Ebony's losing weight/Appt for Ebony- merged

[Robin123]

My rabbit Ebony has been not eating and losingweight for the past month. I took her to the vetand they kept her in the hospital for a couple of days. Theydid bloodwork and tests but nothing showed up. They put heron Critical Care food and she gained a tiny bit of weightback. Theysaid the don't know what's wrongthough. They said really the only thing they could do now wasto put her under and do surgeryto try to find out what couldbe wrong. We decided to wait a little while to see if shegains more weight back.

She still only weighs about 2 pounds though, half of what she normallyweighs. She only wants toeat Critical Care.Lately we started to put some pellets in with the CriticalCare and she'll eat that. But she won't touch her regularfood. Not even hay. She's fine other thanthat. She's still active and everything, she's just sothin. She'll be 2 in November. Does anyone have anyideas about why she doesn't want to eat?

 

[jordiwes]

Are you seeing a rabbit savvy vet? What area are you in? Losing half of your body weight is very serious.

Has the vet checked his teeth, specifically his molars?

 

[Robin123]

Yes, the vet looked inside her mouth and checkedall her teeth. They were fine. The vet I take herto specializes in small animals. I don't know what todo. I don't want to lose her. She's not even 2 yet.

 

[Pipp]

There's no way of knowing for sure about molarissues without doing a head xray, did they do one? A visualcheck isn't enough. If everything else checks out, that'sdefinitely the next step, certainly not surgery. A bunny thatwill eat food thatshe doesn't have to chew usually has teethissues.

I'd also highly recommend Nutri-Cal in this case, at least for theshort term toget her strength up. It's a highcalorie supplement for cats and dogs, but it works very well withrabbits. You mush a ribbon of it on her foot and she'll lickit off. Very easy and stress free.

Good luck with her! Let us know how she's doing.

sas

 

[Robin123]

no, they didn't do a head x-ray to check herteeth. She had a camera she put inside Ebony's mouth and itshowed on the monitor. She said she could trim her teeth butthey'd have to put her under and she really didn't think that was theproblem. She didn't say anything about a head x-ray to checkher molars.

 

[Pipp]

It could be a root issue, or a hard-to-seespur. They really should do xrays.Thecamera scope is pretty cool and will find most problems, but notall.

Putting her under for molar spur surgery isn't so bad, btw.If the vet is up to date with the right drugs, etc, there's verysafemedsthat will justknock heroutfor 30 minutes or so, and then theygiveheranother drug to bring herout of it.

Have you tried canned pumpkin and grated veggies? Pipp will eatpumpkin, grated carrot andcelery on her own, but that's aboutit. (She REALLY hates Critical Care).

Pipp suddenly stops eating when her spurs act up, she has no othersymptoms. And the vet couldn't see her's visually,either. She's a wimp, she folds even when it's just a tinylittle spur. Radar stopped eating for awhile, once,turned out he had a celery string caught in his teeth.

Pipp will start eating again if I give her Metacam, a pain killer,although I have to make sure I give it to her with diluted carrot juiceand some food, she doesn't drink much water (she won't drink any waterwhen she has spurs), and you can't give Metacam to a dehydrated bunny.

You may also want to make sure that you don't have a batch ofmoldypellets or hay, it's unlikely, but possible.

What kind of bunny is she?

sas

 

[Robin123]

i'm going to call the vet tomorrow morning andsee if they'd do a head x-ray on her. I justfinished giving her some canned pumpkin. She hasn't had itbefore but she ate a bit of it. She'll also eat mashedbanana. I've tried giving her grated carrot but she didn'twant it. Do you get Metacam from the vet?

I'm not sure what kind of bunny she is, but she has lop ears.

 

[Robin123]

does Pipp have surgery for the spurs or do you just give her pain medication?

 

[naturestee]

Robin123 wrote:

does Pipp have surgery for the spurs or do you just give herpain medication?

Pipp gets both surgery and pain meds. Molar spurs have to be treated or the bunny won't be able to eat at all.

If she likes pumpkin and banana, you can mix a little of those in withher Critical Care to get her to eat more. Or skip theCritical Care and make a mush of her regular pellets with water,Nutri-cal, and whatever yummy stuff you feel like putting inthere. You can even add finely chopped veggies likeparsley. Critical Care is just pre-made pellet mush.

I definately agree that Ebony needs a head xray and maybe a secondcheck with a scope while she's anesthetised. Pipp (humanPipp) forgot to mention it, but the first molar spurs Pipp's teeth wereon the very last molars and could not be seen by a visual exam whileshe was awake.

 

[Robin123]

I made her an appointment for nextWednesday. Hopefully they will do an xray to see if it isjust a problem with her teeth and not something more serious.I don't know why the vet didn't suggest an xray before.

I gave her some mashed banana this morning but she didn't want it forsome reason. It's usually one of her favorites. Shedid eat some more canned pumpkin last night though. What elsecan I try that she might like?

 

[jordiwes]

Applesauce? Baby food? Grated carrot?

I hope she gets better soon!

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Wednesday is a long time if she is not eating.

Apple juice on her hay andpellets might help herappetite. Sprinkle some on topof them.
Oats is soft, and my bunny loves them.
Anything alfalfa (hay, pellets,cubes, treats) should attract any bunny.

Good Luck.:carrot Rainbows!

 

[Haley]

hm...have you tried grinding up her pellets andmixing in some water? If she wont take it willingly, you could try tosyringe it to her.

Is she eating much of anything? If not, you need to get her in sooner than next wednesday.

pumpkin works for my boys. you could also try to add some banana or pumpkin to mushed pellets for flavor.

-Haley

EDIT: sorry, didnt see your earlier post. Im going to merge this oneinto your other one, if thats okay, so people know whats wrong with her.

 

[Haley]

Just thought of something else, have you feltalong her jawline to be sure theres not an abscess therecausing her discomfort?

Sounds like a molar problem to me though. Please keep us posted.

 

[Robin123]

I just gaveEbony someapplesause. She want it either. If it was a problemwith her teeth would she not want to eat anything, even softfoods? She will eat Critical Care and a little bit of othersoft foods but not as much as she should. I do mix theCritical Care with her regular pellets and she'll eat that, but shewon't eat them dry.

 

[Robin123]

Sorry, it was supposed to say she doesn't want applesause either.

 

[naturestee]

You can mush up her pellets with water and feedit without the Critical Care, she might like that better. Youdon't really need the Critical Care if she'll eat a mush of her regularpellets.

 

[Haley]

How didEbony's appt go???

Any luck putting some weight on yet?

 

[Robin123]

Ebony's appt. went ok. The vet weighedher and her weight is now 2.87 lbs. She checked Ebony's teethagain and her molars are over grown a little bit but the vet didn'tthink it was enough to make her not want to eat. She said shehad seen much worse and the rabbit would still eat. She stillthinks there's something going on inside her. We decided together teethtrimmed anyway to see if ithelps. Hopefully it will. The vet said the onlyother thing she could do was to do exploratory surgery to find outwhat's wrong. But I'm not sure if that's a goodidea. Ebony's finein every other way.She's still active and everything.SoI'mhopinggetting her teeth trimmed willhelp and it'snot something more serious.

 

[m.e.]

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