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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Runny poo and other worries

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    • Treori
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         I got my second bunny yesterday, an 11 week old French lop I’ve named Zeus, everything seemed fine, he was relaxed and my other rabbit, Freya, was furious [lolz].

        This morning I got up and started my usual routine of saying good morning to Freya (touching a finger against her nose in greeting through the bars of her pen) and I went to do the same to Zeus when i noticed a few small puddles of runny poo in his cage (he is in a cage until his pen arrives next week, and it gives him time to adjust to us).

        I ran straight to the computer and googled for info and tried to find a way to keep him safe and comfy while I waited for an emergency vets appointment. He has since seen the vets (I’m lucky, my local vetinary surgery ALL the vets they have registered know how to treat rabbits, unsure if it’s a British thing or not).

        I gave them all the info, he arrived yesterday, he is 11 weeks old, he had a little bit of greens he stole through the bars of the cage and he found a dried banana slice that Freya had hidden when he was wandering about. that there was runny poo in his cage from overnight, but there were also those soft poos that rabbits eat [sorry, I can’t spell them XD] on the floor too. He had eaten some hay, and he had drunk some water since I woke until we saw the vet.

        So that’s the biggest worry because we all know how dangerous runny poos can be. As it’s a bank holiday weekend Zeus is home with me now as I can give him more attention (they would have to have a vet come from home to check up on the pets kept at the clinic where as I am here and can see if anything changes)

        I’ve to watch out for the usual, not eating/drinking/weeing/pooing, more runny poos, more lethargic than usual. He has drunk some more water, and eaten some of his pellets. He had fresh hay this morning , but I haven’t seen him eat any of it..

        Zeus was checked over, (his bottom is clean, she thought I had cleaned it, but I assume it was Zeus that did), he got an injection to keep his gut moving and he was sent home with a course of antibiotics incase it’s salmonella posoining.

        I am really really scared and really really worried. I know he has only been here for just over 24 hours, but I fell in love with him within an hour of him arriving.

         

        Not only this problem, but I noticed that while he is the same size as Freya (5 month old Rex) he was really light. He really hates being handled at all so when I took him out the pet carrier, and had to make sure he didn’t jump off the vets examination table I noticed he felt every thin. His fur is very fluffy so you can’t see it, but you can feel his ribs and the bones along his spine. Oh I can’t believe how hard this is for me to type, I’m actually crying. He is just SO thin and it’s all hidden undereath his fur. He is such a beautiful rabbit otherwise. He obviously hasn’t been handled much if at all because he HATES being touched at all. I mentioned it to the vet and she agrees that he is very thin, so we weighed him, he is only 1.9kg. I was wondering what a healthy weight for an 11 week odl French lop is? I cant seem to find much info to be honest.

        So on top of the runny poo stress, I also have one that is probably very underweight, is leery of being handled (bit me at the vets but not hard) and I will be forced to handle him twice a day now to administer his medication.

        Advice on THAT would be great. How do I give a bunny medicine? I have a syringe for it, but most advise to put something like banana on the syringe, or apple sauce, or to give a treat afterward. I can’t do that incase it sets off his diarrhoea. The bunny burrito trick hardly works, he kicks HARD (got some nice stripes as a badge of bunny honor now) and when that doesn’t work, he tucks his head down in between his front paws. We managed a does though, and we have to do it again at 10 tonight,  and then twice a day for 4 more days.

        He looks like he needs a good groom too as his fur looks a bit ‘clumpy’, there are no obvious mats though, but he looks like he has never been groomed. I gave him a handful of rabbit pellets and he has wolfed them all down so I gave him another handful and once I post this I will check to see if he needs more (unlimited pellets for babies right?)

        He drinks his water strangely too. Almost as if he didn’t know how a water bottle works, but he is getting more confident with drinking from the bottle now.

        So, to sum up, diarrhoea in a baby bunny, what can I do to help him? (other than what Im already doing of course)

        Underwieght (?) baby bunny, how do I deal with that safely?

        Medicating with a syringe but unable ot use a treat method. Any tips of help on that?


      • Treori
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          Oh, to add to this. he seems to be a little aggressive with food?

          He had finished that handful of pellets (he had pushed my hand rather hard out his cage after he checked where the food had been placed) and he did the same again, waited until I put the food down for him and went for my hand, and almost crowded over the top of his food. It looks like he is protecting the food from me, which baffles me as I’m the one that gave it to him.
          ~
          is this common behaviour?


        • Sarita
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            Funny we have another member with a French Lop named Zeus.

            How did the vet determine it might be salmonella possibly? Did they do a fecal test.

            What medication did they give you?

            I would think initially it could be coccidia which is easily treatable. I would try as best you can to try to use the syringe to medicate him.

            He may not be underweight – at 11 weeks he is still growing…I suppose it would be best to talk to the vet about this if you think he is underweight but really just feed him the recommended unlimited pellets and unlimited hay.


