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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post Spay – Not Drinking and Won’t Eat Her Critical Care!

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    • mernpx
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        I took my 1 year old bunny Nora to get spayed yesterday morning and when I brought her home last night, she was obviously a little out of it but she was walking around a bit and eating hay and nibbling at her parsley so I was optimistic. When I woke up this morning, she had eaten most of her hay but I noticed she hadn’t drank any of her water. When the vet called to check on her, I told them about the lack of drinking and they told me to come in and get the supplies to syringe feed her Critical Care. 

        The girl from the vet’s office showed me what to do but she also said Nora was the most stubborn bunny she’s ever had when it comes to bunny burrito’s and syringe feeding (just my luck!). Anyway, we came home from the vet and Nora’s poop was/is a little runny and very small so I’m very worried. They said to give her 25-30 mL of Critical Care 3 times a day and I’ve been trying to give it to her and I think she got maybe 12 mL or so this feeding? She was very stubborn at first but then suddenly ate like 8 mL all at once! Then she stopped so I think maybe she’s full for now? What do you guys think?

        My long story comes down to this… Does anyone have any tips for feeding Critical Care? Or better yet, any tips for getting my stubborn bun to drink some dang water? Has anyone had a similar experience? I’m trying not to get too upset but this is my first bunny and spays are so stressful! Please help! 


      • JackRabbit
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          For water, if she’ll eat veggies, give them to her wet and that will help with the water intake. You can always try syringe feeding a little water (just a little at a time), but if she’ll eat the wet veggies I wouldn’t worry about the water.

          On the CC, the bunny burrito and syringe are the ideal, but I’ve heard of people mixing a little canned pumpkin (100% pumpkin, NOT pumpkin pie filling) in with it to help with the taste. Make sure she has access to plenty of fresh hay 24/7 too. It may take a couple of days for her to get a taste for much.


        • Megabunny
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            You can put the pumpkin on a celery stick and force feed it to her that way. Stir the CC into the pumpkin. Between those two things, you’ll get lots of fibre into her and she should go to town on the pumpkin once she’s had a taste. I don’t think you have to worry about giving her too much. Of course, I wouldn’t give her a whole cup of it or anything, but some spoonfuls of it every so often should work.

            I wouldn’t obsess too much about the water.Sounds like you’re doing quite well, actually


          • mernpx
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              Thank you both for your responses! I think I’ll try the pumpkin thing tomorrow if I can’t get her to eat any of the CC by itself tonight before bed. I feel much better about our little water issue now. I’ll keep the veggies wet like you suggested, JackRabbit!

              I think I’m obsessing over the lack of eating/pooping. It’s probably her normal amount but I’m just looking for things to be wrong! Hopefully that’s it


            • Megabunny
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                Oh, no You’re being very smart to watch her. You can get into real problems post surgically, I don’t care how routine the surgery is. Are the poops a normal size? I think that would be a good indicator


              • mernpx
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                  Some of her poops are normal and some are very small. Earlier they were very sticky and stringy which worried me but that isn’t happening anymore. I’m worried because she’s not pooping very much but she never does during the day (more than she is today but never very much). She just peed for the first time since we’ve been home from the vet.


                • JackRabbit
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                    Her poops may be smaller and darker for a couple of days after surgery and that’s normal. As she gets more fiber from hay and CC, her poop should start to return to normal size and color.


                  • LittlePuffyTail
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                      How is your bunny doing today? It’s very normal for bunnies to feel poorly for several days after a spay. It’s a pretty major surgery after all. It’s still stressful, though, I’ve been through it!


                    • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                        Yup they take a few days for sure.
                        Wet veggies are a great way to get water down. You could also try mixing the critical care with apple juice. There are two flavors of critical care -one is anise and I’ve never had any luck getting that one down. Hopefully you got the other-I think it’s apple banana.
                        Anyways you can mix with pumpkin and juice -and even just put that on a plate to see if she’ll eat it on her own.

