Bacterial Meningitis & fattening but healthy foods

[PepnFluff]

Hi

My bunn Fluffy recently went off his food turned out he had bacterial meningitis and an ear problem anyway he lost alot of weight was 2.2kg dropped to 1.3kg. My questions whereis there any food thats HEALTHY yet has good weight gain and how is bacterial meningitis contracted i clean all dishes every day and there house is very clean.

 

[Flashy]

You could mayhbe try some uncooked oats, or some nutripet or sunflower seeds.

How is he eating now? Does he have a good appetite, if he does, you could also increase his pellets a tad too.

You might want to ask about the meningitis in the Infirmary section as well because they will probably know more over there.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

If you are feeding a timothy based pellet, you could use alfalfa based pellets for awhile and then slowly change back by mixing them when he's gained the weight he needs.

Have you gotten an "all clear" on his health now?

If you can find some craisens, banana, or rolled oats, you can give those as a small treat daily (banana a single little slice about 1/4 inch thick, maybe 2 or 3 craisens, and a teaspoon or 2 of oats)...... to bring up his weight but only one and only if he tolerates it without soft poos or worse.

If you do that, expect a begging, obnoxious bunny each day for "treats" or as we know it..... "breakfuss!!!!"

 

[PepnFluff]

Thanks guys ill be trying some of these. Cant do the timothy oats or anything never seen them available here and sadly our pet shop has only 3 sorts of pellets; cheap and unhealthy averagly expensive and good quality and Radiculosly expensive and unhealthy:grumpy:Fluff has been on a3 day prescription of baytril and hes seems to be better not unbalanced of anything and eating the vet said he seems better but a bit more timid these days and at the first sign of trouble phone him.

Cheers

 

[Bo B Bunny]

In your groceries or food markets, do they sell cooking oats like for oatmeal? That's what we use.

 

[NZminilops]

There are definetly oats in New Zealand! You'll see them in the cereal isle and called "rolled oats", you use them to make porridge. Not sure why you haven't seen them before but they've been in every supermarket I've come across .

Is there a Country Harvest, PCL or NRM rabbit feed distributor in your area? If you're in or near the country side, try stock feed places. They often have the rabbit foods there. A $10kg brand of PCL is generall $9.95, Country Harvest is better and costs me $12.50 for 10kg.

I've never come across a rabbit food in NZ that isn't made from lucerne (alfalfa) so don't let anyone tell you to feed lucerne chaff as well, that's just waaaaay too much lucerne even for an underweight bunny.

Try and get hold of a nice sweet smelling meadow hay, hopefully nothing with too much clover in it. You want something not too yellowed.

 

[PepnFluff]

I think i mucked up my reply yep there are definatly oats in NZ lol ive got some in my kitchen. We did buy a a big 10kg bag of food fromCRT the only problem was that we didnt have enough containers to put it all in and mice got into the bag. is it allright just to make porridge just water and a little bit of fruit mixed in ? They allways have fresh meadow hay to eat.

Thanks heaps

 

[Bo B Bunny]

you can make it into porridge (giggles at that name for oatmeal LOL) but they like the rolled oats dry best usually.

 

[PepnFluff]

cool i'll whip up a batch for tea

 

[Bo B Bunny]

onder:Is tea midday? or morning or......

 

[PepnFluff]

Tea = Dinner over here in the evening lol

 

[Pipp]

I moved this to the Infirmary, I'd like to hear from our Infirmary Mods and members if they've had any experience with Bacterial Meningitis and rabbits, it's new to me.

Also, a word of caution about any diet changes, but especially feeding a bunny carbohyrate-rich foods like oats and seeds,start off feeding very tiny amounts! This can cause a life-threatening gut imbalance -- cecal dysbiosis --and a major case of 'poopy butt'.

I feed Pipp oat flakes one at a time as a treat -- I think they're rolled oats, just not the instant kind?Theyeasier to deal with than the crumbled up kind.

You can also look for a supplement in a tube called Nutri-Cal, made for cats and dogs, but great for rabbits. Not sure if they have it in your area.

(I used to recommend smearing a ribbon of it on their paws so they'd lick it off, but I ended up with a bunny that started washing herself with her paws without licking it off, and whatta mess!)

Good luck with the recovery!



sas

 

[PepnFluff]

Thanks heaps i thought maybe mixing some in with his pellets. Do you think the vet clinic will sell it?

 

[cheryl]

Look in the dog or cat isle in the pet shop...it's a high energy vitamin supplement..i'm not sure what it's called over there but here it's called Nutripet.

Cheryl