my rabbit, BUD

Question
hello

i bought my rabbit from the sspca centre and they didn't know what age he was when we got him but they guessed he was about 3 years old. going by that we now think he is about 6. we took him to the vets because he has lost half of his weight or more since January and isn't eating or drinking. he is very very light and thin. we are all very worried about him and i have to feed him liquid food and water through a syringe. i have now run out of liquid food and i was wondering if i can feed him milk? i thought that this would fill him up a bit more than the carrot juice we are giving him, but i don't know if he will be able to digest it because i don't know if rabbits drink milk when they are fully grown. the vet told us that he would have died in a few days and its now been over a week and hes not dead yet! :). so we don't think there is much point in paying for some more liquid food and that's why i was wondering if milk would be any good. if I'm right in thinking that milk would maybe help him put a bit more weight on and fill him up more. please help me because i don't know what else to do! I'm only 14. please help i would be so grateful to you.

thank you very much for your time

from Sophie

Answer
Milk is not good for rabbits. They cannot digest it and it will only upset his stomach. Instead, soak some pellets in water until they're really mushy and mix it with some carrot baby food (or canned pumkin). Then feed him with that through the syringe. It will give him the nutrition that he needs without hurting his tummy.

Did the vet check for tooth problems? It sounds like that might be the problem and it is definitely fixable. You may want to find a good vet that is knowledgeable with rabbits. You can find a rabbit savvy veterinarian from the House Rabbit Society's list:

http://rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

And, if finances are an issue, some vets will offer payment plans. CareCredit is also a way to get the extra funds you need for vet bills:

http://www.carecredit.com/vetmed/whycc.html