Help with underweight rabbit

[RubyRed]

A few months ago, I got two Holland lops from a nice breeder. They’ve have good weight and health until just about now where my girl’s weight has been declining. Now she’s quite a bit underweight and I’m really worried- I gave her the first dose of ivermectin yesterday, in case she has worms, (it won’t hurt her if she doesn’t) I got some supplement alfalfa hay cubes for her, and started giving her unlimited pellets. I’m also giving her a spoonful of oats a day. She’s just eating her normal amount of pellets (which might be too little), hasn’t finished all the oats, and hasn’t touched the alfalfa cubes. I think she may be in the early stages of stasis, but the treatment recommended to us was just to get her to eat more.
Any suggestions on getting her to eat more, or opinions on what the problem could be?

 

[RubyRed]

Also, her stomach feels slightly hard/bloated so that’s why we’ve guessed she might have worms, although her poo doesn’t seem to have any sort of pinworms in it. I have massaged her stomach and she seems to like it.

 

[Preitler]

Hm, there are quite some things that could be the cause, like yeasts, worms, coccidia, etc. , not sure what would show exatly this symptoms though.

That she likes belly massages imho means that she has some discomfort there, I've seen that with rabbits that had gas or/and partially blockage due to ingested fur during a molt, but those were short term issues that didn't cause noticeable weight loss. You could try to give some Simethicone (infant gas relieve drops, about 20mg twice per day) to see if gas is part of the problem. Doesn't hurt if it doesn't help, I just put the drops on a little damp oatmeal.

Too little pellets - well, she should be able to keep her weight on hay or forage alone when grown up and not bred, pellets are pretty much just a supplement to round the diet off.

 

[RubyRed]

Hm, there are quite some things that could be the cause, like yeasts, worms, coccidia, etc. , not sure what would show exatly this symptoms though.

That she likes belly massages imho means that she has some discomfort there, I've seen that with rabbits that had gas or/and partially blockage due to ingested fur during a molt, but those were short term issues that didn't cause noticeable weight loss. You could try to give some Simethicone (infant gas relieve drops, about 20mg twice per day) to see if gas is part of the problem. Doesn't hurt if it doesn't help, I just put the drops on a little damp oatmeal.

Too little pellets - well, she should be able to keep her weight on hay or forage alone when grown up and not bred, pellets are pretty much just a supplement to round the diet off.

Thanks, I will try that! Do you know if the infant gas drops would hurt her if it turns out she doesn’t have gas?

 

[Preitler]

Doesn't hurt. Dosage isn't that critical, it just doesn't work right if it's too low.