[zangorou]

I'm extremely worried about my rabbit, he's a one year old English Lop cross.

He was absolutely fine yesterday, hoping around the garden and eating and drinking as he usually does. This morning I noticed he was kinda down, he didn't greet me with the usual chin rub and lick, so I took him out of his hutch and put him into the run. Instead of running and hoping about as he usually does he sat on top of his box for the duration of time he was in there.

Since then he has been the same - he just lolls around refusing to eat or drink anything. I've forced some water into him using a syringe to stop him getting dehydrated, but he won't eat anything at all.

One possible theory of mine is that he is constipated, as of today he hasn't passed many faeces, but yesterday he had filled up his litter tray with them, so if it is constipation it's come on extremely sudden.

If it were to be constipation, I just googled it and it says to get him to the vets immediately, but with no money and the vets only opening on week days, what am I meant to do?
If anybody has had a similar problem with their rabbit please tell me what you did etc, thanks!

Someone help, I honestly can't face the thought of him dieing

EDIT: He's doing much better now, after a good nights sleep and some pineapple juice he's back to his old self! Thanks for all your help and concern

[notnek]

It may not be serious but if you're thinking about the possibility of him dying then you should probably try your best to get him checked as soon as possible.

Have you tried calling your vet? They usually have out-of-hours advice played on a recorded message.

You could also find an emergency vet which will be open on weekends. The cost will be more than you're used to though.

Can you get your parents/relatives/friends to help you pay for it?

[zangorou]

We were going to call them today, but this morning he seems like his old self again!

Perhaps I was just over reacting, but it's so hard to tell with rabbits. I couldn't bare anything happening to my little Pumpkin.

Thanks for all your help though!

[Trigger]

Don't want to sound like a heartless cow but i will undoubtedly manage it, you SHOULD NOT have animals if you cannot afford to look after them properly. If you cannot afford a vets trip (make a fund if you have to for any emergencies) you are doing your animal a disservice.

[PinkMobilePhone]

PDSA

[notnek]

(Original post by Trigger)
Don't want to sound like a heartless cow but i will undoubtedly manage it, you SHOULD NOT have animals if you cannot afford to look after them properly. If you cannot afford a vets trip (make a fund if you have to for any emergencies) you are doing your animal a disservice.

I agree with everything that you've said but I probably wouldn't have expressed it in the same way

An emergency fund is very good idea.

[Trigger]

I'm not very good at sugar coating advice unfortunately.

[zangorou]

(Original post by Trigger)
Don't want to sound like a heartless cow but i will undoubtedly manage it, you SHOULD NOT have animals if you cannot afford to look after them properly. If you cannot afford a vets trip (make a fund if you have to for any emergencies) you are doing your animal a disservice.

I would have found a way to take my rabbit to the vets on Monday, but I didn't want to spend £100+ on a pointless emergency vet visit which it would have turned out to be.
Sometimes it's just hard to know what to do for the best, I'm not a careless, uneducated rabbit owner if that's what you're hinting at

[xiyangliu]

0.o. Thought u meant the rabbit problem..... Which is also called Fibonacci rabbit sequence.....


This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

[Forget that]

have you checked him over for any wounds/ problems with physical movement? that could be a reason for not wanting to move very much.
Rabbits especially are very good at hiding such problems, check the legs and under the belly

[Leooonie]

If this happens again I would be very worried. I had some french lops, and one of them had intestinal problems. He was often fine one day.. the next would be very different. A few times we would find him in the morning laying on his back in pain. We fed them a good diet, they had free run of the garden, had timothy hay, good varied diet of basic rabbit food, along with fruits and veg. They never got consipation. however if you feel he has it, I suggest adding some fruits into the diet, but also adding some carrot juice or flavouring to their water.

do they ever have free play? sitting aorund all day in a small space isnt good for any animal

I suggest saving some money for vets. or at the very least insuring him?

My bunnies lived til they were 11

[zangorou]

(Original post by xiyangliu)
0.o. Thought u meant the rabbit problem..... Which is also called Fibonacci rabbit sequence.....

Haha no :') Should have made the title a little clearer huh

(Original post by Forget that)
have you checked him over for any wounds/ problems with physical movement? that could be a reason for not wanting to move very much.
Rabbits especially are very good at hiding such problems, check the legs and under the belly

I had done that yes, but he's much better now - eating and drinking like normal, thank god!
Thank you though!

[zangorou]

(Original post by Leooonie)
If this happens again I would be very worried. I had some french lops, and one of them had intestinal problems. He was often fine one day.. the next would be very different. A few times we would find him in the morning laying on his back in pain. We fed them a good diet, they had free run of the garden, had timothy hay, good varied diet of basic rabbit food, along with fruits and veg. They never got consipation. however if you feel he has it, I suggest adding some fruits into the diet, but also adding some carrot juice or flavouring to their water.

do they ever have free play? sitting aorund all day in a small space isnt good for any animal

I suggest saving some money for vets. or at the very least insuring him?

My bunnies lived til they were 11

We gave him carrot tops and pineapple juice which help the gastric system - they seemed to do the trick We generally give him a few vegetables daily - not too much as it could cause him diahorrea, plus he has his pellets, so it was quite strange that he had gotten constipation really.

Yes they do, as we have a few rabbits that don't get along with each other ha, we swap them around in the rabbit run so they each get a while to stretch every day.

[Leooonie]

(Original post by zangorou)
We gave him carrot tops and pineapple juice which help the gastric system - they seemed to do the trick We generally give him a few vegetables daily - not too much as it could cause him diahorrea, plus he has his pellets, so it was quite strange that he had gotten constipation really.

Yes they do, as we have a few rabbits that don't get along with each other ha, we swap them around in the rabbit run so they each get a while to stretch every day.

sounds good! has he ever had flystrike? this sometimes seems to make constipation more likely once it has occured once..

It sounds like you've got hold of the problem.. a good rotation of veggies is always good, carrot skins seems to help my bunnies as theyre not as 'wet' as the inner carrot

[zangorou]

(Original post by Leooonie)
sounds good! has he ever had flystrike? this sometimes seems to make constipation more likely once it has occured once..

It sounds like you've got hold of the problem.. a good rotation of veggies is always good, carrot skins seems to help my bunnies as theyre not as 'wet' as the inner carrot

No he hasn't - he's quite a tidy rabbit so flies never seem to be attracted much to his cage

Yeah they often have them, they usually get our vegetable peelings after we've had our dinner hah

[M4LLY]

Get him to a vet ASAP

[green.tea]

Theres free vets i think. Perhaps google it for future.

You really should get used to the idea of pets dying. I know people whove been so upset over the loss of pets that theyve decided never to have them again which means an animal doesnt get the good home it wouldve otherwise had.

Glad your rabbits ok.