Need Help to stop diarreah....

[KatzNetherlands]

Sophie, our little Lilac Netherland started having some diarreah yesterday afternoon. I cleaned her up, put her in a seperate cage(she was in with Lydia and Brier, both does around the same age) I gave her only hay and water and this morning, when we checked on her she had had quite a bit through the night and she feels lighter/bonier... I am very concerned about her. She is still very active but I know how fast things can go downhill.... I need to get her back to normal asap. BTW, she has not had anything different in her diet, same pellets mixed with oats, same hay and water. No treats or veggies or anything like that.

Please help! This is my 9 year olds bunny and she is very scared and I am supposed to act like I know what I am doing here!

 

[fuzzy9]

We clipped some raspberry canes, and fed a couple to one with diarrhea, it worked, she had pellets within a day or two.

 

[quintex]

I used dri-tail before on one that was starting to get runny. I think you can find it in most pet stores if it's something you want to try.

 

[MaggieJ]

Yes, the leaves of raspberry, strawberry and blackberry are all excellent to fight diarrhea. Also the leaves of the lawn weeds, plantain and shepherd's purse. It's a good idea to have some of these available -- fresh if possible but dried is fine too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capsella_bursa-pastoris

 

[Miss M]

I've read that oatmeal can help, too. Just plain, rolled oats. Probably to go along with the leaves Maggie mentioned.

 

[MaggieJ]

Yes, grass hay and kitchen oatmeal for food and the plants I mentioned as medicinals... although they are all safe, excellent food plants as well.

 

[KatzNetherlands]

We have a raspberry plant on our back deck, so I pulled like 6 leaves off of her and she is chowing down on them.... We had 3 'normal' poops but I am still going to be watching her like a hawk.

I have oatmeal too... If she doesn't stop soon, I will give her some oats and see if that helps!

I LOVE having you guys here to help me in such short notice!<br /><br />__________ Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:33 am __________<br /><br />Alright, we are having some soft, yet round poop now.... MUCH better than the runny stuff we had before... I feel so much better! I don't know what caused it though. We are seperating the girls though because they are starting to get territorial already.... I am wondering if it was stress caused? They play fine, but you never know.

 

[MaggieJ]

Hard to say what caused it. Continue to feed the raspberry leaves until she is back to normal. They won't hurt her and they won't cause constipation.

 

[arachyd]

Always try to keep some oatmeal or dried berry leaves on hand through the winter in case something like this happens again when you can't get your hands on helpful plants. Oatmeal works very well but I think the rabbit gets more from the fresh plants as diarrhea also causes them to dehydrate and oatmeal gives no additional moisture.

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

I'll be looking for a few raspberry plants this weekend... I constantly have balloon shaped kits... not sure why though. I hope it's just bad stock (new stock coming soon ). I managed to find lots of plantain, but raspberry really would be nicer.

 

[MaggieJ]

Should be plenty of wild ones back in our field if you want some. Wear boots. There is also plenty of poison ivy.

 

[Iggysbabysitter]

Ack! poison ivy doesn't sound fun... Perhaps I should run by before I go to grammas house. This kit was born april 12... why oh why do they do this to me?

 

[ladysown]

don't use her for breeding purposes. I've learned the hard way breeding from rabbits prone to gut issues just leads to heartache down the road. Glad she seems to be on the mend regardless of the cause.

 

[KatzNetherlands]

Turns out my daughter decided to give her some "treats"... She said only Sophie ate them. She is 3 years old and was trying to help.... So we had a VERY long discussion on what the rabbits can and cannot eat... She was crying because she thought she had really hurt her. Apparently Sophie "just woved them sooo much though mommy"... I think once she found out that Sophie would eat from her, she just kept giving more stuff to her...

So far I heard: a couple pieces of cat food, 2 cat treats, a little dog food, some banana, some carrot, dandelions and clover(or as she calls it, the funny round grass)

I think that NO ONE will feed the rabbits anything now without Keiras approval. She freaks out if anyone gets near the cages.... She was very upset about it. I think she learned a very good lesson... and me too... I didn't think she would ever feed them anything without asking as she never has...

Poor girl...

On a good note, Sophie is fine now.... Normal poop, and getting active again....She just looks better too!

 

[Miss M]

Aww, that's precious! Glad Sophie is doing better, and no permanent harm done!

Do you think, Ladysown, that it would be okay to breed her, since it looks like a reaction to a bunch of unfamiliar foods being thrown at her GI tract at once? Maybe her quick recovery is a sign of hardiness?

 

[SatinsRule]

If you have a sycamore tree nearby, their leaves work to stop it, as does the rolled oats which Miss M already mentioned. The key to dealing with the diarrhea is dealing with it early. The affected bunnicle can and will dehydrate very quickly if you don't, especially at this time of year.

 

[MaggieJ]

Glad the situation is under control. Your DD learned a valuable lesson... Thank goodness the outcome wasn't fatal for the bunny. Be sure to let her know that while she made a mistake, you understand that she thought she was being nice to the rabbits. Maybe she can help you feed them sometimes. She has the makings of a good caregiver; not all kids would take to heart what they had done.

__________ Fri Jun 17, 2011 6:35 am __________

Ack! poison ivy doesn't sound fun... Perhaps I should run by before I go to grammas house. This kit was born april 12... why oh why do they do this to me?

You're welcome to drop by and get some. We're building the new chicken house today, so it will be a bit crazy here, but you won't mind that. There may be some raspberry leaves at the edge of the goose yard. If so, there is hardly any poison ivy there... and it much easier to get at than the back field.

 

[curlysue]

Im soo glad shes ok.I know how quick these things get worse.

 

[ladysown]

I'm leery of breeding animals that get stomach distress...but given that she was fed some not so good bunny stuff (cat food/treats, dog food and carrots) and she recovered well... I'd give her a shot and monitor her offspring closely.

Now... banana is not a bad thing to give bunnies and can be constipating for some of them (and given all that she was given was probably an aid to her). I've heard of bunnies living on cat food, and another that lives on dog food, it's all worked out. it was just a case of too much given too quickly.

 

[KatzNetherlands]

She is also still just a baby - going to be 8 weeks on Monday....

Keira now gets to help feed the bunnies but only when mommy or daddy say so.