Seeing John Chitty with Flopsy. U/D 10th may 2013

Have an appointment to see John tomorrow evening with Flopsy. The past few weeks I've noticed he has lost quite a lot of weight (the amount I do not know as we don't have any decent scales) but he is rather boney which has concerned me.

As well as the weight loss, I have noticed around one of his eyes it now has a fairly bald patch which looks like maybe the start of a blocked tear duct. His eye does not seem runny though; He had to have his tear ducts flushed last year around this time actually at our old vets. It might well be his tooth roots causing trouble again. He also seems to be in a little discomfort/pain, He is currently on 0.4ml of Metacam twice a day for his poorly teeth and has been since last year.

Also Flopsy is forever hungry, as some of you may know he does not eat hay; he wil occasionally have a strand or 2 when he feels like it. I have been picking fresh grass and dandelions at least ounce a day for them both, sometimes twice when I am able to and his poo's are slightly better than they were before. The shape is more formed but they are still very dark but that is expected for a rabbit who does not eat hay. They then obviously have their pellets and I do try to feed Flopsy his separately. Even though he has a few meals a day there is obviously a gap where his gut isn't on the go when I am at school, I can't leave out a bowl of pellets nor can I leave out an unlimited supply of grass ect as it would obviously interfere with Lily's hay eating and will most likely upset their tummies.

I really do not know what else we can do with him, His diet is very poor and he is obviously poorly hence the weight loss. I just don't know what John will suggest but I do not think putting him through blood tests, xrays and another GA/another dental will be good for him or his gut as after his last dental in February this year he did go into stasis and he was really quite poorly. Dental bunnies are just so stressful, its really bothering me.

Have u tried different types of hay?

Velvet.Tears wrote:Have u tried different types of hay?

I've tried various of hays, he won't touch them. There is not a lot you can do to force a dental bunny to eat hay really.
My other pair is on a perfect diet 90% hay and a table spoon of pellets twice a day.
The hay I give is lovely fresh stuff and Pickle and Pixie adore it so there is nothing wrong with the hay.
I even bought expensive ings and timothy&rye off hayforpets but they did not tempt him but the other rabbits loved it.

Oh have u tried porridge oats? When Paris was getting worse (she had terminal cancer) she was losing so much weight through it I would give her porridge oats and they helped bulk her up a bit, she would go mad for them.

Velvet.Tears wrote:Oh have u tried porridge oats? When Paris was getting worse (she had terminal cancer) she was losing so much weight through it I would give her porridge oats and they helped bulk her up a bit, she would go mad for them.

I Tried porridge oats last week actually and he did not approve! I even put some pellets in them and he just picked them out

Oh he is just such a fussy bunny

My lot would go mad for porridge oats of course giving Paris some I had to give the others some too

Have you tried hay in different forms? The cookies or the little Alfalfa bales?

Have you tried getting some Fibreplex into him?

Do you get the dried dandelion, plantain etc? At least they need chewing and contain fibre.

Just throwing some ideas out there....




When I needed to keep my weight up Humum was giving me Junior pellets for about 25% of my pellet intake - they seemed to help

I think that if JC recommends it them you should go down the exploratory route. Instead of worrying about stasis put a plan in place to stop it starting - early syringe feeding to get past the empty tummy feeling and regular syringe feeds until self feeding is happening.

Sadly if Flopsy needs a dental he will have to have one and I know to well the worry with having so many dental buns myself, the nethies being the biggest worry as they panic so and don't eat before or after dentals we have found.
What we do now as soon as we bring them home and they come round we syringe feed and will syringe feed every two hours till we know they will eat again by themselves. The longest it has took to get them eating again after a dental has been two weeks and that was two week's of Mike and I sat up with an alarm clock going of every two hours day and night for syringe feeding. Fudge is the worse for dentals.

I know that some of the Oxbow Timothy Hays are really lovely and green. They might tempt him? Quite pricey though...

Have you looked on the Willow Warren? They do Timothy Hay which looks gorgeous.

I hope you can get some sort of plan in place for him

cheryl'n'bruce'flo wrote:I think that if JC recommends it them you should go down the exploratory route. Instead of worrying about stasis put a plan in place to stop it starting - early syringe feeding to get past the empty tummy feeling and regular syringe feeds until self feeding is happening.

