Hi i have only just joined this forum and i need some advice. I bought a netherland dwarf last week, an she is onlt 9 weeks old. On Wednesday, she jumped out of my dads arms from quite a height and ever since she has been limping and tucking her paw underneath herself and cant put no pressure on it at all. i took her the vet today, and she said that there is no obvious signs of any breakages but she may have broken one of her tiny bones, and if she has they cant do anything for her anyway. They gave me pain killers for her, but im concerned because she is so young and small and her leg must be giving her alot of pain. she lives in a hutch in the backgarden, but i havent been letting her out because of her injury. Has this ever happened to any of your rabbits at any time, if so any help would be useful. Thanks
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Newby advice needed
- Thread starter Tasha.
- Start date
crazy daisy
Warren Scout
Hiya ive not had this happen to any of my bunnies im afraid. I may be wrong in saying this but surely the vet would be able to put a splint or bandage around her leg until it heals especially if she cannot put any weight on it. Like i said i may be wrong if i am hopefully someone will correct me. If not i would go back to your vet, are they rabbit savvy? Good luck anyway and welcome!!:wave:
they have give me pain killers for her, but they said they cant feel any obvious breakages. They said to me to bring her back in a week if she seems to be getting better, but if not to take her back on monday. They said that it will cost me £70 for an x-ray but they cant do nothing for her if it is broke so i dont see the point in paying £70 just for them to say to me it is broke and not do anything for her. I am realli worried about her do you think she will be ok and her leg will heal? also do you think i am better keepng her in her huntch until she gets better or letting her out for abit.
What they can do for her depends entirely on the break itself... to leave it is actually ridiculous if it's something that can be treated, otherwise the leg is possibly going to set incorrectly and potentially cause bun a whole set of other problems.
There are some buns on here that have had their leg pinned, i'm pretty sure Sooz had one of her buns legs pinned at a very very young age, if you pm her i'm sure she can give you some good advice. Amputation is a possibility if the leg causes problems.
None of the treatment options are cheap unfortunately
Leg breakages are so common in young rabbits because people pick them up and don't realise how easy it is to drop them or have them jump out of your arms. Personally I would have her indoors as it's quite cold outside and it will make it easy to monitor her. I wouldn't allow her exercise at this point in time as she really needs to rest her leg.
It's so important that you have a vet who is very rabbit savvy and has actually taken it upon themselves to further educate themselves where rabbit medicine is concerned. Unfortunately, vets aren't given much training on treating rabbits in vet school and it is up to them when they qualify whether or not they take an interest in bunnies or not.
If you let us know where you live i'm sure someone can recommend a good vet for you
Thanks for all you help. The vet recommended getting her leg pinned if it is broke, but she said that there wasnt no obvious signs. I live in liverpool (mersyside). The vets i visited didnt seem to do very much for me. when i brought her in the vet said, oh she cant put no pressure on her leg thats what the problem is. well we didnt need her to tell us that, thats the whole reason we brought her haha. I really want to help her but there is not much i can do at the moment. I dont really think the vet really knew to be honest.
Perhaps the vet was wanting to see if it would improve on pain relief over the weekend as if she couldn't feel any obvious breakages she may not have wanted to anaesthetise her at such a young age unless absolutely necessary...
I have x posted this thread so that more people will see it! I'm sure someone will know of a rabbit savvy vet in Liverpool!
Sometimes when an animal goes lame and there is no obvios sign of a fracture, it is sometimes best to provide anti-inflammatory pain relief as the pain may just be soft tissue i.e. a pulled muscle, tendon, ligament.
If there is no obvious sign of a breakage then, in my opinion, providing pain relief and waiting to see what happens would be the preferred treatment. There is no point rushing in to risk an anaesthetic (esp in such a young bun) if all it needs is a few days rest.
The vet you saw was right - if your rabbit has broken a tiny bone in her toe, for example, then there would be nothing to do but leave it to heal itself. I work in an orthopaedic vets and in such a small animal it would be impossible to pin a toe and even bandaging/splinting can cause more harm than good. A decent supportive dressing would actually weigh quite a lot, so for a baby rabbit to carry around, can end up causing injury and not actually llowing the broken bone to heal. Plus, if the toe is not put into a perfect position, you could end up with the fracture heling in the 'wrong place' anyway. I realise that the bone could heal awkwardly without a dressing, but if its a toe, it is unlikely to cause any major problems.
If the actual leg bone is broken and required pinning, this would have been quite obvious to the vet. However, some fractures can go undetected so i would think that if your bunny is showing no signs of improvement by monday, take him back and they would need to xray in case he does have a break.
If they were to find a break, the treatment would depend on the type of fracture, the bone affected and where in the bone the fracture is. Some breaks are best left to heal, some are bandaged whilst others are pinned or plated. If your not happy with the level of knowledge at your vets, maybe go for a second opinion. If you were to have xrays etc at your vets and then you weren't happy with the treatment they want to provide, you could always take the xrays to another vets for a second opinion.
Hope that helps.
ps - as mentioned previously, repairing a fractured leg is costly. My vets is in surrey and we would charge around £800 - £1000 or so for a fracture repair!! Liverpool should be cheaper than that though.
If there is no obvious sign of a breakage then, in my opinion, providing pain relief and waiting to see what happens would be the preferred treatment. There is no point rushing in to risk an anaesthetic (esp in such a young bun) if all it needs is a few days rest.
The vet you saw was right - if your rabbit has broken a tiny bone in her toe, for example, then there would be nothing to do but leave it to heal itself. I work in an orthopaedic vets and in such a small animal it would be impossible to pin a toe and even bandaging/splinting can cause more harm than good. A decent supportive dressing would actually weigh quite a lot, so for a baby rabbit to carry around, can end up causing injury and not actually llowing the broken bone to heal. Plus, if the toe is not put into a perfect position, you could end up with the fracture heling in the 'wrong place' anyway. I realise that the bone could heal awkwardly without a dressing, but if its a toe, it is unlikely to cause any major problems.
