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DS at Night posted:I agree some rabbits are more tolerant of it (like my friend's rabbit who's generally okay with it) but I wouldn't say any of them actually like it. Actually, if I'm sitting on my couch and Frith is on the couch with me, he will often climb up onto my lap, put his front paws on my shoulders-ish, and attempt to make out with me. 
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Mar 15, 2010 23:42
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Windy posted:I don't want to have to give him baths, but I was wondering if anyone had ides on what I can do to help him keep clean. Cornstarch bath instructions
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Mar 16, 2010 12:32
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Cosmo is getting more friendly every day. We leave the cage door open and he is venturing further and further out. He's also comfortable enough to climb on us to get a treat I really like having a bunny. Also, when he was out yesterday something freaked him out and he made a mad dash into his cage on the hard wood floors. He slid all over the place. It was hilarious.
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Mar 16, 2010 16:58
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/\/\/\ Haha they hate floors they slide all over, it's so ridiculous. Just wanted to say thanks everyone for the cat & rabbit advice. We've been sitting down with the rabbit every time we see him get upset, and giving him gentle touchings and pettings. We put a tiny bit of pressure on his sides (stole this one from Temple Grandin's writings on prey animal behaviour), and it does wonders. He grinds his teeth happily and calms right down. It's affected his overall mood immensely - he now charges & grunts a lot less, and no longer charges at just hints of the cat in the house. He even sometimes ignores the cat when he's around...yesterday he was comfy enough to bunny flop while the cat was out! This is huge progress considering how worked up he was just last week, so we're just going to keep on being sweet to him and comforting him when he gets upset, showing him he's protected and safe, and hopefully he'll eventually tolerate the cat.
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Mar 16, 2010 20:14
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candeh posted:Cornstarch bath instructions That's what I was referring to - he hates to be held and is too squirmy to burrito(even my vet hates doing it). And if I place him on the floor or a table he'll bolt and get hurt, or at the very least kick the cornstarch powder everywhere. Rabbits  I wonder though... He has a large litterpan, and he likes sitting in there for whatever reason. Would it be a terrible idea to just have a small layer of cornstarch in the front half of the pan to act as a sort of dust bath? I don't think he'd try to eat it, but I can't find anything saying that it's a big no-no. After doing some reading I think he's just not eating all of the cecal pellets since what I tend to find are smaller pieces randomly stuck on his tail or foot, it's not like he's crapping all over himself. I have been feeding him more Oxbow pellets since he's not eating as much hay as I'd like, and that might be one of the causes.
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Mar 17, 2010 07:57
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First a wonderful song... Wake up in the morning feelin' like GI Stasis I got a rabbit on the floor and she ain't eatin' lettuce Chase 'em round bout an hour to get them both to the vet drat bun just ran me $200 and it ain't over yet  So Sprout showed all the signs of GI stasis, took her and Dodger in, and an xray showed that she has a slight calcium sludge in her bladder. The vet said that their diet and exercise is spot on, but that I might want to take out the kale permanently as that might have caused it. She also said some bunnies just get that, so for their yearly checkup in 3 months we'll get another xray done. She nibbled on a little greens and a piece of papaya before I took her in (she tried to poop 3 times and nothing), so she got fluids and some pain meds. The worst part is I have to try and catch her/pick her up twice a day for the next 7-10 days to give her this banana flavored anti-biotic. I've done pills for cats but never fluids for bunnies, oh god is this going to be as awful as I think? I'm afraid of forcing the syringe into her cheek too fast or pushing the fluid out too fast and drowning her  .Last question, the vet said orchard grass wasn't as good as timothy and she recommends going back to timothy for health reasons . I just bought 50 pounds of orchard grass so some research papers or links on the topic would be great.
