Emergency and/or first aid “kits” ?

[Tami]

It’s been awhile since I’ve posted —- I’ve just been so busy trying to keep ahead of bills and stuff that I haven’t had time to even come on here to see how everyone is doing.  I’m so sorry about that

I tried using the search option to find what one should have in an emergency kit or for administering first aid in a bunny emergency, but the search option does nothing but give me error messages.

I thought someone had made up a list of things at one time that a bunny owner should have on hand in case of an emergency but I can’t seem to find any “Sticky’s” on the subject.

Can someone point me in the right direction?  I think Critical care and simethicone are two of the items that should be available but I can’t remember anything other than that.  Maybe some kind of baby food or —–??  to feed in case they’ve stopped eating?

Any help would be appreciated.  I’m just trying to gather up everything we need “just in case”.

 

Thanks !

[Sarita]

I would also call around to emergency vets and make a list of those vets that see rabbits first and foremost.

I think if you have critical care you don’t necessarily need baby food but a jar or two would be fine but check expiration dates because they will eventually expire.

[Tami]

Hi Sarita ! 

Thanks for the reply.

There are no rabbit-savvy vets around here.  I think the nearest one is over 2 hours away, maybe more.  It seems all the vets around here care only about dogs and cats and I get so frustrated that they don’t know a darn thing about small animals.  I mean, the people on this forum know more than the vets do, so I have to know how to handle things and what to do first if there ever comes a time, God forbid, that anything happens with my precious bunnies.

Also, I’m looking to switch pellets and would like to buy Oxbow in the 50 lb. bags, but my gosh are they ever expensive !!!!  And the shipping !!  HOLY COW !!  I feel myself getting so angry sometimes because I have to pay out the a$$ just to be able to provide the best possible care for my buns.  It’s just not right !

We actually asked our local Tractor Supply if they could get some in for us and they said that the Oxbow company was VERY uncooperative and wouldn’t ship to them.  How rude !!  That in itself almost turned me against them!  I was then thinking of trying to get the Zupreem brand, if there was no possible way for us to purchase the Oxbow without taking out a loan.  Maybe Zupreem is more abundantly available?  I am going to check that out here directly.

Does anyone know of the cheapest, best place in Pennsylvania to get 50 lbs. of Oxbow pellets without paying an arm, a leg and a left lung for shipping???  I mean the Oxbow itself isn’t cheap, but having that horrendous shipping charge on top of it is just way too much for us to handle, yet I want to feed my buns the best food possible.

Thanks again for your response, Sarita.  I really appreciate it !

Tami in Bedford, Pennsylvania

[KatnipCrzy]

Tami-

  In addition to Critical Care if you can get some (you can always make your own pellet slurry), I would have liquid Simethicone on hand along with some feeding syringes, Grape Pedialyte and baby food.

  For ouchies- Neosporin type ointment WITHOUT the pain reliever works great on bunnies.

  Nothing you can do at home will take the place of vet care if your bunny is seriously ill or injured.  Pain meds, gut motility meds and other possibly medical supplies are not available over the counter.  But the above things listed will help with minor issues or keeping the pet in better hydration status.health until you can schedule a vet appt the next am.

  I would not be too upset wtih Oxbow for not shipping to TSC or any other farm store.  Most bunny owners buying in 50lbs bags are not looking for premium house rabbit food- they are looking for food to feed many rabbits- most of them breeding.

  No matter where you live in the county it is expensive to ship a 50lb bag of pellets- almost as much at the pellets themselves if not more.  I would recommend looking around to see what premium pellets ARE available in your area such as Zupreem rabbit, APD or American Pet Diner, Sweet Meadow or even Kaytee Timothy Rabbit pellets.  There might be other pellets too that are good for house bunnies- but those are the kind that pop to mind for me.

[Tami]

Hi KatnipCrzy ! 

Thanks a million for your very informative post !

