Up until a couple of days ago, Mr. Mick was doing just fine. Eating like always, putting out poops that any good Poop Inspector would have been proud of--until this past Friday, that is, when things got very weird.
It started when I went to feed Mickey on Friday afternoon. I noticed that he hadn't eaten some of the basil I had given him the night before. I didn't think much of it at first, just dismissed it as having given him too much--but then I saw that he hadn't eaten much of his pellets. That was not exactly unusual for Mick, either, but combined with the leftover greens, it had me a little concerned. Mickey didn't appear to be having any problems wanting food, though; the minute I opened his cage, he was all over me hoping to get some treats. I gave him his usual papaya tablet, cleared out the old greens and gave him some fresh cilantro. He nosed at it a bit, then started eating. He didn't attack it with as much gusto as he normally does, but I figured okay, he's eating, it's all good.
That night, when I let Mick out for his run, he bopped around and demanded petting as he always did. No signs of any illness or discomfort; I gave him a belly rub and his tummy didn't feel swollen or hard. I figured I was overreacting...but then I checked his litterbox. His poops had shrunk to about half their normal size. Uh-oh...
I scooped up Mick, brought him into the kitchen, gave him a couple of syringes of water, some Laxatone that I still had from his hairball incident, and some Benebac, then I put him back in his cage and gave him some romaine lettuce to eat. He nosed at it a bit, then started nibbling at it.
In the morning when I checked on Mick, there was still some lettuce left and the litterbox in his cage showed no signs of poop. I called my vet, but it was 11:45am and they close at noon on Saturday. I called the emergency vet in my area, but all I got was voicemail. (I left my name and number and a brief message, but they never called back.) I took him out of his cage and syringed some more water into him, then massaged his belly for about half an hour. He licked my face and toothpurred. I put him back in his cage, switched out his oat hay for a fresh batch, tossed the untouched pellets for a fresh batch, and emptied out his water bowl and gave him fresh. At the last minute, I added a bunch of orchard grass; he appeared to take a nibble, so I left him to it, hoping I had solved the problem.
Since then, there have been no real changes. He's still doing all the "big 4"; his poops are a little bigger, but still not normal, and I'm finding some hair in them. His eating habits are still weird as well; he will be all over me wanting treats (I've cut him back to only papaya tablets), then when I give him greens, he'll nose at them as if he's looking for something before he finally starts to eat them. This is totally unlike him; normally, he'll tear into his greens after he gets his treats, even if it's only a papaya tablet.
There is only one thing that might explain everything, and even then, it's a little weird. I've started buying the occasional bag of salad mix because the greens at my local grocery store haven't been the best recently. Last week, I bought a bag that was a mix of radicchio, some odd lettuces, and shredded carrots. Mick would nose through the mix, pick out the shredded carrots to eat first, then eat the rest. The day after I used the last of the bag is when all of this started--and I wouldn't put it past His Majesty to decide that if he wasn't going to get shredded carrots in with his greens anymore, he wasn't going to bother eating anything else.
I'm calling my vet tomorrow and bringing in Mick for a checkup just to be on the safe side, but if that prima donna thinks I'm going to be buying that salad mix again, he's sadly mistaken.
"Hmmph...can't blame a bun for wanting a proper meal..."
UPDATE: Monday 5/23 1:50pm
The vet's visit has been postponed for the moment; poop inspection shows good improvement, and pellets have been eaten. I am going to continue to keep an eye on things and see how it goes. For now, it looks like somebunny decided he wanted to get more fancy salad mix, but he's completely out of luck now.
