Bunny no longer eats Critical Care

Hi, we have a 5 year old bunny who has a severe chronic jaw infection, has almost no teeth left on one side, and so can't eat hay or pellets, so we have been feeding him Critical Care daily for a few months now. Normally he comes up to us when we offer a syringe, and eats it easily and willingly, and despite his infection he is generally quite a happy bunny and likes to flop and spend time with his mate, and his weight has been stable at around 1.3kg.

Recently, that's suddenly stopped happening, after a routine filing of his front teeth. We took him to the rabbit specialist vets, who know his history. They operated on his teeth but didn't find anything major, and he still isn't eating Critical Care unless we force-feed him, although he is still eating some treats (chocolate drops, and ground up dry carrot treats.) He also has started tearing up and chewing newspaper (which isn't easy for him with his jaw infection.) We're only getting him to eat about 50ml of Critical Care a day at most (by force-feeding), when before he was eating around 150ml.

He is pooing, and we're still giving gut stimulant once a day, since his surgery last week. He's on maximum pain killers (Metacam, gabapentin, tried some opioid, and now also on paracetamol), and we also give him daily antibiotic injections for his infection, all as advised by our vet.

We are a bit worried as we don't think he can survive on mostly treats, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to give some suggestions on how we could get him to eat more Critical Care without having to force-feed him daily, or anything else we could try, since this is going to be a daily problem. We know he may not have super-long left, and don't want to have to force feed him daily. Thanks in advance.

Jim1ny said:

Hi, we have a 5 year old bunny who has a severe chronic jaw infection, has almost no teeth left on one side, and so can't eat hay or pellets, so we have been feeding him Critical Care daily for a few months now. Normally he comes up to us when we offer a syringe, and eats it easily and willingly, and despite his infection he is generally quite a happy bunny and likes to flop and spend time with his mate, and his weight has been stable at around 1.3kg.

Recently, that's suddenly stopped happening, after a routine filing of his front teeth. We took him to the rabbit specialist vets, who know his history. They operated on his teeth but didn't find anything major, and he still isn't eating Critical Care unless we force-feed him, although he is still eating some treats (chocolate drops, and ground up dry carrot treats.) He also has started tearing up and chewing newspaper (which isn't easy for him with his jaw infection.) We're only getting him to eat about 50ml of Critical Care a day at most (by force-feeding), when before he was eating around 150ml.

He is pooing, and we're still giving gut stimulant once a day, since his surgery last week. He's on maximum pain killers (Metacam, gabapentin, tried some opioid, and now also on paracetamol), and we also give him daily antibiotic injections for his infection, all as advised by our vet.

We are a bit worried as we don't think he can survive on mostly treats, and I was wondering if anyone would be able to give some suggestions on how we could get him to eat more Critical Care without having to force-feed him daily, or anything else we could try, since this is going to be a daily problem. We know he may not have super-long left, and don't want to have to force feed him daily. Thanks in advance.

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I am not qualified to give you medical information, yet I am offering the following suggestions based on my own experience.
You will likely be receiving responses from others on this forum who can give you links to various resources. Under the health tab on this site there are also some posts that contain many links to a variety of health issues.
I am not familiar with chocolate drops, yet they may be too high in sugar/carbs for most bunnies. Have you tried using a Fibafirst sticks or Garden sticks as treats. Both are from Selective Naturals and they crumble apart when chewed.
Some antibiotic injections can impact the flora in the bunny's gut; and as you know bunnies have a cecum (it is much larger than the bunny's tummy) and it uses a balance of bacteria to digest certain substances. Too many treats can impact the balance of bacteria in this organ and the bunny can get bloated/painful.
Do you give your bunny any fresh greens? If not, I would introduce slowly. The diet and digestion tab on this site has many suggestions for bunny appropriate greens and vegetables.
Are his poos smaller or harder than usual?
Is he drinking enough water? He is no longer getting critical care that gave him some moisture so supplemental hydration may be required. I gave sub Q fluids to my bunny when they are not well.
Giving a bunny water from a bowl may result in more drinking than bunnies who get a water bottle.
If your bunny eating the newspaper? If so, I would remove it from your bunny's surroundings.
Some gut stimulants work on different parts of the GI system. Some are intended to be used once per day, others may require multiple doses each day. Your vet may need to add a second type of gut stimulant too.
Your bunny is still pooing, so I would continue to force-feed the critical care, and do so multiple times per day. In your post, you said the vet did not find anything major with his teeth. Your bunny's GI system requires fiber from the critical care to keep moving. It is important to keep his GI system moving and pooing. GI stasis can be deadly and very painful for your bunny so keeping him eating is important.

I am sorry that your Bunny is so poorly. Has he had a full blood profile run recently ? It may be that he has some compromised kidney and/or liver function now given his illness and all the drugs he is on and this will impact on his willingness to eat. Is he quite bright within himself ? Is his urine output normal ?

