Diarrhea is rare in the rabbit, but when it does happen it is usually after the rabbit has taken antibiotics. This is because the rabbit is dependent on bacteria in the gut to breakdown food, and antibiotics can kill these bugs. If the bugs aren't there, food can't be digested and the rabbit has diarrhea.Diarrhea is usually obvious as a runny, liquid brown stool. Usually the rabbit will walk through the diarrhea and get its feet, tummy, and rear end coated in feces.
It is important to let your vet know the rabbit has diarrhea. They may want to give the rabbit fluid to prevent dehydration and provide a course of probiotics to establish the correct bacteria in the bowel.;
, Gastric stasis should be treated as an emergency and you should get your rabbit seen by a vet immediately if you suspect the condition. The signs your rabbit might be developing, or has, gut stasis include:


Stress: A recent history of a stressful event, this could include a trip to the vet or surgery.
Lack of appetite: If the rabbit stops eating, the gut goes into stasis automatically, but stasis also causes the rabbit to lose its appetite. Either way, if your rabbit isn't eating it means they require urgent attention from a vet
Infrequent pellets, or pellets that are very small: These are both signs that the bowel isn't churning out it's usual pellets, which is a sign that it's starting to go to sleep.
Mucus coated pellets: Normal sized pellets, as opposed to larger, sticky cecotropes, that are covered in mucus is a sign of stasis. The mucus is produced by the gut lining as it tries to protect itself.
Strange noises in the gut: The air building up in the stomach can lead to strange noises emanating from the rabbit's tummy. These can sound like water swilling around or churning noises.
Depressed: The rabbit is usually hunched, uncomfortable, and depressed, with little interest in what's going on around it.
 Digestion relies on muscular contractions of the bowel wall to push the food along the digestive tract. In gut stasis, this stops happening. The muscular contractions no longer push food along. The food, then, may continue to ferment and produce gas, which causes the tummy to bloat.Food sitting stationary in the gut causes changes in the pH of the fluid in the gut, and this allows certain pathogenic bacteria, such as clostridia, to multiply and poison the rabbit. The rabbit can die, sometimes within as little as 24 hours of the stasis developing.
Stasis is a response of the rabbit's body to stress. The stress hormone cortisol acts on the gut wall, which then switches off from its digestive function. Common causes of stasis include stress (such as seeing a cat, feeling frightened, a change of routine, travel, or a sudden change of diet), or pain (such as dental pain)., It is important to get a problem with digestion fixed as quickly as possible. Call your veterinary office and tell them that you have an emergency. They should let you come in immediately.
 The vet will feel the rabbit's abdomen, which often feels bloated and hard. The vet may tap the abdomen with a finger and listen for sounds of air in the gut. He or she may also listen with a stethoscope for the fluid tinkling sounds that are characteristic of stasis.These signs, along with a history of lack of appetite and infrequent pellets, are enough to diagnose this problem.
 The vet will treat stasis by giving the rabbit fluids, either intravenously or under the skin. In addition, the pain of the condition should be treated. The vet will also give injections of prokinetic drugs, which stimulate the muscles of the gut to start working again.The rabbit should be offered a high fiber diet and encouraged to start eating again as soon as possible.
 Understand how your rabbit's digestive system functions on a normal basis. This will allow you to more easily identify when the rabbit is having problems.
 Rabbits are strict herbivores, which means they only eat plant material and do not eat insect or meat of any kind. Their ideal diet is grass, plant shoots, or foliage, and their digestive system has evolved to process this high fiber low calorie food.


To get all the energy they need from a food that is low calorie, rabbits need to eat and chew their natural diet for up to 20 hours a day. Their gut is designed to act as a huge storage silo for large volumes of plant material, while the bacteria which are essential for rabbit digestion breakdown the herbage., The rabbit's digestive system is so efficient that it passes food through the gut twice, so as to derive every last precious morsel of nutrition. The rabbit achieves this by passing food through once and producing a larger, sticky pellet called a cecotrophy. The rabbit then eats the cecotropes as they emerge from the rectum, so that they pass through the gut again to derive maximum benefit.Food that has passed twice through the gut is then passed as the small, hard, dry nugget that most people associate with rabbits.
A common misunderstanding, is that an owner spots the rabbit's cecotropes and thinks the rabbit has diarrhea. In fact what they are seeing is an entirely normal and healthy pellet that has only passed once through the gut. The owner may see this if the rabbit has arthritis or is obese, and has difficulty reaching around to eat the cecotropes as they exit the anus. Under these circumstances, the pellets may be deposited on the ground where the owner sees them.
Be on the look out for diarrhea.
Pay attention to the signs of stasis.
Understand gut stasis.
Take your rabbit to the vet.
Discuss the diagnosis with your vet.
Follow your vet's instructions for treatment.
Pay attention to your rabbit's natural digestive process.
Feed your rabbit properly.
Allow your rabbit to digest its food naturally.
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