• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

    You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.

    We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.

    Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.

Bunny with broken ears

N

NightBlade

New Kit
Hi, my name is Mark, I'm a happy owner of a fatty bunny who just became a dad a month ago, the doe gave birth to a healthy litter of 6, but recently me and my girlfriend believe the doe somehow beat one of the bunnies 'till both his ears were broken.
It's truly a heartbreaking sight. Me and my girlfriend couldn't stop crying when she arrived at my house with the little guy (Leo) inside a box. Now I must take care of him. I'll take him to the vet tomorrow (sadly there are no rabbit specialists). I read that this sort of thing never heals, and that he will be in a way impaired for the rest of his life, but we love him and will do our best to take care of him. We've started setting up his space and keep him away from his dad (he lives here too). The bunny seems pretty active and has a little trouble eating and drinking, but nothing major.
Anyways, what can I do besides taking good care of him? I need advice on how to make his life easier. Should I expect the worst? Any help is greatly appreciated. :(
P.S.: if I feel this awful when stuff happens to my bunnies, I cannot even begin to imagine how a parent feels when something happens to his children.
 
Last edited:
Hiya,

Sometimes a mum rabbit will over clean babies and accidentally damage the ears. However this is just the ear flaps so while it looks odd it won't cause the baby any problems. The damage usually heals up fine without any human intervention too.

How old is the baby? It may still need to be with its mum.

Tam
 
NightBlade said:
Hi, my name is Mark, I'm a happy owner of a fatty bunny who just became a dad a month ago, the doe gave birth to a healthy litter of 6, but recently me and my girlfriend believe the doe somehow beat one of the bunnies 'till both his ears were broken.
It's truly a heartbreaking sight. Me and my girlfriend couldn't stop crying when she arrived at my house with the little guy (Leo) inside a box. Now I must take care of him. I'll take him to the vet tomorrow (sadly there are no rabbit specialists). I read that this sort of thing never heals, and that he will be in a way impaired for the rest of his life, but we love him and will do our best to take care of him. We've started setting up his space and keep him away from his dad (he lives here too). The bunny seems pretty active and has a little trouble eating and drinking, but nothing major.
Anyways, what can I do besides taking good care of him? I need advice on how to make his life easier. Should I expect the worst? Any help is greatly appreciated. :(
P.S.: if I feel this awful when stuff happens to my bunnies, I cannot even begin to imagine how a parent feels when something happens to his children.
Click to expand...

Hi Mark

Sorry to hear about your Leo (I have a boy called Leo, but he's human:) ). I can't give any advice, but I hope he is going to be ok.

Carmen
 
Really? So then his ears might be upright and fine again? Right now they looks like a lop's ears... If this is true, then it's great news. :D
Oh and the baby's a month and a week old.
 
Well are there any lops in the family?
Lop rabbits mostly have ears up as babies but they fall down at 6-8 weeks, occasionally even sooner.
Get it back to its mom, damaged ear or not he still needs her.
I've seen rabbits with their ears bitten of that still do just fine. :lol:
 
Do you mean they have parts missing or they are just hanging down like a lop? If it's the first his hearing will be fine but the missing bit won't grow back.

If it's the second he's probably just a lop. Lop rabbits are born with ears that look normal and they lop later. Turning into a lop at 5 weeks wouldn't be about right :)

Unless the mum has caused cuts to the skin/ears in the last few days then I would put the baby back in with mum and the litter - he really shouldn't leave home until 8 weeks - he'll do much better living with them :)

Tam
 
There are no cuts in the ears or the head, and there are no lop rabbits in the family :( They're not missing pieces, they're hanging down like someone pulled them too hard (I know there was no human hand at this tho).
 
What you have is lop eared rabbits - perfectly normal :D They lop gradually as they get older so you might find more of the family develops the same droopy ears. It's also more common for them to drop in hot temperatures as they use their ears to cool down. The pump more blood through the ears to cool it making the ears heavier and more likely to droop quickly.

