Happy Hopping
Wise Old Thumper
My bunny was sick back in Dec 29, turns out it is a bacterial infection of the kidney. The vet said his penis make contact with some baterica when he hops outside that day (it was a warm chinook day).
As of April, after 3 mth. of anti-biotics, he is fully cured from the bacteria. But during the past fw months of treatment, I have to handfeed him w/ baby food on the syringe (6 x 6 cc per 24 hr.), and handfeed him the pellet, among other nuts. As well, during this 3 mth. period, since he won't drink any water due to the bacterial infection, I injected 150cc of NaCl under his skin.
The vet said he is now used to being handfeed, so the following problems occurs:
1) He'll eat everything else on his own, like carrot, corn, spinach, all sorts of nuts etc., but not the basic pellet. That I have to hand feed him.
2) He won't drink any water.
Supposedly, the plan is to scale down to 125 cc of NaCl and scale down to handfeed him with 25 cc (3cc x 8 times thru out the day), and hoping that would induce him to drink the water on his own
That didn't work. He is now accepting 150 cc of NaCl under the skin, and 4 x 6 cc baby food. In other words, I manage to cut down the baby food from 6 servings to 4 servings, but if I cut down further, he stop eating the regular stuff, i.e., his diet suffers.
As far as the water is concerned, since April, I saw him drinking water on his own twice ONLY. There is no explanation as to the pattern. I try to use a syringe to handfeed him w/ 3 cc of water, hoping he'll get used to the water taste on his own, but he doesn't seem to like it.
Does anyone have experience a similar problem and has any trick to induce this rabbit back to drink water on his own? And back to eat pellet on his own?
This furball is 4.5 yr. old, a male 14.5 lb Flemish Giant, he is very indepedent, all those other rabbit food like spinach, carrot, (the ones that he likes), he doesn't need me to feed him, he jumps for it everyday.
As far as the bacteria is concerned, the urine test showed 100% all gone.
As of April, after 3 mth. of anti-biotics, he is fully cured from the bacteria. But during the past fw months of treatment, I have to handfeed him w/ baby food on the syringe (6 x 6 cc per 24 hr.), and handfeed him the pellet, among other nuts. As well, during this 3 mth. period, since he won't drink any water due to the bacterial infection, I injected 150cc of NaCl under his skin.
The vet said he is now used to being handfeed, so the following problems occurs:
1) He'll eat everything else on his own, like carrot, corn, spinach, all sorts of nuts etc., but not the basic pellet. That I have to hand feed him.
2) He won't drink any water.
Supposedly, the plan is to scale down to 125 cc of NaCl and scale down to handfeed him with 25 cc (3cc x 8 times thru out the day), and hoping that would induce him to drink the water on his own
That didn't work. He is now accepting 150 cc of NaCl under the skin, and 4 x 6 cc baby food. In other words, I manage to cut down the baby food from 6 servings to 4 servings, but if I cut down further, he stop eating the regular stuff, i.e., his diet suffers.
As far as the water is concerned, since April, I saw him drinking water on his own twice ONLY. There is no explanation as to the pattern. I try to use a syringe to handfeed him w/ 3 cc of water, hoping he'll get used to the water taste on his own, but he doesn't seem to like it.
Does anyone have experience a similar problem and has any trick to induce this rabbit back to drink water on his own? And back to eat pellet on his own?
This furball is 4.5 yr. old, a male 14.5 lb Flemish Giant, he is very indepedent, all those other rabbit food like spinach, carrot, (the ones that he likes), he doesn't need me to feed him, he jumps for it everyday.
As far as the bacteria is concerned, the urine test showed 100% all gone.