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!