My hunny bunny

Question
Dear Dana:  My bunny is about 8/9 months old.  I usually feed him 1/4 cups of pellet (timothy based), fresh vegetables, fresh oat grass, and unlimited timothy hay. I bought him to the vet a month ago and the vet said he had a hairball inside his stomach.  The vet asked to massage his stomach couple of days and gave him fresh pineapple juice.
After few days, hunny bunny started to recover, his poops was larger and round.  However, it still contained some small ones since then.  

Three weeks later (last Saturday), his poop's size reduced dramatically again.  So I massage his stomach and offered him pineapple juice for the past few days.  He seemed fine, he is still very active, he eats well except he consumed less hay and did not drink much water (but still pee quite a bit as usual). I remember when he developed hairball last time, he drank lots of water.  

I just do not know what to do anymore; I do not want to bring him to the vet as I know it is very stressful. (I bought him 3 times in total in a week last time, and he did not eat for after the visit to the vet)

I do quite a bit of research about rabbit diet and I believe I am offering him the correct diet.  But please correct me if I am wrong.  I also tried different brand of pellet (I did a test: I dropped the pellet to the water, one of them dissolved slowly compare to the other; although it contains more fiber.  I believe it is because it uses different types of binding). So after he developed hairball last time, I changed the pellet to the one that can be dissolved easier.  Unfortunately, it is happening again.  I also noticed that after feeding him veggies, his poop size are bigger immediately compare to like 30 minutes ago after feeding him pellet.  I am sure if it is a good idea to cut off all pellet.
Dear Dana:  My bunny is about 8/9 months old.  I usually feed him 1/4 cups of pellet (timothy based), fresh vegetables, fresh oat grass, and unlimited timothy hay. I bought him to the vet a month ago and the vet said he had a hairball inside his stomach.  The vet asked to massage his stomach couple of days and gave him fresh pineapple juice.
After few days, hunny bunny started to recover, his poops was larger and round.  However, it still contained some small ones since then.  

Three weeks later (last Saturday), his poop's size reduced dramatically again.  So I massage his stomach and offered him pineapple juice for the past few days.  He seemed fine, he is still very active, he eats well except he consumed less hay and did not drink much water (but still pee quite a bit as usual). I remember when he developed hairball last time, he drank lots of water.  

I just do not know what to do anymore; I do not want to bring him to the vet as I know it is very stressful. (I bought him 3 times in total in a week last time, and he did not eat for after the visit to the vet)

I do quite a bit of research about rabbit diet and I believe I am offering him the correct diet.  But please correct me if I am wrong.  I also tried different brand of pellet (I did a test: I dropped the pellet to the water, one of them dissolved slowly compare to the other; although it contains more fiber.  I believe it is because it uses different types of binding). So after he developed hairball last time, I changed the pellet to the one that can be dissolved easier.  Unfortunately, it is happening again.  I also noticed that after feeding him veggies, his poop size are bigger immediately compare to like 30 minutes ago after feeding him pellet.  I am sure if it is a good idea to cut off all pellet. Thank you very much!


Answer
Dear Philis,

For one thing, you need to find a better rabbit vet who isn't still in the 1970's when it comes to rabbit medicine. Rabbits don't get hairballs, and if they did, pineapple juice is not going to help at all.  In fact, it can make things worse.

Find a good vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and try not to go back to the "hairball" vet unless he updates his rabbit knowledge significantly.

Please read this article, which explains what is happening to your bunny:

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

The most common causes of ileus and/or cecal dysbiosis are incorrect diet:

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

and pain from dental problems, such as molar spurs:

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

It's critical that bun get plenty of water, so serve his salad very wet if he won't drink on his own from a heavy bowl always full of clean water.

Hope that helps.
Dana