                        How’s she doing today?


                      • mernpx
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                          Hi everyone! Thanks for your responses! I’m glad what’s going on is normal. She still hadn’t pooped at all last night and it was going on 8 or so hours. Since she hadn’t been drinking and she’d been eating more and more hay, we took her over to the 24 hour vet and they gave her some sub q fluids (they said it would be enough to last her all of today) and helped me make sure she got all her pain medication. Over night, she pooped a bunch and they were very normal looking poos so that was exciting.

                          Today she’s being very lazy but she did eat some hay and all of her wet veggies. I’m going to wait another hour or so to give her the pain medicine, just because she got it pretty late last night. She’s been on a lot of car trips over the past 2 days so I’m trying to let her rest and not fuss with her too much! I’m still going to try the pumpkin mixture because I think the CC will do her some good, even though she is eating other things too.

                          We have the apple banana flavor Critical Care and, even though she’s not a huge fan, she takes that much better than the anise one they tried to give her at the vet. She was spitting the anise one out when they were giving it to her! Haha


                        • Megabunny
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                            I’d spit out anise, too. Bleh!!
                            Glad she’s coming around for you!!


                          • mernpx
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                              I just wanted to add this little bit for anyone looking at this post because their little guy or girl won’t eat their Critical Care… the pumpkin mixture is working perfectly for us! Definitely worth a try if you’re having trouble. I think Nora is traumatized by the syringes because she literally runs and hides when I put it near her but she’s licking it out of my hand (a win/win for both of us, she gets tasty pumpkin, syringe free yumminess and I get bunny kisses )

                              I have two more questions for you all. Is it possible to give too much Critical Care to my bunny? And can I give her too many greens? Right now (because she is refusing to drink water from her bowl), all of her water is coming from the CC and her wet parsley, mint, and romaine salads. I feel like I want to give her more greens and CC to make up for her lack of drinking but I don’t want to give her too much and cause more problems.


                            • Bam
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                                You’ll have to give A LOT of CC for it to be too much. There is some sort of recommended dosage written on the sachet if I remember correctly. When I had to syringe-feed my bunny for a month, I had to work really hard to get anything even near that recommended dose into him (I had the aniseed flavour though, the only one available here. Yuck, my Yohio said.)

                                A healing bunny (as well as any other healing animal or person) needs extra nutrients,so she needs more quality food now (CC is quality food.) Lots of nutrients are required for wounds to heal. Too much greens could potentially cause gastric problems though, if you up the amount very suddenly.

                                I’m so glad to hear she accepts her CC with the pumpkin. Syringe-feeding is a beotch.


                              • LittlePuffyTail
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                                  Ditto Bam. I can never get close to the recommended amount of CC in my buns. Half of what I attempt ends up spit out. At least half. Unless your bunny really loves the CC and gobbles it up, I think it would be hard to give too much.


                                • Roberta
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                                    And that is exactly why the dosage is so high. They know bloody well you are going to wear at least a third of it and a good 20 % is going to end up on the walls and furniture. Saves you having to go back and mix more instead of scraping the excess off your lap and jarrah corner unit.


                                  • Megabunny
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                                      So glad Nora’s coming along!


                                    • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                                        YEAH!!! so happy to hear the flavour change and pumpkin is working for you!! Seriously-I don’t know why they make an anise flavored one-no one likes black licorice-especially picky bunnies

                                        I wouldn’t worry about amount-If I remember correctly, Rupert is about 10 lbs and was prescribed about 60cc of critical care 3-5 times a day during stasis. So if you convert, that’s roughly 6cc per pound-several times a day-that’s a lot. I don’t think you could actually get that much down(I sure didn’t!!). And I’d think your rabbit will ‘top up’ with greens-so you can likely give as much as she’ll eat.

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                                    Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A Post Spay – Not Drinking and Won’t Eat Her Critical Care!