Help with administering panacur

Hi there. I'm a newbie here. Last year we adopted a mother and son pair, Ben and Holly from the rspca. They have lived outside in a converted shed with an attached run and seemed to be loving being a part of the family. Sadly two days ago, my partner went out to do the evening feed and found that Holly had passes away. It was a complete shock a only for hours previous myself and my daughters had gone out to play and clean their litter trays and Holly seemed to be fine. She was naturally shy anyway butwas hoping around playing with her treat ball as normal. As you can imagine the whole family I'd gutted and we are very worried about Ben. Having spoken with the vet, she thinks it is most likely gut statsis that Holly had as apparently that can set in pretty quick. She wants to treat Ben as a precautionary measure as he was starting to show signs of weight loss. We have brought him inside so that we can monitor him more closely, as well as the fact that we don't want him outside alone and he seems to have adopted my eldest daughter as a surrogate mummy by cuddling up to her and nudging her to play like he did with Holly. The vet has told me to give him panacur, to be administered straight into the mouth. I'm really struggling with doing this, as he won't let me anywhere near his mouth when I hold him. Has anyone got any tips on how best to get him to take it please? Thanks in advance of any responses!

donnapem1987 said:

Hi there. I'm a newbie here. Last year we adopted a mother and son pair, Ben and Holly from the rspca. They have lived outside in a converted shed with an attached run and seemed to be loving being a part of the family. Sadly two days ago, my partner went out to do the evening feed and found that Holly had passes away. It was a complete shock a only for hours previous myself and my daughters had gone out to play and clean their litter trays and Holly seemed to be fine. She was naturally shy anyway butwas hoping around playing with her treat ball as normal. As you can imagine the whole family I'd gutted and we are very worried about Ben. Having spoken with the vet, she thinks it is most likely gut statsis that Holly had as apparently that can set in pretty quick. She wants to treat Ben as a precautionary measure as he was starting to show signs of weight loss. We have brought him inside so that we can monitor him more closely, as well as the fact that we don't want him outside alone and he seems to have adopted my eldest daughter as a surrogate mummy by cuddling up to her and nudging her to play like he did with Holly. The vet has told me to give him panacur, to be administered straight into the mouth. I'm really struggling with doing this, as he won't let me anywhere near his mouth when I hold him. Has anyone got any tips on how best to get him to take it please? Thanks in advance of any responses!

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I've just had this problem, all I can say is get someone to hold the bun still on the floor for you, that was the only way we could do it.
Good Luck x

Apologies for the terrible grammar/spelling. I'm on my phone and it keeps auto correcting to the wrong thing and I can't see what's written until it's posted. Daft phone! Lol

I used to put it on a fenugreek crunchie or in between some basil leaves , but ya don't give panacur for gut stasis , had ya other bunny stopped eating and drinking were the poos smaller than normal :wave:

So sorry about ya bunny Binky free

So sorry for your loss. What an awful shock.

Others are more expert than me, but I'm not convinced it was just stasis. I have had bunnies in stasis, and it sets in quickly, but it doesn't lead to death that quickly in my experience (ie playing, then a few hours later dead).

Were the bunnies vaccinated for VHD?

In terms of the Panacur, I always found it better when my OH held the bunny and I could then ensure the head was still while I syringed. Others will probably have better techniques!

SarahP said:

So sorry for your loss. What an awful shock.

Others are more expert than me, but I'm not convinced it was just stasis. I have had bunnies in stasis, and it sets in quickly, but it doesn't lead to death that quickly in my experience (ie playing, then a few hours later dead).

Were the bunnies vaccinated for VHD?

In terms of the Panacur, I always found it better when my OH held the bunny and I could then ensure the head was still while I syringed. Others will probably have better techniques!

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This is exactly what we found we had to do x

Thanks for the replies. Will try getting my partner to help when he gets home from work.
Both buns were fully up to date with all their vaccines. She seemed to be eating /drinking well and I found no difference in her droppings. Vet just wanted to cover all possible avenues to make sure Ben was ok as he has lost a little weight but his stomach was full.
The vet gave Ben an injection to help with getting his gut moving and said to give panacur in case it was a parasite.

