My remaining rabbit, Lion (whom I believe a lot of you have heard about lol) recently hasn't been eating much. He's leaving a ton of hay and today I noticed now he is barely touching his pellets. The thing is, he's otherwise healthy and showing interest in food and treats as well as water. Although, I feel like he's been drinking less than normal as well. I also think he's lost some weight. This has happened fairly recently.
My first thought was perhaps molar spurs. I did some google searches tonight and it sounds likely. I noticed one interesting thing on the list of symptoms, which is runny eyes. I know Lion gets runny/watery eyes fairly frequently. (Nothing major usually, but still)
The catch: he's probably around 11-12 years old.
We're afraid that if we took him to the vet for (presumed) filing down of the spurs, he wouldn't handle it well. He's a fairly healthy bunny but still. I'm pretty certain such a procedure would require being put under, and I can't say how he'd do.
The only other thing I can honestly think of is it's just age. Maybe his body is just starting to shut down. Again, hard to say.
In the meanwhile: what to do? Are there any soft alternatives for roughage I can give him? I got to thinking--would a rabbit eat soaked hay cubes? At my barn, one of our old horses couldn't eat hay anymore so we'd give him soaked hay cubes instead. But I don't know if a bun would be interested in that. Lion can be fairly picky about his hay, too.
Should we still take him to a vet just to get some answers? (Please no jumping straight to "Take him to the vet!!". I want to consider options first. But I am seriously considering it) Thanks.
My first thought was perhaps molar spurs. I did some google searches tonight and it sounds likely. I noticed one interesting thing on the list of symptoms, which is runny eyes. I know Lion gets runny/watery eyes fairly frequently. (Nothing major usually, but still)
The catch: he's probably around 11-12 years old.
We're afraid that if we took him to the vet for (presumed) filing down of the spurs, he wouldn't handle it well. He's a fairly healthy bunny but still. I'm pretty certain such a procedure would require being put under, and I can't say how he'd do.
The only other thing I can honestly think of is it's just age. Maybe his body is just starting to shut down. Again, hard to say.
In the meanwhile: what to do? Are there any soft alternatives for roughage I can give him? I got to thinking--would a rabbit eat soaked hay cubes? At my barn, one of our old horses couldn't eat hay anymore so we'd give him soaked hay cubes instead. But I don't know if a bun would be interested in that. Lion can be fairly picky about his hay, too.
Should we still take him to a vet just to get some answers? (Please no jumping straight to "Take him to the vet!!". I want to consider options first. But I am seriously considering it) Thanks.
