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Brian The Rabbit

22 9:48:59

Question
Last week we took our rabbit Brian to the vets as we had been on holiday for 10 days, and whilst we were away he had stopped eating almost completely and had lost a quarter or his body weight. The vet was very good, and gave him a thorough examination and gave him a pain-killer, antibiotic and an appetite stimulant and told us to go back the next day so that she could operate on Brian as his teeth on the back left hand side of his mouth had gone very "spiky" and were injuring his tongue. The operation was a success and Brian is now eating well - everything in sight, and is back to his normal happy self, apart from one thing. Since we have had Brian home (5 days) he has been on antibiotics and eating everything, but he is not going to the toilet - in any form, and he seems to be overgroooming himself! We have made sure he has lots of hay, water and fluids and today we are trying him on pineapple and papaya as we have heard that can get his digestive system working - we have already tried soaking apple in water! Any suggestions? Do you feel it is the antibiotics that are preventing him from going to the Toilet? He is perfectly fine in any other way!

Answer
Hi Sarah

How many days has it been that he hasn't gone to the washroom? Is he peeing? If he isn't peeing I would get him back to the vet ASAP.

However, after my rabbit stopped eating when he had a broken tail, it took a few days for the food to start working its way through the digestive tract. He had no feces in his lower bowels and I am guessing that yours doesn't either. It does take a few days and he'll likely start out with poop that is much smaller then what you are accustomed to seeing. This is normal considering the circumstances. If more than a few days go by though, I would make sure I take this up with the vet. rabbits are prone to hair balls. I would feed Timothy hay and as much of it as he wants. This hay will help push things through his little system. It's very fibrous and helps the rabbit rid itself of any excess hair in his intestines. The pineapple juice will help.

If he does end up with diarrhea from too much fiber, you can back off on the extra fiber for a day or two and see if it resolves. Or, small animals can have pepto bismol. The most successful way to do this since they hate the taste, is to crush 1/16th of a tablet and sprinkle it on his food.

Hope this works for you!

Alice