just done another feed. had to use the recovery food again. he was worse than ever. to the point where we thought he was going to hurt himself. we're concerned with the stress aswell setting him back.
i don't know if it's possible, but we thought maybe the syringe being pushed in is uncomfortable for him? his mouth is so tiny. i feel like the syringe is rubbing against him. i tried lifting his mouth slightly to make the gap bigger, but he hates it so much. i tried the syringe without the end cut off and that went in better but obviously that blocked up aswell.
he takes the water fine but noticed some dribbles back out (or he spits it)
i rinse the syringe regularly and we've tried excel pellets aswell and the same happens. we've ground them into as much of a powder as we can and that doesn't work. we've used the blender aswell. i don't know what we're doing wrong.
he won't eat any of the pellet mush off a spoon either. at first, he would nibble it off a plate in the cage but then stopped.
metacam dose is 0.7ml 2x a day for five days. which means tomorrow night is his last one and i'm nervous about that because he still isn't eating that well.
i've made an order with hayexperts and got a few different varieties of hay to try, and also some critical care to try him with instead. hoping he will prefer it. that order won't come until next week though. o/h asked the local vet if they had any critical care but they don't.
the only positive we noticed today was that he attempted to nibble the stalkier hay a few times, which he hasn't done yet. but not much. the other thing he did was come out into the run part of the cage to sleep in his little bed. he has been staying more in the hay area inside his box most of the time so thought it was good he actually wanted to move around and settle somewhere else.
i wish we could get the oxbow pellets right because he loved them and had no problem being syringe fed that. his little face actually brightened up aswell. then just now when he realised it was recovery again, he got really upset.
after syringing, we offer him a plate of cut up hay, softened pellets and bits of veg and herbs and he eats the veg and herbs but then just nibbles the other bits slightly but doesn't really eat them.
i have been weighing him morning and night just to keep an extra close eye, and he's up a little bit from this morning but not much.
i was probably being naive, but i really didn't expect this. i thought he would recover really well. now i'm worried we have a long road ahead.
