Woolblock, Wool Block, Fur Balls in Rabbits
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Your
rabbit
ingests a fair amount of his own hair while grooming himself. Some
of this hair is expelled with his fecal pellets, and some lingers in the
stomach and digestive tract. Now, if he were a cat, he would simply
vomit up these accumulations of hair, but your rabbit cannot vomit.
For reasons that are not completely understood, some rabbits will develop what is called woolblock or a furball; the hair somewhere in the digestive tract balls together with mucus and creates a full or partial blockage. This can be a chronic condition lasting several months, or if the hairball gets lodged in a particularly bad place, it can cause an acute illness, even death. Recovery can be complete, especially if the owner catches the problem quick enough.
In my own experience, I've noticed several common factors among rabbits affected by woolblock:
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In the rabbit, the conditions seem ripe for a woolblock episode when there is a higher-than-usual accumulation of hair in the gut and mild dehydration of the system. Something alters the normal course of the usually-benign hair in the rabbit's gut- causing hair to bind together, drying out and hardening as it travels until, finally, creating a gut stoppage or slowdown.
Most of the rabbits were molting or in some stage of molting and I wonder if there is a chemical change in the body that throws things off balance in the rabbit gut during this process? I know many say that if you notice rabbit fecal pellets 'strung together' on the wire or in their pan, they are prone to a woolblock attack, but I haven't found this to be true - I've had rabbits with the stringy/hairy fecal pellets who have never had gut problems whatsoever....after all, the hair is coming out, isn't it?
I have a feeling that somehow, the biggest contributor to a woolblock episode is lack of water - whether the rabbit doesn't have access to it or normally doesn't drink much of it.
Your rabbit's gut works almost like a horse's - and its well known that horses can readily suffer a bout of colic/blockage from lack of water. I know this firsthand as I lost my first pony to this sickness. I think there is a connection between water intake and gut health.
Symptoms of Woolblock
-Reduced feed/refusal to eat
-Rabbit is usually molting
-Fecal pellets noticeably smaller and fewer or absent altogether
-Rabbit 'hides' in back of cage
-Usually doesn't show a lot of pain but may grind teeth if acute
-Gradual loss of condition-dehydration, more sudden loss of condition
if
acute woolblock
-Can be a chronic or acute condition
First Aid Kit For Treating Woolblock:
-probiotic gel (from pet or farm store)
-meat tenderizer (powdered, plain, unflavored from the grocery store spice isle)
-oil product; either a cat-lax paste (pet store), or intestinal-grade plain mineral oil (pharmacy)
-simethicone drops; liquid infant drops -relieves gas pain (pharmacy)
-syringe; needle-less, usually 4cc size or larger (farm store)
-Colace gel tabs; active ingredient: docusate stool softener, 100mg liquid-gel tabs or liquid (pharmacy) (not shown in the picture)
-a mixer such as applesauce, mashed ripe banana, pineapple juice, etc.
Treatment Plan
Initial Treatment: If the rabbit is not critically ill, I'll syringe-feed the following slurry to him 2 to 3 times (several hours apart) the first day: If you feel your rabbit is critically ill - take him to a vet.
Single-Use Slurry For Treating Woolblock
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Don't hold your rabbit upside down while giving this to him - or you can cause him to inhale it. Carefully and slowly syringe-feed as much of the mix as he'll take. Mix up a fresh batch for each treatment.
Hay - offer plenty of tempting hay, even alfalfa (stalky alfalfa especially)
Water - must be clean, and available. If using an automatic waterer or bottle, also provide a bowl of water. Watch his water intake carefully, if he isn't drinking, you may need to syringe-feed some water or a Pedialyte solution, although subcutaneous fluids (vet) are more effective for rabbits whose guts are at a standstill.
I will usually follow this treatment for the first and second day if the rabbit is not getting any worse. Oftentimes, after this treatment, the rabbit will begin eating again, and slowly getting back to normal. Continue with treatment, at least once a day for a few days after he starts eating and pooping again. If he isn't getting better, but not getting worse, go to the next step below:
Further Treatment
Stool Softener Treatment: If by the second or early in the third day, the rabbit is not getting worse, or other symptoms haven't developed pointing to a different disease, and the rabbit has not starting producing stool yet, I will give one dose of a stool softener, Colace:
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FOR ONE OF THE SLURRY TREATMENTS take out the meat tenderizer and substitute it with Colace. This is a stool softener and works by not allowing the gut to suck out water from the stool, keeping the stool softer and easier to pass. One liquid tab has 100mg of the drug (check to make sure you are using the same 100 mg geltabs I've described, otherwise figure out the dosage if different) - I use about 80mg for the larger breeds like the French Lops, and for rabbits in the 4-5 lb range, they should get about 40mg. I slit open a gel tab and squeeze some of the liquid into the slurry - now I realize this is not an accurate measurement, but you can usually get pretty close if you are careful. Of course, you can buy the liquid Colace for children and measure it accurately (although then you need to give so much of the medicine to get the dosage), I just happened to have Colace 100 mg liquid-gels already at home, so that's what I use. NOTE: buy the brand name Colace, not offbrand liquid gels - simply because the offbrand gel capsules have a very inflexible covering which makes it hard to squeeze out the drug - the brand name capsules have a thin, flexible coating which is much easier to use. When I use Colace in the slurry, I'll also decrease the oil, since they both work as laxatives. |
ONLY GIVE COLACE ONCE A DAY - this drug doesn't work immediately, so the temptation is to give way too much, which can have undesirable consequences for the rabbit trying to recover. Usually, by the day after a Colace dose, the rabbit is producing stool. You can give your rabbit a total of one Colace dose per day, for a total of two days if needed If your rabbit has not produced fecal pellets after this treatment - he needs to be seen by a vet!
