Rabbit doesn't eat, sits placid there doing nothing...

Hi,

I'm really worried about my Black Fury, yesterday evening at the feeding frency headcount after garden time, she sat in a corner, hadn't left the hutch, and instead charging the food bowl sat there as if she didn't know there was food, it looked like "I m contently sitting here til I die, let me alone..." :shock:

Took her in for the night, in a cage in an unheated 7C cold room, and gave her all possible food and water. Checked at 0430-nothing eaten or pooped, nothing drunk or peed.
Found the homemade electrolyte solution here and syringed her 50-60ml, really liked it, must have been thirsty. Tried to stuff some oats in her mouth, with little success.
Then I massaged her belly for half an hour.

Note: I didn't bleed to death up to this point - she really just isn't herself. No fight, not at being picked up or handling (although she didn't like it), just pulling back when I tried to feed.

Ok, called at work that I'll come late, put her in a box and off to the vet we went.

She palpated her thoroughly, checked teeth, eyes, temperature and every orifice, ausculated her here and there, but nothing out of the ordinary. Looks good.
Only really alarming thing was that Fury sat there on the table without any sign that she would object to this treatment :x

So she got a shot for more appetite, and I have 6 bags with powder to syringe feed her.
That was a drama first, but now, after the first half hour of refusing, she gobbles it down - the clou is that I have to let her chew on the syringe, then it works.

Let her out in the garden, well, looks somewhat better, but still very inactive and uninterested in solid food. The only thing I saw her eat were a few leaves of dried nettles (most yummy hay ever).

Still didn't find any poop, but she was outdoor for some hours.

How to proceed? Syringe feed her till she starts pooping (she does pee, baptised my car), give electrolyte or water if she doesn't drink, massage her now and then (SHE lets me touch her belly :! she tolerates it, even her ears went up.

So, adding pumkin to her diet? Make her move now and then? Reduce syringe feeding at some point to see if she gets hungry (not before I'm sure she poops)?

I'm currently reading all relating threads, but anyway, if someone has sugestions - shoot.

EDIT: Normal diet is hay, half a handful pellets per day, a 1/4 apple in the morning and about the same amount of carrot or topinampur in the evening. And whatever they find in the garden 2-3 times a week.

Is she molting? If so, she may have ingested to much fur and has a block.
When one of my rabbits gets like that, I syringe a little bit of flax seed oil into them.

Hope all get better soon

Thanks,
no, she isn't molting, it's solid winter out there, and she has short hair.
But if the flax seed oil wouldn't do harm wouldn't it be worth a try anyway? How much do you give, little bit is relative, about 1ml?
I would need new oil, the bottles I've here are at least 30 years old, fine for wood, but...

Let's see what other suggestions folks may have, but I'd keep syringing her like you are and let her pick at the foods you have for her until she's ready. Maybe some plantain if you have any availalable? Or willow? But it sounds like she's coming slowly around, and I'd hate for you to throw a lot of new things and upset her digestion even more. Please keep us posted as you're seeing if she's contiuing to take more, or if she's not improving.

Papaya and pineapple can help reduce and clear a blockage.

Regular kitchen oatmeal can give some easy-to-digest calories and fiber. You can coat them with a little molasses -- especially blackstrap -- if it helps.

She does need to continue taking in solid food, as well as liquids. She can go into GI stasis (the gut just stops moving stuff along), and you can't restart from that. She must eat at least a little solid food, and when a rabbit is refusing to eat, it is an emergency... so foods that would normally be treats only are completely on the table to get the rabbit to eat.

I was offering all sorts of stuff when Pinto (wry neck) was refusing to eat. Besides syringing fluids, we were forcing medicated food mixed with applesauce, pumpkin, fruit juices (including peach juice, though I know that at least the wood from stone fruit trees is off limits), banana, molasses, anything that would get him to take it more willingly. He finally improved to the point that he would eat willingly if it was tasty enough. :roll: After a couple of months, he was back on regular pellets and water.

