Hoppy Halloween! 🎃

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are finding clues and should solve the case of the missing Halloween candy in no time!

No plow.

River:  What do you mean I'm not allowed to just plow into Simon at top speed with no repercussions?

Thanks for visiting the blog and we hope you all have a great weekend!  Stay safe out there and we'll be back with more bunny cuteness on Monday.

Little eavesdropper!

We were discussing giving the bunnies a special treat before bedtime when Big Human glanced over to see Simon with his ear up listening very intently to our conversation.

In case you were wondering, cantaloupe was the bedtime snack for tonight.

On the move!

The little fella is a bun on a mission.  Not sure what it is, but he's confidently striding towards something!

River's happy place.

Gotta chin all of the shoes to claim them--even those pesky, hard to reach shoelaces!

Startle bun!

[accountabilibunny senses tingling]  Where'd River go?

We saved you a seat!

Looks like the bunnies have decided that we're going to be couch potatoes this weekend. 📺🐇

Thanks for visiting the blog and we hope you all have a great weekend!  Stay safe out there and we'll be back with more bunny cuteness on Monday.

You'll thank me later.

What do you mean I'm not done yet?!  I'm eating on my own, why do I have to have another two weeks of yucky medicine?  I strenuously object!

Cranking the drama up to 11.

Blerg!  Am dead bun 'cuz no attention.

Proof of life and derpiness.

(Sorry for the poor quality.  This was a still from a video and happened to be the only frame with him sticking his tongue out.)

Rabbitude readjustment.

Me:  [takes some of Simon's hay and gives it to River]

Simon:  [realizing the hay has value now]  Nooooo!  Look-look-look-I'm eating the hay now!  It's MY hay, not River's.  I'm gonna have to sleep on top of this so you can't steal any more of it.

The face of disappointment.

This is not what I ordered.  I specifically asked for yummy treats and you brought me hay instead.

She's doing her best.

This is River 'eating' food.  Just standing in the food dish contemplating the lone cranberry in front of her.  Well, she has managed to eat some paste-like ground pellet and oat mash, so it supplements the force-feedings a bit.  I'll take what I can get!

Thanks for visiting the blog and we hope you all have a great weekend!  Stay safe out there and we'll be back with more bunny cuteness on Monday.

He had it coming.

River was taking out her aggressions on poor Mr. Giraffe.

River was being a sneaky little actress bun by pretending to eat her food while I was watching so she wouldn't get force-fed.  She failed to realize that all of her food is weighed to see how much was eaten.  I suspect she thinks Mr. Giraffe was a snitch.

Who could forget Simon Bun?

With all of the attention River has gotten lately while she's been sick, we have to make sure he gets equal attention and special noms.  The little dude is livin' it up like a baby food bandit over here! 😂

Full tummy sleepy bunny.

The little munchkin fell asleep in my lap after getting ~10mL of ground oats and critical care mixed with baby food.  Surprisingly little mess this time around, which was nice!

If you're ever in need of force-feeding your bunny, here's some helpful advice:

1.  For the amount to feed your bunny, use this formula:

10-15 ml food mixture per kg body weight for each feeding (source:  BSAVA Manual of Rabbit Medicine table 7.37 pg 100)

Expect to feed ~4 times a day at least 3-4 hours apart.

Try to feed a small amount per mouthful (0.5 ml-3 ml) depending on the size of your rabbit.  Take it slow and give them time to chew and swallow.  Make sure they didn't cheek the food before giving them more (River is famous for doing this).

Make sure the food is at least room temp before giving if you've saved unused portions in the 'fridge.  You don't want to decrease your sick bunny's core temperature by giving them cold food.

Here's a good video from NorthStar Vets showing how to syringe feed a bunny:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhcEVaK32So

2.  Try to give any antibiotic an hour or so after a feeding so that they have a slightly emptier stomach unless indicated otherwise by your vet/medicine packaging.  This will decrease the chance of something in the food interfering with the drug's absorption.

River is taking Enrofloxacin (Baytril) and the calcium present in critical care can decrease the effectiveness of the drug (source: https://www.marvistavet.com/enrofloxacin.pml).  I didn't realize this until she wasn't showing as much improvement as expected a few days into giving her the med along with force-feeding.

Nothing was mentioned about taking the drug on an 'empty' stomach on our printed label--it was a pour-off tube instead of a packaged bottle from the manufacturer with the box and any package inserts.  I mention this because it's common for vets to give liquid antibiotics and pain medicines this way, so you should look up the appropriate drug info or ask the vet/vet tech when they hand you the meds (which I clearly neglected to do at the time).

3.  Keep a bowl of water and some paper towels handy so you can clean your bunny up during and after the force-feeding.  They're also good for wiping down the tip of the feeding syringe to help prevent messes before they start.  Q-tips are good for wiping noses if they have an upper respiratory/sinus issue.

4.  You can mix fruit flavored baby food (banana/banana-blueberry/apple) into the critical care to increase the amount of calories you're giving.  You can also add a small amount of finely ground and sieved old fashioned oats to further increase the calorie content.

My recipe that's easy to draw up with a 5 ml syringe and lasts us a day:

3g finely ground and sieved old fashioned oats

6g apple-banana flavored Oxbow Critical Care

18g banana-blueberry baby food

22g warm water

Hope this helps anyone who needs to tend a sick or elderly bunny! 

It's gonna be a long 2 weeks.

Mr. Giraffe, you have no idea how much I loathe the little human right now.  If she isn't giving me yucky medicine, she's force-feeding me every 3 hours that she's awake.  Did you know that humans only sleep for like 8 hours at night time?!  Yeah, I didn't either!

I'm not talking to you.

River is not on speaking terms with me after having to go to the vet today.  She has a sinus infection and gets to have 2 weeks of twice daily antibiotics, though we were lucky to catch it early and her heart and lungs sound good.  Yay!

The big human and I just got our bivalent Covid boosters and a flu shot today as well, so it's just gonna be a whole house full of fun over here for the next couple days!  Modern medicine is awesome and if you haven't gotten your own boosters yet, definitely go do that as soon as you're able.

Thanks for visiting the blog and we hope you all have a great weekend!  Stay safe out there and we'll be back with more bunny cuteness on Monday.

Happy now?

Only River could manage to look annoyed while getting kisses from Simon.  She hasn't yet forgiven me for not letting her hop up onto the back of the couch.

You try to take a nice picture.

Well, one outta two ain't bad!

Siblings.

Yeah, we're going to pretend that this isn't exactly how fights start getting all up in the other's face.  Gonna be one of those days. 😒

Zzzzz 😴

Looks like River brought a midnight snack of parsley with her.  Lol--the little munchkin was thinking ahead!