          • Treori
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              Yeah I noticed that after I had Chosen Zeus’ name XD I suppose she must think the same way I do (Though I nearly went with Odin to stay in keeping with Freya’s name)

              She didn’t do a faecal test. there was no poo TO test when he was there (she thought I had cleaned his bottom, which I hadn’t done) but if he has more diarrhoea I am to call the emergency vet and take a stool sample in with me as well. The medicine she game me I think is called Baytril..

              And you think his weight is OK? I’m really not a good weight judge. Freya is chunky, no bones can be felt unless you press and he is a meat rabbit breed too so I would have assumed feeling ribs, spine and leg bones would be bad? He ate 6 handfuls of his pellets today before he even started to slow down and he are more hay too.


            • Treori
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                Update.

                I gave Zeus his second does about an hour ago.
                It went much quicker than before (probably because I knew what I was expecting behaviour wise.) Once I gave him it and he swallowed it I put him down carefully and loosened the towel so he could calmly hop out of it, which he did, and I put away the stuff I used. When I went to put him back in his cage I decided to not, to let him sniff about for a few minutes to stretch his legs a little, but he surprised me.

                He binkyed! I was totally not expecting it, especially after all the things that’s happened to him the past two days: taken away from his family and the only home he has ever known, put into a van with lots of other animals, driven for half an hour and taken out the nice dark van and given to another strange human, getting ill, having another rabbit be mean to him and pull out his hair when he only said hello, taken in a car, meeting ANOTHER human who then stuck a needle in his neck after prodding him and turning him upside down, another car ride, being wrapped up, struggling to get away and having a syringe in his mouth, finally relaxing and getting plenty of food and finally being wrapped up again and the nasty syringe AGAIN.

                I know if that all happened to ME in 48 hours I would not be binkying happily around the living room -_-
                And he did, not just one, But he practically danced around the living room. Freya kept trying to scare him and charge at him (she is inside her pen while I had him out for his medicine) she is SO mad right now its really funny. But what has made me really happy is he pooped…. and it wasn’t runny! In fact it was rather huge XD and it was more than one, he dropped a few large gifts all around the room for me (I will sweep them up later when I sweep up Freya’s offerings for the evening too).

                so a happy bunny (and a not so happy one) who is happily eating, and happily drinking and who wasnt so happy when I closed his cage again (his pen can’t come soon enough! Seriously) and happily pooping and binkying. I think that’s a good sign and hopefully a happy outcome (still worried about how thin he is though)


              • LittlePuffyTail
                Moderator
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                  Yay for Binkies!!!!

                  The runny poos may have been due to stress. You’re right, that’s a lot for a baby bunny to go through. Or it could have been caused by the greens he stole. I would keep an eye and if the runny poos return, make sure to bring in a sample for testing.

                  As for his weight, I recommend getting a little kitchen scale and monitoring his weight once a month to make sure he is gaining.


                • Treori
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                    Loads of binkies today too. He must be the happiest bunny Ive ever had the joy to watch. I managed to film some, but my internet connection is SO bad I’ve been uploading it to FaceBook for the past 5 hours and its STILL not done (its only a minute or two long).

                    Absolutely no runny poos today so I do think it was the stress so now Im a lil concerned about the antibiotics, because even though she gave an injection to keep his gut motility going, she didn’t give anything to replace the good bacteria that will be killed by the antibiotics :/ Should I just stop giving that?

                    I tell you one thing, he is FAST. I was bringing Freya’s greens over to her pen for her breakfast and one or two bits dropped and guess who gobbled them up before I turned round to get them…. yes you’re right, Zeus. He is a serious food monster too, pellets and hay of course, but he out eats Freya easily

                    Another lil thing I think would be good to ask here. About letting them out for their daily exercise, I am currently letting one out in the morning from 7-2 and then the other gets out 2-9, and then they swap the next day (so if Freya is out in the morning on a Monday, Zeus is out in the morning on a Tuesday). Or would it be better to give them a set time that’s always the same? And what’s the minimum time for when I go back to work on the 5th? I work from 10-2 4 days a week (volunteer work) so is 2ish hours in the morning OK for whoever gets that shift?

                    Thanks I was thinking about weighing Freya on the kitchen scales, she is getting a bit plump XD Still not overweight, but I will be keeping an eye on how much she eats, might be time for her to get put onto the adult rabbit pellets now (she is still on the baby stuff). The problem with the scales is getting a stable platform that’s big enough for either of them, so what ‘Im going to do when I next get paid is get those bathroom scales for weight watchers? They are usually very accurate and have decimal points.


                  • Monkeybun
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                      Yeah, keep the greens away from him until his tummy settles.. then only do one new food PER WEEK until you see what affects him differently. That means ONE, not one green and one fruit. ONE new food, period It helps to determine what upsets tummies,a nd what is safe.

                      I would stick to a schedule until he is settled, so don’t witch every day, it could unsettle him. So do mornings for one bunny, afternoons for the other. They like having regular schedules


                    • Treori
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                        OK, so one in the morning, one in the evening. Thanks. Now its just working out who wants out most when XD

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                    Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Runny poo and other worries