Oxbow Critical Care Herbivore, Rabbit & Guinea Pig Recovery, Anise, 141 g

One of our little bunnies went into GI stasis and we found out about this when doing research online over a week-end when our exotic animal vet was closed. We took our little bun to an animal urgent care and they were going to admit him to do "exploratory surgery" (don't ever do this, most bunnies never survive the surgery and you don't need to do this if your bunny has GI stasis). I wish I had known about this so I would have had it on hand before our bunny got sick but it arrived super fast through Prime (phew). (You never know with Prime, depending on the item, the day you order it etc. etc. it could take up to 4 days to receive an item nowadays with Amazon Prime.) Its super easy to use, the instructions are on the bag, it comes as a powder and you mix it was warm water and feed it to your bunny using a feeding syringe that you can buy from a pharmacy in the baby aisle. If you only have 1-2 bunnies, this small size is more than enough, you don't need the bigger bag. It sort of has a pungent lemony scent which is pretty disgusting when your bunny poops it out, but you'll never be more thankful to see bunny poop in your life! Our bunny didn't seem to mind the taste (we tried various organic veggie baby foods and he hated those, but he went for this pretty ok considering....) If your bunny goes into GI stasis, please do not give your bunny an enema (there are well meaning people online who recommended this to us but our vet was against it.) What you want to do is help your bunny get hydrated at the vet with subcutaneous fluid therapy, we found that and the Rx laxative and pain reliever (for his fairly large gas bubble that we saw on his x-ray) to be the most helpful things for our little bun. He was hydrated twice and only on the pain reliever, laxative and this food for 3 days in total before he returned back to normal. We set our alarm clock to wake up every two hours to check on our bun during the night when he was too sick to move and when his temperature dropped we surrounded him with lightly warmed rice bags that seemed to help bring his temperature back up and also the warmth was comforting to him. Its a super scary thing to go through so I highly recommend you have this on hand "before" you need it for just in case.

Always on hand, in case there is any gastrological issues with my bunny. I give it to her during her antibiotic treatment too, thankfully, she likes it eating from a small bowl to prevent GI stasis, once or twice a day. Truly a life saver.

Our rabbit Seb unfortunately developed a tendency to go into a shed every six weeks, much more often than the every three months that my books said. And when he went into a shed, he'd lick himself and swallow a lot of the loose hair, and developed hair balls. He'd quit eating and just sit miserably in a corner of his cage. I read everything I could find on the condition and took him to the vet three times over several months, putting him on Reglan and Cisapride (specially ordered from a compounding pharmacy in Arizona) several times a day. I brushed him several times a day to get out as much hair as I could. And, since he wasn't eating anything, which quickly leads to death in rabbits and guinea pigs, I fed him this product, Critical Care, six times a day when his condition was the worst, gradually reducing the number as he started to improve and nibble on food. I also gave him Benebac in the Critical Care every other day, for the probiotics. And water by little syringes directly into his mouth three times a day. It has happened five times since last November, but once he recovers and I very gradually wean him off the meds (a lesson I learned the hard way), he's fine, cheerful, lively, and a voracious eater. He'd be dead now five times over if it weren't for the Critical Care. You mix a tablespoon of the powdered hay and vitamins in this supplement with warm water, put it into a feeding syringe, then shoot it into his mouth, where he eagerly swallows it. Not more than this at one feeding, but you have to keep food in his digestive tract at all times, as the GI stasis will otherwise quickly kill these animals. This is a great product for herbivorous animals that are sick or recovering from surgery, and they also make a similar product for carniverous animals, which I haven't tried yet.

When bunnies age it's hard for them to keep weight which leads to other ailments. I've started feeding this 2x daily to my buns when they age to around 9 years and keep them on it until we have to say goodbye. Thus far it's extended my bunnies' lives, one lived to be over 9 years old (amazing for a large breed), one of my bonded pairs lived to be over 12 years old, I currently have another bonded pair who are a lively 10 years old, and one single 9 year old. ALL are still very healthy besides the normal aging which comes naturally (arthritis and blindness). I mix it to a thick paste and make small bite-sized pieces on a paper towel and feed in the morning and night as a "treat". They love it, and it keeps them at a healthy weight as well as keeping away digestive, skin, and hair issues. I simply can't say enough about Critical Care, it has allowed me to have more loving years with my buns, which is simply immeasurable!