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Mar 17, 2010 18:12
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Fenarisk posted:First a wonderful song... Sounds like you caught it early at least :/ Godewyn got some severe GI stasis and set justFaye and I back $1200 to help him a few months ago, we didn't catch it early. Eowyn is a bit of a pain to catch, we just set up a means to close up the pen around her. We use those cube organizers as fencing in the living room: pre:_______________________________ | | | | | | | | | | | | | _________________ | | | | | | | Couch | | | |________________| | |_____________________________| We had to do subcue fluids for Godewyn for a while after we got him back from the vet, although I didn't stick him in the cheek. We were demoed to stick him in the loose skin on his side behind his ears and down a bit. I was pretty terrible at it at first, and justFaye hates needles so she made me do it every time. I noticed that if you accidentally stick the muscle underneath (yes, I was TERRIBLE) the fluid doesn't flow, so it's pretty fool proof. Provided you enter the subcutaneous tissue parallel to the skin, and the fluid flows, you're doing it right. Covering their eyes helps disorient them so that they don't try hopping off somewhere. I've also noticed that holding them firmly and confidently helps a lot. I always thought that orchard grass was the same as timothy, nutrition wise. Couldn't hurt to get some variety though, just alternate between the two offerings until you run out. You could always just put a thin layer of the orchard grass on top of their litter box and put a small pile of timothy in the corner. GrAviTy84 fucked around with this message at 19:21 on Mar 17, 2010 |
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Mar 17, 2010 19:14
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Fenarisk posted:Last question, the vet said orchard grass wasn't as good as timothy and she recommends going back to timothy for health reasons http://www.guinealynx.info/hay_chart.html They really are drat near identical. You want to keep your Ca:P overall ratio between 1.5:1 and 2:1; Orchardgrass falls exactly at the lower range and Timothy just outside the upper range. So Orchardgrass actually has less calcium and might therefore be considered a better choice for an animal with sludge issues.
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Mar 17, 2010 20:50
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Okay I spoke wrongly, I didn't meant to say injection as in a needle, it's one of those liquid squirt pen shaped things, I need to make sure I squirt the banana flavored anti-biotic (6 ml I think, not sure without it in front of me) far enough into her cheek so she won't spit it out. At least that's what the vet told me, I'm real nervous about it . Also thanks for the info on the orchard grass, the bunnies seem to like it more and eat more of it than timothy in regards to what they toss around/waste, so I'd rather have stuck with that.
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Mar 17, 2010 20:58
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When I had to do it to Billy he of course hated it but started eating as soon as the stuff was in his mouth. It's some kind of reflex maybe? The biggest worry you have is making a huge mess.
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Mar 17, 2010 21:00
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Fenarisk posted:Okay I spoke wrongly, I didn't meant to say injection as in a needle, it's one of those liquid squirt pen shaped things, I need to make sure I squirt the banana flavored anti-biotic (6 ml I think, not sure without it in front of me) far enough into her cheek so she won't spit it out. At least that's what the vet told me, I'm real nervous about it Godewyn took his liquid meds very easily as well. They flavor bunny meds so they should like them--just shove the syringe in her mouth and give a little squirt so she tastes it, after that (if she's anything like Godewyn) she'll just lap at it while you squirt it out slowly just at the front of her mouth, so you wouldn't need to worry about hurting her. Godewyn knew what the med bottles and syringes looked like after a couple days and would come running over when I'd sit down with everything, then climb all over me anticipating his meds. I think he thought they were treats. Eowyn always tried to get them too, but she wasn't allowed and then she'd go pout.
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Mar 17, 2010 21:24
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Douglas:
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Mar 17, 2010 23:48
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Well it had been 5 hours since I checked on Sprout and no eating or poop (although the vet said the pain meds might make her drowsy and lazy for a few hours)...got home and while she hadn't eaten any greens or hay, she came a' runnin' for pellets and mowed down. After that she had a little hay and let drop about 8 pellets of her own ranging from small back to normal size. Yay poop 
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Mar 18, 2010 00:30
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Hey, not a bunny owner here but coming in because I have a bunny handling question... I have a good friend in KY who finally got a rabbit after years of wanting on. I think it's a mini lop, it's a little 4lb black thing and very cute. I don't know jack diddly about bunnies so I grabbed a "Dummies Guide" thing she had sitting around and the first thing I noticed is a warning to never put your bunny on its' back when handling it. Well my friend loves to put her bunny on its' back while it is in her lap..she says he's "super calm" and likes it, but I'm afraid the thing is just too petrified to move. I did a lazy Google search but didn't find anything definitive, any PIers got takes on whether it's a good or bad thing to put a bunny on its' back? I imagine it's frightening because they are very vulnerable but my friend seems to think it's totally cool and not a big deal.
