Freshly neutered bun wont drink or take medicine

[ALeahAlate]

I just had Bear neutered two days ago. He was very grumpy when I took him home, and would not eat or drink. He did sit in his bed on the couch while I petted him for a few hours. I narrowly succeeded in forcing his medicine down, but some of it ended up on me and in my hair. :/ The next morning, I checked on him and he had eaten all his fresh veggies! After that he started eating fine. Even his pellets. I let him hop about the living room for a bit and he seemed to enjoy that. He still drank no water all day and didnt seem to care. I have a hard time handling him even on a good day, (him and his sister are rescued “wild” domestic bunnies that I bottle fed from 4 days old) so checking his stitches is NOT easy. They looked fine yesterday, but I could not get hardly any of his medicine down him this time and it ended up all over my boyfriends shirt on accident. So here we are at day 3, and he is pooping and peeing and eating just fine, but still isnt drinking ANY water. He has a bowl and a bottle. I just tried syringe feeding him some water and I got bit. So I wasnt even going to try syringe feeding him the medicine again. I covered a bananna in it and he is kind of just looking at it funny and once in a while he will nibble on it. his poor little man parts look very sore and swollen. Probably cuz he hasnt gotten as much medicine as he needs…. anyone have any advice? Im getting slightly worried here. ?

[bonilla&BUB]

Take him back to the vet asap. They will happily administer the medication and water via syringe or subcutaneous injection for you. They can do this for you daily as well.
He needs his medicine and it sounds like he has missed 3 days…
Your bun will not act normal, and will not eat or drink if he is in pain.

[Mikey]

Baby needs to go to the vet as soon as you can. If they were looking fine the other day and are now swollen and red, he likely irritated them

[ALeahAlate]

I am planning on doing that first thing tomorrow. Vet is closed now. I called off work for tomorrow already. :p He doesnt SEEM pained or grumpy today. He has been hopping around and grooming himself all day. And he is still eating his medicine covered bananas. I just hope he eats them all. :/ he did get about 3/4 of the medicine the first day and 1/4 of it yesterday. He has already eaten more of his medicine today than he did yesterday. But Im definitely plannig on a vet visit first thing in the morning for sure! Anyone have any advice on what I can do to get him to drink tonight? I already tried a little juice in his water :/

[bonilla&BUB]

Do you feed him out of a bottle or a bowl?

I would place a bowl of water in his cage, if you normally just have a bottle. This can help. Also if you have a pharmacy near you, they will have syringes there. (I can’t imagine them charging more than 50 cents for one). Just get a 3ml syringe and feed him water this way – slowly pushing it out, into his mouth. He should take it (lick it up) easily. I had to do this for 3 days with my doe after her surgery.
Try and get at least 50cc of water into him daily. If you can do 8x of the 3 ml multiple times a day, this should do the trick!

[LBJ10]

What are the meds for? Pain? Antibiotic?

[tobyluv]

If you can’t get him to drink any water, even with juice in it, and syringe watering doesn’t work, maybe you can just wet his greens well before feeding those to him. That will get some water in him.

[ALeahAlate]

Yes, he has both a bowl and water bottle. His meds are for pain and inflamation. I tried syringe feeding him water, but I got bitten. So that was kinda out of the picture. I will try giving him some greens with water as soon as he eats all his meds covered bananas…. lol

[LBJ10]

Okay, here comes the crazy talk, but hear me out. IF he is eating just fine and doesn’t appear to be in much pain, then the stress of giving him the pain meds may outweigh what little benefit he’s getting from the small amount he actually ingests. Boys often bounce back pretty fast so it’s possible he doesn’t need them.

[Jessica]

If he’s eating his fresh veg well, make sure they are drippy wet when you serve him to get extra fluids in

[LittlePuffyTail]

Any update on your bunny?

[ALeahAlate]

I took him to the vet on monday and she said he was not dehydrayed. Wich is good. He didnt grt any fluids with his surgery so maybe he isnt drinking because he is stressed out. She also said to stop giving him the pain meds if he is going to be more stressed out with the process of giving it to him. Ive still been covering . Bananna in it, but he hasnt been eating the whole bananna. He seem very good now. Hopping around and licking me. But he still wont drink. and doesnt like apple sauce or apple juice.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sending some (((Healing Vibes))) Hope he’s back to normal soon.

[ALeahAlate]

Bear is almost back to normal! He is drinking water now, though not as much as he should. He is running and binkying and having a grand old time. Im so relieved!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Glad to hear it

[LBJ10]

Yay!

[Deleted User]

Great for you and Bear! So good to hear!

[Author]

Messages