Personally I would want to speak with the Vet again to ask if a blood profile would be an option as if his major organs are failing then obviously and very sadly his prognosis is very poor. If he is in renal failure having daily fluid therapy may help him to feel a bit better within himself and thus more willing to eat. If his liver function is also poor then it is highly likely his drug regime will need to be changed, especially the Paracetamol.

What antibiotic is he on ? As bunny momma said some Rabbits can have adverse reactions to certain antibiotics, especially those given orally. I would try not to give your Bunny treats high in carbohydrates/sugars as these will add to any GI tract problems caused by antibiotic treatment

With regards to assisted feeds, there is Emeraid

https://emeraid.com/vet/emeraid-herbivore/

So sorry your bunny is so poorly sending lots of vibes. I would not recommend chocolate drops for a bunny personally.

I have no experience with this, but would he take blended up vegetables? Might be an option so not to have to force feed as much.

The change to tearing up the newspaper makes me think pain levels have increased...

Dear all,
Thank you so much for taking the time to give suggestions.
As an update, we started offering him pellets mashed up with water into a mash, and he has taken to eating this readily from a syringe without needing to forcefeed, and is now eating at least 150ml of this mixture a day, which is a huge improvement. I think the issue with those stick treats is that he really can't chew much at all, so they may not work for him, I'm not sure.
He's pooing normally and we've stopped the gut stimulant, and he's drinking well from his water bowl as normal, and weeing normally. We did wonder about if he needs blood tests, but he's improved quite a bit since we started offering pellet mash, and is bright within himself and interacting with his mate as normal and flopping from time to time, so I don't think he's got any internal organs failing.
He also hasn't been tearing at any newspaper in a while - maybe adding the paracetamol to his painkillers has helped a bit with pain, who knows?
The antibiotic is penicillin; we're also struggling less than we were with the injections (for now!), but that's only been in the past couple of days. We've cut down on the chocolate drops a lot, and just give them to him after his injections, since this can sometimes be a bit of a struggle, as a treat. It was more something we were using in desperation just to get him to eat something!

The main thing is he's now eating a lot more than he was before, which is really reassuring for us, and he also seems brighter now that he's eating. I suppose the only issue is that pellets probably don't have the same nutritional value as Critical Care? I think, given a choice between forcefeeding him CC every day for the rest of his life, and letting him eat mashed up pellets which he enjoys eating, and seeks out, we'd choose the latter. I think blending vegetables is something else we could definitely think about trying, thanks. I did offer him mashed up banana which he wasn't interested in.

Jim1ny said:

Dear all,
Thank you so much for taking the time to give suggestions.
As an update, we started offering him pellets mashed up with water into a mash, and he has taken to eating this readily from a syringe without needing to forcefeed, and is now eating at least 150ml of this mixture a day, which is a huge improvement. I think the issue with those stick treats is that he really can't chew much at all, so they may not work for him, I'm not sure.
He's pooing normally and we've stopped the gut stimulant, and he's drinking well from his water bowl as normal, and weeing normally. We did wonder about if he needs blood tests, but he's improved quite a bit since we started offering pellet mash, and is bright within himself and interacting with his mate as normal and flopping from time to time, so I don't think he's got any internal organs failing.
He also hasn't been tearing at any newspaper in a while - maybe adding the paracetamol to his painkillers has helped a bit with pain, who knows?
The antibiotic is penicillin; we're also struggling less than we were with the injections (for now!), but that's only been in the past couple of days. We've cut down on the chocolate drops a lot, and just give them to him after his injections, since this can sometimes be a bit of a struggle, as a treat. It was more something we were using in desperation just to get him to eat something!

The main thing is he's now eating a lot more than he was before, which is really reassuring for us, and he also seems brighter now that he's eating. I suppose the only issue is that pellets probably don't have the same nutritional value as Critical Care? I think, given a choice between forcefeeding him CC every day for the rest of his life, and letting him eat mashed up pellets which he enjoys eating, and seeks out, we'd choose the latter. I think blending vegetables is something else we could definitely think about trying, thanks. I did offer him mashed up banana which he wasn't interested in.

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I am glad to hear that he is doing better now. I agree that feeding him the mashed pellets that he enjoys and eats more of is better than trying to force CC into him if he hates it and wont eat much of it. Regardless of the nutritional content of CC, it wont do any good if he is not ingesting it !

As an aside, when you have given the penicillin injection do make sure that any leakage onto his fur has been thoroughly washed off. If he or his companion were to lick the area they could become really poorly . I expect you already know that penicillin is highly toxic to Rabbits if ingested x

Thanks. Yes we make sure any penicillin gets cleaned off! We've started giving him a 50:50 mix of mashed pellets and critical care - so far so good!

Jim1ny said:

Thanks. Yes we make sure any penicillin gets cleaned off! We've started giving him a 50:50 mix of mashed pellets and critical care - so far so good!

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Jim1ny said:

Thanks. Yes we make sure any penicillin gets cleaned off! We've started giving him a 50:50 mix of mashed pellets and critical care - so far so good!

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Wonderful update. It is so good to know feedings are not as stressful. Sending more vibes.

I’m glad he is doing better topping up the vibes for him.