Metamucil for Bunny?

[lygray]

 Hi all. As can be seen with a previous thread of mine…Where the food wont stay in, I wasnt getting any response so I will start a new one. After Lola’s surgery, she was having a hard time eating and then ate…but will no longer eat AT ALL. I have been giving her criti care and found a new recipe to syringe feed her but I dont know if metamucil is ok for rabbits. 

The recipe includes pumpkin (good), Pinapple juice (good), some pellets (good), metamucil (questionable), Ensure (questionable but I think it is ok), and plain yogurt (?). 

Does this sound like it could hurt her?

[Moonlight_Wolf]

I don’t even know what Metamucil is but I would say no the the yogurt and ensure. My vet told me to never feed my rabbit yogurt so I would look for another mix. I think criti care is pretty good, just tempt her with veggies and Keep doing what you are doing, Does she drink? If not maybe you could also syringe feed her water(I am not sure if this is right, but I did it). Did she get a motility drug? That’s what mine got when she stopped eating.
Good Luck!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Here is a recipie for a mush you could use, I guess you can use ensure, it is in this recipie.

Here is the link:

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/angelmush.html

 

[KatnipCrzy]

I would have to say that the Ensure and yogurt are a No for bunnies- both are dairy based and in no way natural for a bunny to consume.

The pineapple juice unless it is fresh is not very beneficial.  And just adds sugar content.

Metamucil comes in different flavors and some have sugar or artificial sweeteners- so I am really unsure and not familiar with Metamucil at all.

There are 2 flavors of Critical Care- Apple Banana and Regular- the regular is anise (fennel) flavored which does not sound good to me- but bunnies are supposed to like it also.

If you want to try something other than the Critical Care- I would try using pellets, water and or/Pedialyte (will add some sugar but also beneficial electrolytes so it is a fair trade off), and maybe some babyfood that has minimal ingredients that are on the OK list for bunnies.

I mixed Schroeder’s Apple Banana Critical Care with grape Pedialyte- and tried with some baby food also to tempt him to eat.  But what I found really made the most difference in his case was being on an appropriate dose of pain meds- when he was in pain he flat out refused to be force fed- he would NOT swallow.  But once his pain was under control it made a huge difference in his recovery.

The CC mixed with Grape Pedialyte does still not taste really sugary- I touched my tongue to a spoonful to see to make sure I was not feeding him a “sugar bomb” and it was really quite plain.  And I mixed the CC fresh everytime I fed and if the Pedialyte was cold from the necessary refrig I microwaved for a few seconds and then stirred with my finger to make sure it was not too hot before I filled the syringes.  If it would burn my finger it would burn his mouth- and microwaves are known to cause hot spots when you heat small amounts of food.

[KatnipCrzy]

from the rabbit.org website-   http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

 

B. Force feeding.

Anorexia can cause gastric ulcers and hepatic lipidosis (fatty liver disease) relatively rapidly in rabbits. Even 12 hours without eating is cause for concern. As long as your vet has determined that there is no actual blockage, and that there is enough slow movement of the GI to keep the stomach from becoming overly full, keep the bunny eating! An excellent, ready-to-mix emergency food for compromised rabbits is Critical Care, available from Oxbow Hay Company . However, if you do not have ready access to Critical Care, one quick and easy recipe is to soak about 2 – 3 tablespoons of pellets in about 1/2 cup of warm water or chamomile tea until they are soft and fluffy. The pellets will fluff more quickly in slightly warmed solution, but overheating may destroy some of the nutrient content of the pellets. Mix the pellet fluff with additional water or tea, vegetable baby food or even with canned pumpkin until it forms a somewhat liquid paste with the consistency of pudding. Allow to cool before using a large-bore feeding syringe (available at most pharmacies) to deliver the goods

[lygray]

Ok. Well thanks all of you for your helpful information. I actually used this mixture before I received the last two posts… 2 tbs pineapple juice, 2 tbs pumpkin, 2 tbs pellets (timothy hay based since she is a holland lop), enough water to fluff pellets, and 1/2 small bottle of boost/ensure vanilla flavor, and 1/2 tbs of criti care. I was finding and hearing mixed feelings about the metamucil so I steered clear of it. I have the banana apple criti care…

This smelled kinda odd but Lola liked it and she is eating at full force this morning. I did find a little mess on her but but she is otherwise hyper, feels a little fatter, and eats more. I think that mixture overall helped. I just kinda threw in things like the criti care. The rest I got off the recipe.

I am glad though that I now have some actual recipe’s to use next time. I will write all of them down… Thanks for the help!

[wendyzski]

I’d stay away from the metamucil!  My Pepper got into some and had a horrible gas attack – and this from the bunny who will eat anything!

If you don’t have access to Critical Care you can make a pellet mush or slurry and syringe-feed that to your bun – but it’s good to have around just in case.

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