Even if the parents aren't lops they could still be carrying the genetics for it. Sometimes if they are crosses you'll get helicopter eared rabbits, where the ears stick out sideways rather than drooping down all the way.

Definitely pop him back in with the litter. It's best for their development if they are with mum and siblings for another couple of weeks :)

The only other small possibility would be a ear infection but that would be quite uncommon in a young baby and if it was serious enough to effect the ear carriage you'd probably see other symptoms. Just double check the inside of the isn't mucky.

Tam
 
That being said they can carry the genes rather far.
I've known a breeder who was once breeding for plush lops but gave it up...then suddenly one of her rexes delivered lop-eared bunnies! :lol: (One was even rex-furred! But I don't know how far back in the pedigree the lop was in this case) Also known of other cases were two normal-eared rabbits got lop-eared kits.
I've even got an adult lop-nethie cross who've I've spotted with lop ears once or twice.
 
Maybe if we had a piccy we would know for certain? Tamsin and Zakura are right though, they might just be lops :D Dont worry
 
I wish he was truly a lop, but the fact that both his parents were pretty much saved from being bred for consumption (meaning no lops in the family whatsoever) and the mother's increased aggressiveness towards his litter (and thus in the tuffles capable of pressing one of the bunny's ears too hard) hints otherwise.
My cam ran out of batteries and I'm looking for the charger thingie :( But I'll get a good 4 pics before today's end so you can have a look. Vet tomorrow to make certain the baby's joints (and everything else too) are fine.
 
The mum would not have been able to make the ears lop without causing obvious physical injury. Simply 'pressing the ears hard' won't make them lop.

I've seen Newzealand whites (common meat rabbits) etc. with partially lopped ears - its just a result of breeding. Animals bred for consumption aren't bred to meet standards on ear carriage so traits (like lopping) that would be considered faults in show stock aren't bred out.

Tam
 
I dont know what the genetics for rabbit lop ear is but if it is a recessive trait then maybe both parents carried it and there is a change that one of the baby bunnies would have the lop-ness.

So whilst it might be rare to come out - it could be a healthy baby bunny and not a battered one.
 
So he went from this:

To this, overnight:



He moves around a lot, couldn't take a better picture :( If you need details on something else let me know, I'll take another shots :)
 
It's hard to tell from the first photo what his ear carriage was like before hand.

His ears are very long in comparison to him. Usually the ears would reach about the tip of the nose if pulled forward. To me that would sugest either some lop genes (which have longer ears) or genes for a large rabbit (with big ears) and he's inherited ears that are too long to support themselves.

What weight is his mum. She looks like a dutch (mix?) I was expecting something more like a newzealand (large white rabbit) as you said they'd been breed for meet.
 
they can lop that fast if the ears are that big at the time....honest.....

lops in uppy eared buns litters occurr just as uppy eared buns occur in lop litters..its what breeders always have to "breed out"..but its not always possible even generations down...like the maneless lionheads.

your bun looks like the little fella i saw in pet store yesterday.i mean the sudden drop in ear carriage and length of ears.
young liops have exceedingly long ears! a few lop genes in the pool and bang there you go.
 
What a cute bunny! To me it looks as if s/he is still supporting the ears, as a normal lop would - as in they are pointing forward a bit in the bottom picture. I'm sure if they were broken, they would be a bit more "hangy".
 
I dont know much about ears but i do know that recessive genes can hide away for Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaages and suddenly reveal themselves. :) hope the little fellow is ok, sounds like he means a lot to you :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

J
Rabbit with a Broken Heel and Sore Ears
Replies
1
Views
583
InspectorMorse
InspectorMorse
G
Bunny Not eating 3 weeks HELP
Replies
4
Views
105
a reader of books
a reader of books
L
New bunny owner with questions
Replies
5
Views
228
Shimmer
S
Back
Top