My poor Muffy..

[PixieStixxxx]

Miss Muffy is 10 years old. And now she's starting to lose weight. She's always been a little piggy. She's still eating, but now I've noticed she's starting to take her time a little. Also, she's now sleeping in my presence (Almost had a heart attack yesterday morning, I thought she was dead when she was really just sleeping =P )

I've bought some bunny basics 15/23, but she won't eat it. Which is very unusual because she eats everything.

How can I get her to eat it? (I can't put it in her cage because her boyfriend is 2 1/2 O_O, I didn't bond these two)

-April

 

[Bo B Bunny]

What does she normally have for pellets? What breed is she?

 

[aurora369]

You can try taking her away from her partner for a few minutes (or remove him) and feed her a little bit of high protien feed. Many feed stores carry a 18% protien feed for nursing moms and babies. A little bit of that a day would probably help give her some more fat/weight.

Introduce is slowly, you don't want to upset her stomach.

Older rabbits do get thinner, it's part of aging. I had a rabbit that lived to be 13 and he did start getting a bit thinner around 10-11 years.

Make sure she's not showing symptoms of any other illness. Watch for signs of kidney problems (straining to pee) and teeth problems (wanting to eat but dropping food, drooling).

--Dawn

 

[PixieStixxxx]

I wrapped some 15/23 pellets in her romaine lettuce, and now she loves it! Unfortunately, Labrador ate one and now he wants them too.

The peeing thing is hard for me. She was spayed incorrectly when she was younger I was told. So for the last year that I've had her, she had no control over yet. But sometimes I noticed that she does sit by the litter box, with this look in her little wee face. I don't know if she's trying to hold it in, or she wants to gain control back.

 

[aurora369]

Maybe you could take her in for a check up? Getting a full blood panel done is not that expensive, so you should be able to tell if any of her major orgnans are having troubles.

I would recommend Dr. Upjohn at Eagle Ridge in Coquitlam or Dr. Brondwin at Arbutus West in Vancouver, if you don't already have a rabbit savvy vet. Both are in the rabbit savvy vet listing here:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12111&forum_id=9

As long as all her major organes are in good health, I would just give her a bit of extra food. Try to give her some extra pellets, some richer hay and maybe a little bit of sunflower seeds or something high in good fats.

--Dawn

 

[Bunnicula]

When one of our buns was ill and lost a bit of weight, I switched to alfalfa based pellets for a while and even increased how much I fed her. Of course, she had to eat alone. Then when she was back to normal weight I mixed the timothy pellets with the alfalfa...and eventually went back to the timothy.

Here's hoping that Miss Muffy is well.

Keep us updated.

-Mary Ellen

 

[Thumpers_Mom]

Just wanted to send some ((((((hugs)))))) for Muffy. Hope she is doing better. Are you ableto take her for a check up?

Keep us posted.

 

[PixieStixxxx]

She went in for a check up in July - twice. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for her arthritis.

But I've moved now and have no car. So she does need a new Vet. I was thinking Upjohn because we take our shelter buns to him!