# rabbit attacked need tips recovery



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Hiya, I am concerned about my rabbit, I have two rabbits, who I got from a friend. They were recently attacked by what i believe was a fox. It was very late at night and I couldn't see what it was. 

As a result one is unharmed and got away while the other has a scratch on her neck. the vet said she was OK just very shocked but this rabbit is not necessarily tame. she does not like to be handled or petted. and she has been very placid and distant over the last 24 hrs.

She looks terrible though I am assured she is physically well but won't eat or move very often. As she is a fairly new rabbit and was not given much attention in her last home. I am not sure how to help her recover as picking her up and handling her will just stress her more.

Any tips would be more then welcome  
thanks x


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

update she is moving about, good sign  but is now sort of sticking her head in the waterbowl. and making bubbles which hilarious as well as weird. and then grooming herself so i asume shes washing her face?..


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

You have to get her eating as the most important thing, so give her anything and everything that she will eat  Try bran mash, veggie baby food, veggies, porridge(made with water)
If she hasn't eaten or pooped for 24hrs, then you really need to get some gut stimulate from the vet into her to keep her/get her out of gut status. Even if she hates to be handled, you still need to get food/water into her


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

This is exactly what happened to Bella and Buddy! It was so horrible and I'm sorry your buns had to go through it too.  I sadly lost Bella and Buddy was left with a jaw injury, and he still struggles a bit today. 

As everyone else said, make sure she is eating and pooing. Carrots are a good idea as Buddy could never resist those! If your bun has trouble eating them, cut them up into match-stick size pieces. Try mixing pellets with water to make some kind of soup and syringe feed it. She may hate this, but it is necessary. Keep her warm. Feed her grass rather than hay as it is softer.  xxx


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Thanks for the help guys, she wont eat the carrot but I did manage to force some rabbit pellets mashed with water down her as you advised, its just luck her antibiotics came with two syringes. She ain't happy about it but I'm glad she has something to get her stomach going. I am now concerned with how often she will need syringe feeding untill she eats.

Allso her rabbit friend Baz has groomed her so she looks much better, and a crazy fact is. I thought Baz was dead as I couldn't find her in the garden only my other rabbit Dorfy. So i assumed the fox had taken her. as it turned out she showed up this morning in the garden. She was absolutely fine! it was madness. So theres a silver lining 

Again cheers guys, chatting has made me realise How important it is to keep her fed. I'm sorry to hear about Bella, Buddyandfriends, But im glad to hear Buddy made a recovery  I will invest in some veggie baby food i think.


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

bazinga said:


> Thanks for the help guys, she wont eat the carrot but I did manage to force some rabbit pellets mashed with water down her as you advised, its just luck her antibiotics came with two syringes. She ain't happy about it but I'm glad she has something to get her stomach going. I am now concerned with how often she will need syringe feeding untill she eats.
> 
> Allso her rabbit friend Baz has groomed her so she looks much better, and a crazy fact is. I thought Baz was dead as I couldn't find her in the garden only my other rabbit Dorfy. So i assumed the fox had taken her. as it turned out she showed up this morning in the garden. She was absolutely fine! it was madness. So theres a silver lining
> 
> Again cheers guys, chatting has made me realise How important it is to keep her fed. I'm sorry to hear about Bella, Buddyandfriends, But im glad to hear Buddy made a recovery  I will invest in some veggie baby food i think.


Did they give her some protexin to go with the antibiotics?
Ella's kitchen pear and apple goes down well if I have a poorly bun, do you have any apple sauce in the house? If so, mush some pellets and mix some with it, might tempt her.
Is she pooping? Until you know she is eating small ammounts, you will need to syringe feed her every couple/few hours really. 
Have you got any weetabix or ryvita? Other faves with my lot, or pear or apple? You could make some bunny biscuits, ever so quick and easy and never refused yet here lol


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Hey im sorry about the late reply things have been a little hectic. No I wasn't given Protexin, Baytril is the antibiotics that I have. I have tried baby food with apple sauce and she actually likes that but wont eat it on her own as far as i can tell. 

Although it may be that she doesn't trust me as i keeping holding her down and feeding her. I am worried it may be her jaw. as she is making chewing noises and can eat soft food but wont touch hard veg. :/ but I'm sure the vet would have told me.


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

She may be in pain. That's why Buddy didn't eat. Just keep feeding, she needs her gut to keep going. It's a really horrible thing to have to go through.


