Help getting newborn rabbits to pee

[rick]

I acquired through a neighbor a box of newborn rabbits (now about 3 days old), the mother is no longer.  Two have died due to injuries/puncture wounds; These two did not make it through the first night.  The other 3 are doing well with fat bellies, easy to feed, and seem to be doing well and active for their age.

In the past I was always able to pat or rub their genital areas and stomach to get them to defecate, however these 3 simply will not regardless of what I try (cotton, wet cotton, finger).   I’ve spent a couple minutes trying, all 3 of them are failing to produce anything.   I don’t know what kind of rabbits these are but assume they are cottontails, is it possible they don’t require stimulation to defecate?  They are on 3-5ml   2x a day of KRM with a small amount of sugar free whipping crème and probiotic.

Any suggestions or ideas that others have

[LBJ10]

Since this is a house rabbit forum, most members are not going to have experience with rehabbing wild cottontails. Do you have a rehabber in your area? In some states, it is illegal to possess cottontails. I would recommend trying to find a local rehabber. In the meantime, this website gives some tips on how to get them to urinate: https://mohrs.org/orphaned-cottontail-care/

[rick]

Thank you for the link, Yes I’ve been unable to find a rehab center as of yet but am trying, the doors were locked and closed when I went and another one said they they are too full to take any new intakes.  In the interim we are just trying to keep them alive.

[Bam]

What probiotic are you using? Certain strands of live saccharomyces cerevisiae (brewer’s yeast) has been shown to improve weight gain and gut health in baby rabbits.

The pH in the baby bunny stomach is higher than in the stomach of an adult bun, because the baby is supposed to get healthy gut microbes from suckling their mum. This means the baby’s gut is more susceptible to pathogens, but it also means that probiotics have a better chance to colonize the gut.

I dont know anything about wild cottontail bunnies, but all baby buns have sensitive stomachs. I’m sorry you cant get a wildlife rehabber to help you with this.

[rick]

Thanks using Bene-bac , the only thing I could find local.  I did see a discussion some people claimed the formula changed years ago and it does not work, but felt it may be better than not having anything as other claimed success with it.   I was not sure about brewers yeast, is that something I can just get any brewers yeast at the store?

[Bam]

Many people do report good effects of Benebac for rabbits. It has enterococchus faecium, which is a bacterium that is highly prevalent in the healthy bunny gut. Most lactobacilli are not believed to survive the very acid environment of the rabbit stomach, but that goes for adult rabbits – in baby buns those bacteria have a better chance of surviving. There’s still lots to find out about how various good gut bacteria interact with each other.

I dont know if normal brewer’s yeast ie baking yeast from the food store can be used. There are 9000 or so various strains of s. cerevisiae – some are used for baking, some for beer, some to make wine, some for champagne and so on. They all have slightly different characteristics. I honestly can’t recommend using normal baking yeast because I simply dont know enough.The type I use is by a British brand that has the s. cerevisiae strain (CNCM I-4407) 4b 1702.

 

[rick]

Thank you for trying to help and taking the time to provide this information.  Going to stick with the bene-bac as they seem to be doing ok on it and have made it to day 5.  I did manage to get two of them to pee a tiny bit but it took minutes of tapping, we keep trying though.   Thanks everyone !

[Bam]

You are doing a wonderful job. Thank you for helping these little ones! I’m very sorry I dont know more.

[Author]

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