MightyMax
Banned
Fresh herbs are good to feed ... coriander, dill and parsley. Crush the leaves to realise the aroma, and leave any vegetables wet from the washing water
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Recurring GI Stasis
- Thread starter Rescuebuns
- Start date
Fresh herbs are good to feed ... coriander, dill and parsley. Crush the leaves to realise the aroma, and leave any vegetables wet from the washing water
Wendy-Jane
Alpha Buck
Have you thought about cutting out any of their veggies, one at a time? Kale and broccoli are notorious for giving bunnies gas/wind, which can be painful. Sometimes they end up in stasis just because they stop eating when something hurts.
Rescuebuns
New Kit
Yes, have wondered about this and try to vary their veggies,have used cabbage, pak Choy, Spring greens, carrot tops, cauliflower leaves. Always seem to find conflicting advice about broccoli and kale - the vet recommended I blend kale to mix with critical care and syringe feed on Saturday..... Very confused! Maybe if in doubt I should avoid them both!
Hi there,
Ive signed up to this forum just so i could post this.
My rabbit had problems with GI stasis every few weeks/months for almost 2 years and I tried EVERYTHING mentioned above over those 2 years (lots of exercise to get things moving, regular good diet with just the one type of hay (yes, even different types of hay can affect rabbits differently apparently - research is important with hay - TIMOTHY hay is the best by far. We had her on burgees nuggets which are ideal - dont ever buy the other colourful types as our VET said tehy are like giving your rbabit mcdonalds everyday! - that surpised us!) We tried increasing water access (we had it all over the house and our rabbit was drinking plenty) we brushed her daily to make sure it wasnt a moulting issue and that helped a good bit but it didn't solve our issues with GI stasis, We even tried different litter types and found that the all natural wood chips were best but anything that is not dusty/non clumping is good. Clumping litter is terrible for rabbits! We controlled her diet really well (we went back to basics and slowly introduced veggies/fruit to see if something would jump out at us and we just couldn't figure it out!
Just nothing worked - it was so frustrating! It got to the stage where we just had Metacam and critcial care in our press all the time because we just knew our rabbit would be needing it - it was awful. (Also, just as a side note when rabbit has GI stasis we found massaging rabbits tummy to get things moving really helpful as well. Rabbit can find it uncomfortable but it really does help get things moving and when giving critcial care giving the odd syringe of just plain water is very good to get things moving as well along with the usual critical care and pain relief of course).
So our rabbit was pretty sick regularly, BUT THEN, and this was HUGE for our rabbit we figured out what it was and it was something that was never mentioned to us at all by Vets or on any forums we'd been on but apparently how fast the rabbit eats can actually be a huge difference and we had no idea! Our rabbit was always a great eater in between GI stasis issues and turns out once we separated out her meals throughout the day to much smaller meal amounts (veggies and nuggets) and just gave her them to her more frequently so she was still getting the right amount of food, it actually fixed her issue within days! Now this is along with a healthy diet with lots of timothy hay, lots of exercise and regular grooming every 2-3 days and lots of water access. But she actually got completely better!
We were baffled but this acually fixed the GI stasis so if you've tried everything else like we did then maybe give this a go!!
Ive signed up to this forum just so i could post this.
My rabbit had problems with GI stasis every few weeks/months for almost 2 years and I tried EVERYTHING mentioned above over those 2 years (lots of exercise to get things moving, regular good diet with just the one type of hay (yes, even different types of hay can affect rabbits differently apparently - research is important with hay - TIMOTHY hay is the best by far. We had her on burgees nuggets which are ideal - dont ever buy the other colourful types as our VET said tehy are like giving your rbabit mcdonalds everyday! - that surpised us!) We tried increasing water access (we had it all over the house and our rabbit was drinking plenty) we brushed her daily to make sure it wasnt a moulting issue and that helped a good bit but it didn't solve our issues with GI stasis, We even tried different litter types and found that the all natural wood chips were best but anything that is not dusty/non clumping is good. Clumping litter is terrible for rabbits! We controlled her diet really well (we went back to basics and slowly introduced veggies/fruit to see if something would jump out at us and we just couldn't figure it out!
Just nothing worked - it was so frustrating! It got to the stage where we just had Metacam and critcial care in our press all the time because we just knew our rabbit would be needing it - it was awful. (Also, just as a side note when rabbit has GI stasis we found massaging rabbits tummy to get things moving really helpful as well. Rabbit can find it uncomfortable but it really does help get things moving and when giving critcial care giving the odd syringe of just plain water is very good to get things moving as well along with the usual critical care and pain relief of course).
So our rabbit was pretty sick regularly, BUT THEN, and this was HUGE for our rabbit we figured out what it was and it was something that was never mentioned to us at all by Vets or on any forums we'd been on but apparently how fast the rabbit eats can actually be a huge difference and we had no idea! Our rabbit was always a great eater in between GI stasis issues and turns out once we separated out her meals throughout the day to much smaller meal amounts (veggies and nuggets) and just gave her them to her more frequently so she was still getting the right amount of food, it actually fixed her issue within days! Now this is along with a healthy diet with lots of timothy hay, lots of exercise and regular grooming every 2-3 days and lots of water access. But she actually got completely better!
We were baffled but this acually fixed the GI stasis so if you've tried everything else like we did then maybe give this a go!!
Last edited:
Craig 1965
Warren Veteran
Hi and welcome to the forum. I’m sorry I’m late to this, but I too have a stasis bun - several episodes. She is presently having a probable stasis episode so I know how you feel and how stressful it is.
From my seat, having learned about it, the key is to identify it early - which it sounds like you have. Bunny behaviour is key. Any deviance from the normal behaviour is a sign something is wrong and time to act without hesitation.
My bunny is a foody so I know when she is not well because she ignores food. There are good gut stimulant meds available which help get things going on the gut and antibiotics to help sweep any infection out and of course pain meds.
Sending loads of vibes for your bunny and there’s always a wealth of fantastic advice from people here to help.
Craig. X
From my seat, having learned about it, the key is to identify it early - which it sounds like you have. Bunny behaviour is key. Any deviance from the normal behaviour is a sign something is wrong and time to act without hesitation.
My bunny is a foody so I know when she is not well because she ignores food. There are good gut stimulant meds available which help get things going on the gut and antibiotics to help sweep any infection out and of course pain meds.
Sending loads of vibes for your bunny and there’s always a wealth of fantastic advice from people here to help.
Craig. X
