When an elderly rabbit's spine starts to feel prominent under your fingers, her body is telling you that muscle is thinning and everyday movements cost her more. She may still eat, groom, and greet you, while quietly giving up the jumps, stretches, and long explores she once managed easily. Care at this stage is not one big intervention. It is a set of small supports working together: food she can keep condition on, movement that preserves what muscle remains, a home reshaped to her reach, and a written trend that shows your vet what your hands feel week by week.
Protect Movement and Comfort
Daily gentle movement matters, because rest alone lets weak muscle fade faster. Encourage short, unhurried exercise on non-slip flooring, such as rugs or mats over any smooth floor, letting her set the pace and stop when she chooses. Scatter hay and a few leafy greens along her route so movement earns rewards without any chasing or pressure. Reshape the home around her reach: fit ramps with a gentle slope and a grippy surface wherever she once jumped, up to a favorite platform, into a raised hide, or over a pen edge, and check that she uses each ramp confidently rather than avoiding it. Give her a low-entry litter tray with one side cut down or a purpose-made shallow tray, so stepping in never becomes the obstacle that causes accidents outside the tray. Lay soft bedding thickly where she rests, especially under bony hips and spine, and check her underside, heels, and any thin-furred areas daily for soreness that needs a vet's eye.
Feed for Condition Without Guessing
Keep unlimited hay central to her day, spread in several places at floor level so she grazes often without traveling far or rearing up to a high rack. Hay keeps her gut moving and her teeth working, and frequent small grazing suits an older rabbit better than rare large meals. Beyond that base, treat diet as a discussion with your vet, not a guess at home: an elderly rabbit losing muscle may need a different balance of pellets, greens, and energy than a younger adult, but the right change depends on her weight trend, teeth, digestion, and any other conditions your vet is tracking. Bring your weekly records to that conversation and change only what the vet advises, one step at a time, watching droppings stay plentiful and well formed after any adjustment. Keep fresh water in a heavy, low bowl she can reach without stretching, alongside any bottle she already uses, and watch that she drinks comfortably. If she eats less at any point, contact your vet promptly rather than waiting to see, because a rabbit whose gut slows down can decline quickly.
Track Weight and Spine Week by Week
Weigh her weekly, on the same day, at the same time, using the same scales, and write the figure down beside the date. Pair each weighing with a gentle spine feel: run flat fingers lightly along her back and record what you feel in plain words, such as spine slightly more prominent, or covering about the same, so the record captures texture as well as numbers. The trend is the record that matters. One week's small dip can follow a quiet few days, but a steady downward line across a month, matched by a spine that feels sharper each time, gives your vet clear evidence for adjusting diet, checking teeth and pain, or investigating other causes an owner cannot see. Note appetite, droppings, activity, and ramp use in the same weekly entry, since a weight change beside falling activity tells a fuller story than weight alone. Stored inside Pet Passport through KinsLe, those weekly entries travel as a complete records packet whenever she sees a vet.