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Mar 18, 2010 04:41
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huskyjackal posted:Hey, not a bunny owner here but coming in because I have a bunny handling question... I have a good friend in KY who finally got a rabbit after years of wanting on. I think it's a mini lop, it's a little 4lb black thing and very cute. I don't know jack diddly about bunnies so I grabbed a "Dummies Guide" thing she had sitting around and the first thing I noticed is a warning to never put your bunny on its' back when handling it. Well my friend loves to put her bunny on its' back while it is in her lap..she says he's "super calm" and likes it, but I'm afraid the thing is just too petrified to move. I did a lazy Google search but didn't find anything definitive, any PIers got takes on whether it's a good or bad thing to put a bunny on its' back? I imagine it's frightening because they are very vulnerable but my friend seems to think it's totally cool and not a big deal.
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Mar 18, 2010 06:00
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I read about it being some kind of prey animal reflex so it's not likely he enjoys it. Too scared to move is a good description. But of course acceptable to use for trimming nails and such, as it's preferable to the rabbit fighting back and possibly injuring himself in the process.
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Mar 18, 2010 13:10
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So, Ehud and I have had Cosmo for about five days now and I've noticed that he *never* eats his poop. I know it is normal for them to eat their poop, but I'm wondering if it is bad for him if he's NOT eating it? When we picked him up he was being kept in a cage with the wire bottom and a flat bottom beneath it (so the poop would fall beneath the wire bottom where couldn't get to it). Maybe since he could never reach it, that's why he never developed a habit of eating his poop? Either way, I just want to make sure he's not going to get sick or something from not eating his poop.  And if it *is* crucial that he eat his poop, how would we get him to do that?
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Mar 18, 2010 15:08
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Blakles posted:So, Ehud and I have had Cosmo for about five days now and I've noticed that he *never* eats his poop. I know it is normal for them to eat their poop, but I'm wondering if it is bad for him if he's NOT eating it? I've never seen my rabbits do it(that I can remember), but it doesn't mean they don't. They only eat the soft cecal poo, and they generally do it at night from what I remember - someone correct me if I'm wrong. Are you finding the clusters in the litterpan or lying around?
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Mar 18, 2010 16:09
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Windy posted:I've never seen my rabbits do it(that I can remember), but it doesn't mean they don't. They only eat the soft cecal poo, and they generally do it at night from what I remember - someone correct me if I'm wrong. Are you finding the clusters in the litterpan or lying around?
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Mar 18, 2010 16:18
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Blakles posted:Ah, okay. I missed the part where they only eat the cecal poop. I've never seen one of those so he's probably eating them. There are TONS of fecal poop though! Yay. Glad he's a healthy bunny. Hah, yeah, it'd be great if they ate all their poop right? Less to clean up 
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Mar 18, 2010 16:23
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Windy posted:Hah, yeah, it'd be great if they ate all their poop right? Less to clean up
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Mar 18, 2010 16:26
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Blakles: the reason you never see it is because they're good at eating the necessary poop right out of their own rear end. Wonderful mental image isn't it?Windy posted:Hah, yeah, it'd be great if they ate all their poop right? Less to clean up My friend's rabbit tries to eat all her poop. This of course fails and she mostly just disintegrates all her poop leaving a horrible mess. I wonder if there's such a thing as a rabbit psychiatrist she should see.
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Mar 18, 2010 19:12
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DS at Night posted:My friend's rabbit tries to eat all her poop. This of course fails and she mostly just disintegrates all her poop leaving a horrible mess. I wonder if there's such a thing as a rabbit psychiatrist she should see. hahah rabbits are so stupid.
