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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BEHAVIOR First time bunny mummy

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    • Nutmeg x
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        Four weeks ago me and my partner re-homed our beautiful Nutmeg. She is around 1 years old, and is a dwarf lop. We have never had a bunny before so this is all new so any help would be appreciated. Long story short as a baby she suffered with snuffles. her previous owner made me aware of this and told me after a couple of weeks this cleared after having Bisolvon and Echinacea. her previous owner did say it can be brought back on with stress for example a house move. Nutmeg has settled in with us so well. she has full run of the living room and kitchen all day and night. she has a cage which she can go in if she chooses but her fave spot to sleep is under the sofa. she has plenty of toys, fresh hay and water. she is also litter trained. for the first couple of weeks she was running around like mad, binkying, licking us, flopping, all the things a happy bun would do. her snuffles came back after the move and we have been to the vets every week since she has been with us. the vet has given her 3 injections of antibiotic and we have also been giving her metacam twice daily. (we see a different vet to her previous owner due to living in a different area) she loved the Metacam at first and is getting a lot better, less sneezing and hardly any discharge from the nose. after the third visit the vet also prescribed Sulfatrim to be taken twice daily, which she hates! this has now made her not want to take her Metacam. i have tried everything and the only way she will take it is by us holding her down which i hate doing and she finds very stressful. also the weekly trips to the vets are very stressful for her and she now doesnt seem as happy as before. she seems more scared of us, is this because she associates us with medicine and trips to the vets? her snuffles have improved but she doesn’t seem as happy now. We have another appointment with the vets Sunday to check her progress but part of me wants to cancel and postpone for a week or two so i can monitor her without any stress. she also has gone completely off of her nuggets. she loved these before but after trying to put the medicine on them she isn’t interested, even without the medicine. she is eating plenty of hay and greens though. she is weeing and pooping normally so no concerns there. she loved being groomed, stroked and snuggled but now she seems afraid of us, is this because we are the ones giving her the nasty medicine and vet trips? another thing i have noticed is her fur seems a bit scruffy. the vet said there isnt anything to worry about but her hair seems longer and a bit sticky up around her head. is this part of molting? could it be stress related? any help, advice and tips would be greatly appreciated  


      • ThorBunny
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          Hi!

          I haven’t had a bun with snuffles before, but I have had to medicate my bun before and I know it can seem cruel at the time, but they do forgive and forget! I think the most important thing is to keep up with your appointments and make sure she makes a full recovery. If nothing else, you should ask the vet at your appointment about her going off pellets. That is a bit concerning as any change in food intake can indicate some other problem. I’d ask them to check her teeth at the vets – sometimes they get tooth spurs that can make chewing painful. Sticky fur around her head could be from stress, or could it be from your hand oils after a lot of grooming? Could you add a picture?

          I hope she feels better soon! Keep up with the medicine, I know it sucks now but they forgive easily. Let us know how she is doing!


        • Wick & Fable
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            Wick had a URI (upper respiratory infection; “snuffles”) when I received him at 8wo. He went through 3mo of antibiotic treatment, encompassing 3 different stages: 1st – Tried a medication for 2w and it didn’t work, 2nd – Tried a new one and it kind of worked, and 3rd – Added another med. and it worked spectacularly. For 3mo, I gave Wick 2 doses (AM/PM) of syringe-fed antibiotics daily, with no exception. At the 3rd stage, I also gave him shots at home, once per day, every other day.

            — In short, I understand your stress and your concern for making your rabbit dislike you. Right off the bat, I will say doing this has brought Wick and I much closer, as to where he doesn’t care how I interact with him. He has learned about the authority of a syringe, as when I offer him syringe-fed cold water, he’ll look up at me with puppy-dog eyes and put his head down low to avoid it, but he doesn’t run away because he has been instilled with the mindset that sometimes, I’ve gonna force him to take something with a syringe.

            There are numerous things you can do to make medication time better. In the end, it’s all about positive association.
            1) Most importantly, gloriously praise your rabbit after a successful dose. With no exception, I would immediately put the empty syringe beside me and pet and praise Wick incessantly until I got a good 3-4 teeth chatters from him. I’d keep going if he re-adjusted to a lounge pose, haha. Now praising is different for every rabbit— the cuddling may not be your rabbit’s cup of tea, so having a small vegetable afterwards would do well. I would avoid treats, as after treatment is done, your rabbit will still expect frequent treats, which isn’t good.
            2) Both of you need to have a calm/feeling happy demeanor and body language as your handling her through the process. It’ll be a weird mixed-signals for your rabbit, but in the end, I think hearing those baby-mom-tonal-voices, rather than abrupt sounds, makes the situation a bit better.
            3) Consider either consistency or being very random with the administrations. If you find she bolts at the sight or suspicion of taking it, do it in a different room or build up to it in a different way. I think most rabbits, Wick included, prefer routine. I’d do it on the same spot on the carpet in my living room, with the same positioning and movements.

