One of my pet/breeder rabbits is skinny and sick.

[Honey_Bunny]

My rabbit(a black American Sable named Frizzle) is really skinny and sick. I have only gotten her to eat three things over the past four days; 5 small maple leaf sprouts, 1/4 a small carrot, and 1/3 piece of toast. She won't eat her pellets at all. She wasn't eating her toast until today so she may possibly be getting better, but it still might need advice.
Anyways her story goes like this:
Her mom and dad were two of my first breeding stock(for meat), and I kept Frizzle because she was just naturally friendly and her parents were getting old so they couldn't really have any more babies and I would need a replacement doe. Frizzle has had 3-5 litters(maximum 7 per litter...I know not very big, but I'm attached to her). After she had her last litter I wasn't being a good mom to Frizzle and I left two of her doe kits in the pen with her for way too long(all winter since she had them late in the fall) and she got really skinny like I said above. This has happened to some of my bunnies before and they died from it. I can't take her to the vet until Friday because it's so far away(2 1/2 hours) and I have classes all week.
Thanks if you have ideas what can help Frizzle!

 

[akane]

You need to get food down her. If animals like rabbits don't eat their digestive tract stops. Gas will build up from the undigested stuff sitting there and eventually intestines will turn necrotic. It only takes days with no food to do irreversible damage. Soak oatmeal or pellets until soft. Pedialyte and pureed bananas or unsweetened juice can be used to add electrolytes and enticing flavor. You can also add little bits of hay like the leaves or small stems that have fallen off. You may have to start out stuffing some in her mouth until she feels like eating again. Once you get food down her you can investigate the cause of her problems more thoroughly. Deworming might help, there might be an illness affecting some rabbits if this has happened before, or she might have just not gotten enough food and when she got weak along with some GI stasis she didn't feel like eating.

 

[Zass]

:yeahthat:

Also, if I'm worried about GI stasis, I usually give infant simethicone (I seem to have faster results getting them to eat on their own if I include it), and if I have to dropper feed, I find that mashed pumpkin + a little mashed banana + pedialyte goes down fairly easy, and the buns don't usually hate me too much after being force fed it.

 

[arachyd]

At the risk of making enemies here I have to say I believe this to be a troll post. If it isn't I am appalled that you say you breed meat rabbits and have lost rabbits in this same situation twice already yet you did the same thing again. Rabbits don't just die from being left with 2 of their offspring. If the rabbit was getting skinny you needed to feed them more and separate them in case she was being bullied away from the food. In my opinion you should not be breeding until you get your rabbits in condition and have a plan for separating them. Part of keeping rabbits or any animals is checking to make sure they are in good health and acting when there are signs of a problem.

 

[MaggieJ]

Arachyd, I can understand your reasoning and I agree that there must be management problems here, but the OP sounds to me as though she is young and inexperienced and perhaps was not alert enough to signs of a developing problem. I'm going to assume that she has posted in good faith and try to help her and I hope other members will too.

Honey_Bunny, this problem did not arise overnight. You need to make sure that Frizzle stays hydrated as you try to get food into her. This is why you add liquids to the dry foods like oatmeal or pellets and then syringe them into the rabbit's mouth, a bit at a time, if she won't take them on her own. Akane has given you very good advice on this and has much more experience than I do. I suggest you give her a crock or bowl for water at this point. Many rabbits will drink more that way and it is vital that she gets fluids. A rabbit that is not drinking will not eat.

I hope you are able to save Frizzle. If there is anything you don't understand, please ask for more detail. :good-luck:

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Hi Honey_Bunny,

I hope you have been able to get some food and liquids down her as suggested, and that she is feeling a little better.

I wonder if Frizzle is truly ill though- you mentioned her being with a couple of her daughters... if she is an affectionate mom that spends time grooming her kits it is possible that she has developed "wool block", which is basically the rabbit version of a "hairball" in a cat.

One of the symptoms of wool block is a lack of appetite, and often they have small hard feces.

This post details one of our member's experiences with treating wool block:

post123217.html?hilit=wool%20block#p123217

This post is mainly about prevention:

wool-block-info-t13801.html

I hope Frizzle will be feeling better soon! :clover: