Gastrointestinal stasis is the most common life-threatening emergency in companion rabbits and is almost entirely preventable through appropriate nutrition.
Rabbit GI stasis welfare illustrates how inappropriate nutrition can create a life-threatening welfare emergency in an apparently healthy animal. The connection between diet and GI health in rabbits is direct and well-established: hay provides the long fibre needed to maintain gut motility, and without it the gut slows, gas accumulates, and the resulting pain and toxin absorption can be fatal within 24-48 hours. The tragedy is that this condition is almost entirely preventable through the single most important dietary intervention: unlimited access to good-quality grass hay. The persistence of pellet-heavy, hay-poor diets in companion rabbit feeding despite decades of veterinary guidance reflects how slow husbandry norms change. Every rabbit death from GI stasis in a pet rabbit that was not offered unlimited hay represents a preventable welfare failure rooted in owner education deficit.