Losing weigt

[baniandjulie]

Hi
I don't know what to do.. First sorry for my english, it's not my first language.
Our bunns is 2 years old. About 2 months ago she had soft stools one day and her hairs on the butt and legs got dirty and they haven't been clean since then even tho she had normal stool most times.. Sometimes she has soft poops even tho she only eats hay and pellets, rarely veggies and trees. We tried cleaning her with wet towel and she cleans herself too but it doesn't work. One day we tried to cut her hairs and we noticed a wound, size of a small palm, all over her butt. Took her to the vet, she said there were worms and said to eutanize her. We went to see another vet for another opinion and she gave us directions: clean the wound, apply Skingel, gave her ampula against worms, ticks and fleas, gave her pain medication and antibiotics (3 days). At the start of the treatment she had 4.5kg. The wound healed, there were no worms visible already the same day after the first vet visit. But she lost 1 kg since then.. She's losing about 300g per week, even though she's eating more than usual. Our vet is on vacation but we reached another one and she gave us antiparasitic medication (for 3 days, Panacur, she finished this yesterday)..what else could be the cause of weight loss? She's skin and bones the teeth were checked, they are fine, but I'm sceptical about it because she has a wet underchin that she keeps on licking. But she eats normally, doesn't show any signs of pain when eating. Also, she's been acting NORMAL since ever...playing, jumping, being naughty..if we didn't cut the hairs, we would have never know about the wound, that's how normal she was acting.. Any other ideas what could be wrong? Since the teeth are supposedly fine (I also checked them myself at home and the front ones seem okay)..the antiparasitic treatment is finished, the wound is healed, she has no signs of lung infection. The vet said if this continued, we check blood.
She's unspayed and has been leaking brown drops everywhere.. Could it be uterine cancer? Her poops are normal, she's drinking the usual amount of water.

Thank you for any imputs.

 

[Mileybun]

The brown drops are concerning, especially if she isn't spayed.
Id pop back to the vet for the bloods, perhaps a scan of her reproductive organs to check for pyometra (although you would expect her to be very unwell with pyo).

I wonder if the original was not caused by worms but flystrike? Flies lay maggots on dirty fur/skin and proceed to basically eat the rabbit, not very nice at all.

If it was me I would ask the vet to shave that dirty area off to get a much better look to make sure there are no more maggots too.

 

[baniandjulie]

The brown drops are concerning, especially if she isn't spayed.
Id pop back to the vet for the bloods, perhaps a scan of her reproductive organs to check for pyometra (although you would expect her to be very unwell with pyo).

I wonder if the original was not caused by worms but flystrike? Flies lay maggots on dirty fur/skin and proceed to basically eat the rabbit, not very nice at all.

If it was me I would ask the vet to shave that dirty area off to get a much better look to make sure there are no more maggots too.

Yes, it was caused by flies, almost certain. I noticed some around her butt. The worms probably came after that..but when we cut the hairs, we didn't notice ANY. 2 hours later we had an app.at the vet and she said there are many.. She cleaned the wound but said she couldn't clean everything. Later that evening we took care of her and we didn't notice any worms anymore.. But I was told the treatment would be the same anyway if it was flystrike?

The wound was checked and is basically healed and closed, with a crust over, no infection seen, no puss, no bulging areas.

We shaved the other parts, like under the butt and the skin looks okay. We clean paws with a towel

 

[Mileybun]

The wound does look like it's healing well
Definitely mention the brown spots and the fact she isn't spayed to the vets. It could be a reproductive problem.
Best of luck

 

[Jocee]

oh poor Bun

You are doing a wonderful job with your Bun and taking great care of her

 

[baniandjulie]

oh poor Bun

You are doing a wonderful job with your Bun and taking great care of her

Doesn't feel like it feeling guilty that I didn't do all diagnostic procedures in the first place, maybe this weight loss could have been prevented

 

[Preitler]

Do you supplement her feed, rolled oats are great for that, in cases I really want rabbits to keep their weight I sprinkle sunflowerseed oil over the oats. the oats are also a great way to give them medication.

I don't know what that problem could be, if it were one of mine I would check for parasites like coccidia, or anything else that could mess up their poop.

You are not that far away from here, I had rabbits with mobility issues that I had to give butt baths now and then, never had anything like flystrike. I think there are two kinds of that, parasitic flies like botflies that don't care about poopy butts or not, and rather normal flies whose maggots end up on a dirty rear and cause havoc - it's only the second one that worries me since no other breeder i know around here ever saw a botfly flystrike.

I'm sorry you go through this, right now I have a very poorly bunny too, Chantal has cysts on her ovaries, which caused her to go into a hormonal frenzie, which weakened her enough for E. cuniculi to break out. Even after treatment her wry neck remianed and she has problems navigating, and got stuck in the garden, and I guess she injured her spine, has problems using her hind legs now . I too feel guilty, overstretched my own recources to an unhealthy point for quite some time now and have the feeling not beeing able to do what's necessary, i'm just so tired, but on the other hand, I don't think I could have prevented anything. Hindsight always is 20/20.

 

[baniandjulie]

Do you supplement her feed, rolled oats are great for that, in cases I really want rabbits to keep their weight I sprinkle sunflowerseed oil over the oats. the oats are also a great way to give them medication.

I don't know what that problem could be, if it were one of mine I would check for parasites like coccidia, or anything else that could mess up their poop.

You are not that far away from here, I had rabbits with mobility issues that I had to give butt baths now and then, never had anything like flystrike. I think there are two kinds of that, parasitic flies like botflies that don't care about poopy butts or not, and rather normal flies whose maggots end up on a dirty rear and cause havoc - it's only the second one that worries me since no other breeder i know around here ever saw a botfly flystrike.

I'm sorry you go through this, right now I have a very poorly bunny too, Chantal has cysts on her ovaries, which caused her to go into a hormonal frenzie, which weakened her enough for E. cuniculi to break out. Even after treatment her wry neck remianed and she has problems navigating, and got stuck in the garden, and I guess she injured her spine, has problems using her hind legs now . I too feel guilty, overstretched my own recources to an unhealthy point for quite some time now and have the feeling not beeing able to do what's necessary, i'm just so tired, but on the other hand, I don't think I could have prevented anything. Hindsight always is 20/20.

Sorry to hear about your bunny it's been rough days but we'll get through

I don't supplement but we bought some new pellets - the ones she had before the ones she has now. She was nuts about them, constantly asking for more, you couldn't even give them to her because she started growling like a dog and jumped on your arm she was getting a bit chubby back then so we switched to another pellets and she was calm about them. So we gave her her favorite ones today and she ate like 3 palm scoops so I'm hoping for a weight gain eventually.
We have a vet app.on Thursday, she said to bring some poops so she can send them for analysis, they will also take blood and do an xray, hopefully she won't need anesthesia I can't go inside with her to hold her due to radiation cuz I'm pregnant.

 

[baniandjulie]

Quick update: buns is gaining weight, about 100g per day. We asked the vet if this is normal because it seems a lot but she said it's okay because she was also losing 100g per day. I collected poops and brought them, they looked fine to me at home but when we arrived at the vet, I took them out and there were PARASITES ALL OVER them they sent them to analysis and she said to continue her antiparasitic therapy (Panacur) and added some Entero Zoo (it's like a probiotic that collects toxins from parasites that are dying inside the animal).
Idk if I'm crazy or what but I swear I checked her poops many times to search for parasites but haven't seen any?! And the same was for worms she had on her wound, NONE at home, infested at the vet and then again none at home?! Is it that they only come out if it:s hot?? That's only thing I could think of because we were driving to the vet and it was hot in the car until air conditioner did its job.