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Rearguard - yes or no?

Beau Belle

Beau Belle

Mama Doe
The vet has just given us 4 bottles of Rearguard, one for each bun.

I have read many negative comments about it on here, and I'm now in two minds about using it.

I want them to have some cover (my Bella is as furry as a west highland terrier), but I worry about reactions (Cookie is very sensitive and if she goes off her food, we're in trouble...)

I don't know what to do. Has anyone used it *without* problems?
 
It is my first Summer with bunnies and I used it on my two outdoor bunnies as it put me at ease and I had no problems. The bottle is very difficult to use so I ripped the sponge off and poured it onto my hand so I didn't have to press hard on the bunnies (make sure you wash your hands very thoroughly if you do this) and I had no trouble at all really besides Willow going off her food for about 4-5 hours. That being said, I did not need to put it on Storm as he is an indoor bunny, but wouldn't have anyway as I wouldn't want to risk it as he is very sensitive and has had lots of bouts of stasis.

Sent from my HTC Desire 620 using Tapatalk
 
Beau Belle said:
The vet has just given us 4 bottles of Rearguard, one for each bun.

I have read many negative comments about it on here, and I'm now in two minds about using it.

I want them to have some cover (my Bella is as furry as a west highland terrier), but I worry about reactions (Cookie is very sensitive and if she goes off her food, we're in trouble...)

I don't know what to do. Has anyone used it *without* problems?
Click to expand...

Never used it because I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole ...

There's been many threads about this - have a search and see what you think :)
 
WillowAndBiscuit said:
It is my first Summer with bunnies and I used it on my two outdoor bunnies as it put me at ease and I had no problems. The bottle is very difficult to use so I ripped the sponge off and poured it onto my hand so I didn't have to press hard on the bunnies (make sure you wash your hands very thoroughly if you do this) and I had no trouble at all really besides Willow going off her food for about 4-5 hours. That being said, I did not need to put it on Storm as he is an indoor bunny, but wouldn't have anyway as I wouldn't want to risk it as he is very sensitive and has had lots of bouts of stasis.

Sent from my HTC Desire 620 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Hmmm .. it's safe for rabbits to ingest but not safe for us to have on our hands?
 
Used it the first summer that I had bunnies.One actually went into stasis :shock: She recovered but I decided I would never use it again.I was advised by a vet to use it and it was applied by a vet nurse.The bonded pair I had fell out when it was applied-I guess the smell upset them.

Now I just do bum checks 3 or 4 times a day.
 
I wouldn't touch it. I feel it's more likely to cause an adverse reaction than the chances of your buns getting fly strike.
 
WillowAndBiscuit said:
I have eczema that is very easily triggered, that's the only reason I was so keen to wash it off. Other than that it is just sticky and doesn't feel nice on your hands haha.
Click to expand...

I wasn't criticising you in any way (hope you didn't feel that :)). But some things that we are told to put on our animals can be quite toxic to us (and probably to them). But then I am of the anti-chemical brigade par excellence :D

I should think anything like that would play real havoc with eczema - poor you xx
 
MightyMax said:
I wasn't criticising you in any way (hope you didn't feel that :)). But some things that we are told to put on our animals can be quite toxic to us (and probably to them). But then I am of the anti-chemical brigade par excellence :D

I should think anything like that would play real havoc with eczema - poor you xx
Click to expand...
No no of course not [emoji4] To be honest if I had of seen all of these negative reviews beforehand I wouldn't have used it, but I didn't see them until afterwards and just assumed that because the vet said it would be OK to use (I enquired about it) then it would be fine. Luckily my bunnies didn't have any funny reactions to it though so I just thought I'd put a positive review forward so it doesn't make it look like the devil's chemical weapon [emoji38]
 
I have used it without any ill-effect, although on one one occasion it did knock one of my rabbit badly as she was flat and off her food for a whole day. (Unless it was just a coincidence).

Personally I would not use it routinely and would have to seriously think it through even for a vulnerable rabbit.
 
I get rearguard with the HPC (healthy pet club), but have only used it once: on Galinda, last year, when she was fighting UTIs. I would never use it routinely.

I'll probably keep 1 of the 4 bottles I'll get in case of an urgent situation like Galinda's and donate the rest to charity.
 
lenslady said:
Thank you for that. I have heard citronella works very well. I have just bought some external citronella candles for outside, wether they work I do not know as haven't tried yet. xx
Click to expand...

I have found that one of those electrical diffusers work best outdoors (if you've electricity outside that is). And of course it's easy indoors to permeate the atmosphere with one quicker than with candles x
 
I have used in the past quite a lot with elderly or disabled bunnies who could not clean themselves efficiently. It is not ideal and they did sometimes go off their food for a short while but I live alone and was working 12 hour shifts at the time. I couldn't bottom check every couple of hours.

Over 20 years ago before I knew anything about bunnies one of my buns died of fly-strike as I had no idea what the maggots were, 'phoned the vet and was told to take her in that evening. When I got in from work she was dead and I have never forgiven myself and never will, knowing now what a horrendous death she must have had.

More recently, probably in the last ten years, I had an elderly bun who I had to bottom bathe occasionally. I checked her routinely, went out - fortunately not to work, came home three hours later and her bottom was crawling with maggots. I scraped them off with my nails, dashed her to the vet and she survived - but the speed at which the maggots spread horrified me.

At the moment all three of my buns are able to keep themselves clean and I no longer do such long shifts, although am still out of the house for 8 hours, so I don't use rearguard. If I had an elderly or disabled bun again I probably would use it when I had to leave them all day (which isn't every day any longer).

I know there are a lot of people against it - and I will probably be criticised - but I am being honest and, for me, in some circumstances I think it is the lesser of the two evils.
 
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