In the last entry, I was talking about how Ethan almost died because of diarrhea. I talked about changing his diet from Oxbow Hay to Choppy Hay (both Timothy) since he seems to like that better.
Most of my research deals with rabbit diets. I suppose the key mistake I made was not reading enough on baby rabbit diets. Following his near death experience, I’ve since fed him 5-6 bowls of Choppy Timothy Hay and he has been voracious. I was similarly concerned about his lack of water intake. So much so that I even force fed him via a medicine dropper. It’s clear now that it wasn’t necessary. As soon as he started eating so much, he also started drinking as much. From last night continuing to this morning, he has been spritely like he hasn’t been in weeks. In between all of this, I’ve also given him at least a dozen pellets throughout the day and a couple of handfuls of Oxbow Alfalfa Hay. Some literature would say unlimited amounts for both pellets and Oxbow Alfalfa Hay. For now, I will increase the “dosage” but will not go as far as unlimited, except for Timothy Hay.
In this episode, we did call our vet from Vets in Practice. She advised us to give him a teaspoon of pineapple juice and a few grams of Benebac (sorry I forgot the exact dosage she shared).
Sadly I think the root cause of his ailment was hunger amidst a tray full of Oxbow Timothy Hay. For my bigger bunnies, a little bit of tough love forces them to eat leftovers (yeah they all like ‘em new). But that’s not something I can do with my scrawny baby Ethan.
So yeah, I think the worst has passed although I’ll still keep an eye on him throughout the night later. I’m disappointed that after all these years of loving care to my rabbits, I still make seemingly rookie mistakes like that. I’m just really lucky Ethan pulled through.
In my next update, perhaps I’ll talk about exactly how much I’ve gone with this Unli Alfalfa Hay thing for babies (rabbits under 1 year is what I read).
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