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Mar 19, 2010 17:42
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Alright, I don't think Sprout is going to get a full 7 days of this anti-biotic. She's never gotten it before for stasis and honestly after 3 days of it I think it's doing her more harm than good. She associates everything she loved before with the horrid experience of me chasing her around the living room and grabbing her so I can force feed her this poo poo. She's figured out all my old methods of cornering her and wised up to them. I was late to work by 20 minutes because it took an hour and a half to finally catch her. That's an hour and a half of her stressing and getting chased when she should normally be eating in the morning, when she usually dives right in. She hates me forcing the stuff into her mouth and I can't get within 5 feet of her to be nice and pet her without her running off. She has always loved papaya and craisins and now won't go neat them at all because they were used twice in catching her for the meds. My fiance is home tonight and I think we'll go a mix of me and her trying it until the Sunday night dose and leave it at that, it's just causing more harm than good from what I can see. I don't see why 5 days of meds when she never had any before is going to be so much worse off than 7.
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Mar 19, 2010 22:55
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Fenarisk posted:Alright, I don't think Sprout is going to get a full 7 days of this anti-biotic. She's never gotten it before for stasis and honestly after 3 days of it I think it's doing her more harm than good. I'm no doctor, but I know they do a long cycle of antibiotics for the reason of eliminating all possible chance of bacteria coming back. I'd keep at it, or at least ask the vet if it's ok to stop early.
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Mar 20, 2010 00:29
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DS at Night posted:I don't think I've heard any of the posters here ever say their rabbit sat in their lap. The location is not secure enough for them. They prefer sitting next to you while getting a nose rub or ear massage. Mine will occasionally lie down on my chest for a cuddle when I'm lying down myself but I think that's because there's nothing looming over him. Camille and Pepper will try to sit on my lap sometimes, but they're small (about three and a half pounds each), so they fit. On rare occasion I'll get them both on my lap chilling. They're more inclined to do it if they think there's food involved, like if I'm on the floor with one of their hay feeders and they can't possibly wait for me to get it hung back up. My old rabbit was the size of a small cat and would have never entertained the notion of sitting on my lap. Here's a question: my lovey babies decided that, as soon as I hit "order" on a brand new big box of orchard grass, that they detested the stuff and would never lower themselves to eat it again. Jackasses. So, now I'm stuck with a big box of orchard grass. I'd love to give it to the Humane Society, but I'm not sure that that would be okay because I don't know what sort of hay they feed. I suspect they feed "whatever they've got" because they don't really have anyone that knows small and exotic animals in there, but if they're loving the timothy hay, am I going to mess them up by dropping off my box of orchard grass?
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Mar 20, 2010 00:52
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when Paterson would get really sick and I had to give him medicine all the time and he hated it. I was like, four syringes three or four times a day. However, after three weeks the meds were done and even though he hated me for another week or so he eventually got over it. I spent almost 2000$ on Paterson for that round and another 500$ the next time he went into GI Stasis and another 300$ when he got the snuffles after that. He obviously has a lot of problems genetically or something but follow through with what the vet says! If you don't and Sprout gets sick again you'll just be kicking yourself.  feel better Sprout.
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Mar 20, 2010 00:58
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I think that's what's throwing me off...the vet last time didn't prescribe antiobiotics, and she was just fine, and this time other than doing the xray and seeing the sludge thing absolutely nothing was different, so why the antibiotics now? She seems healthy as hell considering she can sprint her rear end for over an hour away from me and toss wooden blocks all over in an attempt to slow me down or something.
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Mar 20, 2010 02:45
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I've been wondering if there's an easier way of catching a reluctant rabbit. Maybe something like a big butterfly net...
