Every once in a while, you will, for one reason or another need to give your rabbit antibiotics.
Before you do you should know three things:
How antibiotics work
Antibiotics work by hunting down bacteria. When they find it, the antibiotic attaches its self to the cell wall of the bacteria. When the bacteria try to divide to multiply, the antibiotic jumps in and stops it from closing the cell walls again. Thus stopping it from multiplying.
Rabbits digestive system depends on bacteria.
Normally functioning rabbit stomachs have a mixture of bacteria that are absolutely essential for proper digestion. While the antibiotic is busy killing the bacteria that is causing infection it is also killing the good bacteria rabbits stomachs need to function properly.
You can replenish stomach bacteria.
There are several products available that are designed specifically to replenish gut bacteria in small mammals. The one that comes to mind first is a product called "Bene-Bac. This is great stuff. Not expensive, and easy to administer...I wouldn't be without it. Great for weaning babies too. This and other similar products should be readily available at most larger pet and feed stores, if not they can be mail ordered through pet supply catalogs like Bass and Morton Jones.
An alternative to commercial products is to feed live culture yogurt or Acidophilus found at health food stores. It has basically the same active ingredients as the commercial stuff, though not as effective because of the high sugar content.
