Rabbits are amazingly fun animal to pet. They were friendly, adorable, and spread in different level of prices. Ordinarily, the price depend on the species and size of the rabbit; larger rabbit is more expensive than the smaller one. The variety of species are another attraction of rabbits; so many species you could found out there, such as Lop rabbits which is divided into few other breeds such Holland Lop, English Lop, and German Lop. Moreover, there are Angora rabbit, Lionhead rabbit, the giant rabbit: Flemish Giant rabbit.
However, today we would talk about Flemish Giant rabbit, the biggest species rabbit on earth. There’s a problem that often strike Flemish Giant rabbit – loss of appetite. Appetite loss always triggered anxiety to owners, why suddenly my pet didn’t want to eat? Are they sick? Let’s learn together the reasons behind the loss appetite on Flemish Giant rabbit and what you should do when your Flemish Giant rabbit loses its appetite.
Loss Appetite on Flemish Giant Rabbit
Seeing our rabbit eat well is a gold moment for us; see them chew their hays and grasses, and eat carrot and fruits (treat meal) is pleasure thing to experience. I believed all the owners would agree with me. But, we would absolutely terrify and worry if on sudden your animal won’t to eat their meal. Loss of appetite happened in few reasons, and you must aware of all of them. Unlike dogs and cats that occasionally skip their meals – and it’s normal – when the skip meal happened to rabbit it isn’t quite normal as those other pets.
Skip meal on rabbit is one of indication something wrong with her body – some even emergency situations. In this situation we would recommend you to bring your rabbit to the vet, but there’s something you could do in your house to reduce the situation and make your pet feel much better than before.
The Reason Behind The Loss of Appetite
Ileus (Gastrointestinal Problem)
There’s a medical reason called ileus which is gastrointestinal problem recorded as one of the most common reason behind the loss of appetite on rabbits. You must understand that ileus is an extreme illness for rabbits. There’s a process called peristalsis, which is the normal contraction happened in intestines. The abnormality would happen if the intestines push foods and lead it to gastrointestinal tract – exhibit decrement or even stop.
Do not ever ignore this problem, left it alone without any treatment would only cost death on rabbits. Most of the time, ilues was reaction of several problems such as:
- Overgrown teeth, neurogical disease such as E. cuniculi, abscesses in or round rabbit’s body, intestinal parasites, dental diseases, hock sores and bumblefoot, organ failures, stress and environmental changes, respiratory problems, and etc.
Here are the symptoms of Ileus if it happens to your rabbit:
- If you noticed a lump happened on your rabbit, try to stroke her hair and observe the signs of abscesses or tumors; those signs was easily identified.
- Check rabbit’s nostrils to make sure it is clear and doesn’t create any condensation.
- Most common reason is overgrown front teeth (incisors). All you need to do to observe it is lifted up rabbit’s lips.
- The last symptoms are nasal and eyes drainage. It’s easy to notice and this might help you a little bit, your rabbit constantly wipe her face with paws. Then, she might has nasal and eyes problems.
Anorexia
Anorexia also one of the reason behind loss appetite – do not think this disorder human-strike only. The different with gastrointestinal problem is rabbit still have appetite to eat but she can’t swallow the foods or chew it. Anorexia commonly caused by dental problems. There are symptoms of Anorexia to observe:
- Small size of fecal pellets.
- Weight loss.
- Rabbit refuse to eat her foods.
- Halitosis or a chronic problem of bad breath.
- Pain followed every time she’s eat of swallow.
Home Remedy for Rabbit’s Loss Appetite
Some home remedies could be apply to handle ileus that happened to rabbit. First of all, try to observe what might cause the stress happened to your rabbit; did you changed her environmental lately – or perhaps you did something accidentally displease your rabbit. After notice the culprit of the stress, reverse what you have done; then, try to offer your rabbit with her favorite treat, see if she wants to eat it or not.
If you noticed your rabbit haven’t eat for several hours, try to do some home remedies to solve the problem. If, at any case, it have been a day she refuse to eat, bring your rabbit immediately to vet, it is a life-threat situation for rabbit. Ask veterinarian guides to solve the situation. But, however, these are few home remedies that could be the first aid to loss appetite situation:
- Force feed your rabbit with the mix of syringe and vegetables baby foods to stimulate gastrointestinal issue. If rabbit’s stomach empty in several hours, it forces intestine to fill it with gas. You should understand, the gas is the dangerous and painful part of ileus.
- Do gently massage to rabbit’s stomach to encourage gut motility, or you could encourage your rabbit to have some exercises.
- Do not let your rabbit dehydration. Give extra water than her daily routine, fill the bottle with fresh, clean water. You could try to use an electrolyte such as unflavored pedialyte. Keep doing this until she can defacating normally.
- In case your rabbit still want to eat something, try to feed her with greens that contained high level of water such as celery and lettuce, followed by amount of hays. Do not feed her with pellet at all at this moment.
Seeking Professional Help
If all those home remedies didn’t help at all and your rabbit still won’t to eat, then it’s time for you to seeking professional help. Do not delay, immediately bring you pet to the vet. The vet would apply some medical treatment for the pain and the gas issues. In this case, your vet would prescribe a high product nutrition such as Oxbow Critical Care, to re-supply rabbit’s nutrition inside her body until she could eat normally.