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

I think she was eating cucumber when i wasn't looking!  yeah she could be as the vet did give her pain medication. Again, I am out of my rabbits circle of trust it seems so I dont think she'll eat when I am looking.

At one piont she would eat the baby food off of a spoon.  She looks much better and I have a vets apiontment tomorow so I will ask the vet when I see her. Can I ask how long did Buddy take to fully recover?


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

Please ask the vets to properly check her jaw/teeth area because that sounds like she is grinding her teeth and thats whats bugging her. I would also ask them for some Protexin(like yacult for us!) so that it gets her guts back how they should be. 
After she is well, I would consider changing vets, and looking for one who is more rabbit savvy, as this one doesnt seem to be if he didnt give you Metacam to take home or protexin  
If she is in pain, she won't eat, so it may well be that aswell. If rabbits don't eat, their stomachs stop working(unlike ours that keep going anyway) and that is called gut stasis, this can be life threatening for bunnies and it takes alot of care to get them back to normal againn. The signs are not eating or pooping and being lethargic and hunched up alot of the time.. If she is still pooping, then she isn't it gut stasis, yet.


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

bazinga said:


> Can I ask how long did Buddy take to fully recover?


I'm afraid whatever attacked him left him with a permanent jaw complication. :/ His wounds took about 3 weeks to heal. However, it was his teeth that was the problem. His teeth were pushed out of alinement, so he had loads of dentals until they decided to remove all of his incisors. I'll currently trying my best to get him back to a normal bunny diet again! I don't know if he will ever be the same again, sadly. :/

I don't know about your bun, if something is wrong with her jaw alinement, there's bound to be loads of dental problems involved sadly. If not, she could recover reasonably quickly. 

Oh! And make sure you fox-proof the hutch/run really well in future to prevent it happening again.


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

hazyreality said:


> Please ask the vets to properly check her jaw/teeth area because that sounds like she is grinding her teeth and thats whats bugging her. I would also ask them for some Protexin(like yacult for us!) so that it gets her guts back how they should be.
> After she is well, I would consider changing vets, and looking for one who is more rabbit savvy, as this one doesnt seem to be if he didnt give you Metacam to take home or protexin
> If she is in pain, she won't eat, so it may well be that aswell. If rabbits don't eat, their stomachs stop working(unlike ours that keep going anyway) and that is called gut stasis, this can be life threatening for bunnies and it takes alot of care to get them back to normal againn. The signs are not eating or pooping and being lethargic and hunched up alot of the time.. If she is still pooping, then she isn't it gut stasis, yet.


cheers, I think I will change the vet or hopefuly get a differant one tomorow.I will ask them for protexin. I think she may have poo'd but having another rabbit in the hutch makes it much harder to tell :/ Im pretty sure it was hers as It wasnt solid poo, and considering Dorfy's diet for the last 24 hrs im sure Hers wouldnt be solid. the other rabbit, Baz, I believe would have solid poo as she seems perfectly fine.

she has eaten every hour to 2 and a half hours. and I have fed her vegetable baby food with a little apple sauce for three months and up. she isnt moving around much tbh and its quite worrying, though she can kick and run. She has baby food around her mouth and fur so I'm hoping leaving a bowl of water in there will help her wash it off. thankyou again for your help guys I'm not sure what I would have done without it.


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Buddyandfriends said:


> I'm afraid whatever attacked him left him with a permanent jaw complication. :/ His wounds took about 3 weeks to heal. However, it was his teeth that was the problem. His teeth were pushed out of alinement, so he had loads of dentals until they decided to remove all of his incisors. I'll currently trying my best to get him back to a normal bunny diet again! I don't know if he will ever be the same again, sadly. :/
> 
> I don't know about your bun, if something is wrong with her jaw alinement, there's bound to be loads of dental problems involved sadly. If not, she could recover reasonably quickly.
> 
> Oh! And make sure you fox-proof the hutch/run really well in future to prevent it happening again.


I'm sorry to hear that dude, but I'm glad hes doing better, he sounds like a proper fighter. I'm not sure if it is her jaw. I don't know tbh I asumed at first it was becuase Baz had died. But as she is ok I dont know. Dorfy (the rabbit) is cleaning herself and her eyes have cleared up.

