I'm not talking to you!

Not only did I not give River one of big human's shoes while he's away (she got one of his socks as a security blanket), I force-fed her and gave her all sorts of yucky medicine today.

Poor little munchkin has an ear infection from cramming a dirty foot in her ear.

So, that's an elder bun problem they don't warn you about:  Excess cecotrope production no matter the diet.  If you miss/have bad timing cleaning up a single one and they inadvertently stand in it/get it under a nail, they can give themselves an ear infection.  We're talking multiple times a day cleaning these up, so just a friendly head's-up to start looking out for this as your bunny gets older!

Everybun needs a little help sometimes.

I will preface this post with:  DO NOT BATHE A RABBIT UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
If you do find yourself in need of cleaning a bun, first try a dry bath using cornstarch.
If that doesn't work, move to a damp washcloth to spot clean the area.
If the first two methods fail, use as little water as possible and try your best to ONLY get the dirty area wet.  Avoid getting the inner ears wet at all costs because it can lead to an ear infection.

Bunny baths are stressful for all involved and should only be used as a last resort.

Through a perfect storm of heavy shedding, something a bit too rich in his diet, and being a senior bun (turns 8 in December), Simon needed a bit of help getting his backside all nice and flowery again.
I gave him breakfast before I started because I knew that he would be cleaning himself off and I wanted him to have food to help him pass any fur he may ingest while doing so.

Once he realized that I wasn't trying to drown him in 1 inch of water, he started cleaning my forearm (that he was draped across like a fluffy little football) while I attended to the mess.  Here he is flicking water all over the wall while enjoying some groovy tunes on the radio.  He was fascinated by the radio, so spent most of his drying off time hanging out there.

Slowly getting drier.  Despite what the above pics look like, the only truly wet parts on him are his hind feet, butt, and tail.  The rest is just a bit of damp that splashed on the top coat (the undercoat and skin was dry).
Typically, it is suggested that you use a cool blow drier setting to help dry their fur, but given that I never use one myself, I think the noise from it would be more stressful to him than it would be worth.

Noogies and a temperature check to make sure the wet fur hasn't made him hypothermic (too cold a body temperature).  He's mostly dry at this point and his temperature was good.  A rough day for the little guy, but he's happily eating hay as I type this.
Going forward, we will be decreasing his pellet ration a bit and offering a few different types of hay as well as limiting treats to one a day.  I imagine that like people, bunnies can start to have trouble digesting higher calorie/richer foods as they age.  A couple of dried cranberries a day is not worth this kind of drama!

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