Oral Medication for Bunny

Hi Everyone,

I have to give Elliot oral liquid medication for the next two weeks since he just had surgery and he is not on board. He does not stay calm and I'm afraid I'm going to hurt him fighting him to stay still. The bunny burrito is not really working, he squirms out before I can even get him wrapped up. I tried containing him in a box, but if he keeps his head tucked down I can't get the syringe in the right way.

Any suggestions would be amazing!

Best bet is the burrito. Properly done he shouldnt have the chance to squirm out. Practice practice practice.

I think it depends on the rabbit. I stopped trying the burrito thing as it completely freaked Aki out. For oral medication, what works best with mine is sitting on my knees on the floor, blocking the rabbit (with their 4 paws on my legs, in a normal position) against my belly (their entire side pressed against it so they can't turn their head) with my left hand and then you are normally in a good position to put the syringe behind the teeth, on the side of the mouth. Then, pet for a bit and release to let the rabbit go on his merry way on his own. I've operated that way with my three bunnies every time. It worked just fine and it's the less traumatizing solution for me. You just spend a lot of time on the floor...

My rabbit would rebel against being held. I mixed her medication with a little bit of mashed, ripe banana (about 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp - depending on how much medicine I have to give). I put it in a little bowl and she gobbled it up like a special treat. No need for a syringe.

Thanks everyone! He knows he doesn't like the burrito, he gets squirmy as soon as he sees the towel. I don't mind getting on the floor, so I'll give the lap thing a go, but he's not too keen on that either! Loves being petted, but not sitting on my lap.

I will definitely try the banana. I just mashed up one of the yogurt treats with the back of a spoon and mixed the medicine with that, so we'll see how that goes.

Mine were in stasis everytime I've had to do this so putting the medication in a treat and hope the rabbit will eat it on their own was not an option but of course, if your rabbit will eat it without syringe that's nicer for everyone. I've seen a video recently of someone putting the medication inside a lettuce leaf (syringing it in the white hollow part of a big leaf) and letting the rabbit eat it on his own.
Wait... There it was :
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcDgE7kCrcU[/ame]

Beckles85 said:

I just mashed up one of the yogurt treats with the back of a spoon and mixed the medicine with that, so we'll see how that goes.

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No yogurt treats! They are filled with sugar. Rabbits are not to have yogurt unless directed by a vet. Rabbits cannot digest dairy.

Kneel on the floor, place bunny on floor between your legs, cross your feet so bunny can't back out, then use one hand to carefully hold bunny's head while squirting in meds in corner of mouth with the other hand.

I know of others that have used an herb leaf or something like that, to get their bun to take meds willingly, but I've never wanted to bother.

Oh yeah, I missed the yogurt thing. No yogurt for rabbits. Rabbits are strict herbivores they shouldn't eat anything that isn't grass / hay / vegetables / fruits / tree leaves or bark without vet orders. No cereals, no seeds, no corn, no yogurt, no salt, no sugar or molasses... so that generally means no treats from pet shops, they are almost all unsuitable (except dried fruits / vegetables without any addition!) and can disturb your rabbit's gut flora or worse,cause blockage. Like Blue eyes said, they are also all fattening and rabbits put on weight easily and are notoriously hard to put on a diet (and getting fat can cause problems in the long run, your rabbit needs to stay supple to wash himself, eat his cecotrophes and spare his joints).

When you wrap him in the towel you need to use one big enough so that you can get all the feet securely wrapped.
You have to get the rear and the front all the way up to the neck wrapped.

Thank you so much for your help everyone! Injecting it in the romaine veins seems to be working the best. He was not on board with banana or applesauce. He probably knew they were a trick since I've never given them to him before lol.

I had no idea about the yogurt treats. I've only had him for a few months and the family before me gave them to him all the time. I'll start weening him off of them though. Luckily his weight and everything is normal, so I don't have to put him on a weight loss diet.

Beckles85 said:

I had no idea about the yogurt treats. I'll start weening him off of them though. .

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Don't "ween" him off. Just stop. Yogurt drops are bad, so just stop cold turkey.

Just throw away any you have left.

It's great if the lettuce thing worked!
For the yogourt thing, considering they are just treats you don't have to make a transition like when you change pellets. It's best to just stop giving them.
Unfortunately when you get a rabbit they are almost always fed things which aren't good for them - I got mine from 3 different places including a breeder and all of them were having bad pellets, bread and things like that which you should never give a rabbit. Considering that when you go buy things in a petshop you will mostly be given wrong advices, it's indeed not always easy to know what your rabbit should eat without making a thorough research...