If the actual leg bone is broken and required pinning, this would have been quite obvious to the vet. However, some fractures can go undetected so i would think that if your bunny is showing no signs of improvement by monday, take him back and they would need to xray in case he does have a break.
If they were to find a break, the treatment would depend on the type of fracture, the bone affected and where in the bone the fracture is. Some breaks are best left to heal, some are bandaged whilst others are pinned or plated. If your not happy with the level of knowledge at your vets, maybe go for a second opinion. If you were to have xrays etc at your vets and then you weren't happy with the treatment they want to provide, you could always take the xrays to another vets for a second opinion.
Hope that helps.
ps - as mentioned previously, repairing a fractured leg is costly. My vets is in surrey and we would charge around £800 - £1000 or so for a fracture repair!! Liverpool should be cheaper than that though.
I have had to deal with broken legs twice since i have kept bunnies (too many years to remember) The first one was Midnight who was only 9 weeks old and a french lop girl who i had just got from a breedershe fell from the top of a hutch were i had let her run around for exerciseshe was very quiet when i picked her up after the fall and i "knew" something was wrongX-rays proved that she had a bably broken leg high up near the topshe had her leg pinned and had to be kept in confinement for several weeks for the leg to heal then she went back for more surgery to remove the pins she had difficulty hopping about but was mobile for two years after this accidentshe didn't recover so well as she had not been fed properly and was calcium deficient:shock:
The second bun (Bramble) was only 5 weeks old and a large bag of bedding fell on himhis tiny little leg was almost hanging offwhich led to another mad dash to my vets where he was operated oni got him back the next day with a huge bandage on his little leg which they had threaded wire through the bone for supportwhen the bandage was removed you wouldn't have known that he had been injuredno limping just a perfect straight leg
she fell from the top of a hutch were i had let her run around for exerciseshe was very quiet when i picked her up after the fall and i "knew" something was wrongX-rays proved that she had a bably broken leg high up near the topshe had her leg pinned and had to be kept in confinement for several weeks for the leg to heal then she went back for more surgery to remove the pins she had difficulty hopping about but was mobile for two years after this accidentshe didn't recover so well as she had not been fed properly and was calcium deficient:shock:The second bun (Bramble) was only 5 weeks old and a large bag of bedding fell on him
his tiny little leg was almost hanging offwhich led to another mad dash to my vets where he was operated oni got him back the next day with a huge bandage on his little leg which they had threaded wire through the bone for supportwhen the bandage was removed you wouldn't have known that he had been injuredno limping just a perfect straight leg
Shel
Warren Scout
I have had a rabbit with a broken leg, and she has made a full recovery. My bun is a a medium bun and the bones in her front legs are very thin, and rabbit bones are quite brittle - making it difficult to screw the pin in. This was an option for Phoebe but we decided to try the splint first to see if this worked...it was very succesful but does depend on the bunny. My rabbit was quite happy to have her leg in splint, although with a bit of nibbling, we had to get her bandage changed every week. We had to make sure she did not jump or get her foot wet so confined her to her shed and run.
I think start by having the xray so you know what the problem is. Then make a decision from there. In the meantime pain relief is a must.
Also herbally you could try feeding comfrey, nettles and green oat hay as these help heal broken bones.
Also if it is broken, see if you have a vet in your area who is specialist is 'bone surgery' - I was lucky to find one...and he was brilliant.
I think start by having the xray so you know what the problem is. Then make a decision from there. In the meantime pain relief is a must.
Also herbally you could try feeding comfrey, nettles and green oat hay as these help heal broken bones.
Also if it is broken, see if you have a vet in your area who is specialist is 'bone surgery' - I was lucky to find one...and he was brilliant.
If there was no obvious deformity for the vet to feel, then any fracture is unlikely to be displaced, however you need to know what is going on, so an xray is pretty important.
My rabbit Charlie dislocated his toe this week (xray showed no fracture) - emergency vet put on a splint, but said it will get pulled off (which he did) and that it is probably better to not have a splint on as it causes other problems. These injuries are often self limiting - as long as bunny is comfortable, he will use it as able and will cut back on activity as needed. Research has shown things usually heal better with some restricted activity to apply a little stress to the healing tissues. Main thing is regular pain relief to prevent gut stasis
My vet was very glad he had pulled the splint off and after a few days of cage rest and pain relief, Charlie is doing really well. He explained that charlie will adapt to his injury (the dislocation will not stay reduced due to ligament damage) and will be fine in a few weeks. I'm sure things will be the same for your little one, but you do need the full picture to make these decisions.
Good luck, Sarah
My rabbit Charlie dislocated his toe this week (xray showed no fracture) - emergency vet put on a splint, but said it will get pulled off (which he did) and that it is probably better to not have a splint on as it causes other problems. These injuries are often self limiting - as long as bunny is comfortable, he will use it as able and will cut back on activity as needed. Research has shown things usually heal better with some restricted activity to apply a little stress to the healing tissues. Main thing is regular pain relief to prevent gut stasis
My vet was very glad he had pulled the splint off and after a few days of cage rest and pain relief, Charlie is doing really well. He explained that charlie will adapt to his injury (the dislocation will not stay reduced due to ligament damage) and will be fine in a few weeks. I'm sure things will be the same for your little one, but you do need the full picture to make these decisions.
Good luck, Sarah
bunny babe
Wise Old Thumper
No advice but wanted to say I hope your bunny recovers well. I have sent you PM re vets.
