What gut stasis is, in general terms
A rabbit's gut is built to move constantly, pushed along by a near-continuous intake of fibre. In gut stasis that movement slows dramatically or stops: food and hair sit in the stomach instead of passing through, gas builds up, and the rabbit becomes increasingly uncomfortable. Stasis is best understood as a sign rather than a root cause — pain, dental trouble, stress, illness or a low-fibre diet can all start it — but whatever starts it, the slowdown itself becomes the emergency, because a rabbit gut that has stopped is painful and self-worsening: the less the rabbit eats, the less the gut moves.
The appetite slide that starts it
The first thing most owners notice is a rabbit going off its food in stages. It may refuse pellets but take a favourite herb, then refuse the herb, then ignore everything including treats it normally snatches. Some rabbits keep approaching the bowl and sniffing, then turning away — interested but not eating. Appetite rarely vanishes without any warning, so a rabbit eating noticeably less at one meal deserves watching, and one eating nothing at the next meal deserves a phone call. Compare with the rabbit's own normal greed, not with how much you think a rabbit should eat.
Droppings: the clearest gauge you have
Output mirrors input with a delay, and droppings are the most honest measure of gut movement you can check at home. In developing stasis they get smaller, harder and drier, then fewer, sometimes strung together with hair, and in full stasis they stop entirely. Check the tray and the enclosure floor morning and evening so you know when the change started — "half the usual amount yesterday, almost none this morning" is far more useful to a vet than "hardly any lately." Absence of caecotrophs, or uneaten caecotrophs stuck to the fur, can be part of the same picture.
Posture, teeth-grinding and the quiet rabbit
A rabbit whose gut has stalled behaves like an animal with stomach ache, because it is one. It sits hunched in a corner or a loaf position it will not relax out of, presses its belly to the floor, shifts uncomfortably, and may grind its teeth audibly — a pain signal in rabbits, different from the soft tooth-purring of a contented rabbit being stroked. It stops grooming, exploring and interacting. Some rabbits feel bloated or tense around the stomach, but do not press or squeeze the abdomen to test this; you can hurt a gassy rabbit, and the vet will assess it properly.
Why hours matter with a slowing gut
Gut stasis does not usually resolve by waiting, because the mechanism feeds itself: discomfort suppresses appetite, no fibre intake stalls the gut further, and gas and dehydration deepen the discomfort. A rabbit that has eaten nothing and passed no droppings needs a vet the same day — sooner if it is hunched, grinding its teeth or has been off food since the previous day. Do not force-feed a rabbit you suspect has a blockage or bloat; phone the vet and follow their instruction for your rabbit. When you arrive, the daily notes on appetite and droppings you keep in KinsLe's Pet Passport give the vet the trajectory — how fast the gut has slowed — which shapes what they do first.