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.
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.