            — The sticky head hair could potentially be the medication getting on her head. When Wick had metacam post surgery, this would happen kind of often following a dose, because he’d have a bit on his mouth, then groom, transferring that bit onto the rest of his head.

            The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


          • Nutmeg x
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              Thank you ever so much for your helpful response   The vet has checked her teeth each time and says they are fine. I have put her pellets in a different bowl tonight and she scoffed them, very strange but at least she has eaten them. I have attached pics of the hair, the first two are about 2 weeks ago and the second two are now. Its like the hair has doubled in length, is she growing her winter fur as the temperature has dropped? I just don’t know 


            • Nutmeg x
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                Hi Wick! Thank you so much for your very helful response   

                That is so good that it has brought the two of you closer. Your advice is really good. I gave her her medicine tonight, i started to pet her and got her between my legs (i was knelt on the floor) and my partner gave her the medication through the syringe. we then stroked her for around 5 minutes and gave her a handful of kale, we got some teeth chatters too – yay! she doesnt bolt at the sign of the syringe she completely turns her nose up, where as before she loved the metacam. its the new meds she hates. we have had no discharge for about 4 days so i am hoping she is on the mend. Did Wick need X-rays, swabs or anything?

                The hair isn’t sticky as such it is more sticking up. Its is as if her hair around her head has doubled in length and i don’t know why. could it be the start of a molt/shed? or is she growing a winter coat? 


              • Wick & Fable
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                  So a molt/shed works to clear out fur, so it could be shedding summer to get in winter, or shedding to deal with still-hot temperature. Either way, the weird hair pattern is normal of a molting rabbit. It’s very important to groom molting rabbits daily to reduce how much fur they eat while grooming themselves. Rabbits cannot cough of fur balls like cats, so the only route is poo it out. However, you can imagine a lot of fur can build up and get stuck in pipes, leading to severe health problems. Encouraging drinking and hay eating will help move the fur along the tubes and out the bottom.

                  The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


                • Wick & Fable
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                    My vet is more experienced with rabbits than any other pet. It also helps that she’s exotic, meaning she does not see dogs or cats, just non poisonous pets like lizards, snakes, and birds. Because of all this, she has great inclination about things.

                    Wick went through trial and error with antibiotics. It would be very apparent if antibiotics were working on the bacteria in his nose, because he literally sneezed every 5 minutes at least 10 times oy vey! There is an option to do a bacteria culture, but between error in collection, contamination, not grabbing a valid sample, my vet said she could probably get the right medication in two to three tries, which she did!

                    We saw the vet weekly for 3mo, with some visits just being phone call check ins or short check ins without Wick to pick up medication refills and update her in person.

                    The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


                  • Nutmeg x
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                      Thank you, so you think the sticking up longer hair looks normal for a molt/shed? She hates being brushed so I tried a lint roller and she loves that


                    • Nutmeg x
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                        That’s really good, sounds like your vet is amazing! So pleased Wicks snuffles were cured and I hope Nutmegs are too. She took her medicine well this morning and again I pet her straight after and gave her some kale again. She hasn’t ran from me either so we are making progress. I am going to call the vets this morning and see if I can just go to get meds Sunday rather than take Nutmeg as I really don’t want to stress her. She seems a lot better this week with her sneezing, today we had a small amount of snot but haven’t had any for a week. I so hope it clears up for her. I really appreciate all your help and advice


                      • ThorBunny
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                          Sounds like things are going well! As far as her fur goes, that sure is quite the length change but it looks normal to me

                          Sending (((get well vibes)))


                        • Nutmeg x
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                            Thank you so much 🙂 she had her medicine today which was good, I called the vets and asked if we can just have some more medicine this week and bring her next week as she does seem to be improving. Why do you think the fur has grown so much?


                          • Luna
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                              She is adorable! Since she is 9 months old, it could be that this is her first molt of her adult coat. Molting of the adult coat is more noticeable than when she first shed her baby coat.


                            • Wick & Fable
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                                http://www.instagram.com/p/BXnJm10Fn6R/?taken-by=wick_theboogeyman
                                — Mess of a molt.

                                The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


                              • Nutmeg x
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                                  Aww thank you so much I’m obsessed with her, I could watch her alllll day long!! Luna is gorgeous! She is around a year old I think, her previous owner didn’t know when she was born but they think she is about 1. That is very true thank you! My mind is at rest now, I thought it was due to stress from the meds and vet trips – she just looks so much scruffier than 2 weeks ago wish my hair grew that quick!


                                • Nutmeg x
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                                    WOW it’s amazing how quick their coats grow, thank you for putting my mind at rest. You’ve been so helpful, it’s nice to get advice from experienced bunny owners!

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