Regular gas issues for Dwarf bun

[Mervinius]

Hello,

I am new here, so this is my first post. I have two beautiful dwarf buns called Archie and Pippin who we have had for 1 year. They are both just over a year old and 1kg ish in weight.

Pippin started having gas issues last June where she would get really uncomfy and had lots of tummy gurgling and refused to eat food. The first instance was really bad and led to GI stasis. This then repeated every 2-3 weeks until late Sept meaning lots of emergency vets visits.

We decided to remove all veg from her diet to see if that would help. (It didn't)
We then decided to change their pellets gradually over a month. It's now Beaphar rabbit food and was excel dwarf.

Once she was fully on the new food we heard no more stomach gurgling noises (which used to happen daily) and the gas issues went away. Which was brilliant. She has had a couple of mild tummy gas issues since, where she just looks uncomfy and we get her running around and then she is fine. This seems to always happen a week after something stressful has occurred e.g someone new staying in the house or a vet visit.

She has had a teeth check and they are fine. She loves hay and has a unlimited supply of timothy and meadow. We have slowly weaned her back onto dried herbs, which they both have as treats, but no vegetables yet. Oh and we weigh the pellets and they get 55g per day between them.

This has been easy to manage and the new food has obviously helped over the last 3.5 months.

However last night Pip had a really loud tummy again and was grinding her teeth in a lot of pain. We rushed her to vets and they gave her pain medication and some zantac for us to give her. She finally started eating again at 9pm. She is pooping and they look normal, not full of fur or small. She isn't moulting either.

The vets said to just keep doing what we are doing (we keep a bunny diary to try and work out what triggers the episode), but there was nothing this week that we can think might have caused this bad reaction. No new food, no guests to the house etc.

I am wondering if we are missing something or if anyone can offer any advice.

The only other thing she does is pull and eat her fur under her chin every month. She has done this since April last year. The vets and I think this was something she was doing when in pain from the original tummy gurgling/gas and she has learnt this behaviour. It doesn't seem to bother her and the vets aren't worried. (oh she is spayed and she doesn't make a nest she just eats it) She only does it for two-three days each month.

Lastly we did notice that her water intake increased a lot when we changed them over to the new food. This week however she has drunk less. We noticed the water bottles had a bit of green algae growing in them Very annoyed with myself for that.

Could the green algae have given her a poorly tummy? or is her gut bacteria unbalanced due to the many gas issues from last year? would some probiotics help? or did she just get a bit de hydrated. or is she just a sensitive bun?

Any help would be great, sorry for such a long first post I wanted to give you as much info as possible.

 

[tonibun]

You could try reducing the amount of pellets you are giving. I have just weighed 55g and it is much more than my rabbits get. Reducing the pellets will hopefully encourage your rabbits to eat more hay which in turn will help to prevent this problem.

 

[Mervinius]

Hi. Thats 55g between them both. The vet said 25g each was the right amount. We do a 5g extra because they are soooo active. Like binkying machines. I could try less though.

 

[martlou]

Hello Bit of a long shot probably but do you give your bunnies fenugreek crunchies as a treat? We had a stasis prone bun, every few weeks we'd have an episode and we were at our wits end as he was very bad and being admitted overnight to the vet for 2 or 3 days at a time. To cut a long story short someone asked if we gave them any corn, we don't but fenugreek crunchies are primarily made of corn and the buns had one a day each. We cut them out immediately and he was stasis free for 9 months (until very recently, but we think that occurrence was moult related).

If it's not that causing the problem I don't have any further suggestions I'm afraid, but it sounds as if you're doing everything you can. Some things I've learned very recently from this forum (thanks JacksJane, MightyMax and Thumps) that might help if you're not already aware - fresh dill is very good for bunnies with gassy tummy's, you could slowly introduce some every day. Bramble leaves both fresh and dried (I'd cut off the sharp bits) are also very good for digestion and our buns love them (and the dill). You can also give Infacol (it's for babies with gas but you can just buy it from the supermarket) which helps to disperse it. You give 1ml every hour for 3 hours then give it 3 times a day. It doesn't interfere with any drugs so you don't need to worry about that.

Fingers crossed you can work out the problem for your little girl x

 

[Mervinius]

Hi. No we don't give them fenugreek crunchers or any corn. Their pellets is grain free. I'm glad you seem to have solved your buns problems. They always look so sad when they have gas.

I can try dill. Do you feed it everyday? Might be able to get a living pot from the supermarket. I have read bramble was good. Will add that to the shopping list. We do have some blackcurrant leaves next to try. Also meant to be good I think.

Thank you x

 

[tonibun]

Green algae could have upset her especially if she is extra sensitive. We usually advise the use of bowls as rabbits will drink more from a bowl than a bottle, keeping themselves hydrated. The Beaphar food seems very good with lots of herbs and mnerals in it. Sounds like something they should make for us humans!

 

[martlou]

Hi. No we don't give them fenugreek crunchers or any corn. Their pellets is grain free. I'm glad you seem to have solved your buns problems. They always look so sad when they have gas.

