Anxious parent
New Kit
I have a 6- year old neuter female rabbit who has suffered bouts of stasis and slow gut motilily all her life. I recognise the signs and usually get her to the vet quickly and she pulls round in a couple of weeks. She is a cross-breed and weighs 4.2kg. I have been told she is overweight and switched to extruded pellets (20% fibre) last year. She usually eats 3+ handfuls off mixed greens and an egg-cup full of pellets a day, but is not a big hay eater.
At the end of June her gut slowed- small poos strung together with hair as she was moulting heavily. Got Metaclopromide and Baytril for 5 days. Seemed to pick up but then relapsed when the meds were stopped. Given a 10 day course of Metaclopramide but no more Baytril. She went back to eating pellets, but no greenstuff. This is unusal as its usually the other way round, and she loves her greens. Back to the vets to see if she had tooth problems - no sign of that but given Metacam in case she was in pain. Eating habits continued to be unusual - eats pellets, still not really interested in greens -she would eat crunchy stems but not soft leaves.
Vet referred me to a rabbit specialist. 3-rays showed no tooth issues but some athritis and kidney stones. Said this was probably due to her weight and general couch potato behaviour! Recommended that she should go onto permenant Metacam for the arthritis, but wanted to do blood tests to make sure her liver/kidneys could cope. He said until she was eating properly again she could have anything she would eat (e.g. pellets, museli mix - all the bad fattening stuff) but then would need to switch to a grass and hay diet with no pellets. Liver/kidney results were fine so Metacam increased to .75ml twice a day. She came off the Metaclopromide, but still wouldn't eat greens, just pellets.
I've cut out pellets, given lots of hay and greens which she isn't interested in - she will just nibble a couple of sprigs of herbs if I sit and wave it infront of her, and when she gets fed up with that she sits with her face to the wall! But her poos got very small again so currently back on the Metaclopromide and I'm syringe feeding with Recovery (about 1/3rd of recommended daily dose) to keep her tummy ticking over in the hope that she will eat greens when she's hungry.
Is she having me on, in the hope of getting have favorite foods? Is this the right thing to do, or should I just give in and let her have as many pellets as she wants even if this puts more weight on her? Help I'm at the end of my tether!!
At the end of June her gut slowed- small poos strung together with hair as she was moulting heavily. Got Metaclopromide and Baytril for 5 days. Seemed to pick up but then relapsed when the meds were stopped. Given a 10 day course of Metaclopramide but no more Baytril. She went back to eating pellets, but no greenstuff. This is unusal as its usually the other way round, and she loves her greens. Back to the vets to see if she had tooth problems - no sign of that but given Metacam in case she was in pain. Eating habits continued to be unusual - eats pellets, still not really interested in greens -she would eat crunchy stems but not soft leaves.
Vet referred me to a rabbit specialist. 3-rays showed no tooth issues but some athritis and kidney stones. Said this was probably due to her weight and general couch potato behaviour! Recommended that she should go onto permenant Metacam for the arthritis, but wanted to do blood tests to make sure her liver/kidneys could cope. He said until she was eating properly again she could have anything she would eat (e.g. pellets, museli mix - all the bad fattening stuff) but then would need to switch to a grass and hay diet with no pellets. Liver/kidney results were fine so Metacam increased to .75ml twice a day. She came off the Metaclopromide, but still wouldn't eat greens, just pellets.
I've cut out pellets, given lots of hay and greens which she isn't interested in - she will just nibble a couple of sprigs of herbs if I sit and wave it infront of her, and when she gets fed up with that she sits with her face to the wall! But her poos got very small again so currently back on the Metaclopromide and I'm syringe feeding with Recovery (about 1/3rd of recommended daily dose) to keep her tummy ticking over in the hope that she will eat greens when she's hungry.
Is she having me on, in the hope of getting have favorite foods? Is this the right thing to do, or should I just give in and let her have as many pellets as she wants even if this puts more weight on her? Help I'm at the end of my tether!!