Shaking and Breathing heavily

[wintermelon]

Hey guys so i’ve been trying to feed my bunny critical care (the vet gave us) and i put her in my lap
she did’nt wanna eat any of it she (only a few nibbles) and just keep shaking her head and i dont really know what methods i could do to encourage her to eat it. And also after i gave her a break when i put her down she was breathing heavily and shaking and im worried that she would be scared of me and lose her trust but i really have to get her to eat it because shes not eating anything. What should i do?

[Mikey]

It sounds like she might be cold. If you have an animal safe heating pad, i would put that by her. If you have a warm water bottle, you can use that and wrap it in a towel and put it near her. If you dont have either, you can microwave rice in a fabric bag (clean sock or small pillow cases, ive read people using) for a minute or two then put it near her. If she is cold, she will go near it or lay on it. If she was grinding her teeth while shaking her head, it likely means shes in a lot of pain

For her critical care, youll have to get the tip of the syringe in her lip and squirt one or two drops of it, then pull it out. If she licks her lips, she swallowed it. If she does not or it drips out of her lip or nose, she is not swallowing it. If she swallows it, keep going at the same pace (1 to 2 squirts, pull out, wait, repeat). If she is not swallowing it, you have to go back to the vet as soon as possible. Did the vet give her any medication or tell you what she is sick with?

[Bam]

You can wrap her in a towel and make a “bunny burrito” to keep her from kicking and digging. If someone can help you feed her, it’d be great. Then one person can hold the bun in his/her lap and perhaps cover her eyes (makes a bun calmer) while one person does the feeding. The bunny must NOT be on her back, but sitting up.

There is a gap just behind the incisors in the upper jaw where you can fit the tip of the syringe. Then give her the CC slowly, so you see she’s swallowing. You will most likely get CC on her and on you, but as long as she gets some of it in her, it’s ok.

Don’t worry about her loosing her trust in you: She will regain it. I once had to syringe feed one of mine for a month and he hated it, he really did. But when he was well again, all was forgiven. He even seemed to be more bonded to me after the whole thing. I think pets can understand when a human is trying to help them.
It is really important that you feed her now like the vet has said, so you just have to do it. You can’t let her decide, you are the human so you must take charge.

[Bam]

Oh, and Mikey is right, she could be cold. Did the vet take her temp? Poorly bunnies tend to get low body temp and that’s not good. If the vet gave her pain meds, that too will lower her body temp. If she accepts sitting in your lap that’d be really good because then she’ll get warmed up by your body-heat. You can put a light blankie on her.

[wintermelon]

Hi yes we just took her to the vet and they said nothing seems to be wrong in her stomach, and her temp was normal (except her teeth is a bit overgrown) so im trying to give them more chews. (im not sure if thats all the reason shes not eating) The vet gave me critical care and i tried to give it to her and she really doesnt seem to like it she keeps shaking and turning her head at me and bit me (but not hard). and i dont think she was cold because it was pretty warm in the house (and her temp was normal the vet said)

After a couple hours a saw her eating a bit of veggies and also she ate a bit of hay and pellets. And i dont know if i should continue feeding her the critical care because the vet said if she wasn’t eating we should give her that, but she ate a bit but not enough so i dont really know what i should do?

[wintermelon]

I tried calming her down whilst trying to feed her like whispering sweet things to her and petting her, but she just really didnt like the food i think because it has no flavor? but im not sure. Is there anything i can add to the CC to make encourage her to eat?

And also my other bunny is not eating that much anymore. Im not really sure why like he wont finish the veggies when he usually finish that so fast. I dont know if they got tired of the food i’ve been giving them? but i do give them a few varieties everytime i feed them. Do you guys have any idea what might cause this? We are going to the vet again to do a health check just to make sure nothing is wrong

PS sorry for all these questions im just really worried for the :/

[Mikey]

Is the vet you are going to certified to work on rabbits? Like, have they gone to school and taken classes specifically on rabbits? Any rabbit vet will tell you that something is indeed wrong if your rabbit is not eating, so your vet saying she is perfectly healthy has me skeptical… 

I would still offer her something warm just in case. If she doesnt need it, she wont lay on it or go near it. It is good she is eating a little bit now. You should keep encouraging her to eat and giving her the critical care as directed until you start to see her eat normally. Since your other rabbit now is starting to act the same way, it leads me to believe they are sick with the same things. What is their diet normally like? Are the veggies you are feeding them good for rabbits on a daily basis? Not all veggies are good for rabbits, and not all veggies that are good for rabbits are good for rabbits every day. How many pellets do they get per day? How much hay? Is the water refreshed atleast once a day? Anything new in their environment? Anything new that can be stressing them out or scaring them?

[Bam]

You can mix the CC with baby fruit purée or veg purée or plain canned pumpkin to make it more yummy. My buns doesn’t like CC, I think that’s normal. Did you get any meds for her? Like meds to get the gut working again and/or a pain-killer?

[wintermelon]

Unfortunately the vet is not a rabbit vet but that was the closest we could go to because where i live doesn’t have rabbit vets, the closest exotic vet from us is an hour and a half away and i really wanted her to atleast get check by a vet somehow. But what got me confused is that they only eat certain veggies i give them, unlike before they eat all the veg. Normally i would feed them some lettuces (romaine,green/red leaf) and then i would add different types of veggies to that like radicchio, bok choy, cilantro, basil, dill etc, but i do feed the more high in oxalic acids in little pieces and only give one type every meal. And rosie only eats dill but i think she does eat a bit of the veggies i give to them cause i saw her munching on some yesterday.

So im getting confused if i still should feed her the CC or not, but i will try again later, is it okay for me to be picking her up because i picked her up twice yesterday to go to the vet and then picked her up again to feed her but i dont like picking them up because im afraid they would get stressed and as i said she was breathing heavily when she was on my lap i wrap towels around their whole body to cover their eyes because i heard it will calm them down a bit, and it does work but once i try to feed her she keeps turning her head away but she eats some veggies so i dont know what to do?
Sorry if this is really confusing but its really hard to explain through typing.

[wintermelon]

Posted By bam on 6/26/2016 2:32 AM

You can mix the CC with baby fruit purée or veg purée or plain canned pumpkin to make it more yummy. My buns doesn’t like CC, I think that’s normal. Did you get any meds for her? Like meds to get the gut working again and/or a pain-killer?

But i dont have that on hand yet, i will have to buy that tmrw. But can i add like carrot juice by blending some carrot and water and putting it in the CC? would that be okay? And also what should the ingredients be that would be safe for them to eat? Thank you!

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