stopped drinking for almost a week

[skinnypig]

Hi

I have two five year old Netherland Dwarfs (male and female).

we’re currently in the middle of a heatwave and the water level in their water bottle hasn’t moved in almost a week.

I’ve given them an additional water bowl and changed/checked the bottle is working properly; but they don’t seem at all interested.

I took them to the vet yesterday and was told the female has reduced gut sounds, they were both given intravenous fluids and meds to help their guts moving and she’s also on Critical Care (1ml syringe every hour). I’m also giving them both 1ml of water from a syringe every hour.

I’m not entirely sure why the vet prescribed the Critical Care as they both seem to have a good appetite; eating their pellets, hay, and carrots with no complaints.

If they were suffering from GI would they still have a good appetite?

Is there anything else I should be doing?

 

I’m feeling increasingly concerned as my regular vet has moved to another practise and their replacement, by their own admission, isn’t very rabbit savvy

 

Thanks in advance!

[Bam]

Critical Care wont hurt, it does provide some extra water, but 1 ml per hour seems odd. Normally if a bun relies solely on CC for nutrition you give about 15-20 ml 5-6 times per day. Are your buns pooping like they should?

Are your buns getting any fresh greens? If they are,you can serve the greens freshly rinsed and dripping vet for extra fluids. Buns that eat a lot of fresh leafy greens as a rule dont drink very much.

It’s very good that your buns have a good appetite! You could try to serve some of their daily pellets soaked in water, perhaps with sth yummy mixed in. Not all buns will eat pellet mush, but some will, andits a great way to ensure proper hydration in a poorly bun.

Rabbits don’t do very well with heat, but there are some things you can do during a heat wave:

https://binkybunny.com/infocategory/cooling-tips/

 

[skinnypig]

thanks so much for the reply and the link!

yeah, I thought 1ml per hour seemed strange, in the past my previous (rabbit savvy) vet would normally give me a much larger syringe and tell me to give them as much as possible.

do you think I should up the dosage?

on the Critical Care packet it says to dispose of any mixed/prepared formula after 24hrs, is this necessary? it seems like such a waste!

Regarding poop; their litter tray is about three quarters as full as normal. when the temperature in their living space gets above 25degrees I move them to a cooler part of the house, They’ve been away from their tray a bit more then normal (due to the heatwave) which could explain the slightly reduced amount of poop.

Because there’s two of them it’s hard to tell if they’re both pooping normally, I plan to separate them this evening; I’ll leave the female in her living area with a clean litter tray so I can get a better idea of what’s going on.

unfortunately the only greens I give them are dandelion leaves and and carrot tops. our local super market recently stopped supplying the carrot tops and I’ve been unable to find any dandelion leaves. Do you know of any other readily available greens I can try?

I’ve been reading about putting something like apple juice in their water, do you have any experience of this? I’m worried about potentially giving them something that might make things worse!

 

thanks again!

 

[Bam]

You can put some unsweetened apple juice in their water, but give them a bowl of normal water as well since some buns refuse to drink water that tastes “funny”.

If your buns are eating their normal food I dont think you need to increase the CC, but maybe give a somewhat larger amount  less often than once per hour? It must be stressful both for you and them to pick them up once per hour to syringe-feed them?

I only ever mix a small amount of CC per day, because otherwise you often have to chuck out quite a bit, and as you say, it’s wasteful. If you’ve happened to mix up too much you can put the surplus in the freezer, then thaw it by stirring in some hot or warm water just before serving, so it gets to a nice room temp.

It’s smart to separate them for a bit so you can check their respective output, but (rather obviously!) keep them so they can smell and hear and preferably see esch other, since it’s often very stressful for a bonded couple to be apart.

As for greens, romaine lettuce and other leafy lettuces, or parsley, cilantro, mint, herb fennel and basil are good bunny greens. As always introduce new types of food in small amounts, so as not to cause tummy upset.

[skinnypig]

thanks again!

they were seperated for about an hour and a half; in that time she produced a small amount of poop (about a teaspoons worth) seemingly normal color and size.

I’ve adjusted the Critical Care routine accordingly

I’ve found an online supermarket that has carrot tops in stock, I’ve got four bags arriving tomorrow morning!

all the apple juice in the supermarket seemed to be loaded with extra sugar; so I put half an apple in the food processor and added it to some water, so far no takers.

On a rather worrying note I started weighing them everyday since this started, today she’s down to 1.144 from yesterdays 1.166! I’ll see what tomorrow brings before panicking!

I’m desperate to get them to a rabbit savvy vet; but until this heatwave passes any long car journeys are out of the question.I’ll make some phone calls tomorrow to see what my options are

thanks!

[Bam]

It’s agreat idea to weigh them! The weight can vary at least 50 g in either direction depending on how much food in the tummy  poop in the intestine and urine in the bladder, so those small variations from day to day is nothing to worry about. The important thing is the trend, so its good to weigh a poorly bun every day and write down the weight.

[skinnypig]

quick update:

it’s been an incredibly frustrating 48 hrs. I must have phoned about 15 different vets but their ether fully booked or don’t do anything with rabbits beyond the basics.

The rabbit specialist vets won’t give out advice over the phone and are all too far away for me to get to.

I also tried the emergency room at a local vet collage (which I’ve used in the past) only to be told they won’t deal with rabbits.

 

The male drank a very small amount from his bowl on Tuesday night but seemingly hasn’t gone back. their weight is stable.

The female is off the Critical Care; I phoned the doctor who saw them last week a told them they were eating normally and ask if it was advisable for me to still syringe feed her on top of her regular diet.

I changed their litter trey this morning, they’ve done only a very small amount of poop in the past 8 or 9 hrs; I’ll wait and see how it looks in the morning before I start panicking!

 

they’ve got a good appetite; eating their pellets and hay; plus a large amount of greens.

I’m trying to give them around 20ml each of syringe fed water spread throughout the day.

How long dose it take for food to work it’s way through their system?

 

The Male seems a bit lethargic but I’m hopping that’s just down to the heat; it’s still around 25degrees in the evening which is pretty hot for these parts!

 

thanks again

 

 

 

[skinnypig]

good news!

both are back to drinking more or less normally!

Since I’ve started changing their litter trey every day I’ve noticed they seem to produce the vast majority of their poop over night; so seeing an almost empty litter trey in the daytime isn’t automatically a cause for concern.

the male is still a bit floppy (which is very out of character) but seems to be getting a bit better everyday.

I still want to get them checked out by a decent rabbit savvy vet but my options are very limited.

 

 

[Bam]

Lovely news! Thanks for the update!

My bun poops a lot more during the night than during the day.

I hope you’ll be able to find a good rabbit vet, it’s always good to have one “on hand” so you don’t have to start searching for one in an emergency situation.

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