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Mar 20, 2010 12:01
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Called the vet on the whole antiobiotics thing and she agreed chasing Sprout around for that long so many times is way too stressful. Vet: "Why not keep her in a cage until the 7 days are up?" Me: "Well you see...uhh..." Bunny owners are dumber than the bunnies sometime. The two were too curious as to the new cage being back and ran right in. Heh, suckers. On that note, does anyone know where to get more cube cages these days like the ones Target had? They're in a 4x3 enclosure and I'd like to make it closer to 5x4, but I don't know where I can get those on such short notice (I have enough to make it bigger but alas they're big hole walls, not small holes). We have a Lowes, Home Depot, Walmart, and Target near us. Any suggestions so the running space is a bit more for the buns until Wednesday? They're already scooting and trashing the place because it's not the entirety of the living room .
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Mar 20, 2010 17:13
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Fenarisk posted:Called the vet on the whole antiobiotics thing and she agreed chasing Sprout around for that long so many times is way too stressful. You're in Chicago, right? I have 2 unopened boxes of the old grids. Also 5 lbs of KleenMama timothy hay and another 5 lbs of bluegrass.
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Mar 20, 2010 17:38
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Have you people tried mixing their meds in apple sauce? Or any other baby food? It's a pretty resilient rabbit that will resist smushed up bananas.
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Mar 20, 2010 18:58
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Fenarisk posted:On that note, does anyone know where to get more cube cages these days like the ones Target had? Hopefully Melicious' offer will work out, but for others, apparently the ones you can order from walmart.com are the same size as the old Target ones. Online only, not the ones in stores.
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Mar 20, 2010 18:59
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Fenarisk posted:Called the vet on the whole antiobiotics thing and she agreed chasing Sprout around for that long so many times is way too stressful. That's what I was going to say I keep an Xpen for any times I need to actually cage mine like when we travel and go to other houses.
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Mar 21, 2010 00:58
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Well Mr. Marmalade got his neuter this week He got a clean bill of health, too. I was worried that since he was so horribly neglected before we rescued him that he'd have some problems. I'm pretty excited that he's healthy over all. The only thing is, in the last couple of days it seems like one of his ears is bothering him. He's been shaking his head and holding one ear sort of in a funny way. My friend who had bunnies in the past and works as a vet tech told me if his ears were full of gunk that he might have an infection, but his ears look fine. Anyone experience anything similar? It's sort of odd.
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Mar 21, 2010 01:57
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Melicious posted:You're in Chicago, right? I have 2 unopened boxes of the old grids. Also 5 lbs of KleenMama timothy hay and another 5 lbs of bluegrass. About an hour north, yeah. I'd totally be willing to buy them! Hit me up at mail (dot) rickf (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Mar 21, 2010 03:26
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majour333 posted:Well Mr. Marmalade got his neuter this week You sure it's not just itchy? Mine gets itchy ears when I've been petting him. There's just so much fur that gets everywhere...
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Mar 21, 2010 13:07
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DS at Night posted:You sure it's not just itchy? Mine gets itchy ears when I've been petting him. There's just so much fur that gets everywhere... I honestly didn't think of that! It definitely could be the problem. I'll keep an eye on it
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Mar 21, 2010 15:08
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Is there a way to discourage a rabbit from pooping in a certain area? He poops all over in the doorway to room where his cage is. I tried putting a 2nd litter box there and he just marks it and ignores it. I tried putting lettuce/hay in there and he just pulled it outside the box. He doesn't even flinch when the vacuum comes on to clean it up. I haven't seen any pee really. He is now about 12 1/2 so could it be age? He is still very active, but that area seems to be a popular place where he just sits during the day.
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Mar 21, 2010 23:22
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CampingCarl posted:Is there a way to discourage a rabbit from pooping in a certain area? He poops all over in the doorway to room where his cage is. I tried putting a 2nd litter box there and he just marks it and ignores it. I tried putting lettuce/hay in there and he just pulled it outside the box. He doesn't even flinch when the vacuum comes on to clean it up. I haven't seen any pee really. Rabbits will poop everywhere no matter what as a low priority territory marker so to say, when they start spinning around and peeing then you have behavior that needs to be corrected.
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Mar 22, 2010 03:59
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