Morning Tummy Troubles

[HalaBuns]

Hi everyone

So my little Gigi has suffered from bouts of gas, fairly randomly, over the last few months. I have already made changes to improve her diet and they seemed to be working, until this week.

She was checked by the vet not long ago and he could not find anything medically that is causing it, so I am still inclined to think it is diet related. I will be keeping a log of what she is eating from now on in order to try to eliminate whatever it is that triggers is.

She only ever seems to experience the problems in the morning though, we’ve never had an issue at any other time of day. Is that the norm for an upset tummy? Or could that mean it is linked to something that she eats at a certain time the day before?

Hope this makes sense. Thank you!

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

Haru has been gassy too, apparently she has pinworms, before I knew about the worms i was asking and searching about her being gassy, what are you feeding her? someone said that it’s better to stop the veggies and pellets for a few days..
If she got better then it should be the reason, you can then change her pellets or something, or if it’s from the veggies you can give it to her and observe her to see which one is upsetting her stomach.

 

[HalaBuns]

A few weeks back I moved her to just hay and then just hay and veggies for a week, which worked well. I’ve then slowly reintroduced pellets. For treats they get a pinch of burgess dried herbs, or half a Timothy hay cube. They get no fruit or carrot etc anymore, but don’t seem to miss it.

The only “naughty” thing they have had recently / this week is a Rosewood Naturals treat ball, so I figured it could be that yesterday. Once I got her eating after a gassy episode yesterday morning, she only had 1/2 hay cube, a lot of hay and 1/2 bowl veggies in the evening, no pellets or anything else at all. She ate a really good amount of hay, so I was a bit surprised that she was upset again this morning.

She did have a nibble on a cardboard box both last night and the night before and in hindsight I shouldn’t have let her have access to that yesterday. I never let her chew on it for long, but even so, it may not have helped.

A new dog has also moved in next door and has been barking when it’s left alone. She hasn’t seemed to be bothered by that, but guess it may have upset her.

It could be a number of things and I really think it’s diet (or indeed, cardboard). It’s just trying to pin down what it is. I just wasn’t sure whether the time of day it happens can help me track back to what it could be.

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

Cardboard should be safe..
It could be the burgess dried herbs, it has wheat and other stuff that could upset her stomach

 

[Apollo’s Slave]

It could very possibly be the cardboard. I’ve been seeing a post around Instagram which has been saying that companies have been spraying parcel boxes with something that isn’t safe for animals due to coronavirus. But that could just be scaremongering and/or speculation.
What veggies are you feeding? Some greens are more likely to give your rabbit gas than others: the most common ones are broccoli and kale

 

[HalaBuns]

Cardboard should be safe..
It could be the burgess dried herbs, it has wheat and other stuff that could upset her stomach

That would be a shame, they absolutely love the stuff!

 

[HalaBuns]

It could very possibly be the cardboard. I’ve been seeing a post around Instagram which has been saying that companies have been spraying parcel boxes with something that isn’t safe for animals due to coronavirus. But that could just be scaremongering and/or speculation.
What veggies are you feeding? Some greens are more likely to give your rabbit gas than others: the most common ones are broccoli and kale

Ooh interesting. And could well be true, I never thought about it. I have had some “interesting” smelling Amazon plastic packaging recently so that is a possibility if they spray everything.

I try to stay away from the gassy veg. They get either romaine or Boston Holland lettuce and I vary in chicory, bok choy, fennel, coriander, mint, dill and parsley (not every week). Nothing new has been added to their veg “routine” but there could be something in there that’s not agreeing

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

It could very possibly be the cardboard. I’ve been seeing a post around Instagram which has been saying that companies have been spraying parcel boxes with something that isn’t safe for animals due to coronavirus. But that could just be scaremongering and/or speculation.
What veggies are you feeding? Some greens are more likely to give your rabbit gas than others: the most common ones are broccoli and kale

I don’t think it’s the cardboard because she said that she nibbled on it yesterday and the day before.. but she’s been gassy for a few months now..

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

About the dried herbs, there are some things there that I don’t even know what it it is to check if it’s okay or not, when I give it to haru I would choose the things that looks like herbs or flowers and throw out the wheat, seeds, and other weird things. It shouldn’t be that bad since I know someone who’s feeding it to their rabbit since forever and their rabbit looks okay, also if wheat was harmful they wouldn’t have added it in pellets, BUT every rabbit is different and i heard someone talking about wheat getting rabbits bloated.

 

[HalaBuns]

Well it happened again this morning I got up and she was cold, didn’t really purr when I pet her and just sat hunched up when I put food down. Last night she was apparently ravenous, begging for food and hopping around all over the place

I’m not working from home today and have to go to the office, so have given her some simethicone straight away as I don’t have a lot of time so need to get her eating ASAP so I can leave for work without stressing all day.

I won’t give her any herbs today, see if that makes a difference. Need to figure out what it is, we can’t do this every day!

 

[HalaBuns]

Well, work has gone out the window I was about to call the vet, but after 2 doses of simethicone I have finally got her munching on a hay block. She had a couple of mouthfuls of pellets 2 hours ago, but other than that, wouldn’t touch anything and actually became aggressive towards the food bowl, biting it and trying to tip it over.

