Dextrose Powder

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

FuzzyBunny ph

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 16, 2020
Messages
211
Reaction score
162
Location
Philippines
Does anyone here give Dextrose Powder to their bunny as a form of first aid?

It bothers me that a lot of people in the philippine rabbit community tend to give this for ANY situation: stasis, diarrhea, e.cuniculi, heat stroke, you name it, that is what they will recommend.

I personally haven't given this to them nor is it even part of our first aid kit. Our vet has never prescribed this as well.

I did research a bit about dextrose and learned that this is glucose which is like sugar and I know sugar is not advisable to give to bunnies as it can trigger stasis. Other than this, I don't have much info about it.

Does anybody have any more info about this?
 
It’s not good giving bunnies any kind of sugary things. It’s like I would give tips to give honey mixed in water for the bunnies. It’s better to soak pellets in water and make a porridge or give the bunnies critical care. It will give all the basic the rabbit need and not make the stomach go haywire. But that’s just my opinion and having gone through a few gas problems and blockage 😅
 
It’s not good giving bunnies any kind of sugary things. It’s like I would give tips to give honey mixed in water for the bunnies. It’s better to soak pellets in water and make a porridge or give the bunnies critical care. It will give all the basic the rabbit need and not make the stomach go haywire. But that’s just my opinion and having gone through a few gas problems and blockage 😅

Thank you for this!

Regarding the Honey mixed in water, thats a no-no also, correct? 'Cause from what I know, honey is a no-no to bunnies
 
Thank you for this!

Regarding the Honey mixed in water, thats a no-no also, correct? 'Cause from what I know, honey is a no-no to bunnies

Yeah honey it’s a no-no to rabbits, I just took honey as an example because it have different monosaccarides and disaccarides which the body can pick up fast. I’ve taken stuff like dextorose powder when my blood sugar gotten low after pushing myself too much after workout. But it won’t truly help humans with other things. It won’t help humans with diarrhea or heat stroke. So I can’t see it helping rabbits ☺️

Rabbits have a high fiber cost and don’t work the same as humans guts. Which makes it really weird to reccomend dextorose powder to help rabbits with stasis and so on. When you feed rabbits that have gi stasis you want them to get food into the stomach, to get the gut mobility to start working.
 
I would only give it as part of a complete electrolyte mixture if for some reason a rabbit was dehydrated, such as with mild/moderate heat stress. But that also means that other active measures need to be taken to correct the situation, and prevent it occurring in the future.

Heat stress is not the same as heat stroke. Heat stroke is when heat stress has advanced too far and is a critical situation that requires immediate emergency cooling of the body core temperature, not giving oral fluids when a rabbit may be too lethargic to swallow properly, thus also causing an aspiration risk.

With diarrhea a rabbit does need electrolytes as well, but it would be better for them to be given as sub q or IV fluids by a qualified rabbit vet, in conjunction with the needed medications to stop the pathogenic bacteria causing the diarrhea, and meds to protect from bacterial toxins.

Dextrose being a sugar, does have uses, but it needs to be used sparingly and only when appropriate.
 
@JBun Thank you! very interesting, I never heard of "heat stress" before. :)

I would only give it as part of a complete electrolyte mixture if for some reason a rabbit was dehydrated, such as with mild/moderate heat stress.

Would it be better to just give electorolytes without any dextrose?

Dextrose being a sugar, does have uses, but it needs to be used sparingly and only when appropriate.

Given this, is it okay to say that giving dextrose is not advisable without consulting a vet? There are also some people who give this as their maintenance by mixing it in their water :( Won't that ruin their liver or something? =/
 
Heat stress is basically the early stages of heat stroke. It's when the rabbit starts to get mildly overheated. Heat stroke is when the core body temp gets too high and serious cell damage can occur, sometimes irreversible. It's a fine line between heat stress and heat stroke, and if there is any doubt if your rabbit has heat stroke, you should err on the side of caution and get your rabbit to your vet immediately.

Heat stress, beginning of heat stroke:
http://www.annarbor.com/pets/keeping-our-rabbits-cool-during-the-heat/
Heat stroke:
https://www.petcoach.co/article/heatstroke-hyperthermia-and-overheating-in-small-pets-signs/
So giving electrolytes may be helpful if they haven't been eating and drinking very well due to heat but are still only in the early stages of heat stress. It's also essential to get them to a cool place to help reduce their body temperature. Just giving electrolytes doesn't solve the problem and the rabbit can continue to become overheated.

Glucose is a necessary sugar in living things for proper cell function, including rabbits. As with us, it's better to get it from complex carbs in our normal diet. But there are times when it's needful to consume or receive sugars that are quickly absorbed, such as someone suffering from hypoglycemia, or during strenuous exercise when we may get depleted quickly.

Normally rabbits won't have a rapid depletion of glucose from their blood, but there are times that it could happen, such as a rabbit experiencing heat stress when they haven't been eating or drinking normally, a rabbit suffering from diarrhea and not getting the needed nutrients and fluids from it's digestive tract because it's loosing them through the continued diarrhea, or they can even get low blood sugar during non obstructive GI stasis, or other times of stress.

But overdoing the sugar is also not good for rabbits either, as we know it can affect the microbial balance in their digestive tract. I can't see that occasionally giving electrolytes in the appropriate situation, would be a problem or harmful for most rabbits. As rabbits that are given fruit also get sugars, so not much difference, just needs to be limited and sparingly, and not be given when a rabbit has a sensitivity to a lot of sugars, has a complete obstruction, has bloat, diarrhea, other digestive problems where sub q or IV fluids would be the appropriate route, or has kidney problems. But for someone inexperienced at deciding when it is appropriate, it would be best to consult their knowledgeable rabbit vet. I'm not a vet, I'm only relaying info that I've learned and what I might do. When in doubt, always consult a knowledgeable rabbit vet.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top