Continue with offering hay.
Water - if your rabbit isn't drinking much or is beginning to lose condition or appears dehydrated - I suggest you take him into your vet for a dose of subcutaneous fluids - this can mean the difference between life and death, especially if your rabbit is getting worse.
Short on ingredients? If your rabbit is showing signs of woolblock but you don't have all the ingredients for the slurry, at least get some probiotics until you can get the rest - the horse-size tube usually has vegetable oil in it, which may help almost any gut trouble.
If your rabbit doesn't show signs of improvement or is getting worse (listlessness, pain-grinding teeth, loss of condition such as you can begin to feel his spine) I'll advise you to get him into your vet for treatment. Your vet will most likely X-ray his abdomen to see what is going on, and treatment may include sub-q fluids, and veterinary medications to promote gastric action if there isn't a large blockage (metoclopramide, cisapride). If there is an actual acute blockage, your options may be limited and include surgery. I don't think abdominal surgery is a promising option for rabbits.
What Next?
In my experience, the rabbit who needed treatment as far as the Colace dose, usually begins eating and drinking again, and begins producing stool the day after the Colace dose-the fecal pellets are usually smaller for a few days. If you've given your rabbit more than one dose of Colace or too large a dose, he may have a day or two's worth of mushy stool. This is not an immediate recovery - expect several days to get back to normal appetite and normal bowel movements - but watch carefully to make sure the rabbit doesn't slip backwards.
During this recovery period, I'll usually give him 1 or 2 daily doses of probiotic gel or an occasional treatment of probiotic gel mixed with a small dose of meat tenderizer.
Once a rabbit suffers a bout of woolblock, he may be at risk for another attack in the future. You will have to monitor him well for the rest of his life - the secret to quick recovery is to catch the condition in the early stages. This can be a lifelong chronic condition with flare ups, or it can be an acute condition without much warning. I have had rabbits with only one episode, and none ever again too.....
Prevention
It makes sense to ensure woolblock-prone rabbits have access to hay on a daily basis, although I don't think hay is as preventative as many believe - my rabbits, and rabbits of some of my friends have been fed hay daily and we still have had the occasional woolblock episodes - just like our friends who never feed hay. If I consider the amount of rabbits we have and the cases of woolblock over the years, we've had very few incidences of it, and no deaths or long term problems for years, due to our diligence in catching this condition early.
Some breeders will regularly feed payaya enzyme tablets to the woolblock prone rabbit - the enzyme (similar to what is in the meat tenderizer) supposedly helps break down the mucus that holds a furball together in the gut. Some will regularly feed fresh pineapple or the juice from it, as it contains this same enzyme.
Water must be kept clean, plentiful and always available to a woolblock prone rabbit (with all rabbits.....). Use a crock to water with - water bottles and similar devices may not deliver enough water to the rabbit who barely drinks it in the first place!
Grooming while molting may help to prevent some hair from being ingested. Wet your hands with water and run them over your molting rabbit - the loose hair will stick to your hands -rub your hands together and ball up the hair to remove it. Repeat this until you've removed as much dead hair from your rabbit as you can. Keep his cage free of hair.
And most importantly - watch closely for the first subtle signs of trouble! Be in tune with each of your rabbits - look for any deviation from each rabbits' normal behavior. Quick detection of problems and quick treatment may prevent a full-blown episode.
After Thoughts....
This condition is closely related to gut-stasis and can be difficult to tell apart- Indeed, without proof there is actually a hairball in the gut (by way of x-ray or manually feeling one), who can be certain that these conditions aren't one in the same? Perhaps when it is noticed the sick rabbit is molting, the malady is labeled woolblock, and when not molting, gut stasis?
It has been suggested by some experienced breeders that rabbits who suffer repeated bouts of woolblock have a genetic weakness or genetic predisposition to woolblock and perhaps should not be bred.