How to Give Medications to a Rabbit

Hi, my name is Aileen Carol Hogspot, with Friends of Rabbits, I’m here talking about how to care for your rabbit, and we are going to discuss giving medications. Giving medications can be difficult, however, it is doable. As being at home and not being at the doctor’s office, we are going to try and help you learn the techniques that you can use to make those pills getting down a little easier. Now, currently we’ve been telling you that treats are not to be given regularly for an animal, however, if medications need to be given, treats seem to be the best way to look at it. Because you know your rabbit is gonna wanna bite into a banana, which is his or her favorite treat, why not, take a piece of that banana and then what you can do is, say you’ve been given a pill that you need to get down, you can hide this pill in the banana. And then there’s a possibility it’s gonna get down, because you know your bunny really loves having this banana. But there are other also treats you can use to incorporate with pills, for instance if you have a smaller pill, you could be able to possible pocket it in to a raisin or a piece of dried fruit like an apple. At some point, you’re gonna have to ask your doctor if the pill that you’re about to use can be crushed, if your rabbit is kicking that pill back out, spitting it, then you may need to look at making it more of a powdered consistency. And again, taking powder and being able to use the powder into a piece of fruit, and that’s another way to try and administer that pill that you’re having problems getting down. You can easily use a rolling pin or some weight, very easily over that pill, just a little bit of weight, easily crush it, don’t have to roll. You could also take that same pill and crush it using an apothecary. Now, some of the ways you have to give medications can be different, we’re obviously talking about oral. There are also medicines you're gonna have to give that are not gonna be oral. Oral medications could also be given through the syringe, and if you’re having problems with the medication you’ve been giving actually going down, you really want your rabbit to lick the medication out of the syringe on their own. However, that’s not always possible. You can use alternatives like baby food or smoothie consistency fruits to be able to put in here and mix with the medication so that it gives them a consistency they like the taste of and it still gets the medication down, which is truly what your goal is here. Now sometimes you will find that you need to be able to feed your rabbit and they don’t want to eat at all. That means no treat, they’re not eating and you need to be able not only get medication down, but you need to be able to get some substance in them. You need to make sure that they are getting their nutrients. There are things, such as this critical care here that you would take, mix with water, proportions are listed in your veterinarian can provide you with an adequate amount you should use per day to supplement what they’re not getting that they should be getting because they have failed to continue eating proper diet. Now, the rarity would be that your doctor will expect you to start giving medications under the skin or even have fluids like this one. If you have any questions on how to do this, or if you are prep of having to do this, make sure you ask your veterinarian to run you through it so that you can make sure that you’re comfortable with doing that at home. Obviously that would include many type of medications, you’d have to give under the skin, I’m sure that they would be willing to show you how to make sure that you’re doing that properly, so when you go home, you’re a little bit more comfortable than perhaps the doctor was giving it to your pet when they went to veterinary clinic. These are some of the hints that you can use, especially if you have a rabbit that doesn’t wanna work real well with you, you can easily take a blanket or a towel like this one, and wrap them up gently and hold their feet down so that you’re not going to get scratch or kicked when you’re trying to administer some of these medicines. Coz not necessarily do they taste well, but they may not go down real well and you need to make sure that you are protecting yourself and the rabbit from either one of you injuring themselves. And these are just some things that you can think about when you have to give medication. Next, we’re gonna talk about housing.