no interest in eating pellets all of a sudden?

[ilovepets]

yesterday morning snickers was normal when i woke up. when i fed her she was rearing to go and wanted her pellets and to come out and run. yessterday night she had no interest in getting her night pellets. she is a mini lop and gets 1/4 cup in the morning and about an 1/8 cup at night (which equals about 1/3 cup total). she is 7.8 pounds, but she is not fat and looks like a healthy wieght. during the day yesterday she was being normal and running in her room and chewing on her cardboard boxes. last night she didnt want her pellets, but would nibble at her hay, and would eat oats, which are her favorite treat, but she didnt go as crazy as she usually does.

this morning she was not excited and i saw that she ate most of her nighttime pellets. she did poop and pee in her litterbox, but ate very little hay. again, she was not interested in her pellets when i gave her her morning ones. she would eat my homemade treats which are just ground up pellets with some fresh fruit and veggie puree, mixed together, put into a jerky gun and dehydrated. in attempt to make her eat her pellets, i took a small piece of banana (another favorite) and let her have a piece. she did take it, so i mushed another small piece in her pellets, thinking that she would eat some. she ate the banana and maybe some of the pellets that were stuck to it, but left the rest of the pellets. i just checked on her and she was in her litter box eating hay and probably pooping.

is there anything i can do right now? the soonest i can bring her to the vet would be sunday, and im not sure if they are open because its easter. saturday i will be working all day, but if need be i could probably get out early and go. monday i am already bringing one of my budgies there and its not really close, so trying to do 2 appointments in one day would be a lot...

 

[missyscove]

Does she get offered (and if so is she eating) greens? As long as she's eating something and still pooping I wouldn't consider it an emergency, but if she's not eating anything you can expect to see signs of stasis. Eating selectively can be a sign of dental problems (their mouth may hurt more or it may be more difficult to eat something) although usually rabbits stop eating hay and will still eat pellets. Is it a new bag of pellets or is there any chance something might be off with them?

I'd continue to offer her plenty of hay and add in some greens to make sure she's still eating and well hydrated while you wait to be able to see a vet.

 

[squidpop]

I think Missy Cove gave really good advice. I would give lots of greens soaked in water. I suspect her intestine is dehydrated and pellets are very dry and dehydrating so she doesn't want them. In GI stasis if a blockage forms the intestine gets very dehydrated around the blockage so you need to hydrate her.

I would also, if it was my rabbit, actually puree some fruit into electrolyte solution and syringe two tablespoon of fluid into her as well. If she is going into stasis and her gut is dealing with a blockage the best thing you can to is hydrate her intestine so it can work to move the block through. If its not a blockage extra fluids will not hurt her.

The reason I think you should do these things is because of what this rabbit expert person wrote about GI stasis and dehydration being a key factor here http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-7/gi.html

".... a problem with sluggish motility of the gastrointestinal tract (GIT) leading to dehydration and impaction of material in the stomach and cecum..."

 

[ilovepets]

Ok thanks for the info I fed her her nighttime pellets and she ate them right up. It seems like she just had something in her that needed to pass