Emma not drinking water on her own...

[Jenk]

How long can a bun go without drinking water before there's a dehydration issue? Let me explain why I ask.
[align=left] I recently increased Emma's greens ration from a treat-sized amount in the evening to 1/2 C. in both the AM and PM. Her behavior changed around the time of the increase. After a few days, she barely drank any water but continued passing okay fecals. She also stopped eating most of her hay, which she used to chow with enthusiasm. I expected her to drink less water but not to stop almost entirely. I also thought she'd still eat hay.

She began resting earlier in the day and for a longer period of time. She started acting more agitated, bar biting more than usual. (She normally rests for the day by 11 am; now, she sometimes bar bites until 1:30 pm!) She's been acting "off" in other ways, too, but I can't pinpoint what might be the issue. And it's hard to justify the cost and stress of a vet visit, if she's eating and pooping. (NOTE: She has taken as long as 4.5 hours to eat her 1/2 C. of greens, when she used to race to her treat-sized amount of them.)
[/align] Last night, I didn't feed her greens, thinking her changed behavior was from gas caused by the greens. But I figured she'd then drink more water on her own, but she has barely touched water in the last 12 hours. (She used to drink 100-150 mL's of water within 24 hours when I fed her a treat-sized amount of greens each evening.) I even started adding some apple juice to her water, since she likes it (the juice); still, she's not been tempted to drink water on her own. And I just spied tiny, dry fecals in her box--not good.... I'm ready to give her sub'Qs for the heck of it, since I can't keep up with syringing her extra water to make up for what she isn't consuming herself.


Thank you,

Jenk

 

[OneTwoThree]

Leafy greens give bunnies a lot of water, so I wouldn't worry about that.

If her poos aren't normal, I would take her to the vet, but you said she's not eating hay so that could account for it.

One of my buns chows her 2 cups of veggies in about 5 minutes, the other makes it last all night, so I think thats just a bunny preference thing. They both still eat the rec amount of pellets (1/4 cup for my 9 month old, unlimited for my 4 month old) and both still eat a ton of hay, but their hay intake was affected more when I cut down the pellets rather than when I added salads.

ETA- did your vet recommend the apple juice trick? If not, I wouldn't do it, there's a lot of sugar and crap in juice.

 

[Jenk]

OneTwoThree wrote:

Leafy greens give bunnies a lot of water, so I wouldn't worry about that.

If her poos aren't normal, I would take her to the vet, but you said she's not eating hay so that could account for it.

My main issue is the drive to the vet, which is 40 minutes one way. I fear making a possible problem worse, if I stress Emma more than is necessary. My biggest problem is that I can't tell if a vet visit is really necessary. All I know is that I'm seeing "off" behavior in her--e.g., the change in her resting period, the fact that she's not "asking" to come out (bar biting) at her usual times, and my observation of seeing her sitting upright in the same spot for 1 hour (or more). All of these behaviors are unusual for her.

One of my buns chows her 2 cups of veggies in about 5 minutes, the other makes it last all night, so I think thats just a bunny preference thing. They both still eat the rec amount of pellets (1/4 cup for my 9 month old, unlimited for my 4 month old) and both still eat a ton of hay, but their hay intake was affected more when I cut down the pellets rather than when I added salads.

Emma only gets 1 Tbsp. of pellets because she's very stasis-prone. In fact, I removed her pellets for a portion of her recent stasis bout, then slowly re-introduced them. I just increased them back to 1 Tbsp. yesterday, and, so, expected her to drink more water due to the increase (and since I didn't feed her greens last night). My hypothesis was clearly busted.

ETA- did your vet recommend the apple juice trick? If not, I wouldn't do it, there's a lot of sugar and crap in juice.

No, the vet didn't recommend it; some RO members use this trick with great success. In my case, though, it doesn't matter either way, since Emma didn't touch much of it. *sigh*

I broke down and fed Emma about 1/2 C. of wet greens around 11:30 am and will again syringe her more water throughout the day. If she doesn't seem improved by tonight--i.e., is passing smaller/drier fecals--I'll probably break down and give her one dose of sub-Qs.


Thank you,

Jenk

 

[Maureen Las]

Jen

I would just hold off on the sub q fluids for now. I really think that you are examining her too closely right now because you are so afraid of more problems and are so very concerned about her. :hug:

Some days my rabbits have drier poops and I just take note of itand the next day their poops are wet again. Rabbits are like people in that not everything is exactly the same every day.


Iknow that she is different and has special problems but from what you are describing she is OK for now

... Hugs

.Maureen

 

[Jenk]

angieluv wrote:

Jen

I would just hold off on the sub q fluids for now. I really think that you are examining her too closely right now because you are so afraid of more problems and are so very concerned about her. :hug:

Some days my rabbits have drier poops and I just take note of it and the next day their poops are wet again. Rabbits are like people in that not everything is exactly the same every day.

Iknow that she is different and has special problems but from what you are describing she is OK for now

I know that you are right in terms of me examining her too closely. I start feeling rather :lookaround whenever I see changes in her output, but it's worse right now because of the behavioral changes I'm witnessing. (BTW, drier poop, in general, I can handle--when dealing with a megacolon-free bun ; tiny and dry poop, though, makes me nervous, and Emma passed some of that earlier today.)

I will hold off on the sub-Q fluids and return to feeding Emma greens both morning and evening. I'm not sure what I'll do if her hay consumption remains so much lower as a result of the increased greens; then again, I suppose there wouldn't be too much that I could do, eh?

Thanks, Maureen. :hug:


Jenk