Is this liver caused by fat metabolism?? (graphic)

[Zass]

This one is from a mature doe I had recently brought in. She never made it out of quarantine.
I was informed that she had been eating a colorful pet-store type rabbit kibble prior to coming my way.

She refused pellets, boss, and oats for me. I had all three available to her the whole time she was here.
I did get her to eat some greens but was extremely fussy about which ones she would take. Dandelion, plantain, and blackberry tips being the only ones she was willing to eat any quantity of. She would also take a small amount of pumpkin seeds and a little hay.
I'm sure that I could have worked her onto my rabbits diet eventually IF I hadn't also been having aggression problems with her.

She was here for almost two weeks and seemed to loose a lot of weight, I suspect dehydration.
I had provided her with both a bowl and bottle but I never saw her drink or noticed a significant drop in the amount of fluid in either container.
I believe that most of the hydration she took in was from the greens I was giving her, and it wasn't anywhere near enough for a rabbit her size.

She was alert and perky, eating her greens with enthusiasm and showing no sign of pain or suffering, otherwise I would have either syringed her fluids and food, or euthanized her sooner. She was passing normal sized droppings the whole time.


We chose to cull her mainly because my rabbitry is already full enough of lower maintenance and better tempered does. Don't hate me. I've sent way too many nice fryers off to freezer camp to be too sad about an unproductive and aggressive doe.

Anyway, when I opened her up I found that she was CAKED with fat. STUFFED WITH IT. I have never seen a rabbit this fat in my life. I believe there was something like 1/2 lb of fat I pulled out of just her abdomen. I know the difference between mammary tissue, fat and white puss. It was fat.

People, never free-feed your bunnies on pet store colorful rabbit chow. It's BAD STUFF.

and... she showed me ANOTHER weird liver.

Hers was on the left, one of my fryers with a normal colored liver on the right.

I didn't take the time to lay the second liver out correctly, so it might look weird because it's just kinda bunched up in a pile. The pinkish stuff you are seeing on the second liver is the same fatty looking stuff coming off the top of the first liver. It's normal fat, connective tissue, and tubes of some sort. (I'm not feeling very scientific tonight, sorry)

What I'm trying to show you guys is the unhealthy COLOR of the larger liver.


It's been a long day and my brain isn't working right.

Anyone have the terms for this? I think it's caused by the body living off mainly stored fat because she was eating much much less calories then she obviously had been eating previously? Am I wrong? If so, what do you think this is?

 

[3mina]

I don't have the terms but I'd've done the same thing with her. I have noticed that if I have really fatty rabbits my livers are paler, not as pale as that but a bit so you're probably onto something with your theory.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

that is a fatty liver..

 

[Dood]

:yeahthat: caused by her fasting and not eating - not caused by obesity

When a rabbit stops eating, cecotrope output is halted, and glucose and volatile fatty acid production are reduced. The rabbit’s body calls on its fat reserves for energy, transporting those fatty acids to the liver, which is the only organ that can process them. Because the body’s normal chemical processes have been interrupted, the fat begins to build up in the liver (mostly as triglyceride).

eventually she would have killed herself ...

The cells become overrun, causing production of ketone bodies, which are the intermediate product of fatty acid metabolism, as well as acidosis, which is an abnormal increase in the acidity of the body. The rabbit becomes sick, liver cells continue to fill with fat and start to fail, and the rabbit becomes lethargic. Without timely intervention, the entire liver fails, resulting in death.

This is why when trying to slim down ANY animal you should give smaller quantities or provide lower calorie foods - for rabbits give a mature grass hay or even straw and branches - and NEVER skip meals

 

[Zass]

:yeahthat: caused by her fasting and not eating - not caused by obesity

When a rabbit stops eating, cecotrope output is halted, and glucose and volatile fatty acid production are reduced. The rabbit’s body calls on its fat reserves for energy, transporting those fatty acids to the liver, which is the only organ that can process them. Because the body’s normal chemical processes have been interrupted, the fat begins to build up in the liver (mostly as triglyceride).

eventually she would have killed herself ...

The cells become overrun, causing production of ketone bodies, which are the intermediate product of fatty acid metabolism, as well as acidosis, which is an abnormal increase in the acidity of the body. The rabbit becomes sick, liver cells continue to fill with fat and start to fail, and the rabbit becomes lethargic. Without timely intervention, the entire liver fails, resulting in death.

This is why when trying to slim down ANY animal you should give smaller quantities or provide lower calorie foods - for rabbits give a mature grass hay or even straw and branches - and NEVER skip meals

The word I was looking for was ketosis, right?
I agree with you completely.

I was feeding this rabbit everything she was willing to take, but I knew she wasn't getting anywhere near enough calories for her size. I'll be honest and admit that I was unaware of the fat situation until I opened her up.

