URGENT - rabbit treated, but still not eating/pooping

Question
Hi Dana,

About two weeks ago, I took my rabbit, Daisy, to the vet because she hadn't been eating or pooping. The vet did an x-ray, and determined that she had a gas bubble in her stomach. The vet prescribed the digestive aids cisapride and oval, along with metacam and subcutaneous fluids. The vet also told me to feed her on Ensure in order to provide Daisy with some nutrition. About two days into this treatment, Daisy was back to normal - eating, pooping and active. However, about one week after this recovery, she stopped eating and pooping again! I started her on the oval and cisapride again, along with the Ensure supplement, but with no success - it has been three days now, and she has shown no signs of recovery. Her stomach has been making gassy and gurgling noises, but she is generally active (maybe the Ensure?) - just not eating or pooping.

It is Sunday today and the vet is closed, but if Daisy does not show signs of improvement by the end of today, I will take her to the vet first thing tomorrow. In the meantime, can you give any insight into what's going on? Any recommendations with what I should be doing?

She is an outdoor rabbit, and my suspicion is she has been eating moldy/decomposing garden vegetation (we have had a very wet summer). I have since removed her access to said vegetation. Right now, she is inside the house, with access to fresh water, hay, vegetables and a small amount of pellets - but she has not touched anything. When you offer something to her, she will sniff and inspect it, and make some moves to eat it, but then change her mind at the last minute. Could it be a tooth problem? She seems like she WANTS to eat, but just can't for some reason.

Again, I will take her to the vet tomorrow, but I would appreciate your input. The vet initially wanted to do a full tooth examination, but decided that putting Daisy "under" to conduct the examination was unnecessary (too stressful for rabbit) if the digestive aids would work on their own. However, now that it appears it isn't working (thus not a digestive problem?), I'm sure this will be the vet's first priority.

Thank you for your time!

Answer
Dear Melissa,

I think your vet is wise to be conservative here.  Chronic GI slowdown is often due to dental problems:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

For emergency instructions on how to get the GI moving while you wait to get her to the vet, please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

Hope that helps.

Dana