Rabbit in GI stasis will only eat dandelions and paper

[Like ice cream]

My rabbit Bobby has been suffering from varying levels of GI stasis for over a week now. He's been in and out of the vets and every time he's there he seems to be on the mend, but slows down again after getting home.

Yesterday I realised he was eating some of the paper pellets we put in his litter tray, so I took them all out. Then he was trying to eat dead leaves that sometimes blow into his run. He's also nibbling some balls made of twigs we got him to chew and play with. The only other thing he'll eat is dandelion leaves.

He's clearly hungry now because he's eating dandelion leaves more aggressively than is normal for him. I have other rabbits that eat as fast as they can, but he normally takes his time. He's also often searching around for something to eat, but he won't touch any of his other food. I've tried four kinds of hay, Excel nuggets, basil, mint, romaine lettuce, kale and cabbage. I tried mixing dandelion leaves with nuggets and hay in a bowl and that seemed to completely put him off eating the leaves.

We've been feeding him Critical Care but he absolutely hates it so he's not getting as much as he probably should.

He's also on cisapride and metacam twice a day.

He doesn't seem to have any problems with his mouth. A vet has checked his teeth (as far as they can while he's conscious) and if that were the issue I'm not sure why he would eat dandelions but not something like basil which is very soft while also nibbling on twigs etc.

My questions are:

1. Has anyone seen this before? I know rabbits will lose appetite during GI stasis but refusing to eat anything except dandelions and really wanting to eat paper, twigs, dead leaves, etc.?
2. For anyone who has had this before, did you find anything else your rabbit would eat?
3. I'm not sure whether to keep feeding him as many dandelions as he can eat or not. I'm worried if he only eats greens he won't get enough fibre, and I'm also worried I'll discourage him from getting back to eating hay. On the other hand I don't want him to go hungry of course. And I'm worried I won't be able to keep finding dandelions.

 

[AnjaSanja]

It might still be teeth problem only further back-and sedation is the only way to check that. He eats soft food-so I will go with some oral cavity discomfort. Once sedated-do also skull xray.

Try giving Critical care with 1ml or 5ml syrenge.

 

[Shimmer]

Dandelions are Ok and quite good to get them to eat. Not ideal as the only thing, as they are diuretic, but you may have to go along with it for now. Better than not eating.
Leaves may well be OK - buddlia, lilac, plantain, fruit trees, many other trees (check first) are all OK. Mine prefer fallen autumn lilac to freshly picked.
Have you tried bramble leaves? Easy to find and high in fibre, which he seems to be craving to get his guts going again.
Fresh grass is good if he won't touch hay at the moment.
Paper isn't good. There are a few plants to avoid - anything evergreen, ivy, onion family, anything from a bulb.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Has the Vet run any diagnostics ? Full blood profile, abdominal X-ray ?

What is the poo output like ?

Is he drinking his normal amount ?

Is he losing weight ?

 

[Like ice cream]

Small update - he's eating carrot leaves happily too.

Dandelions are Ok and quite good to get them to eat. Not ideal as the only thing, as they are diuretic, but you may have to go along with it for now. Better than not eating.
Leaves may well be OK - buddlia, lilac, plantain, fruit trees, many other trees (check first) are all OK. Mine prefer fallen autumn lilac to freshly picked.
Have you tried bramble leaves? Easy to find and high in fibre, which he seems to be craving to get his guts going again.
Fresh grass is good if he won't touch hay at the moment.
Paper isn't good. There are a few plants to avoid - anything evergreen, ivy, onion family, anything from a bulb.

I'll try to find some bramble leaves when I go out foraging for dandelions again. He hasn't touched fresh grass but I'll keep trying. I might be able to "borrow" some apple leaves from a neighbour.

Has the Vet run any diagnostics ? Full blood profile, abdominal X-ray ?

What is the poo output like ?

Is he drinking his normal amount ?

Is he losing weight ?

It might still be teeth problem only further back-and sedation is the only way to check that. He eats soft food-so I will go with some oral cavity discomfort. Once sedated-do also skull xray.

Try giving Critical care with 1ml or 5ml syrenge.

We have taken him to a specialist twice, and the first time he wouldn't do any scans as he said he looked too perky. The second time he said it was 50-50 but decided not to in the end as he seemed to be improving. The thing is I don't want to miss anything important, but I'm very reluctant to have him sedated if it's not necessary, especially as whether or not to give him painkillers was also in question as his heart rate was quite low.

They did some blood tests. I think some results were immediate and others took time, but so far we haven't heard they've shown any issues.

Poos have been up and down. The vet said he did a lot while he was there but I haven't seen many.

I can't tell how much he's drinking, and in fact I rarely do see him drink. I've been trying to make the dandelion leaves as wet as possible in case he's not drinking, and the Critical Care of course has water in it.

The vet said he had lost 200g in the last few days. That may partly be poos but I really don't know.

As far as teeth go, he won't eat leaves softer than dandelion (e.g. basil) and he will try to eat harder things like twigs. The paper pellets he ate before I removed them took a lot of chewing, so I think that covers everything and suggests no teeth problems (he seems happy to use his incisors and molars if it's the right "food") but correct me if I'm wrong. Again I'm reluctant to have him sedated for scans if it's not necessary.

