Feeding disgusting medicine to rabbit (Baytril)

[Peri and Poe]

Hi everyone,

Recently our bunny Peri has had to be treated for a bladder infection, the vet prescribed her antibiotics (Baytril oral). The medcine has to be fed by a syringe twice a day, until it runs out (which is about 15 days), the problem is Peri has reacted very violently to the medicine. We have fed her medicine in the past and although she is reluctant, it is fairly easy to get her to take in the meds. With Baytril on the other hand, i feel like i have to wrestle her just to get a chance to put it near her mouth. With THREE people ( two to restrain the third to feed) it can take up to half an hour. Normally she’s an angel but she still has scratched up our arms (some of which have caused bleeding). 

I read some tips, we have tried to dilute the Baytril with apple juice (which she loves) but that hasnt helped at all. We tried hiding it in her favourite vegetables but as soon as she gets a whiff of it she runs off.  Recently what we have tried and seems to have worked is mashing up half a banana, a very small amount of grated carrot and some crushed pellet together and feeding her this mixed with the medicine. Although she wont eat it all at once, if we come back in a while she seems to have finished it all- so more stress free, for her and for us.

My only concern is that if we give her half an bannana twice a day (one full banana per day) it might be very unhealthy and cause digestive issue. Would it be okay to do this for the next 2 weeks, i really dont want to have to go back to forcing it down her throat. Any other suggestions would be helpful. 

Thank you for reading.

[Bam]

A whole banana a day is a hazardous amount of banana for a bunny, I totally agree. I don’t think it’d be ok for even the biggest Flemish to eat that much banana for 2 weeks in a row.

Baytril can be given as injections. You could call your vet about your problems and ask if your bun can get injections instead. This situation is stressing both you and her out, and stress isn’t good for anybody, especially not a bun that is recovering from an illness.

[tobyluv]

When my vet has prescribed Baytril, she would give us a little bottle of some kind of syrup to mix with it, to disguise the taste and smell. I don’t know how much that really helps, though, and you’ve already tried apple juice which didn’t help, but maybe that syrup has a stronger masking smell.

Have you tried putting Peri in a bunny burrito? If you can get her wrapped in a burrito, then she couldn’t scratch you. Maybe being confined would make her struggle less. I’ve never put a bunny in one, but I wonder if it could have a calming effect, or make them resigned to the procedure so that they are more still. I know that you said you’ve given medicine before, but make sure that you are sticking the syringe into the side of her mouth, in the space between the front teeth and the back teeth, and not going head on trying to get through her front teeth.

[Peri and Poe]

tobyluv-We always do the bunny burrito when we have to grab Peri or get her to take meds, usually it’s helpful but with the Baytril, she really kicks and squirms even with the burrito. Also we always put the syringe on the side of her mouth. Thanks for the advice anyway.

Has anyone had any experience with porridge (we’ve seen that mentioned quite a bit). But again i’m wondering if it would be okay to feed her porridge twice a day.

[Bam]

Oats are sort of OK for bunnies, they’re easy on the stomach and has many nutrients so they can be fed to bunnies that need to gain weight. If she’ll eat cold oatmeal porridge I’d rather give that than lots of banana, but you should probably reduce the amount of pellets you give so she doesn’t get fat. But you’ll have to watch her appetite and poop since antibiotics change the composition of the intestinal bacterial flora, and a dietary change on top of that might be hard on her tummy. It’s often recommended that you give a probiotic like benebac or fiber plex to a bunny on abs, to help with digestion.

[Peri and Poe]

hiya i just thought i would let everyone know that Peri’s quite happy taking in the medicine with porridge- this is probably the best option as i dont think shes that fond of injections or being picked up either.
Im feeding just about a teaspoon of porridge oats with water, twice a day- which from reading up doesnts seem too much, especially since we have cut out the pellets. Just to make sure i’ll check with the vet but all in all things have worked out pretty well
Thanks everyone for your advice

[tobyluv]

I’m glad that you found a solution to the medicine problem. I hope that Peri’s infection will be cleared up soon and that she will be completely well.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad you found something that works. My vet always puts a flavor in it like BubbleGum or Banana Bread but it still smells like alcohol.

[Author]

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