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Behavioral Chanve

22 10:37:10

Question
Some generic background: I purchased a unicorn mini lop (Peter)as a gift for my fiance around 9 months ago. A few months later we decided to purchase another(Teddy) in hopes of bonding them, and generally because we enjoy the first one so much. The bonding didn't go so well, and we decided to wait until they were neutered to attempt it again, for fear of stressing the bunnies.

They were both neutered nearly two months ago, yesterday we noticed Teddy (6 month mini-lop) wasn't eating or drinking as much as usual. I've been observing him carefully for the past 24 hours, he is eating, drinking, and defecating, just not as much as usual. He seems a little lethargic, although he has always been a very calm rabbit. He is grooming himself regularly, and hops around when he's out, but not doesn't seem as energetic as usual. Since I got them I've read almost every bit of rabbit.org and have utilized that as my main reference. I did notice his ears were cold, but upon further research it seems during cold weather, this is fairly normal. His breathing seems fine, he's not sneezing, fur looks normal. I did notice two clear, sticky strands of something on the carpet after he hopped back into his cage tonight that have me concerned. There is no vet near here that I'm overly confident in, it took weeks to find one that  I was positive had neutered before. (One vet actually said, "We never have before, but I'm sure we could")

Basically, I'm wondering if I should make the hour long trip to the vet asap, or observe some more. I was also curious as to if this could be a result of the neutering, a possible behavior change resulting in lower testosterone levels or something of the sort.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Answer
Hi David,

I probably would take him in Monday, for sure.  Going off his food or not acting like he normally does (input dropping, output dropping) is a real sign there is some kind of problem.  Glad you are sensitive to this.

In the meantime, get some baby gas drops from the store and give him 2-3 full dropper doses, then (in your lap) with one hand lift his front, and get the other hand underneath and massage his tummy for about a half hour.  He may have some trapped gas.  It could be anywhere in his stomach, his cecum, or his intestines, but if it's in the cecum/intestines, you need to do the massage and help get the gas drops into those areas to work.  If after a half hour he's still not moving much or perking up, 2-3 more full droppers (get it fruit flavored) and continue with the massage (gentle).  It's like with a baby with colic.

Eventually the gas drops will get where they are going, and your massaging could also manually break up some of the gas.

I would also consider giving him some probiotics like Bene-bac from the pet store to make sure his good gut bacteria levels are good.

Further, take him off all greens and high carb/high sugar items for now.  Fresh hay, hay cubes, and food pellets (without extra junk in them) are all he should be getting.  

Plan to take him in Monday, unless he seems to go downhill and then you just gotta go then.  Keep him warm during the trip, snug him up with a nice blanket in the carrier.

Lee