the vet visit again as I'm not confident that they can help and it's such a stressful situation to put her through if it's to no avail. I've started giving her rabbit joint biscuits from Oxbow and I'm wondering if that is helping ease any inflammation.
If anyone recognises these symptoms or has any thoughts, that would be much appreciated. Thanks.