Rabbit losing weight.

[ChickenGirl11]

My rabbit is aproximatley 6 years old and has been losing weight quickley and drinking lots of water and eating alot should I worm him or give him some other medication or just let him keep eating as much as he wants and let it pass(if its going to)or is it just him losing weight for whatever reason???

 

[ksalvagno]

If your rabbit is an outdoor rabbit, then I would worm him. There are only bad reasons why rabbits are losing weight. The worming would be a good place to start.

 

[ChickenGirl11]

he is an indoor rabbit----he goes outside not very often but I will see if I can worm him.

 

[ksalvagno]

Have his teeth been checked lately? That would be another one.

 

[ChickenGirl11]

I didn't think of that!!!! I will check his teeth

 

[cutechick2010]

Deworming is the best place to start. About checking his teeth, obviously you can easily check the front teeth. The back ones are not so easy to do. It pretty much takes a vet to check his back teeth, he would need to be sedated and the vet needs a special tool. If the deworming doesn't help, you may be able to try a round of antibiotics. Do you have a good rabbit vet? I don't mean just a vet in general, because most vets don't have a clue about treating rabbits. You would need one that has training/experience treating rabbits.

 

[ChickenGirl11]

I checked his front teeth and they were fine and a was able to get a peek at the back ones too and they looked fine to me. My mom is not willing to spend $300 on a rabbit as I have looked into vets before and for a simple check-up it goes into the $300 range. He is gaining a little bit of weight but not much but there is a slight difference to his weight. I am probably still going to worm him just in case. For worming should I use the injectable or put it in his water.

 

[tortoise]

I checked his front teeth and they were fine and a was able to get a peek at the back ones too and they looked fine to me. My mom is not willing to spend $300 on a rabbit as I have looked into vets before and for a simple check-up it goes into the $300 range. He is gaining a little bit of weight but not much but there is a slight difference to his weight. I am probably still going to worm him just in case. For worming should I use the injectable or put it in his water.

I would not put wormer in water. Depending on what you are using, syringe it into the throat or inject.

 

[cutechick2010]

My mom is not willing to spend $300 on a rabbit as I have looked into vets before and for a simple check-up it goes into the $300 range.

That is quite understandable, I couldn't do it either. I am lucky enough to have a vet here that is very affordable, but most people aren't. To deworm, I would try using Ivermectin paste, the kind you can get for horses. It is about $4 a tube, I can do 15 rabbits with one tube. I give about one half cc per rabbit.

 

[tortoise]

My mom is not willing to spend $300 on a rabbit as I have looked into vets before and for a simple check-up it goes into the $300 range.

That is quite understandable, I couldn't do it either. I am lucky enough to have a vet here that is very affordable, but most people aren't. To deworm, I would try using Ivermectin paste, the kind you can get for horses. It is about $4 a tube, I can do 15 rabbits with one tube. I give about one half cc per rabbit.

Careful when you throw out doses! The ivermectin dose for a rabbit is 300 micrograms per kilogram. The dose depends on the concentration of whatever ivermectin product you have on hand.

And I really can't understand a $300 exam. I mean, for real. The most expensive I've ever seen for an exam is $50. Yes, to investigate and find the source it would take some testing which would add on. You always choose your level of care! What you need to do is to get in and ask what tests you could expect them to do, and the cost of each test.

So there's no point in doing a fecal exam because if it comes back with a parasite, you're gonna have to deworm. You can deworm first and then skip the fecal exam. Make sense?