Baby bunny snuffles stress!

[suzannew01]

So on Saturday I bought an 11 week old lion head bunny (nala) from pets at home with the intension of introducing her to my 3 year old male bunny who recently got neutered. Within about an hour of being home I noticed that she sneezed a couple of times. By Monday morning it was happening quite a bit, took her to vets on Monday who looked her over, no discharge from nose or eyes so she thought it might b an allergy to her new home. Told me to turn off plug ins etc. I went home & got rid of everything I could think of that she could b allergic too, changed the room she was in, the bedding and the hay. By wed the sneezing was getting worse so I took her back to vet. Vet still thought it was allergy as still no discharge, gave her an anti inflammatory injection and some anti inflammatory to take at home. As soon as we got home I noticed she stopped eating and no poos at all by the time I woke up on thurs. v worried I took her straight to vets on thurs who started her on baytril and Zantac. Also gave me some recovery food. No poos at all last night but woke up this morning to find a few in her litter tray. She’s now had her second dose of baytril. Still not eating and doesn’t tolerate the recovery food very well with being so little. I’m sure poor little thing hates me now. I’ve managed to syringe her some water. My question is, now that the poos have started again and we are on day 2 of baytril, will her appetite start to return? The poor baby bunny has been thru so much in a week, still haven’t been able to introduce her to my boy bunny either for the fear of her infecting him!

[tobyluv]

Sometimes Baytril can affect a rabbit’s appetite and their GI system, so it can be helpful to give a probiotic with it, such as Bene-Bac Plus. That helps to keep the flora in their GI system at a normal level. Are you feeding her the same brand of pellets that she was used to eating? Sometimes rabbits are reluctant to eat a different brand. She also needs to be eating as much hay as possible. Since she is young, she can have alfalfa hay, but it would be good if she also had some timothy hay, orchard grass or any of the grass hays. You might need to try some different types and brands to find one she really wants to eat. It’s good that she is pooping, but it may take a little while before her appetite returns. So you would have to continue with the Critical Care if she is not eating on her own.

Regarding introducing her to your male rabbit, at 11 weeks old, Nala will be soon entering sexual maturity. If she gets cured of her snuffles, you could try bonding them now, but you would have to soon separate them and have her spayed, then re-bond them after she has recuperated. At this point, it would probably be better to keep them apart and wait until after her surgery to bond them.

Here are a couple of good articles on bonding:

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/9/PID/940/Default.aspx

http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/

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