Help! My rabbit is sick, I think!

[mini990701]

Help! My rabbit, Sugar, is a holland lop rabbit. A few minutes ago, I noticed that she wasn't moving around and she wasn't eating anything. Her ears are extremely cold. Whenever I take her out of her cage, she slowly hops back to her cage and still sits still. She is normally energetic and greets me at her cage door. She normally loves her treats and her timothy hay. She also normally loves to lick me a LOT, but now when i put my hand to her nose, she doesn't notice that my hand is there. My parents don't want to take her to the vet so I don't know what to do! Please Help!

 

[agnesthelion]

Can you tell us age, when the last time she ate, what she ate, is she drinking water, when she has last peed or pooped?

So sorry she is sick but some of this info will help answer your questions.

 

[mini990701]

She is about 3 months old. The last time she ate was an hour ago. She ate 1/4 cup of pellets and she had unlimited timothy hay. She is having slightly soft poo now. She is a bit more active but still not eating. She drank a tiny bit when i gave her some by syringe, but now she is letting it drip down her chin.

 

[JBun]

Do you have any simethicone(infant gas relief drops)? If not go get some. Walmart or any pharmacy will have them. Can you feel her stomach. Does it feel hard at all, or does it seem bloated and really puffed out at all? If it is bloated then you need to get her to the vet right away! It's most likely that she has an upset stomach and some gas, which can actually be quite serious if you don't get the pain down from the gas and get her eating again. She can develop GI stasis where she will get a blockage and she'll stop pooping. So your best bet is to try the gas drops. I'm not quite sure dosage for a 3 mo. old. Adult dose is 1cc. Try 0.4cc once an hour for 3 hours, then once every 3-8 hours if she still isn't feeling well. You will usually notice it helping shortly after the second dose. If you have the rabbit med Metacam(pain med) that would be good too, but you need to give her the right dose for her size. Try seeing if she'll eat some leafy greens like cilantro, parsley, or green leaf lettuce(not iceburg). And make sure she has hay available at all times. Clean out her litter box and if she doesn't have any poop in it by morning, you need to take her to the vet. Don't feed her any sugary treats, grains, carbs, or starches(like carrots). What kind of treats does she normally get? It may be treats or too many pellets that are causing the problem. Hopefully the simethicone will help and she'll be feeling better.

 

[mini990701]

Well it is winter here right now, so she is eating 3 times more, according to my vet, and she said that she should have a puffy, but soft belly. She has a soft belly. She is eating again! And drinking, but she ate her diarrhea. It was not shiny, but brown and squishy. So i am not sure if it was cecals or diarrhea now.

 

[JBun]

Are her fecal poops normal or are they coming out soft? If she is having soft fecals or if you are seeing her cecotropes and they don't look like the normal cluster of grapes, you may need to cut back on her pellets. I know at this age that they are supposed to have unlimited pellets, but sometimes for some rabbits, that just doesn't work out because they have a more sensitive digestive system. I have a little doe about the same age and she would always have a few soft poops everyday. So I started to cut back on her pellets and she started having less of the soft poops, and when I tried to give her more pellets, she would have a lot more soft poops. So now she gets about a tablespoon of pellets a day and a little alfalfa hay, and as much timothy as she wants. Now I don't see soft poops from her as often. Giving sugary treats can also cause the digestive problems, and a few veggies too. So it really just depends on your individual rabbit, as to what is going to be best to feed her.

Now if you had recently just fed her something different that she doesn't normally get, and then this happened shortly afterward, then I would say that it was probably whatever you fed her that caused the problem, but if she was just getting her usual food and nothing new, then in these cases it is almost always caused by excess carbs and sugars causing the digestive problems, either from too many treats, or from too many carbs and sugars that are in the pellets she's getting. The best way to solve it is to cut out treats if you are feeding them and see if that helps. If you aren't feeding treats, then it will be the pellets causing the problem, so you should cut back on the pellets and see if that helps. You just always make sure that she always has lots of hay to eat. Hay is the best thing for digestive problems.

One other possibility, especially if changing the diet doesn't help, is that it could be parasites or bacteria causing the digestive problems. In that case you would need to take your rabbit into the vet to get the right medicine for her.

I'm glad she's eating again and feeling better

 

[mini990701]

Her poop is still soft and damp, but she is stuffing herself again, but after she eats, she starts sitting in a corner or on her igloo like she is depressed again...

 

[JBun]

Try just restricting her to hay only for a day, just to see if it helps her feel better and her poops get back to normal. If she isn't feeling better tomorrow, or starts feeling worse, you should probably get her to the vet.

 

[mini990701]

All better and gave me a SHOWER of kisses because I massaged her tummy when she had her tummy ache.

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

WOO Hoo! Glad to hear she's doing better! arty0002:

 

[mini990701]

Oh, no! She has runny poop again! She was fine 2 days ago, but it started again. It doesn't look like she eats or drinks, but when i give her one of her Fiesta Papaya treats, she takes it and eats it. She's not moving and she is sitting on her igloo like she is depressed again...