Appetite Restore with Electrolytes and B-Vitamins by Sherwood Pet Health

I have had to use this multiple times over the years -- for #2 megacolon bunnies with digestive-related issues and now with a bunny with an unknown viral infection which led to a failure to eat. This electrolyte powder helps to keep them hydrated and it tastes good, too. I syringe feed the diluted powder separately or use it in his emergency assist-feed. I highly recommend the Sherwood brand products. I have used multiple products over the years and find their products, this one included, to be high quality without any poor quality ingredients. Their website also includes lots of educational info for bunny owners. I don't know of any other oral electrolyte powder specifically for bunnies. I have read recommendations to feed human Pedialyte, but seriously dislike the ingredients and wouldn't feed that to any humans, either. I keep this on-hand for any stasis emergencies. It's a must-have for the bunny first aid kit.

This is like small animal Gatorade or Pedialite. It gives the animal a boost of energy, much needed electrolytes and fluid, and encourages their natural instinct to want to eat. This is not an emergency feed on its own. It must be followed up with a high nutrition feed appropriate for the pet, such as Sherwood Recovery Food or Critical Care. That said, I got this to give to my very senior 2-pound bunny who just won't eat pellets or hay anymore on his own. He seems to like the Sherwood Recovery Food fed off a small wooden spoon, and since I've added the Appetite Restore, he doesn't fight taking that first bite as much. After the first bite, he is willing to take more emergency food offered on a small wooden spoon. At first, I was feeding Appetite Restore mixed with water by syringe (as directed), but now I've taken to just mixing it into a small amount of the Recovery Food at each feeding (ok by my vet). It affords him the additional included nutrients and helps keep his appetite primed. He also likes the taste, so it helps get a bit more of the Recovery Food into him. This is an excellent product (like any Sherwood Pet Health product) to supplement an emergency feeding routine, but it is not an emergency food on its own.

I got this and the recovery packet to keep just in case something happens. I have 3 rabbits that I help daughter take care of. (She’s young). Well, I got sick and left care up to my daughter. She does a fantastic job except she doesn’t know how to look for potential issues. Our rabbit Shadow apparently stopped eating as much of his pellets and he was nibbling on hay. Very unlike him as rabbits don’t suffer from lack of appetite unless something wrong. Well, once I felt better I got back to my regular routine to find this guy on the floor, legs spread out and he was trembling. I looked around and his poop became really small and I knew he had GI Stasis. He looked awful. I always have supplies on hand for emergencies for any of my pets. I grabbed a bag of this product and even in the middle of this poor guy grinding his teeth (that’s when you know the pain is bad!) he was receptive to drinking it. His head perked up and drank it all. (I also keep pineapple juice on hand for these things). He went from limp to trying hard to stand up after a few doses of it. Literally a miracle. I thought he was DEAD. I kept him warm all night and prepared for go to the vet with him. A total of 5 hours went by and I went to check on him and he was sitting up eating hay. Just.like.that. He is doing so well I can’t even tell you what an amazing product this is. We just started the second step in this process and now have syringes filled with the recovery product. I had to add a little of this product to it so he was receptive to taking the 2nd step, but he’s doing amazing. Keep this in your arsenal for your rabbits. You will not regret it. I will always keep this on hand. I’ve had rabbits for over 25 years and have never seen GI Stasis before, but as a rabbit owner you hopefully have done your research to know the signs and that it’s deadly. I fed them Sherwood Pellets their whole life but recently switched to another brand because of cost. I will go back to the pellets because I don’t want to experience this ever again. (If you look at the ingredients the first one is glucose which gives them a boost to fight and stay alert) it’s really brilliant.

Just as it claims, it instantly restored our guinea pig's appetite! He had been declining in health (stopped eating, wobbling gait, diarrhea) and gone to the vet to try to figure out what was wrong. Critical Care didn't help (he also hated the licorice taste) and his antibiotics didn't seem to help. We knew that if he didn't eat and keep his digestive system moving, he would die. We finally tried the appetite restore out of desperation and he took it thru the syringe much more readily than the CC (he still didn't love it, but it was much less of a struggle). Within minutes (seconds!?) after finishing each syringe, he would eagerly hunt around for food and gobble it up. After several days of giving him this a few times a day, he returned to normal eating/digestion and now, months later, is doing awesome! We thought he was on his last legs, but he has been given a new lease on life! We will use this anytime we see him start to decline (lose appetite) in the future.

works ok