Elderly bunny GI problems

[gentle giants]

As most of you know, I have a seven year old buck named Toby, that was handed to me by his owner a few months ago. When I got him, he had been having runny poops fora long time, to the point where his entire back end and tail were matted with feces. He had been on crap feed, I don't know how long he had been on it but it was obviously causing the problem because once I got him eating my feed, it slowly cleared up.

Anyway, I have noticed that I have to be veeery careful what treats I give him and only in tiny amounts, because the slightest thing will give him bad diahrrea. He can handle two-three dried cranberries a day, or a small bit of banana, but nothing else and not in the same day. Last night, I tried giving him and Max (his bondmate) a tiny piece of cabbage, only about a 1" x 1" piece each, and Max is fine but today Toby has got really bad runs again, it's all over the pen and stuck to his bottom.

My main question is, is it typical for an older rabbit to have sensitive GI tracts? Or could the long time on bad feed and no attention to his needs have damaged it? Is this something that may get better the longer he is on good food and care? Toby is still eating fine this morning and is acting normal, so I am not *really* worried, but I fel bad that he can't have many treats at all.

 

[Maureen Las]

He could have a parasite...

When I got Rudy from the shelter he had been brought in as a stray which means he was eating off the land for awhile.

I noticed that anytime I gave him greens he had blow out diarrhea. A fecal was donebut came back negative.

The day after he was neutered he passed a piece of a tapeworm . Apparently the anesthesia and surgery had injured it. He was treated with 2 doses of Droncit..after the first dose another piece of worm came out >Since then (3 years ago) he has been my biggest veggie eater.
rabbits pick up tapeworms byeating the eggs off the grass outside which may have been contaminated with the stool of an animal with a tapeworm ; other predators get tapeworms from eating the rabbits that have them and so on...

parasites do not always show in fecals or have to be caught in different lifecycles of the eggs etc. For ex. with coccidia numerous fecals have to be run in order to rule out the illness

if the eosinphil level on bloodwork is high that is an indicator of a possible parasite

your vet may want to do some tests or possibly just treat him

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=39593&forum_id=10

 

[Flashy]

Is it possible that his tummy is just sensitive as a backlash from what he went through? Someone who I did a home visit for adopted a bun who came from somewhere with an awful diet and she is struggling with her, gut wise, because a lot of things seem to give her mucous, and after many tests it seems to be due to just the poor conditions she came from.

My elderly bunnies (9 and nearly 12 when they died)have not had this problem at all, so I wouldn't say it's normal or common for elderly bunnies, so it sounds like a quirk of your bun, for whatever reason, and I guess figuring out that reason is probably the most important thing. Some buns just can't tolerate greens though, it could be as simple as that.

 

[gentle giants]

Angieluv-I hope he doesn't have a parasite, I didn't knowthey could cause off-and-on diarhea that way. I don't have any idea if he had grass before he came here, but after coming here he hasn't eaten any grass or hay either one, he has bad teeth and won't even attempt to eat them when I offer.

Flashy-I am hoping that this is caused by what he was fed before I got him, I know that she gave him a lot of "junk" treats and a rather poor pellet feed. She had been offering him some hay, but of course he couldn't eat it anyway. I just didn't know if the sensitivity he has could have come just from age, but since your well-cared for older bunnies didn't have that problem I guess that isn't it.

 

[Maureen Las]

Not bring able to eat hay can really wreak havoc on a buns GI tract.

Beau (My bun with all the molar extractions) cannot eat hay and his poops are sometimes normal but he has way too many fecals.

I don't even post about it because i am doing what I can do
he cannot eat any hay or greens but he at times tries to chew hay which is impossible

sad situation becausevegetation is their natural diet.