Nothing is worse than when your beloved rabbit isn’t feeling well. You can tell they are in extreme discomfort or even in pain and it’s confusing for them and you want nothing more than to ease their suffering. Sometimes even the treatment causes them distress because they don’t understand what is going on with them.
Rabbits have a very limited diet. As herbivores, they rely solely on vegetables and fruits as well as hay in order to meet their nutritional needs. They also have a very sensitive digestive system and anything new included in their diet can cause them digestive issues that can lead them to suffer bouts of diarrhea.
Diarrhea is a pretty serious condition for your pet to suffer from. It is common and sometimes overlooked. That is pretty dangerous since diarrhea can cause additional health concerns such as dehydration.
Now the most obvious solution to diarrhea is to go to the vet who will administer antibiotics. However, antibiotics are pretty heavy on the system even for us humans so imagine how heavy they are on a rabbit. Thus it makes sense to want to look into home remedies to try before moving onto the medicines as the last case resort.
Why do rabbits get diarrhea?
Before we delve into the possible remedies to treat your rabbit’s diarrhea, it is equally important to know what caused it in the first place. Understanding this will be a preventative measure.
Your rabbit’s cage
The condition of your rabbit’s cage plays a very important role where their health is concerned. Rabbits are very particular about their grooming and cleanliness. If their cages are dirty, it will most likely negatively impact their health.
Stress
Stress can be caused by a number of factors. Rabbits are sensitive animals and the smallest things can stress them out such as loud noises, new guests at home, or a change in the environment. Irrespective of what the cause of stress may be, it can affect your rabbit’s health and the most common indication of this is diarrhea.
Feeding them the wrong food
Fiber is an integral part of your rabbit’s diet and is extremely important in their digestive health. In case there isn’t enough that can cause your rabbit to suffer from bouts of diarrhea.
Solutions to cure rabbit’s diarrhea
- Ensuring hygiene is more important than you would think for your rabbit’s health. Rabbits are obsessed with their grooming and expect that their living quarters should also be kept clean. That also includes their litter box. The litter needs to be changed on a daily basis. One option for a cleaning solution is bleach. However, a more organic and pet friendly cleaning product is vinegar. Scrubbing the cage with vinegar is all you need to do as a preventative measure. If the cage requires extra cleaning attention try soaking it in vinegar for ten to twenty minutes.
- If you are going through some foreseeable lifestyle changes you might also want to think about the effect it might have on your rabbit. Try to ease them into the new change by making it as comfortable as possible for them and giving them extra love and attention until they feel better. If there’s no huge change per se, try to pinpoint even the smallest of changes around your rabbit in order to see what is impacting them and try to tackle that change as per the situation at hand.
- Ensuring that your rabbit’s diet is up to their requirements is also of utmost importance. If their food is too runny, that will cause diarrhea. To prevent this give them plenty of hay. Hay is rich in fiber and is the safest food that you can give them so you don’t have to worry about overfeeding them. There are also foods that you shouldn’t give your rabbit in order to prevent runny stool. These are usually foods that are high in starch and sugar content. That is why it isn’t advised to feed them treats such as oats or cookies. This is also why fruits are to be considered as a snack and not as a staple food. So make sure you pay close attention to what you’re feeding them and also make sure that you keep all the unhealthy food away from their reach. Rabbits do have a sweet tooth so even though sugar isn’t good for them they are attracted to it.
On a more immediate diet-based remedy, while your rabbit passes loose stool stop giving them vegetables to eat. Vegetables are high in water content and worsen diarrhea. Hay is and will be your rabbit’s best friend during this health crisis. The best kind is long-stemmed hay such as grass or timothy hay. You can give them some dry grass mixed with guava leaves and you can even give them a bit of pellet as long as they are high fiber pellets.
Although this isn’t advised because there is a chance the pellets don’t suit your rabbit’s tummy. Make sure you give your rabbit plenty of water as well. Rabbits need water to survive and diarrhea means they are losing quite a bit of water. That means they are at a risk of dehydration which can kill them if left untreated.
The introduction of new food can also have caused their diarrhea so try to think of what that new ingredient is and if it is affecting them. If there has been a new introduction, stop giving it to them immediately. There is a chance that it did not suit your rabbit.
Conclusion
If despite all of these efforts, diarrhea persists, take your rabbit to the vet immediately. Depending on the severity of the case they will prescribe and administer antibiotics either orally or by injection. Do not try to give them medicine without the vet’s approval. Sometimes diarrhea can be caused by an underlying health problem such as UTI, dental issues, or respiratory issues. A checkup will also help rule that out.