Hi everyone,
As some of you will know I adopted a female lop last week, Layla, she's 4 years old and had been with a foster mum for about a month after she saw her underweight and clearly unhappy in the adoption section at pets at home and couldn't leave her there. According to pets at home she was spayed but had been living with an unneutered male, which her foster mum thought might explain her skinnyness and hypothesised that the buck had been bullying her and eating all the food. She already had 6 rabbits who she tried to bond with Layla for the past month but apparently she was very territorial over food and attacked all the other rabbits, so she decided to rehome her.
I'm giving you this backstory because I have noticed something kind of curious about Layla's lower abdomen... The other day I was petting her an noticed a largeish (about the size of large grape) solid lump in her lower abdomen, I didn't press down hard but just rested my fingers on it and it kinda squirmed away from my fingers, I felt it rotate around then disappear deeper inside her belly.
My instincts told me it might be a baby, as I have had an accidental pregnancy in a hamster before and remember the feeling of her pregnant belly. She is also very skinny but constantly seems ravenous, an her stomach is pretty large in proportion to her skeletal frame (before anyone suspects illness, she is eating, drinking and pooping loads so I don't think its an intestinal blockage or GI stasis). I have felt a moving lumps a few times since, and would definitely describe it as 'squirming', it's not just the rhythm of her breathing or anything as its more active than that, like it felt kinda bumpy when it squirmed away last time.
So... could it just be stuff moving through her digestive system, has anyone else felt something similar? It seems almost impossible that it could be babies as I was under the impression that she was spayed, and failing that I don't know when she would've come into contact with an unneutered male. But then again, her being a rescue her history is a mystery, and knowing pets at home (who where the reason for my accidental hamster pregnancy) they might have been getting their facts wrong.
Any help would be appreciated, I want to know whether I'm freaking out over a perfectly normal part of rabbit anatomy, or if it really does seem like she's pregnant, or something even worse is wrong with her?
Thanks,
Lucy
As some of you will know I adopted a female lop last week, Layla, she's 4 years old and had been with a foster mum for about a month after she saw her underweight and clearly unhappy in the adoption section at pets at home and couldn't leave her there. According to pets at home she was spayed but had been living with an unneutered male, which her foster mum thought might explain her skinnyness and hypothesised that the buck had been bullying her and eating all the food. She already had 6 rabbits who she tried to bond with Layla for the past month but apparently she was very territorial over food and attacked all the other rabbits, so she decided to rehome her.
I'm giving you this backstory because I have noticed something kind of curious about Layla's lower abdomen... The other day I was petting her an noticed a largeish (about the size of large grape) solid lump in her lower abdomen, I didn't press down hard but just rested my fingers on it and it kinda squirmed away from my fingers, I felt it rotate around then disappear deeper inside her belly.
My instincts told me it might be a baby, as I have had an accidental pregnancy in a hamster before and remember the feeling of her pregnant belly. She is also very skinny but constantly seems ravenous, an her stomach is pretty large in proportion to her skeletal frame (before anyone suspects illness, she is eating, drinking and pooping loads so I don't think its an intestinal blockage or GI stasis). I have felt a moving lumps a few times since, and would definitely describe it as 'squirming', it's not just the rhythm of her breathing or anything as its more active than that, like it felt kinda bumpy when it squirmed away last time.
So... could it just be stuff moving through her digestive system, has anyone else felt something similar? It seems almost impossible that it could be babies as I was under the impression that she was spayed, and failing that I don't know when she would've come into contact with an unneutered male. But then again, her being a rescue her history is a mystery, and knowing pets at home (who where the reason for my accidental hamster pregnancy) they might have been getting their facts wrong.
Any help would be appreciated, I want to know whether I'm freaking out over a perfectly normal part of rabbit anatomy, or if it really does seem like she's pregnant, or something even worse is wrong with her?
Thanks,
Lucy