Hi - I know you can only give your opinions on these matters but honestly we're so desperate to get Moofy, our 5 year old Lionmane, to eat that we're looking at all ideas. He is a house rabbit. I've read the 'My Rabbit is not Eating' FAQ also.
He had really terrible diarrhoea on Wednesday afternoon, so we took him to the vets and she told us she can't see anything wrong with him, other than him needing a bath now that he'd soiled himself, and to give him Critical Care by syringe and make sure that he does start eating.
So we tried this, he refused to eat, and we took him back the next day. They kept him under observation for the day - apparently he ate dandelion leaves whilst with them (he never eats dandelion leaves so this was a shock), took him home, literally no difference in him at all. So by now we're on Friday, and I take it into my own hands and I syringe feed him Critical Care every 2 hours (6:30am start and 10:30pm finish) and by then he'd actually drank water by himself and he'd even had some grass (something he also never eats). Stupidly I left him alone over night and by the morning he was back to square one, so my mother took over the feeding during the day on Saturday and I fed him every two hours from 6pm until.. well.. it is now 4.30pm Sunday, I'm still going, (I have barely slept trying to get him to eat and keep up the fluid intake). I even tried a bit of pineapple juice to try get him to remember what yummy food tastes like. He took it via syringe but hasn't done a lot!
I guess what we've learnt too late that being a picky eater is more dangerous than we realised, and after ringing the breeder she said we should change his diet to pellets (which we will do carefully when we can get him to eat anything at all). I don't know what else to try to get him to eat. I've been squishing the pellets the breeder recommended in water and syringing those as well as the Critical Care to try and get his gut to do something. His poo remains slimy and rather smelly. He's also doing a nice little trick where he's floppy when with us but as soon as he's in his travel box or at the vets he's as perky as anything (but I suspect this is because of his tummy ache?). Here's a list of things he has turned his nose up at that I can remember:
> dandelion leaves
> grass
> hay (he never eats this anyway)
> spinach leaves
> parsley
> broccoli
> baby sweetcorn
> apple
> banana (his favourite)
> porridge oats
> mint leaves (although he did almost eat this)
> raisins
> carrot tops
> the new pellets
I am going to try to convince my parents to take him back to the vet tomorrow (I'm a bit miffed at this vet, so I'm going to try to go to another one to see if they are more specialised in rabbits) but honestly if I can get his little tummy working again it'd be amazing. I've also tried gently rubbing his stomach when it was gurgling. I really don't want him to be in pain and it is unfair if we're going to keep going through this cycle until his body finally gives up. We love him dearly and don't want him to leave us but we have to also not be selfish and remember that his body may have given up.
Any ideas? :]
He had really terrible diarrhoea on Wednesday afternoon, so we took him to the vets and she told us she can't see anything wrong with him, other than him needing a bath now that he'd soiled himself, and to give him Critical Care by syringe and make sure that he does start eating.
So we tried this, he refused to eat, and we took him back the next day. They kept him under observation for the day - apparently he ate dandelion leaves whilst with them (he never eats dandelion leaves so this was a shock), took him home, literally no difference in him at all. So by now we're on Friday, and I take it into my own hands and I syringe feed him Critical Care every 2 hours (6:30am start and 10:30pm finish) and by then he'd actually drank water by himself and he'd even had some grass (something he also never eats). Stupidly I left him alone over night and by the morning he was back to square one, so my mother took over the feeding during the day on Saturday and I fed him every two hours from 6pm until.. well.. it is now 4.30pm Sunday, I'm still going, (I have barely slept trying to get him to eat and keep up the fluid intake). I even tried a bit of pineapple juice to try get him to remember what yummy food tastes like. He took it via syringe but hasn't done a lot!
I guess what we've learnt too late that being a picky eater is more dangerous than we realised, and after ringing the breeder she said we should change his diet to pellets (which we will do carefully when we can get him to eat anything at all). I don't know what else to try to get him to eat. I've been squishing the pellets the breeder recommended in water and syringing those as well as the Critical Care to try and get his gut to do something. His poo remains slimy and rather smelly. He's also doing a nice little trick where he's floppy when with us but as soon as he's in his travel box or at the vets he's as perky as anything (but I suspect this is because of his tummy ache?). Here's a list of things he has turned his nose up at that I can remember:
> dandelion leaves
> grass
> hay (he never eats this anyway)
> spinach leaves
> parsley
> broccoli
> baby sweetcorn
> apple
> banana (his favourite)
> porridge oats
> mint leaves (although he did almost eat this)
> raisins
> carrot tops
> the new pellets
I am going to try to convince my parents to take him back to the vet tomorrow (I'm a bit miffed at this vet, so I'm going to try to go to another one to see if they are more specialised in rabbits) but honestly if I can get his little tummy working again it'd be amazing. I've also tried gently rubbing his stomach when it was gurgling. I really don't want him to be in pain and it is unfair if we're going to keep going through this cycle until his body finally gives up. We love him dearly and don't want him to leave us but we have to also not be selfish and remember that his body may have given up.
Any ideas? :]
