When there is no food coming into the system the GIT motility slows to almost a standstill. A vicious cycle is now set up. The longer the rabbit doesn't eat, the more dehydrated and impacted the material in the stomach and cecum becomes and the less the rabbit feels like eating. Add to this a diet too high in protein or starch and the result can eventually be disastrous. These fragile communities are altered, allowing the growth of bacteria such as Clostridium spiriformes which can result in death due to the production of iota toxins.
Rabbits always have some hair in their stomach contents.
They groom themselves constantly and swallow the hair. In the rabbit, the hair is mixed with ingested food in a mass. The liquid stomach content gradually becomes a solid tightly adhered mass. The stomach contents feel doughy and firm on palpation. Radiographs reveal a solid mass of material in the stomach, often with a distinctive halo of air around it .