Your vet should have prescribed probiotics with your antibiotics, especially since Alfie was young. In the future, if your vet prescribes antibiotics for anything, ask for a probiotic as well. Wick had a URI at 8wo and it took 3mo to cure, so I understand your qualms well. Wick was underweight for a bit, so we also did a week of Critical Care and he got back to healthy weight and has maintained it since.

Honestly, I am no vet nor trained, but from my experience, I think sticking with whatever hay Alfie is used to and eats most often and doing critical care should cover the weight gain. Wick’s Critical Care regimen was twice daily, as much as he’d eat. So, that translated to about 5 syringes in the morning and 5-8 syringes at night, because he’s a monster about Critical Care. After a week, it was clear he was back to healthy weight and no more CC was needed.

Holland lops, being small in size = small in mouth size are prone to spurs. Not as much as Netherland Dwarves (like Wick), but it is true. Eating hay and chewing on toys is the best way to keep those molars down; however, permanently cutting out pellets will do more harm than good, as a growing rabbit needs the pellet nutrients. Do what you can do encourage chewing on toys and hay consumption, and this will do a good job managing teeth. Wick has to see the vet every 2-3mo for molar spurs, but he doesn’t chew on stuff, so it’s more frequent than most. Plus he has an underbite.

I thought I’d replied to this earlier. It must’ve not posted. Anyway, a probiotic is good for a young tummy. Benebac has some of the important bacteria that should be found in a healthy bunny gut, but there are other brands as well. If you can find one with enterococcus faecium and/or saccaromyces cerevisiae (live brewer’s yeast), it’s a suitable type for a bunny.

I think Critical Care plus alfalfa can be a bit too rich, so maybe wait with the alfala until you’re taking him off the CC? CC has all the nutrients he needs, so he wont really need the alfalfa until you stop the CC – or rather taper out – the CC. Grass hay is the best thing for bunny teeth, but as long as he’s growing he’ll need either CC, alfalfa or pellets plus his timothy hay. Adult buns do very well on a diet with very little pellets plus lots and lots of good quality grass hay. Alfalfa has too much calcium for an adult bun, but I have heard of people that feed their adult buns alfalfa instead of pellets.

Holland lops can be prone to dental issues, because they’ve been bred to have an (adorable) round little head with a short nose, and sometimes that means their tooth get misaligned. As Wick says the risk is even bigger with Nethies, but it’s actually a risk with most bunnies and that’s why there is no rabbit insurance that covers dental problems. Hay, hay, hay and more hay is our weapon against dental disease in our buns. This is because hay is tough and rabbits have to grind it between their molars in a sideways motion that’s needed for proper dental wear.

I believe I kept Wick on pellets during his CC period, and he was unhappy, but transitioned to no CC fairly well. I amped up veggies and pellets a bit to compensate and became more rigorous in stimulating his hay appetite.

It takes about half a day or a full day for Wick’s poop to show change (small to big; wet to dry). In terms of whether your rabbit is actually eating more/less hay, that will happen pretty immediately, but you want to observe for 2-3 days, as some rabbits need to warm up to foods and differing food schedules.

Great knowing his Timothy hay intake is increasing!