sick bun :(

[ladymother]

My house bun is sick. he's been free grazing for the last few mo the, staying outside most of the time, tho he'd come inside when he got the urge to.

we had a cold spell for a few days, and our first REAL snow. didn't see him out and about during the cold spell, so i assumed he'd burrowed in somewhere to keep warm.
it warmed up quite a bit yesterday, then rained all afternoon. I found Bun curled under a multiflora rose bush, soaked through and through
He's skin and bones! i brought him inside, and got him to drink a little and got a little warm mash in him (warm water, pellets, and a crushed tums)..... he was listless all day, cold to the touch, and whimpering.
he snuck off and found a hiding place last night. whn i still hadn't seen him by 2 this afternoon i was sure he'd found a place to die. BUT he resurfaced about an hour ago. he's moving a bit more, and nibbling on hay, but still very out of sorts. he also has very bad diarrhea
i really hope he pulls through this. he's such an awesome sweet bunny.

question is, what happened? he was fine last week.

perhaps he just didn't know how to find food in the snow? got chilled? do rabbits get pneumonia? or maybe he got worms? there are wild rabbits around.... could he have gotten some weird wild rabbit disease? he didn't have bloat or anything... just skin and bones...

any thoughts and suggestions to promote healing would be great. thank you!

[arachyd]

Parasites are a very real possibility. Since he's a house rabbit it is also possible he was not prepared for the amount of greens he would have been eating and it gave him diarrhea (which can be fatal). He could have eaten something poisonous or gotten injured. Domestic rabbits are not safe to have roaming freely with no control over what they eat and no protection from predators. They are very different from cottontails and jackrabbits.

Changes in diet need to be made very gradually to avoid digestive upset. Oats, whether whole, rolled, kitchen or even the instant oatmeal flakes are wonderful for getting diarrhea under control.

[ladymother]

as i said, he's been outside for a few months now. so i dont think diet change is the problem in this case i call him my house bun just because out of all my buns he's the only one who's allowed inside. i should have worded it differently

[ladymother]

and ill definitely try the oats! thank you!

[MaggieJ]

I agree, give him kitchen oatmeal and hay until the diarrhea is under control. I don't think free ranging, especially in cold wet weather, is a particularly good idea.

[ladymother]

yeah... it wasn't a good idea he seemed so happy and content tho, before this he's still alive, and eating.... he wont be going back outside until spring if he pulls through!

[SquashNut]

Make sure he has a salt spool too.

[morninglory]

If he were mine I would not allow him to hop one the ground at will. There are parasites and worms they can get that are deadly. Oatmeal, hay and plain yogurt are a very kind diet when one is ill.For diahrea I always withhold all feed except hay and water for a day or so.They will usually tighten up real soon on a died of hay and water.

[akane]

If he's wandering about freely in the yard he could have also eaten something toxic. Most native plants are fine but alot of our landscaping plants are toxic to animals and they should not be allowed near them unless you have researched each one.