Willow, as mentioned by TRF, will also help with any pain she might be experiencing.

Keep us updated!

Plantain (plantago spp.) are most unlikely to cause any problems and most rabbits like it a lot. It is my first choice for rabbits that are suffering from any digestive disorder. If you have more of that nettle hay, offer her that as well.

Sounds like you're doing a good job of keeping her hydrated, but it would be good if you can get some solids into her--and some poop coming out! Maybe kitchen oatmeal, the old-fashioned kind for porridge or a slice of apple to tempt her, plus the plantain if you can find some.

To me the situation sounds serious but not desperate (yet!). You may have acted in time to give her a good chance of recovery. Hope so!

Miss M":27p20xxw said:

She does need to continue taking in solid food, as well as liquids. She can go into GI stasis (the gut just stops moving stuff along), and you can't restart from that. She must eat at least a little solid food, and when a rabbit is refusing to eat, it is an emergency... so foods that would normally be treats only are completely on the table to get the rabbit to eat.

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You are absolutely right. My brain must have been in "sleep" mode. Ignore my comment about not upsetting her stomach. Instead offer her a small smorgasboard and see what she is drawn to. Any blackberry brambles around, or do you have dried blackberry or raspberry tea? How about rose leaves or rose hips? even a few raisins added to the other offerings?

I hope she pulls through for you. Sorry I don't have any advice.

the reluctant farmer":uph1sl6t said:

Any blackberry brambles around, or do you have dried blackberry or raspberry tea? How about rose leaves or rose hips?

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YES, the blackberry/raspberry brambles, rose canes (thorns and all), leaves from any of these, etc. Strawberry or mock strawberry (Duchesnea indica) leaves. Excellent suggestions!

Thanks for the suggestions, right now she is nibbling a little at willow branches and nettles hay, and about half a tsp of oatmeal disappeared over night.

Can't tell if she pooped at all, stupid me forgot to clean out the nest box I used to bring her in. If, then max 5 berries, but I don't think so.

There are roses in the garden that still have leaves and fruits, frozen solid of coarse, and one of the stored boxes of hay should contain a high percentage of plaintain and yarrow, going too look for that.

So, shopping list: Pumkin (would infant food work, these small glasses?), raisins, flax seed oil (a little of that can't hurt, right?)

Mock strawberry? They never touched that stuff.

So, going to water and feed her again.

Preitler":38p7cp4v said:

Thanks for the suggestions, right now she is nibbling a little at willow branches and nettles hay, and about half a tsp of oatmeal disappeared over night.

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Good... glad she is still eating at least a little bit of something! Hopefully, it's enough.

Preitler":38p7cp4v said:

There are roses in the garden that still have leaves and fruits, frozen solid of coarse, and one of the stored boxes of hay should contain a high percentage of plaintain and yarrow, going too look out for that.

Click to expand...

Don't know anything about yarrow, but the rest sounds great.

Preitler":38p7cp4v said:

So, shopping list: Pumkin (would infant food work, these small glasses?), raisins, flax seed oil (a little of that can't hurt, right?)

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I imagine you could give her infant food, though it will likely be more expensive -- make sure to check ingredients! Raisins are fine in small amounts, flax seed oil is fine at least in small amounts, black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS), pumpkin seeds, pine cones...

Preitler":38p7cp4v said:

Mock strawberry? They never touched that stuff.

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Really? :shock: Mine love the stuff!

Yeah! What a beatiful sight :thewave:

She lost a few small,weird formed ones mhile I massaged her belly, but these look great.



Still not herself, but after the next feeding she goes back to the other 3 (I sold 4 doelings yesterday ), but I continue feeding her for the time being.

That's good news Preitler. :bounce:

As a f.y.i., when I get one that goes off feed like that and stops pooping I reach for the Mineral Oil. 1 ml every 6 hours down the throat until the damn breaks, usually twice is enough but sometimes a third dose is needed. I feed nothing but oats, hey and electrolyte solution while that's going on. When one gets that bad I think the papaya and pineapple take to long to work.

