blaisey
Mama Doe
Hi everyone,
It has been ages since I posted here, but I'm really in need of some advice.
I took in a bunny from my friend who didn't have the time to look after him anymore. He was living in a small hutch in her garden and really needed somewhere more warm with more space to move around.
When he came to me 3 weeks ago he was 985g. He's approx 8/9 months old and is a medium sized lop eared bunny rabbit.
He was drinking around a bottle of water a day (320ml) and it was all coming away from him as urine. My Flopsie, who hasn't been introduced to Skinny Bunny for obvious health reasons, barely wees and her Megazorb isn't changed very often, she also doesn't drink much as she gets her water from veg so I was really concerned about it but Skinny Bunny's litter tray was sodden wet.
Anyhows, we took him to the vet last Thursday for a checkup (By this time we'd had him 2 weeks) and he was 1.29kg and we mentioned about the water. The vet was pretty horrified at his weight and reckons he should be about 2.4kg. She thinks his Kidneys have gone, she couldn't even feel them, but his teeth and other things are fine. I had a bit of a panic as I'd put him on a course of panacur and thought that might have been it but she assured me it was a good thing and not a bad thing, and suggested we give the Flopsie another course incase. Though we've been meticulous with our hand cleaning!
She told us to take him home for the weekend and decide what we want to do. There are blood tests that can be done (I'll come back to that) and she said we can do as little or as much as we want. She also said to start feeding him as much as he would eat and to get junior food for him, we'd only been feeding him little and often because I didn't want to overwhelm his digestion with loads of food after not having so much.
Yesterday I weighed him and he's around 1.52kg by my scales now (quite an impressive weight gain) and since we've been feeding him more and he's had loads more hay and cabbage he's stopped drinking and weeing as much. It took him nearly 4 days to drink 320ml. My bezzie came round on Saturday and he loved her because she fussed like mad over him, and he was hopping around and being very inquisitive.
Anyhows... We rang her today to chat about his progress and discuss what to do from now and she told us about the blood tests. The problem is he needs to be put under anestetic (sp?) for the procedure because the blood is to be taken from under his chin. I'm really worried about putting him under when he still seems so fragile.
So my question is, finally :lol:, do we get the tests done now and have him put under or, since he doesn't seem to be in any pain and his situation seems to have improved, wait until we can get him to a much healthier weight and have it done then?
Does it sound to you guys like it is his kidneys or just caused due to his complete lack of good diet and the fact he is just over half his ideal body weight?
It has been ages since I posted here, but I'm really in need of some advice.
I took in a bunny from my friend who didn't have the time to look after him anymore. He was living in a small hutch in her garden and really needed somewhere more warm with more space to move around.
When he came to me 3 weeks ago he was 985g. He's approx 8/9 months old and is a medium sized lop eared bunny rabbit.
He was drinking around a bottle of water a day (320ml) and it was all coming away from him as urine. My Flopsie, who hasn't been introduced to Skinny Bunny for obvious health reasons, barely wees and her Megazorb isn't changed very often, she also doesn't drink much as she gets her water from veg so I was really concerned about it but Skinny Bunny's litter tray was sodden wet.
Anyhows, we took him to the vet last Thursday for a checkup (By this time we'd had him 2 weeks) and he was 1.29kg and we mentioned about the water. The vet was pretty horrified at his weight and reckons he should be about 2.4kg. She thinks his Kidneys have gone, she couldn't even feel them, but his teeth and other things are fine. I had a bit of a panic as I'd put him on a course of panacur and thought that might have been it but she assured me it was a good thing and not a bad thing, and suggested we give the Flopsie another course incase. Though we've been meticulous with our hand cleaning!
She told us to take him home for the weekend and decide what we want to do. There are blood tests that can be done (I'll come back to that) and she said we can do as little or as much as we want. She also said to start feeding him as much as he would eat and to get junior food for him, we'd only been feeding him little and often because I didn't want to overwhelm his digestion with loads of food after not having so much.
Yesterday I weighed him and he's around 1.52kg by my scales now (quite an impressive weight gain) and since we've been feeding him more and he's had loads more hay and cabbage he's stopped drinking and weeing as much. It took him nearly 4 days to drink 320ml. My bezzie came round on Saturday and he loved her because she fussed like mad over him, and he was hopping around and being very inquisitive.
Anyhows... We rang her today to chat about his progress and discuss what to do from now and she told us about the blood tests. The problem is he needs to be put under anestetic (sp?) for the procedure because the blood is to be taken from under his chin. I'm really worried about putting him under when he still seems so fragile.
So my question is, finally :lol:, do we get the tests done now and have him put under or, since he doesn't seem to be in any pain and his situation seems to have improved, wait until we can get him to a much healthier weight and have it done then?
Does it sound to you guys like it is his kidneys or just caused due to his complete lack of good diet and the fact he is just over half his ideal body weight?
