My rabbit is two and a half. It started on Halloween, he wasn't himself. Lying around, not active. So we brought him to the vet. They gave him an antibiotic shot but couldn't do anything else.
Ever since then he's been getting worse. He has Diarrhea, is barely eating and just lies around all day. We have to clean him daily. We left him in the vet for a day and they were injecting him in the mouth with some fluid. We do that a few times a day now. But he's barely changed at all. Maybe improved slightly.
The vet say that he has a stomach bug and there's nothing more they can do for him.
He lives out the back in two large dog crates altered into one rabbit hutch with his wife.
Does anyone have any advice on what we can do? Even to get him to eat?
2007-11-10 05:57:16 · 7 answers · asked by Anabelle 1 in Pets ➔ Other - Pets
I don't know of any rabbit specialists in Dublin and the vet we have has his own rabbits and is very good. He's helped us before when our rabbits were sick.
We haven't given them anything strange to eat lately. No candy.
2007-11-10 06:30:18 · update #1
Diarrhea in rabbits is normally caused by one of two diseases normally:
Either bacterial enteritis or coccidiosis.
First off, go to a different vet because that veterinarian obviously doesn't know much about rabbit medicine.
Coccidiosis is more common under certain conditions:
1.) hot weather
2.) young rabbits
3.) solid floor cages
It can be cured by administering liquid amprolium to the rabbit's drinking water. Do not use the powdered form of amprolium that you add to water. The particulates are too large and will go right through the rabbit's system without doing any good. The other medicine normally used to cure coccidiosis is sulfaquinoxaline. Sulfaquinoxaline will work but can more easily damage the kidneys and liver of the rabbit if given for too long or too large of dosage.
Bacterial enteritis is more commonly caused due to the diet of the rabbit or stress. Avoid giving your rabbit greens, vegetables, grass, or fruits. Giving your rabbit the wrong kind of foods can create an environment in the rabbit's digestive system that promotes the growth of certain bad bacteria. Once this bacteria reaches a certain level your rabbit gets diarrhea. Smaller rabbits have a smaller digestive system so it takes less to offset this balance. For a rabbit that has bacterial enteritis changing it's diet can help. Give the rabbit more fiber to eat. That means giving it stuff like straw or stemmy hays such as orchard grass or timothy hay. The more lignin a plant part has the more fiber it typically has. Lignin is what makes the plant "woody" in nature. So plant stems typically have more lignin and fiber than plant leaves.
Another good thing to do is to make sure your rabbit has plenty of water. When a rabbit has diarrhea it loses a lot of water. That water has to be replaced or it will get dehydrated and that is not good.
My advice is to take your rabbit to a good veterinarian. Have the vet take a stool (poop/fecal) sample of the rabbit. From the stool sample the veterinarian should be able to tell whether the diarrhea is due to bacterial enteritis or coccidiosis. If it is due to coccidiosis, give your rabbit liquid amprolium. If your rabbit has bacterial enteritis your rabbit should get a medicine like neomycin.
In the future, stick to just the rabbit pellets and water as far as feeding. If you are going to give your rabbit anything else to eat limit it to timothy hay or orchard grass hay or some kind of stemmy hay or straw like those two.
PS - Sometimes for bacterial enteritis (not coccidiosis) a good method to help cure the problem is to pull the rabbit off food for about 24 hours or so. Remember, with bacterial enteritis the bacteria is growing and reproducing on the food in the rabbit's system. By temporarily pulling the rabbit off of it's food you are flushing that food out of it's system and in the process helping to flush that bad bacteria out of the system. After 24 hours you can return the rabbit back to food such as straw or timothy hay (stuff with a lot of fiber) or put the rabbit back on about a half ration of pellets. After a couple days you should be able to return the rabbit back to full feed. Remember, keep plenty of water in for the rabbit so it doesn't get dehydrated. Many people make the bad mistake of pulling the rabbit off of water, erroneously thinking it is getting too much water and that is causing the diarrhea when that is not the case. The rabbit's system is trying to flush that bad bacteria out so it can get better.
The same thing goes with humans. We eat something bad and our body forces us to puke to get the bad stuff out of our system.
2007-11-12 14:54:55 · answer #1 · answered by devilishblueyes 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i would take him to a vet the specializes in small animals. we had a rabbit that did this and he ended up having cocidiosus which is contagious to other animals and all the medicines and hand feeding just did not help he ended up dieing anyway. you just have to determine how much you are willing to spend on him and how much time you are willing to spend on him also.
2007-11-10 06:27:41 · answer #2 · answered by leeson747 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
He might have gas. Feel his stomach. Does it feel bloated and hard. ?? try getting some baby gas medicine contaning the ingredient simethicone. give once every hour. give tummy massages. use a vibrating toothbrush. syringe smart water.
2007-11-10 06:04:11 · answer #3 · answered by akonluva4life 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
you say it started on halloween? did the bunny get into some candy? and if the rabbit did, it might have had a wrapper that clogged its belly.
2007-11-10 06:12:00 · answer #4 · answered by Classified Guy 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
hmmmm i would take him to another vet sounds like he might need to have an ex ray of his tummy maybe he ate something he shouldn't have good luck
2007-11-10 06:16:29 · answer #5 · answered by ? 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Take him to another vet!
2007-11-10 06:05:03 · answer #6 · answered by Numb 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
gust let im have lettus
2007-11-10 06:22:10 · answer #7 · answered by Charlotte B 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