Could you tell me approximately how much of the Critical Care, Simethicone and Pedialyte to administer that is safe, if you know?

We do have quite a few rabbits that we rescued and have been buying 50lb. bags of Dumor Show Quality Rabbit Pellets from TSC, so it was a shot in the dark thinking Oxbow might be agreeable to supplying some to TSC for those of us that own rabbits simply because we enjoy their company and are a part of our family.  The way the girl said it, it sounded like Oxbow had a little bit of an attitude about supplying a predominately farm-type store with decent rabbit pellets.

None of the brands of pellets you mentioned can be purchased around here.  All that is available is what you can get at TSC (which is what all the 4-H er’s and breeders purchase; Manna Pro, Dumor, Select Series Sho, etc.) and then there’s the ever popular LM Animal Farms line that has a bunch of junk in it like corn and “mysterious” shaped different colored pellet-like things that are most definitely not appropriate for bunnies let alone any other small animal.  Those can be purchased at Walmart and also TSC as well.

Since we have a more than average amount of buns, we need to buy bigger size bags so we’re not constantly running to the store to purchase food (not to mention the amount of money that would be spent on buying numerous 5lb. bags —- because everyone knows buying in bulk is cheaper and more economical) which pet stores like Petco or Petsmart doesn’t supply.  Subsequently, ordering online is our only option — hence the outrageous shipping costs we’ll have to deal with *sigh*.

I just did a search on where to purchase Critical Care and this link came up —

http://www.bunnybunchboutique.com/firstaid2.html

— which has a Rabbit GI Stasis Kit for $46.00 with all the things that have been mentioned previously.  Looks like the very thing I’ve been looking for   I don’t know why I didn’t do that sooner   I guess I just wanted to see what all the informative bunny’ers on BB suggested first

As to the reference of baby food —- can you recommend what type/flavors of baby food is best to give rabbits?  And about how much?  We have quite a few buns that just refuse to eat hay and I’m so worried that they will eventually have problems that we’ll have to attend to.  They are the ones that worry me.  We have tried purchasing different types of hay from different places and they just turn their noses up at it.

We used to buy a bunch of hay from BB about once a month until we just couldn’t afford it anymore (sorry Jenn ), so we started getting hay from some of the farmers around here at $2 – $4 a square bale.  We did had some “leftover” BB hay that was basically the “crumbs” that we couldn’t put in their hay balls because it would fall out (I didn’t even know we had these because hubby had it in the original bags closed up and shoved under a bunch of other bunny-type stuff.  It was just dumb luck that I happened on these bags of “crumbs” when I was looking for toys for the buns).  I put some of the BB crumbs — which weren’t really crumbs at all, just smaller pieces — in locking crocks in their cages and they really enjoyed it.  I told hubby about how they reacted and we’re going to try very hard to purchase some more hay from BB if for nothing else than to give to the more finicky hay eaters, hopefully being able to entice the ones that don’t eat hay at all, to maybe start nibbling a little bit.

Just out of curiosity, will a rabbit actually starve itself if it only had hay and water if they don’t normally eat hay?  Like I said, we’ve tried everything to get the ones to eat hay that don’t and nothing has worked thus far.  I was just wondering if taking their pellets away totally so that they HAVE to eat the hay would be okay because I just hate knowing that they’re not getting what they need from nature — that they are relying on manufactured pellets to get their nutrition (some of these buns refuse to eat greens also no matter what we’ve tried to entice them, and I think it’s because mostly all of them are from rabbitry’s that breed them for show so they don’t bother giving out greens and stuff like that.  Not all of the rabbitry’s are the same, just so you don’t think I’m type-casting them.  Some actually DO give their buns greens, just not very often.).  These very same buns don’t chew on toys or even play.  They will hop around in the x-pen and chin things, but they don’t binky or act like they are having any kind of fun at all, almost like they were trained not to show emotion because they were once “show bunnies”.  It’s just really frustrating when you’re trying everything you can to get these picky eaters/party poopers to eat some good stuff and to have a little fun and they just blow you off like you’re a whack job, LOL.

