Weight Loss

June 30th, my doe weighed 6 pounds and 8 ounces (normal, good weight for her.) Today my doe weighs 5 pounds and 10 ounces. She feels bony, and looks bony, but her appetite and energy seems unaffected - not that that changes the fact that she is underweight and way to suddenly!

My doe has been recovering from an ear infection (which I believe to be ended, but who knows!), she has had ear medication for about 3 weeks now, and the week before that an oral antibiotic (now ended). Which have all seemed to help her.
Well, when she started the oral antibiotic I began to give her probiotics. The probiotics is in a powdered form, so I wet her feed so it would stick. I did this until June 30th. June 30th I stopped because the vet basically said she was good, and I was off for a weekend vacation.

But this is the only connection I can make to her weight loss. Could I have upset a balance in her digestive system by stopping the probiotics or by not wetting the feed? There was no change in the amount of feed or frequency, (Her bowl is filled once a day.)
Or is this a parasite? I plan to get dewormer tomorrow, but honestly I am a bit frightened to further upset her digestive system with it.
Before probiotics I fed her the same way I do now, just give her 2/3 cup of dry feed once per day in her bowl.
(Along with hay, she always has hay available.)

I suppose I should also mention that she is housed in a Barn (with fans), and being in Texas, it is usually in the 90's.
I do give all the buns frozen bottles. However could this be heat stress-related? (None of my other rabbits seem affected, and I have had rabbits for 2 summers now w/ out issues, but this rabbit could be different.)

I would be willing to take her to the vet, (I have, multiple times), but they offer only mediocre advice on rabbits. (And they are the only vet around who even sees rabbits!) I have little faith they could help anymore than experienced rabbit folks at this point.

I honestly don't have any experience with Velveteens. Though I do have a couple of questions regarding the probiotics. 1) What kind of probiotics where you using? I know you mentioned powdered, but where they specifically for ruminants (ie: cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits) or was it for a dog, cat, or even human. 2) How soon after giving the antibiotic where you giving the probiotics? The reason I ask this is because if given to soon after the antibiotics or even before them, they are rendered useless. The antibiotics kill off both beneficial and non-beneficial bacteria.

Sagebrush":2c0ysdgc said:

I honestly don't have any experience with Velveteens. Though I do have a couple of questions regarding the probiotics. 1) What kind of probiotics where you using? I know you mentioned powdered, but where they specifically for ruminants (ie: cattle, sheep, goats, rabbits) or was it for a dog, cat, or even human. 2) How soon after giving the antibiotic where you giving the probiotics? The reason I ask this is because if given to soon after the antibiotics or even before them, they are rendered useless. The antibiotics kill off both beneficial and non-beneficial bacteria.

Click to expand...

I was using Pro-Bios (Multi-species), I could not find a rabbit specific probiotic, nor the commonly used bene-bac at the time. However they did have ruminant specific probiotics, but from my understanding rabbits are not ruminant and their digestive system compares most to horses (hindgut fermenters). However I wonder if rumiant pro-bios still would have been better?

I gave the antibiotics in the middle of the day, while I gave oral antibiotics in the morning and at night.
I started them about a day after the antibiotics and then continued probiotics for almost 2 weeks after the oral antibiotics had ended.

you could try some Boss, Rolled oats, calf mana top dressing for her feed.... I'd up her ration on pellets a bit too (full cup/day).... alfalfa hay if you can get it .... and yes worm her....

It sounds like you used them properly. I agree with SarniaTricia about worming her and trying some top dressing on her pellets to see if that helps her to gain some weight. I would also increase her pellet ration, her metabolism might be burning off the calories from the normal ration you are giving her faster than they are being replaced by other feed.