Megacolon questions

How would this normally be diagnosed? Also any diet tips for keeping a bun's guts going? Would profibre help?

Timmy has just been diagnosed, and I have a feeling Honey has the same.

Hello, I am sorry not to be able to post a lengthy reply, I am not too well just now. But maybe these links will be useful to take a look at

http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Differential/mega_differential.htm

http://www.vgr1.com/megacolon/

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8822192

Thank you for replying Jane. I really do appreciate it.

Initially Doughnut was suspected of having that but her guts are slow. She's on permanent metaclop and I've found grass helps her, so I pick some grass if possible every day. I also try to get her to have a good run around but she doesn't always want to! I also give her daily infracol to help with her gas if it does slow so she is more comfortable.

cpayne said:

Initially Doughnut was suspected of having that but her guts are slow. She's on permanent metaclop and I've found grass helps her, so I pick some grass if possible every day. I also try to get her to have a good run around but she doesn't always want to! I also give her daily infracol to help with her gas if it does slow so she is more comfortable.

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Many thanks for replying. I will see if grass helps. Timmy and Honey had a little yesterday and overnight there were the most poops I've seen for ages! I was trying to work out what had helped but it might be the grass.

I think the grass helps Doughnut but I do get a lot of mushy poops sometimes with it but it's worth it to keep her guts going. Grass seems to make her a bit loose. Let me know how it goes.

The grass helped for a day or 2, but didn't work quite so well yesterday. Timmy's gut was bad yesterday because of a vet visit the day before, so hopefully the grass will work better when he isn't so stressed.

I've been introducing small amounts of high fibre foods for him to try to get his gut moving better.

My Daisy had this, I fed her on mainly dried forage (wet stuff made her giant poos really soft) I had some blackthorn (I think it was called) which was really useful when she was at her worst. I found pro fibre was really helpful as well as emeprid, cisapride and Zantac 2-3 times a day.

I've had three rabbits with this. One didn't live long due to the illness, one lived a happy healthy life for several years once I was able to sort his diet out, and the bun I have now with it is happy and healthy now that I've sorted out his best diet and what the problem foods are. I've found with my rabbits that have megacolon, that a very strict diet is very important in helping with and controlling the effects of the disease.

The biggest problem food for mine seemed to be anything high in carbs/sugars/starches. So no fruit, no grains, no starchy veggies. I've also found pellets to be a problem food for my rabbits. One rabbit it would cause stomach discomfort and eventually stasis, so he was off pellets completely. My current rabbit with it can have a very small amount of pellets, but the main of their diets consisted of grass hay, select leafy greens, and forage. For my rabbit now, I have to make sure the hay has a good amount of hard stems too, as too leafy of a grass hay will make him have very large moist log shaped fecal poos.

But this diet is completely tailored to the individual rabbits and what I have found to work best. What will be the best diet for a megacolon bun, can vary with each individual rabbit.

Jbun said:

I've had three rabbits with this. One didn't live long due to the illness, one lived a happy healthy life for several years once I was able to sort his diet out, and the bun I have now with it is happy and healthy now that I've sorted out his best diet and what the problem foods are. I've found with my rabbits that have megacolon, that a very strict diet is very important in helping with and controlling the effects of the disease.

The biggest problem food for mine seemed to be anything high in carbs/sugars/starches. So no fruit, no grains, no starchy veggies. I've also found pellets to be a problem food for my rabbits. One rabbit it would cause stomach discomfort and eventually stasis, so he was off pellets completely. My current rabbit with it can have a very small amount of pellets, but the main of their diets consisted of grass hay, select leafy greens, and forage. For my rabbit now, I have to make sure the hay has a good amount of hard stems too, as too leafy of a grass hay will make him have very large moist log shaped fecal poos.

But this diet is completely tailored to the individual rabbits and what I have found to work best. What will be the best diet for a megacolon bun, can vary with each individual rabbit.

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Agree 100%.

MichG said:

My Daisy had this, I fed her on mainly dried forage (wet stuff made her giant poos really soft) I had some blackthorn (I think it was called) which was really useful when she was at her worst. I found pro fibre was really helpful as well as emeprid, cisapride and Zantac 2-3 times a day.

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I've just started with pro fibre, which seems to be helping a bit. I'm not sure if we have blackthorn here. I'm not confident in recognising it and would hate to give the wrong thing. Do you know if anywhere online has it?