Petromalt?

Question

Is Petromalt (hairball remedy) safe to use on my 2 month old bunny? And how am I supposed to use it? Is she supposed to just l**k it off my finger or something? And...how often do I feed it to her?

THANK YOU.

greatly greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Rabbits shed their hair every three months. Every second shedding is light, followed three months later by a heavy shedding. This is the largest cause of problems and deaths in rabbits. You MUST brush and comb your rabbit to get the hair off of them when they start to shed. Rabbits groom themselves like cats and will ingest all of the loose hair on themselves and their rabbit companions. They must have a handful of Timothy Hay each and EVERY DAY (do not give the small compressed hay blocks as the fiber is too small and therefore not helpful) as well as plenty of exercise, in order to help the hair that they do ingest to pass through their system. The hay will not eliminate the need for brushing. Rabbits the ingest carpeting and other material may also suffer from the same symptoms.

The first sign of hairballs (or rabbits having an unusual amount of foreign substance in their stomach): Droppings will get smaller and will often be strung together or will have hairs or pieces of carpet fiber showing in the round droppings. As time goes on, the rabbits stomachs will get larger and appear to be quite fat, but when petting or rubbing its back, you’ll begin to feel the bones as it looses weight on its way to starving to death.

Another idea is to give your rabbit Petromalt or Laxatone (2 brand names of a cat hairball remedy) once a week when not shedding and then daily or twice daily when they shed. Some rabbits like the taste and will l**k it from the container. For other rabbits you can smear it on the top of their paw and they will (usually) l**k it off. If this gives your rabbit diarrhea, then don’t give it to him.

Treating the first signs of hairballs is controversial, please call if you ever have a problem, but the first thing to do is to get them to eat as much roughage as they will. Hay, tree branches, blackberry vines (stickers and all), etc.

From what Im reading yes they can take it but you might want to call a vet for the dosage reccomendation.