Totally agree

Tuckerbunnies wrote:

cheryl'n'bruce'flo wrote:I think that if JC recommends it them you should go down the exploratory route. Instead of worrying about stasis put a plan in place to stop it starting - early syringe feeding to get past the empty tummy feeling and regular syringe feeds until self feeding is happening.

Totally agree

I know its great what he does but I don't want to put him through a GA if he does not need a dental as It will just make him worse if you understand what I mean. He does not cope very well with them due to his poor gut so the last thing I want to do is put him through one and loose him

It also costs a lot of money and I can't pay for the full amount myself so have to rely on my mum and then pay half or whatever we decide. For a dental, xray, bloods sent to the lab has worked out to be £300 + and we don't always have that money lying about

His last dental in feb was £160 which I paid for then he has to be hospitalised when he was in stasis another £150 and that all worked out £300 +
Then in March we got my precious Bella cremated and that was £100.

I wonder if vets do instalments?

Oh bless you Jack.

Firstly I totally agree with what Cheryl said. Secondly I would start ramping up his grass intake. If he will eat grass then this is a good replacement for hay as it is excellent for teeth. I go down to the lane down the road with scissors every morning as I know Charlie will eat it and he is a dental bun.

Jack, if you pm me your address I will send you some of the hay Daisy has to try. It's pricey but after trying everything else there is, and him refusing it - he eats this so might be worth a try.

Katieb wrote:Oh bless you Jack.

Firstly I totally agree with what Cheryl said. Secondly I would start ramping up his grass intake. If he will eat grass then this is a good replacement for hay as it is excellent for teeth. I go down to the lane down the road with scissors every morning as I know Charlie will eat it and he is a dental bun.

Jack, if you pm me your address I will send you some of the hay Daisy has to try. It's pricey but after trying everything else there is, and him refusing it - he eats this so might be worth a try.

Thank you Katie, I will have to ask my parents first if it is okay to give out my address but will PM you if i am allowed to do so
I am really trying my best sourcing grass, it shouldn't be too hard at the moment now its getting warmer but I am finding it hard to source grass now I have been picking it so regularly. I'm not sure where else I could fetch grass? there is loads of fields and walkways and things around but I am not sure If I can trust that it has not been sprayed on?

Katie is very sweet
sending vibes for the little man

That's so nice of you Katie
Sending lots of hugs and vibes for the little guy and wishing you the very best of luck

Katie is just as lovely when you meet her as she is on here

How is he today love? I know what you mean, dentals are so expensive. Our vet does let us pay a bit at a time. We also have a small standing order set up with them so a lttle goes towards anything which may go wrong.

I have just insured Binky after making sure that they cover for substantial dental treatment.

Please let us know how you get on.

Hugs

JO xx

Just an update, went to the vets this evening John checked Flopsy all over and also said how skinny and boney he was. He has really lost a lot of weight
He listened to him and I believe things were okay there. He also checked his teeth and apparently although there is some change in them he does not think they are the main issue at the moment so there is something else going on which could be really serious. He did mention about possible kidney damage ect.

So Flopsy is going in tomorrow morning for a GA and he will have an xray to see if anything abnormal show's up if nothing shows he will take bloods and when they check his teeth thoroughly under GA they will then decide whether they will need to do a dental or not.

I am so very worried. I just don't know how he will cope with this GA this time especially as he has a suspected underlying problem. I just hope all goes well and I will try my up most to try and avoid him going into stasis. Its going to be hard but hopefully nothing sinister will be found.

But his symptoms so far and his weight loss is a big concern and the symptoms are looking along the lines of kidney problems. We will see what tomorrow will bring.

Oh I hope it's nothing sinister Jack I really do

Sending all the Vibes I can muster for Flopsy and hoping that everything goes ok for him xxxxxxx

Please keep us posted

Will be thinking of him today Jack x

thinking of him today

Loads of vibes for Flopsy, I hope they find something that can be treated - it would be so much better than never being sure what is wrong with him

Any news?

Katieb wrote:Any news?

You beat me to it