I gave her 1ml pumkin seed oil (had no flax oil) in the morning, it's rather aromatic and she liked it, maybe that helped too . Anyway, she's getting better, after feeding her just now she attacked the willow branches right away, and she didn't shuffle from my kitchen straight back to her cage, but sniffed here and there, ears upright, much more perky , and she's pooping like a minigun. :gun:
And all the rose leaves are gone :dinner:

Gosh, I was really scared . After my buck died through shock after a fox attack last year I was so afraid to lose her because me doing the wrong thing or too late. What I read on the net was that I should leave him in his hutch, don't disturb him, and so on, but today I think that was wrong, even nagging him out of this rabbit shutdown procedure couldn't have ended worse.
So having her die and not having tried everything would have been a really hard thing to swallow.

Thank you all for your support

Oh that's good news! Glad to hear it.

That's great news, Preitler! :bouncy:

Preitler":1ykcry3n said:

I gave her 1ml pumpkin seed oil (had no flax oil) in the morning,
So having her die and not having tried everything would have been a really hard thing to swallow.

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Never heard of pumpkin seed oil but what ever lubes things up. Thing about our rabbits is you don't have long to act when something goes wrong with them.

...after a fox attack last year

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You ever get the varmints?

Pumkin seed oil is a lokal delicacy of Styria, a very dark, green oil made from pumkins which seeds do not have the hard shell - a mutation that occured about 100 years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_seed_oil

Didn't get a fox yet, but I'm still on guard, set trap and camera every night. Nothing for a week now, but they'll return.

So, fury is back in the hutch, still obviously subdued and not a completly happy rabbit, I keep feeding her at least twice a day. Of course, it could be that she simply isn't hungry and therefore not reacting when I bring food, but that's unlikly, whatever it is, she is not completly through yet.

Oh, aren't all those bunny berries a pretty sight! :bouncy:

The fact that you were seeing small, malformed ones means you pulled her back from the brink of GI stasis! Good work! I hope she continues to improve, and it sounds like she should, with the care you are giving her.

About your buck... shock is an awfully hard thing to bring a bunny back from. Could you have tried forcing fluids and solids? Yes. Would it have saved him? While I can't tell you it would have done no good, I can tell you it would have been much harder to save him. You've learned some stuff. Try not to blame yourself. Easy to say, not easy to do, I know... I still feel bad about the loss of my son's doe some 4+ years ago. If I had told my kids the symptoms of wool block/GI stasis, we probably could have saved her. I learned that they need to know what I know, and that has saved other rabbits over the last few years.

Update:

She isn't over it, but it's getting better, I (want to) think.

Was scared today morning because no poop in her cage, but I found the reason for that later behind a door, I didn't bother to close the cage since I never noticed her moving anywhere but wanted her to have that option, the last days she stayed where I put her (bad thing).

Since I heard gas while massaging her I got Simethicon (there is only a standby emergency pharmacy service on sundays, I got a somewhat strange look when I told for whom the drops are :roll: ).
Maybe I fed her too fast, once she had a few bites she wolfed down the whole 10ml syringe, only later I read to only feed about 1ml in one go.

That doesn't happen anymore, it took more than an hour today to get 40ml into her, she really does put up a fight now , but she is so sweet, when she looked really pissed off I expected to get some bites, but no, she only licked my hand. But I start to worry about her stress level.

During that hour I got smeared with soft, runny, very stinky rabbit poop :x . Ok, better than nothing, but I didn't know a rabbit can stink so much, it's like cat poop.

Best thing, after that torture I let her sit where she was in my (now unheated) kitchen, in the blanket I need to feed her, offered her rose leaves and willow branches, and dried dandelion, and she ate some of that
Now she's outside, it got warmer and sunny.



About the electrolyte: Can I give her too much of that? It is high on sugar, and I think she better should drink water if possible, right? Not that I manage to get much into her, a syringe full 2-3 times per day (plus the watered emergency food)

So, now I'm going to find blackberry and raspberry leaves, I start to run out of roses.