She is alot less lethargic than she was. i am hoping alot of it is shock as she isnt a dominant rabbit and may be more sensitive than Baz. Thankyou for your help all this should speed up her recovery 

(btw i know their names are weird but Baz is short for Bazinga and Dorfy is short for Ganondorf (I didnt name her that).


----------



## cats galore (Jul 17, 2012)

pineapple juice is another good thing to give them. simply syringe feed it - they usually lap it up as you try to feed it but it gets the gut going again. it's worth a try.


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Hey thought I'd give you guys a quick update. The vet had a good look at her and I told her everything about not eating. She felt Dorfy's jaw and she did find an injury, she said it was aligned but there was some movement so I'm guessing a fracture. 

She gave me some recovery powder food so Dorfy gets fiber and some pain relief drops and im combining it with baby food. She is eating grass but im not sure if shes finding it a chalange or not. 

But she is looking much better and bright eye'd. The cut on her face did reopen though so im keeping any eye out and still feeding her the sachets. I will find out on monday as Iv got another check up booked then


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

cats galore said:


> pineapple juice is another good thing to give them. simply syringe feed it - they usually lap it up as you try to feed it but it gets the gut going again. it's worth a try.


I will give it a go, anything that she is more happy about eating (as the sachetes arent going down well) will be very welcome


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

It sounded like she did  poor baby.
Be careful how much pineapple juice you give her if she isnt used to it because it could push her tummy the other way 
Yeh, just keep getting as much recovery food into her as you can, its great that she is eating grass as that will add to the fibre she is getting. 
Have you tried her with soft foods (porridge, bran mash, mushed carrot etc)
Can you tell if she is pooping?


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

I think she is pooping as she favours the left corner of the hutch and theres a bunch of poop in there. She ate and liked Hp pear and apple porridge baby food but the frustrating thing is she wont eat it from a plate. 

Though she is better there's a hitch. shes fighting me more than she did before on feeding her. So shes back to herself but it means I can't get as much food in her, well its more of a battle between us. 

I am hoping the vet will give her the all clear today but I don't know if she will. I will post when I get back anyhow.


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

Just to warn you, made up porridge will be with milk. Not suitable for bunnys tums. You need to make some porridge with oats and water  Its good she is pooping. Is she eating anything by herself? As soon as she starts to nibble on food, you can reduce the force feeding, especially as she is obviously feeling better with the stroppyness 
I would keep her on pain meds and protexin for a few more days yet aswell


----------



## Summersky (Aug 11, 2012)

It's sounds like you are really working hard with her, so well done. I hope she is soon eating for herself. When we syringe feed, we use pure fruit baby food - mostly Hipp "apple, strawberry and banana", and Ella's Kitchen "apples, apples,apples". Buns definitely have their own preferences though- one of ours far preferred the one with parsnip in over all others, and he would seek out the syringe - but refuse to eat, if it was a different flavour! Just like us I guess. 

We only use the pure fruit ones, to avoid nasties like milk. 

Does she have any favourite fresh foods that you might be able to tempt her with, cut up smaller - best time probably after a dose of painkillers has had time to take effect? Ours always get more picky when they have a problem, and if she has a jaw injury, eating is going to be less appealing, but she might persist for something she really loves!

Good luck


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

Hey guys im very sorry about the late reply, I have had a few computer problems of late. Im really sorry to tell you this guys but Ganondorf has died .

She was healing ok and eating but doveloped an absyss on her face were she was cut and it spread across her neck. When I got her to the vet I was told that although antibiotics she would get better they would never go away, if the absyss had been on her back it could have been removed but it was very deep into her face. So she was put to sleep.









This is the only picture I have of her as I didn't have her for very long. Thankyou you everyone for your help, I know that your advise helped me keep her going for as long as I could. xx


----------



## hazyreality (Jan 11, 2009)

So sorry you lost Dorfy  
She faught well with those injuries, it shows how much care you put into keeping her spirit going. 
R.I.P little one x


----------



## bazinga (Aug 8, 2012)

thankyou so much sweetheart. At least she was put to sleep happy. Not in tonnes of pain.xx


----------



## Summersky (Aug 11, 2012)

So sad. You did the best you could An abcess is a horrible thing. She was very pretty and clearly a fighter.


----------



## Louiseandfriends (Aug 21, 2011)

I'm so sorry! :'( Have a safe trip to the bridge. xx


----------



## mike888 (Nov 2, 2012)

it will take time to recover, but dont worry about it. As the time spend everything will be find.


----------