I guess it just takes lots of patience and diligence (even though it’s been way over a year for most of them since coming into our care).

Anyway, thanks a bunn-ch for your help KatnipCrzy !

[KatnipCrzy]

Critical Care is based on weight- so it depends on the weight of the bunny.  Much the same for Pedialyte also- a larger bunny would need more oral fluids than a smaller bunny.  If you are giving Critical Care the bunny will also be getting liquids from that also.

For baby foods I picked out flavors that are one the “approved veggie/fruit list for bunnies.”  Such as carrots, banana blueberry, etc.  And I chose the foods that are intended for younger babies as they seem to have minimal ingredients without added grain, etc.  Some of those flavors are more “sugary” than what I usually feed my bunnies- fruit and carrots are only a treat- but when your bunny truly does not want to eat any healthy food you can get into the bunny is a huge bonus.

I used Grape Pedialyte- and to be honest neither of my bunnies liked it- even Cotton was healthy but I don’t think it was the flavoring- just the fact that they are not used to drinking anything other than water.   Since there is some sugar in Pedialyte- as much water that you can mix into the Pedialyte and still have the bunny drink it is best.  Bunnies SHOULD like the Pedialyte- mine just seemed not to.

Simethicone can be given at 1-2 mls (possibly more for a very large rabbit) and it can be given once an hour for 2-3 doses and then every 6-8 hours after that.  I did some research and when Schroeder had a super painful gassy belly when being treated for stasis I found I could give 1-2 mls every 3 hours and I started at that and then weaned down in dosage and frequency as his belly pain decreased and his appetite improved (he was also on pain meds).  Simethicone does not absorb and only acts mechanically to help break up gas bubbles- so it seems to work well with belly massage.

Also you can order Oxbow pellets online- and the ONLY place that I have found with reasonable shipping is Drs Foster and Smith- they have flat rate shipping based on dollar order not weight- but they do add to the price of a 50lb bag to obviously offset that a little.  We have a couple of saltwater tanks so I order from there maybe 3 times a year to stock up on supplies.

[jerseygirl]

From FAQ’s  binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aff/2…fault.aspx

Quick Tip:  When you have trouble with the search function you can use another search engine (like Google).  Just type in the search box  site:binkybunny.com First Aid Kits  or whatever terms you need.

[RabbitPam]

Hi, Tami,
My local Petsmart started carrying Oxbow pellets this year, and though they have an awful markup on the price of small bags, you might see if there’s one near you that will order a 50 lb. bag for you. I think they’re a national chain.

I had some emergency links saved in my favorites, so will check on those and be right back to post any info. I can find.

[RabbitPam]

http://www.petco.com/Content/Article.aspx

OK, here’s one I was surprised to find at Petco one time, but it seemed worth saving. First Aid at Home, in their rabbits section.

OK, here’s another one from Cornell Vet School: http://www.vet.cornell.edu/news/articles/09petfirstaid.cfm

Here’s a link to Oxbow’s product search for finding a supplier in your area. A few years ago I couldn’t find it sold by retailers, but two vets within a dozen miles of my home stocked it regularly. You could ask your vet, or one you find listed with this link, if they will order the 50 lb. bags for you. I had one vet (who never treated my bunny) keep the 10 lbs. stocked up just because they knew I was a regular customer for them. Every couple of months I would drive there to pick up two bags at a time.

http://www.oxbowanimalhealth.com/contact/find_products

[Tami]

Wow !  Thanks a million RabbitPam for all that information !!

The closest Petsmart is about an hour and a half away but we do have a Petco about 30 mins. away that we stop in at when we’re in the area.  I will check with them and see if they can accommodate me

Thanks for your help everyone !  It’s very much appreciated

[Author]

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