My problem started when I gave my Bunny a bath, and he started shedding his fur. Bunnies love to groom themselves, so my Bunny was licking his fur, which is what caused my problem. I have the luxery of staying at home to watch him all of the time, and I noticed he wasn't eating or pooping for 3 days straight. He kept stretching, and pushing his stomach to the ground bc he was very uncomfortable. I knew something was seriously wrong. His pee was dark, and smelly. Long story short I bought him this, and it worked!! It made him poop out the fur that was clogged in his stomach. You gotta make sure you brush your bunny if you notice they are shedding bc it could become a silent killer to your own. I gave this medice to him 3 times a day for a few days, in a syringe by squirting it in his mouth. My Bunny wasn't big on the taste, so you may have to hold yours down. I'm a VERY proud Bunny Dad. My Bunny is a rescue Bunny we have had since 2012. This medicine is also great if your Bunny has Sore Hocks, sores on the bottom of their feet caused from peeing on themselves, which can also kill a Bunny if left untreated. I'm so grateful for finding this, THANK YOU!!!!!

Have been using this for two weeks, for our very sick guinea pig. I first started her on the Sherwood Small Animal Rescue X, which she LOVED, but then switched to the Critical Care, simply because it is a much finer grind and goes through a syringe easily. Sometimes our little girl will eat 15 full 5ml syringes of it, at one sitting. It takes about 1/2 hour to do it, even though she "wolfs it down", but she just wants to keep eating. This, and the Sherwood SARx have put weight back on our five-year old guinea pig who was not eating or drinking, and still, cannot move on her own. We feed her every 2 1/2 to 3 hours - not in the middle of the night, though - and you would not know she was even sick if you could see her when I am feeding her. The particular guinea pig of ours looked very, very ill before Christmas last year, but recovered, and just started losing her mobility about a month ago. She would not heartily eat a slurry of regular guinea pig pellets, but she loves this stuff. I always make sure to give her a hearty drink of water before I start feeding her, as I don't want her to aspirate trying to drink after she has the Critical Care in her mouth. Usually, I mix it in a 5:1 ratio, so she can eat it easily. Any other ratio made it simply too difficult for her to eat. She is mainly eating with her back molars, anyway, as she has also lost one bottom tooth, so it makes it very difficult for her to eat anything unless we hand-feed her. Our main concern was getting some weight back on her, which has been accomplished with the Oxbow Critical Care and the Sherwood SARx. It smells like anise, and seems like our guinea pig loves that, and the taste! UPDATE - September 23, 2016: We cannot believe it, but our little girl is alive still. She is not in good shape, but her lower left tooth is almost completely grown back in. We are still giving her the Critical Care about 6 times a day. I am certain she would not be alive if it weren't for us feeding her this. We are also recently giving her a few finely shredded fresh Echinacea leaves a day, with the Critical Care. If you have coneflowers growing, they are technically Echinacea, and they seem to help her. I really am pleased with Oxbow's product!

I'm guessing if you're reading this you haven't randomly come across "Critical Care" so you already know what it is ... but just in case this is you are a random discoverer, this particular "Critical Care is a premium recovery food which can be given to herbivores with poor nutritional status resulting from illness or surgery." My vet recommended I buy this from Amazon. The guinea and I prefer the" fine grind" -- it's easier to feed through a dropper and doesn't have that black licorice smell which annoys me, I'm not so sure about smell for the pig, but she seems to prefer the consistency of the fine grind. She'd squeak for that, (for the critical care fine grind,) she's not quite so wild about this, but I cannot recommend strongly enough keeping a pack of this around for emergencies -- I depleted two local vets small supplies, and I paid the same thing to them for 1/4 the amount, plus a lot of driving time. We (vets and I) cannot figure out what caused her to suddenly stop eating any harder foods, and I was afraid we'd lose her in a matter of days -- that was two months ago. She's still lost a lot of weight, but I feed her as much as she will take on her own, and sometimes that involves 30 - 40 minutes by hand 3 x/day; I also keep it available in her cage all the time, as well as fresh fruits, spinach and other pellets in case she decides to eat them again. I've had some luck literally blending the critical care with spinach leaves, additional water, fresh berries and vitamin c drops, and some of her favorite guinea pig food, into a sort of smoothie; that particular mixture is what she prefers most. But again, our guinea pig, prefers the fine grind, but she will eat this which beats her not eating anything until I can get more of the other stuff -- and no I haven't tried the "flavors" yet, but will post when we do. I did see someone asked how long this would last -- the package we received last month (Oct 2014) has a "Best By: DEC 2015" stamped on the side.

This stuff is amazing and all our guinea pig would eat when he got sick. He got better fairly quickly with this and other care.

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Genial

A must for rabbits when they need to recover from illness or surgery. Every vets approves this product. Amazon always has fresh stocks so the expiry date is never a concern.

De calidad y muy económico

Absolute worst flavour to be honest. I usually buy the banana apple flavour. This flavour is so strong an is smell none of my bunnies like it and spits it out. Don’t buy this flavour