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Bonding is so fragile

Sky-O

Wise Old Thumper
Well, my quad is, as of two hours ago, apparently no more.

I had three females (The Dopeys and Candyfloss) and a male (Cloud), and they have been together for exactly 6 weeks with no problems, just a couple of teething issues.

This morning I was lucky enough to be around, and they started to spar. Not fully fight, just ricohet off each other, and involved enough to ignore me. I figured Cloud had wound himself up (before he was neutered he was very vicious with me but has been ace with the buns), so I calmed them down, put them back together, stayed with them, then carried on what I was doing, which was, thankfully, just in that area.

Next thing I know Candyfloss and Dopey 2 are sparring, only Dopey 2 seemed paralysed on one side and couldn't stand up.

Obviously hoike out both rabbits. Take Dopey 2 inside, dry her (because they all got soaked), bring the other Dopey in to give her comfort. I kept holding Dopey 2 and talked calmly to her and kept drying her. Her head came back up and she was sitting up. I then put her next to Dopey 1 and they sat together and started to walk around. I gave them both some basil and they wolfed it down.

So now I have Candyfloss and Cloud as a pair and the Dopeys as a pair, and my quad is, at least in the short term, no more.

I have no idea whether they were sparring (there are two bonding bunnies on my lawn so they may smell different and have triggered the others) and that causes the paralysis/seizure, or whether Candyfloss senses Dopey 2 was not well and took her on because she knew she was not well.

I'm actually very gutted, but haven't given up hope of them being back together. Right now we are going to leave them all the settle. Had Dopey 2 stayed half paralysed she would have gone straight to the vet but right now she is ok, and I don't want to risk stressing her more, so she will get checked out next week. Then, once we know things are ok, and things have settled down, I start all over again.

Bonding is so fragile, just thank goodness I was there, otherwise who knows what would have happened.
 
I agree with you. We had two happy pairs who started to fight between each other when we tried to bond them all together. In the end I decided that the buns had more to lose if things went wrong than they would gain if it worked.

Poor Crunch took a while to get over the whole experience and I couldn't help feeling I had tried to bond them more for me than for them :oops:. Thankfully they're happy in their separate pairs again.
 
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