I am currently having to give oral doses of medicines and this is what I do;

Prepare syringe. Sit on the floor with feet under my bum, crossed, and with the top of your floor flat to the floor i.e. so you're not on your toes, so to speak; this will prevent bunny from being able to reverse very far (you will have to adjust where your feet are depending on how big your bunny is so he can't wriggle back too far). Get bunny in between my legs/knees so just the head is poking out. Get protection in the form of a towel or tea towel (my bunnies don't bite unless being force-fed medicine so the towel is to protect you, not the rabbit!) and put over rabbit's neck/shoulders so bunny can't bite your legs/knees - I do not cover the eyes as that may make them panic more. Then I kinda lean forward, gently but firmly hold bunny's face/head in my one hand and syringe in the other and eventually I win. Watch out for teeth (as in being bitten). You must have your feet crossed though else the rabbit will reverse out (mine reversed out which is when I learned to cross my feet). Don't forget to slowly depress the syringe because if you just squeeze out the lot in one go it'll be too much for the rabbit and will just come straight back out!

I always adopt the above position. It always works and I rarely spill medicine/have it spat out.

Swiftly follow medicine with a treat i.e. piece of green, couple of pellet food (literally just a couple to get rid of the taste of the meds), and a good fuss :thumb:

I never need help administering medicine by using the above method. Good job really as generally there's no-one around anyway!

I've found Doughnut will just lick that out of a bowl! Other meds which she won't take I put on a bit of weetabix, which most rabbits love. It's less stressful for me and her and she thinks she's getting a treat

donnapem1987 said:

Thanks for the replies. Will try getting my partner to help when he gets home from work.
Both buns were fully up to date with all their vaccines. She seemed to be eating /drinking well and I found no difference in her droppings. Vet just wanted to cover all possible avenues to make sure Ben was ok as he has lost a little weight but his stomach was full.
The vet gave Ben an injection to help with getting his gut moving and said to give panacur in case it was a parasite.

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I'm always given this when I go to the vets as a precaution too.

I generally mush it up with watered down pellets or put inside a fenugreek crunchie, I rarely give medicine orally as it causes more stress than it's worth when you can get it inside them other nicer ways.

I can't understand why your vet treated your remaining bunny for gut stasis when he didn't have it :?

I put it on a fenugreek crunchie / or whatever their favourite treat is - Rupert now tries to grab the tube off me cos he thinks the panacur is treats!!! I have to hide it from him... Tia will resist but once she realises there's no more greekies she soon eats it. The vets always amazed that I do it four times a year and manage it ok

Does anyone else's rabbit like the taste of it? I used to put it on food but discovered she's happy to take it out the bowl on it's own. She loves septrin too but won't take metacam on it's own, so the weetabix are out constantly at the moment!

cpayne said:

Does anyone else's rabbit like the taste of it? I used to put it on food but discovered she's happy to take it out the bowl on it's own. She loves septrin too but won't take metacam on it's own, so the weetabix are out constantly at the moment!

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Rupert, loves it! He love fibreplex too, and infacol

Rupert & Tia said:

Rupert, loves it! He love fibreplex too, and infacol

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Yes I think Fibreplex may be her favourite, she licks that from the syringe and begs for more

Hollow out a bit of banana and syringe it in to the hole. My Bunnies will eat my hand off for banana and ignore the fact that there's medicine in it.

I'm sorry about mummy bunny and hope your little man is ok.

cpayne said:

Yes I think Fibreplex may be her favourite, she licks that from the syringe and begs for more

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Ludo didn't much like Fibreplex as the syringe is too big, he did like critical care though!

Hesperus said:

Ludo didn't much like Fibreplex as the syringe is too big, he did like critical care though!

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Oh she loves that too, she's just a greedy bunny and eats most things, apart from metacam!

I keep forgetting about Weetabix! I might try her with that tonight (if I remember :lol

Angie B said:

I keep forgetting about Weetabix! I might try her with that tonight (if I remember :lol

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Doughnut begs for her weetabix