I believe she was already mildly dehydrated when I brought her home, and it contributed to her feeling thin, not fat.

Rabbits are preferably given time to settle in before their diets are altered.

30 days of quarantine is about right for that.
This one wasn't co-operating with me, and I didn't have any of her original feed for transiting. I might have taken more action to save her, but...something seemed off, and having opened her up and seen what was inside, I'm rather glad I didn't. There is no way she would have been a productive meat doe with that much fat inside of her. I'm not even joking when I say it was more than excessive.

I like to be able to determine illness and cull if needed long before an animal is showing outward signs of suffering, or I should say, mild dehydration (not enough to make the rabbit lethargic), refusal to eat enough, and bad attitude were plenty of signs of suffering for me.

I just wanted to diagnose the situation and post about it so in case someone looses a rabbit and finds a liver like this inside. I'd never seen a liver like this one before. All the rabbits I've had with Gi issues always managed to pull through and recover. This was my first time choosing to cull instead of treat in a situation like this.

A rabbit's liver can recover and return to normal, right?

I've culled two rabbits that had had periods of refusing feed and gi issues that they recovered from months or even a year prior to their deaths.

Both of those rabbits had normal looking livers by the time I did I choose to cull them for totally different reasons.

 

[Dood]

Livers can recover - they are actually one of the best healig parts of your body and you only need a small part of it functioning to keep you going so liver disease needs to be REALLY bad to kill you but can make you feel like crud for years - or decades in the case of longer lived animals

Heart, kidneys, lungs - not so much

 

[akane]

Well most animals can recover and repair a liver. Hedgehogs though die very rapidly of fatty liver disease. Since they can be picky eaters it is a major concern. Their digestive tract doesn't suffer like a rabbit but they will still die. Even if they start eating again they often die from a relatively short period of fasting. Next time I have a chance I will investigate the size of a hedgehog liver versus body mass. If you keep the digestive tract going rabbits seem to recover pretty well even from a fairly long period of very little food.

 

[BC Belgians]

Cows get ketosis (Acetonaemia), too. Typically after calving when energy reserves (body fat) are tapped into to meet the demand for milk production. Fat cows are more prone to developing ketosis. Problem is, they loose their appetite, making things worse. You have to drench them with Propelyn Glycol or administer IV Glucose.

So, I wonder if your doe was already getting ketotic when you got her ... some change in her environment that put her off food before she arrived ... and that she wasn't fussy about the food you offered her, but already feeling sick from the effect of too much acetone in her blood.

In cows, the acetone can affect the brain and make them excitable/nervous and do strange things. Maybe that is why your doe seemed aggressive?

What would be the treatment for ketosis in rabbits?

 

[Zass]

Cows get ketosis (Acetonaemia), too. Typically after calving when energy reserves (body fat) are tapped into to meet the demand for milk production. Fat cows are more prone to developing ketosis. Problem is, they loose their appetite, making things worse. You have to drench them with Propelyn Glycol or administer IV Glucose.

So, I wonder if your doe was already getting ketotic when you got her ... some change in her environment that put her off food before she arrived ... and that she wasn't fussy about the food you offered her, but already feeling sick from the effect of too much acetone in her blood.

In cows, the acetone can affect the brain and make them excitable/nervous and do strange things. Maybe that is why your doe seemed aggressive?

What would be the treatment for ketosis in rabbits?

I think it's very likely exactly what was going on.
I'm not sure if others have a standard treatment, so I can only say what I would have done if if had been determined to save her instead of culling.

I would have started on dropper feeding to provide more calories and hydration. Unflavored pedialyte and mashed pumpkin (sometimes with oatmeal blended together) are my first choice. I probably would have added a small amount of lite corn syrup to provide glucose in this situation.

I have infant smethicone drops on hand for gas, and I'd use if she seemed uncomfortable.
Sometimes it seems to speed up the process of getting rabbits to take more food on their own.

I would have kept up the hay and greens since she was taking some amount off those and tried to expand on them,
Fresh Fennel is one of my favorites for getting rabbits to eat, and I often find they will take it when other greens are refused. I think the sweet scent is sometimes very appetizing for bunnies.

Oh, yeah, and I'd keep her warm if it's a cool time of the year.

And just...kept it up and slowly adjusted her diet as she recovered to whatever feed I intended her to be on.

I've read that rabbits can get ketosis after kindling, leading to what looks like sudden death in mothers, and that being overweight is a contributing factor...Lets see if I can find any of that material in print...

 

[akane]

Similar but I use honey for sugars and I keep critical care for hand feeding or just a more desirable food that I can easily flavor. Critical care has all fiber and nutrients needed which is useful when they don't want any high fiber foods.