Is My Rabbit Underweight?

[rebeccalyn7]

Most important thing is that he needs to be drinking lots more, if his not peeing it means his body is holding onto any liquid it can. He needs more water


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[Rabbi3]

Most important thing is that he needs to be drinking lots more, if his not peeing it means his body is holding onto any liquid it can. He needs more water

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Ok, I'll add more water to his formula so that he can get better hydration / nutrition. I can never tell if he's peeing but he does poop frequently. Thanks for the tip! I'll give updates so people can see how he's doing.

 

[majorv]

You might try giving him some unflavored pedialyte, by itself, to help keep him hydrated.

 

[Zeroshero]

Being that young he should be stimulated to fully eliminate his bladder at every feeding, he is urinating on his own because it is so full. I just went through the joys and tears of hand raising an orphaned kit and I don't envy you.

My experience has been that they actually lose their desire to suckle rather quickly. I used a smaller 1 - 3cc syringe as they are easier to handle and stick less. The pharmacy will give them to you for free if you ask! Be extremely careful not to feed more than one drop at a time and make sure he swallows.
It is a good idea to read about the bunny Heimlich maneuver jus in case he does aspirate formula. Scroll down to section 8 in this article for the proper way to do this:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/orphan.html

I am not sure what formula you are following but I found this article to be extremely descriptive:
http://www.rainbowwildlife.com/baby-rabbit.htm

My kit developed mucosil enteritis at 11days old, the veterinarian I took him to reccomended removing the heavy cream from his formula which I regret doing to this day. If there is anything I can pass down from my experience is follow the formula 100%. His digestive problems did not stop there. I am not sure what the risk would be in switching its formula entirely. I am in NO way reccomending you do this it would be at your discression. There is a wildlife rehabilitator here that uses goats milk replacement formula with high success. It's called Does Match by Purina, you could find it at a feed store near you. The trick is to double the amount of powdered formula that is mixed with the water. This provides enough fat and also sugars in their diet. Unfortunately they come in huge pails but is much less expensive than buying cans of KMR formula every few days!

Good luck with the little one

 

[Rabbi3]

You might try giving him some unflavored pedialyte, by itself, to help keep him hydrated.

Considering that I've raised many rodents on pedialyte, I feel stupid for not even considering this for my rabbit initially. Thanks for knocking some common sense in my head!

 

[Rabbi3]

Hey guys, I've been giving my bun pedialyte and he's stopped wobbling, is hydrated, and pooping / peeing like crazy! So he seems to back on track.

 

[rebeccalyn7]

That's awesome!


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[Rabbi3]

Hey guys! The issue on this thread has been resolved, though there seems to be a new issue concerning redness around his anus, so any tips on this new issue would be great!

 

[Maureen Las]

Why don't you start a new thread in order to get more replies

If the anus is protruding and red could be a prolapse of the rectum but otherwise I am unsure; he is really cute