I'm feeding the Critical Care from a 1ml syringe with the end cut off, as it just won't go through normal syringe ends, and that's the only one I could find that I could afford to cut the end off of.

 

[InspectorMorse]

I have known Rabbits with early stage heart disease present with the symptoms you describe.I am assuming that a Specialist Vet would have considered this possibility ?

 

[Like ice cream]

I have known Rabbits with early stage heart disease present with the symptoms you describe.I am assuming that a Specialist Vet would have considered this possibility ?

I'm not sure if they considered this but I will ask when I get a chance. I'm looking at the symptoms now and most of them seem similar to GI stasis, and we're not seeing the ones that aren't, so hopefully that's not the issue. If you have experience in this is there anything in particular we should be looking out for?

Bloody hell sick rabbits are a lot of stress!

 

[InspectorMorse]

I'm not sure if they considered this but I will ask when I get a chance. I'm looking at the symptoms now and most of them seem similar to GI stasis, and we're not seeing the ones that aren't, so hopefully that's not the issue. If you have experience in this is there anything in particular we should be looking out for?

Bloody hell sick rabbits are a lot of stress!

I am not saying that gut stasis is not an issue. Gut stasis is often a secondary symptom to another problem rather than an illness in its own right. But it would obviously still need treatment. Treating it, the gut stasis, without identifying and treating a primary cause will mean the gut stasis keeps recurring.

My Rabbits had blood tests and Xrays and it was from the X-rays that an enlarged heart was noticed. Further tests resulted in the diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy. Your Rabbit might not have this problem at all, but as I said, the symptoms you describe are the same as I saw in my Rabbits when they first became unwell.

 

[Like ice cream]

Update: He's eaten some carrot tops and a few apple leaves. I put some small apple branches in whole in case he wants to chew the wood. He's looking quite subdued at the moment and hasn't eaten much in the past few hours, but perhaps that's the time of day. He's just sitting on his shelf in the window of his shed.

What I find confusing is every time he goes to the vets for a few days they say he has improved a lot, then when he comes back he goes into a slump again. That seems to suggest there's an environmental element, but I can't think what - he has a shed and a run on grass which he has access to constantly, and it's quiet here. He has always seemed really happy and relaxed. We have other rabbits and they've been moved around recently, but I don't think that would cause much stress in him because he came from a rescue centre so he's used to other animals around, and it would have been much nosier, with cats and dogs, etc. around at the vets where he was apparently improving. All the picking up and syringe-feeding Critical Care and meds is certainly not making him happy, but he would have had the same from the vets too.

I am not saying that gut stasis is not an issue. Gut stasis is often a secondary symptom to another problem rather than an illness in its own right. But it would obviously still need treatment. Treating it, the gut stasis, without identifying and treating a primary cause will mean the gut stasis keeps recurring.

My Rabbits had blood tests and Xrays and it was from the X-rays that an enlarged heart was noticed. Further tests resulted in the diagnosis of dilated cardiomyopathy. Your Rabbit might not have this problem at all, but as I said, the symptoms you describe are the same as I saw in my Rabbits when they first became unwell.

OK, I'll look into further testing then, thank you.

 

[InspectorMorse]

Does he have a bonded partner ? He could be depressed if he lives alone. Rabbits need a companion of their own kind.

At the Vets he could be running on adrenaline so how he behaves might be a poor indicator of how he feels.

 

[Like ice cream]

Does he have a bonded partner ? He could be depressed if he lives alone. Rabbits need a companion of their own kind.

At the Vets he could be running on adrenaline so how he behaves might be a poor indicator of how he feels.

No, he doesn't have a partner. He came from a rescue centre who have normally been good with pairing up rabbits, but they were unable to successfully do so with him. That's kind of the reason we took him on - although he couldn't live with another rabbit, he did seem to enjoy seeing them near, so we took him because we have other rabbits he can be near. We have considered this could be part of the issue, though. This started shortly after we moved him to another part of the garden. He was next to one pair (Bonnie and Fred) but now he's near another. When we saw he didn't seem to be as happy as normal we moved the pair he was originally next to closer so he could still see them. We also considered the new pair could be making him unhappy but this seems unlikely as he was near a lot of rabbits before he came to us, and they had to take turns in the runs. We had to put a tarp up between him and the new pair anyway, as he seemed to be causing issues with the male of that pair, so right now the only pair he can see is Bonnie and Fred.

Small update: He has eaten dandelion leaves, some cut grass, and some apple leaves. He still wants to eat things that are not food - wood and worryingly, rubber mat that we used to make his shelf less slippery (we've now taken the mat out). He still doesn't want to eat hay, although he did have a couple of stalks just now. He's going back to the specialist vet on Friday for more tests.

Edit: Tonight, and a couple of times before, I've seen him sniffing around quite urgently, seemingly looking for something specific to eat. He passes over hay, herbs, grass, etc. because that's not what he wants. He seems to have some strong cravings for something but, as I said, it mostly seems to be things that aren't food. Tonight I almost wondered if he was looking for bugs or something, as I know a lot of herbivores will eat meat if they're craving something like protein.

 

[bunzo]

How is your rabbit now?