I stupidly left my bedroom door open so had to pick her up to move her out of there or she would have hidden under the bed. Each time I go near her with a syringe, or pick her up, I have at least 30-40 mins of sulking / de-stressing time after, where it’s hard to gauge whether she’s not eating because she’s annoyed about what just happened to her, or if she’s still uncomfortable.

Hopefully she’ll move onto proper hay soon, otherwise I may call the vet anyway. But at least we have progress and she’s eating something. Poops are ok, other than she left 2 ceco’s in the litter tray earlier?

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

Well, work has gone out the window I was about to call the vet, but after 2 doses of simethicone I have finally got her munching on a hay block. She had a couple of mouthfuls of pellets 2 hours ago, but other than that, wouldn’t touch anything and actually became aggressive towards the food bowl, biting it and trying to tip it over.

I stupidly left my bedroom door open so had to pick her up to move her out of there or she would have hidden under the bed. Each time I go near her with a syringe, or pick her up, I have at least 30-40 mins of sulking / de-stressing time after, where it’s hard to gauge whether she’s not eating because she’s annoyed about what just happened to her, or if she’s still uncomfortable.

Hopefully she’ll move onto proper hay soon, otherwise I may call the vet anyway. But at least we have progress and she’s eating something. Poops are ok, other than she left 2 ceco’s in the litter tray earlier?

Feed her the cecotropes that she left, this happened to me yesterday, she was gassy, she didn’t want to eat, and left a trail of cecotropes behind her, I gave her belly rubs and fresh hay, when I changed the hay she started eating a bit, then she got better by herself, she’s still gassy but it’s not bothering her as much
Continue with the gas drops, of she hates them like haru, try putting it into the veggies, if she eats veggies, what hay does she get? you can get her oxbow hay from petzone

 

[HalaBuns]

Yeah, she turned her nose up at her ceco’s earlier.

She’s been getting a lot of belly rubs along with the simethicone. She’s just had a lot of water from her bowl, some mint and is currently munching on some lettuce, so she’s heading in the right direction. Giving her simethicone does stress her out so I try to avoid it until I know nothing else I do is working.

She gets Burgess Timothy hay, which she loves usually. She’s already a lot happier, so I think she’ll be tucking into that soon.

Just need to make sure this doesn’t happen again tomorrow!

 

[Haru the Lionhead]

Yeah, she turned her nose up at her ceco’s earlier.

She’s been getting a lot of belly rubs along with the simethicone. She’s just had a lot of water from her bowl, some mint and is currently munching on some lettuce, so she’s heading in the right direction. Giving her simethicone does stress her out so I try to avoid it until I know nothing else I do is working.

She gets Burgess Timothy hay, which she loves usually. She’s already a lot happier, so I think she’ll be tucking into that soon.

Just need to make sure this doesn’t happen again tomorrow!

It’s good that she’s eating now, like I said.. you can rub the gas drops in the veggies
Haru gets burgess too, I only give it to her because it’s the best one I could find here in SA, it’s mostly yellow/brown
If you can try the oxbow one.. it’s more green, it would be better for her

 

[HalaBuns]

Oh my goodness cucumber. I totally forgot that I added a slice to their veggies this week because they love it. Just read it can make them gassy. They have had it before, but hopefully we have our culprit.

 

[HalaBuns]

Well it’s not cucumber that’s been cut out completely and we had improvement for a day, but since Christmas Day she’s not been interested in food in the mornings again, until I’ve massaged her tummy and got her moving around. She used to be so excited for brekkie The rest of the day and evenings her appetite is great, she has lots of hay and is super active, zoomies, binkies, flops etc. Poops are also still looking good.

My other bunny is still loving food, so I would prefer to continue with a process of elimination at this point, rather than stripping back to hay and adding back in.

Once I have removed something from her diet, how long would it be before I see improvement? Should it be the following day or could it possibly take a few days?

Should I also be getting her checked by the vet again at this point? She was last seen at the end of October.

 

[Diane R]

Have you removed the cardboard? Is there anything else non-food that she chews? Some foods can have a cumulative effect so you might not see improvement right away. And it may not be diet related at all. I've been there, it drives you mad trying to figure out what causes it. I think I would want more diagnostics, bloods, maybe CT scan but you have to have a good rabbit vet who can interpret the scan.

 

[HalaBuns]

You’re right, it really is baffling. I was so certain it was the cucumber.

No more cardboard. They have a grass mat and wooden chew toys, which they have had for ages and don’t really get too interested in. They get a fresh willow stick each every day, which they lose interest in once they have stripped the bark off, but keeps them from chewing other things in the house.

I did wonder whether she’s nibbling at something at night that she shouldn’t, but she’s not one to go for furniture. She’s more likely to go for the corners of the walls, but they don’t look any more damaged than before.

The vet who last looked at her seemed very good and was recommended by a bunny group here in Dubai, so I might book in with him if there is no improvement in a few days.

By 9am this morning she was lively and eating normally, which was a bit better than other days, but still just not her bouncy self beforehand. I stopped giving her the burgess dried herbs a couple of days ago, so I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that in the coming days. That was one of the newest additions to their diet since I removed all fruit, so it may also make sense that it’s now bothering her.