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Need help with judgement call: stress vs food

nessar

Warren Veteran
As per my thread in the Health section, Barney is going through a bad gut slowdown. He is eating, but very little. He was back to the vets today but vet said he looked better than he did Saturday and gave sub cut fluids and a pain killer injection and sent home to continue with the metaclopramide, zantac and metacam.

The problem is he lives with Annabella. I have to go to work and I can't leave him surrounded by fresh food and pellets to tempt him because she would just eat them all and she'd probably get poorly then too.

I have 3 choices:

1. Lock him in the hutch alone. This will stress him out but he'll be able to see Anna through the bars as the hutch is in the run. He could then be surrounded with foods to tempt him when I'm not there. But he hates being locked in places so potentially the stress may not help his tummy. He also doesnt like to wee/poo in his hutch if he can help it.

2. Have him in the hutch and run as normal and just have hay and readigrass available, so he wont be stressed but he likely wont eat as much

3. Just give them both mountains of food and hope Anna doesnt get a bad tummy from them - she's pretty robust but would be a big change to her diet as she gets minimal pellets and few veggies normally.


Not sure what to do -please weigh in with your opinions on this!
 
What I usually do is leave piles of fibre rich foods, so plantain, artichoke leaves, brambles, different hays and grasses, etc. Things that won't hurt the others if they eat a lot of but gives lots of variety for tempting whoever isn't feeling too good.

Hope Barney feels better soon.
 
Could you put Anna in the hutch? I'm sure she'd hate it :( but if it is just for a few hours when you are at work and it helps her husbun get better? That way he would be in his normal surroundings, Anna would still be there and he could safely be surrounded by food without Anna eating it all. It's possible that her being stressed might stress him in turn but it would be less stressful than him being the one locked away.

If not then I'd probably go for option number 2, lots of hay. Plus a larger than normal brekkie and lots of hand fed treats before and after work.

It's a tough call though, hope he feels better soon :wave:
 
I would also opt for leaving Annabella in the hutch and Barney in the run with extra food. Annabella would cope for a day or 2. She can come out when you are home. Barney will be less stressed, have access to the food and have the space to move around more, which is important in getting his guts working properly. He may just spend more time running up to see Annabella.

If they are separate for a while you can check on who is eating what and on the poo output of each of them. Just make sure that he has a suitable shelter in the run to keep warm and dry. A carrier full of hay and with the door removed would do.
 
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