Taking care of a wild Cottentail. NEED HELP!

[BBdawise]

Hello all,

I'm currently taking care of a little baby cottontail rabbit. I've had him for several days. I was actually planning to release him back into the wild today, but when I went in to check on him this evening he was unable to hold himself up straight. As well as having what looks like some diarrhea problems! The symptoms he's suffering from look like a very advanced case of head tilt, but I don't see how he could have gotten this bad this fast!

He was just fine last night before I went to bed. I let him run around the room for several hours before putting him back in the cage. I also got him to drink out of a water bottle last night since I had to throw out the KMR kitten milk.

I've been feeding him KMR kitten milk, alfalfa, lettuce, clover flowers, as well as a single small chunk of tomato.

He's still eating, I just gave him a small amount of skim milk since I'm kind of thinking that water bottle might have been the cause. He was fine for the several days I've had him. The only change was that water bottle.

Any help would be greatly appreciated! If you can think of anything I could do please share! I was only trying to help him out but now I'm afraid I may have killed him

 

[Thumperina]

Have you had a lot of experience with them before? I think the best you could do is to find a wild rehabilitation for him if it;s not too late. I hope he pulls through.

 

[BBdawise]

No, this is the first one I've ever attempted to rehabilitate. I've got plenty of experience with other small animals though.

I mow lawns for a living. I spooked this guy out of a bush he was hiding in whilst blowing off a yard in downtown St. Louis. He was clearly dehydrated and looked as if he had been wandering around for quite a while. He was running into things and didn't have a very coordinated hop. I was able to catch him very easily so I figured a hawk would be able to catch him even easier.

I couldn't find any obvious rabbit holes nearby so I decided to take him home and release him where I live, which is a much more rabbit friendly environment than the middle of a huge city!

I couldn't tell if he had already been kicked out of the nest by mom(he had all his fur and his eyes were open) but it was pretty clear that he needed some help when I found him, otherwise I would have left him alone.

But yeah I'll try to find a wildlife rehab center tmrw morning if he doesn't have some miraculous recovery overnight.

 

[Thumperina]

I just checked if tomato is safe, this is what I found
Tomato is safe (red fruit ONLY; no stems or leaves)
Anyway, if he is a little baby as you describe him, he wouldn't need any tomatoes I think.