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Feeding a grieving bunny 😢

LizzyS186

New Kit
Hello guys,

I am just wanting some advice from the hive. Our household has had a terrible week. We had 3 rabbits (one boy and girl living together) and one boy who lived on his own. On Tuesday our boy rabbit who lives alone suddenly died (I suspected VHD at the time as all 3 were due to get their vaccines next week, but he had multiple health problems so I wasn’t 100%) then on Thursday our female rabbit suddenly died (she had been neutered 3 weeks previously but had been given a clean bill of health by the vet one week prior to dying) so our vet is suspecting VHD. Our remaining male rabbit has remained well since all of this. We have taken him out of his living area where he lived with his wifey, moved him upstairs but I am struggling to get him to eat. He is not eating much of his pellets, refusing his hay (his wifey used to heavily encourage him to eat his hay as he has always been difficult to get him to eat his hay) and the only thing I can get him to eat are kale and spring greens. He is weeing and pooing as normal and looks otherwise healthy at the moment. I think he is grieving and therefore is off his food, we are giving him as much attention and love as he needs but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to encourage him to eat his hay and pellets?

Thank you in advance,

Lizzy
(Very sad grieving bunmom)
 
Hello guys,

I am just wanting some advice from the hive. Our household has had a terrible week. We had 3 rabbits (one boy and girl living together) and one boy who lived on his own. On Tuesday our boy rabbit who lives alone suddenly died (I suspected VHD at the time as all 3 were due to get their vaccines next week, but he had multiple health problems so I wasn’t 100%) then on Thursday our female rabbit suddenly died (she had been neutered 3 weeks previously but had been given a clean bill of health by the vet one week prior to dying) so our vet is suspecting VHD. Our remaining male rabbit has remained well since all of this. We have taken him out of his living area where he lived with his wifey, moved him upstairs but I am struggling to get him to eat. He is not eating much of his pellets, refusing his hay (his wifey used to heavily encourage him to eat his hay as he has always been difficult to get him to eat his hay) and the only thing I can get him to eat are kale and spring greens. He is weeing and pooing as normal and looks otherwise healthy at the moment. I think he is grieving and therefore is off his food, we are giving him as much attention and love as he needs but I was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how to encourage him to eat his hay and pellets?

Thank you in advance,

Lizzy
(Very sad grieving bunmom)

I am very sorry for your recent losses. Has your remaining Rabbit now been vaccinated against RHD ?

Hopefully your Vet has given you a lot of advice about what to do after a suspected RHD outbreak. If not I would advise you to read the information on this link

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/owners/frequently-asked-questions/FAQRHD

Also, there is a Facebook Page where cases of suspected/confirmed RHD deaths can be noted.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1744958082388756/


To answer your question about tempting him to eat, fresh herbs such as coriander are often popular. You could mix some grated carrot and apple in with his pellets to see if that tempts him.

Unfortunately as you probably know some Rabbits can be poorly for a few days before succumbing to RHD2, so your Rabbit's 'not eating' may be due to him not feeling too well as opposed to him being stressed and grieving. Was there a specific reason why you moved him from his usual environment ?
 
I’m very sorry to hear of your losses :cry: thinking of you at this terrible time and sending hugs xx

Had your rabbits been vaccinated with both the myxomatosis and vhd combo nobivac vaccine, and one of the rvhd2 vaccine (either filivac - covers for rvhd1 and rvhd2 or eravac - covers for rvhd2 only) sadly vhd2 is rife at the moment :cry: has your remaining rabbit been revaccinated now? If he’s not had an rhd2 vaccine I would get that done asap.

Regarding the eating, has he had his teeth checked recently? He may need a dental. It might be worth grating a carrot and mixing it in with the hay to encourage him, or spraying it with a little apple juice. I would get him checked at the vets anyway. Sending lots of vibes to him

My bunny had a dental last week and I was struggling to get him to eat, I started this thread and got a lot of really good ideas on foods irresistible to a bunny which really helped http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?473859-What-is-your-rabbits-favourite-food
 
Hi my bunny went into shock after losing his sister. I syringe fed him through the night in the house and kept him warm. He’s healthy and happy now. He will need ranitidine from the vet too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I'm sorry you've lost 2 bunnies so close together :(

I think the fact he's eating some food is encouraging, but bunnies with depression just need a bit of time and a few extra special things until they get through it. Could you try making some hay things to play with? Stuffing some toilet roll tubes with hay and dried herbs, and a treat, might encourage him to eat more hay, and it's enriching, which would improve his mood.
 
I’m so sorry for your losses, and I feel for your little dude.

One of my buns was in deep grief not that long ago, and it took a few weeks for him to recover. He wasn’t interested in food, so I let him eat whatever he wanted as long as he was eating something, and I gave him FibrePlex to get his gut moving. Slowly but surely he got stronger and he’s now doing well.

He may need to see a vet, as already mentioned, it’s difficult to tell if it’s gruef or an underlying health issue.

Sending nose rubs your little bun xx
 
Hello guys,

Apologies for the delay in answering you and thank you all so much for your responses.

Yes we had some information from the vet but I had already reported it to the vhdmap website prior to seeing the vet again to discuss the possible VHD as my gut feeling was that VHD was afoot :-( and thank you for the frances harcourt-brown website it was really useful.

We moved him from his usual environment after advice from the vet to remove any items which our sick bunnies had been near to minimise VHD. So we threw out their bedroom and bleach washed the floors and further deep cleaned the room and adjacent rooms to them, plus boil washed all of our clothes.
After my post he was starting to slow down his eating and seemed to be less active intermittently so after reading your responses we decided to take him back to his bedroom but put new toys, bowls etc in his new bedroom and if that didn't work to take him to the vet that night. His transformation was immediate, once he was back in his usual bedroom he was acting almost normally being very active, eating and drinking as normal! He does still have periods every so often where he looks sad and he keeps looking for his wifey but he is pooing as normal and eating/drinking as normal.

He hasn't had his vaccination booster yet but he is going Saturday!

Thank you again for your kind words and advice

xxx
 
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