I can try dill. Do you feed it everyday? Might be able to get a living pot from the supermarket. I have read bramble was good. Will add that to the shopping list. We do have some blackcurrant leaves next to try. Also meant to be good I think.

Thank you x

Yes we have been giving dill every day, only the last week or so but I've discovered that they don't seem to sell it at some of our supermarkets, only Sainsburys, so we have actually run out and I need to go and get some more. They didn't have it as a living plant either. I'm not sure about blackcurrant leaves, but blackberry leaves are the same as brambles and they are the first thing normally that our Ted will eat when he's starting to recover from stasis. He tends to take about a week or so to get back to normal once he starts eating again but he does get through a lot of brambles. We give them a good wash as well to make sure he's getting some water on board as we tend not to see him drink for the first few days either, and that is a concern.

 

[Omi]

Ccould you let us know the details of what your rabbits have to eat every day?

I'm tending to think that many of the stasis episodes that occur can easily be prevented with diet. Certainly the more hay you can get your rabbits to eat will help. A lot of us here on the forum now provide lots of forage food, including bramble leaves, which have already been recommended to you.

 

[Mervinius]

Thank you all. I will try to answer you all in one message.

They have a water bowl in their cage and two water bottles attached to their pen. So they can choose which they prefer.

The Beaphar food is very good, it's larger sized pellets so good for wearing down teeth too.

I will definitely look at dill and blackberry leaves. It's good they help your bun. Pip is always pretty quick to get back to her normal self. She hasn't stopped eating all night!

They get a pile of timothy hay and a pile of meadow hay in the morning.
Then 25g of pellets for breakfast.
Then another pile of each hay at 6pm
25g pellets at 7pm
Then the last 5g of pellets when we put them to bed.

When they finish their hay we top it up with more. They also have a huge pile of hay covering the cage floor which they munch their way through.

Every other day we either give them a small pinch of.
Dandelion leaves
Birch leaves
Mixed herbs (excel)

I do want to give them more of the forage, but I am being extra careful to wean her onto the leaves because of her tummy issues.

 

[thumps_]

The diet shouldn't upset their tummy. I know that algal growth in water bottles is undesirable but I doubt it has caused the gas. There were problems before this.
I agree with Omi that dietary adjustment not only solves much stasis, but is a great help to rabbits with underlying health problems. However in this event the underlying health problems should always be treated as best we can

Difficult - does your vet have further training or a special interest in treating rabbits? They are totally different from eg cats & dogs in more ways than the obvious! I'm surprised you were told that nothing else can be done.
I would be thinking of asking your vet about further tests for underlying illness.

 

[Mervinius]

Our vets are good with rabbits it was one of the reasons I chose them.
They did say it was stress before, but both buns are very relaxed. They love to binkying and sprint. They eat from our hands and flop everywhere. So I'm not convinced by this. We did buy a pet remedy plugin which we use when we ave guests staying or before vet visits now.
Now there diet has changed she is so much better so don't think it can be stress.

I have to call them this morning to let them know how she is perhaps I can ask for more ideas/tests?

They haven't suggested other tests or anything else

 

[tonibun]

I am right in thinking your bunnies are Netherland Dwarfs, only when you said Dwarff I assumed Dwarf Lop but looking at your avatar they are not Lops. I was once told by a breeder of Netherlands for showing that they only need a teaspoonful of pellets every day. Now I do give mine a little bit more than that but I still think 25g is too much. Netherlands are usually quite healthy rabbits so I would still think overfeeding is possibly your problem.

 

[Mervinius]

Hi tonibun.

Yes sorry should have said the are Netherlands dwarfs. We got them from a breeder and she feeds her show buns 25g each so that's why we feed that much. We could try less and see if it helps.

Oh and she is back to herself and stuffing her face with hay!

Silly question do we need to reduce the pellet amount slowly?

 

[tonibun]

Not a silly question. Yes reduce fairly slowly. Breeders don't always know whast is best. I have taken a couple of does off a "breeder" which were both awfully overweight.

 

[Mervinius]

OK going to reduce it a little tomorrow. They have stayed at a steady weight for a while now, but might just be tad to much for for them. Yeah I know not all breeders are good, but ours has been lovely and tried to help us with all pips tummy troubles. Her buns were a nice healthy weight.

 

[tonibun]

It's funny too that only one has this problem. How are their poohs?

 

[Mervinius]

Nice and round. They were golden but have looked a little darker this week. When they were on their old food we found the odd celeotrope but now they all get munched.
Archie has had mild gas a few times but it was when we had to take pip to the vets so much last summer. We took him with us and he gets mega stressed in the car. He didn't get a gurgling tummy though.
It might just be she is extra sensitive though I guess.

 

[tonibun]

Is Pip the grey bun?

 

[Mervinius]

No that's Archie. Pip is the black one.

 

[roxyroller88]

Hi
I also have a gassy bun. When he is feeling poorly he licks his chin/chest a lot and I think that it's his way of telling me that he's feeling uncomfortable. Has your vet suggested doing xrays or an ultrasound of his guts to see if everything is working the way it should? X