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Update on Stray Bunny :) *pic heavy*

snaisby

Warren Scout
Hi there, as some of you may remember i recently found a stray pet rabbit and as his owners havent come forward i have adopted him. thought people might like an update on him! sorry for the epic length of this :lol:

Bunny is now called Otto, just because i thought it suited him :) he is incredibly friendly, wayyy more confident now than he was at first and will happily hop over and lie down whilst you scritch him :love: he hasnt once shown any aggression, even when i caught him initially. unfortunately the offer of a hutch i had fell through :( so at the moment he is living in the wendy house in our garden :lol: which is about 4 x 3 feet with a shelf to bounce up on to. he loves to sit on and watch the world go by! he's out in his run every day from about 8am til 5pm too.

here is his house (excuse the awful paint job, my sister decided to paint it with her left over bedroom wall paint when she was 12 :|)
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chilling out in his run which i made out of spare timber, the back of a wardrobe and wire mesh (i have the scars to prove it!!)
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he loves his unlimited farm hay and his SS pellets, he gets a handful every night. i decided to try putting a few in the rat treat ball i have (which was completely ignored by the rats :roll:) and he loved pushing it around to get them out, so now he gets all his pellets in it :)

today was a big day for Otto, as he went in for his castration! everything went without a hitch, and he doesnt even seem to have noticed anythings missing :lol: he had a VHD too so he's all jabbed up to date now. he is in his hospital cage in my room at the mo so i can keep an eye on him, he's eaten lots of grass and pellets, played with his treat ball and drunk plenty so i am very pleased with him.

not impressed with the lack of space
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enjoying a head scratch
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eating, yay!
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now that he's had his snip we can attempt to bond him with my friends spayed girlie in the future, which would be lovely. we are planning on living together next year at uni, so it would be ideal really, i could still see him lots! this is his beautiful potential girlfriend, Bluebell:

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we think Otto is a Silver Fox cross, he weighs about 2kg (though is still a little skinny) and his head shape and colouring seems to match that breed the closest. he is getting quite a bit of white tipping on his coat now as he moults.

in the first week of having Otto i had noticed that he didnt have any kind of startle reflex if you touched his head or brought anything close to his face. the vet has had a good look in his eyes and thinks he has the beginning of cataracts (you may be able to see a slight cloudiness in some of the pics). she was fairly surprised as we reckon he is only a couple of years old. the vet doesn't think he is blind, and he definitely sees me walking towards the run as he always hops over and stands up to say hi. does anyone know if this is likely to progress to blindness? will it affect him much? he doesnt seem at all bothered at the moment.

anyway hope i havent bored you with my ramblings, i have definitely fallen for this little boy :love: he is so much friendlier than most rabbits i have met, which is pretty amazing considering his history. thank you for all the advice i was given to start with, and i welcome any more :)
 
Gorgeous! Just a thought (sorry as I know it's probably something you're already aware of :oops:) but in the pic of the wendyhouse there's the bottom bit boardd but the door open. Is he free range in there as could easily jump out?

You've done a fab job and he looks so cute :love:

What will happen when you and your friend no longer live together - will you have a custody hearing for the bonded buns?! :lol:
 
Awww, i remember when you found him, so glad he is doing well.....i bet he is glad he is at yours, seems to have landed on all four paws there!
 
Thanks guys :D

Gorgeous! Just a thought (sorry as I know it's probably something you're already aware of ) but in the pic of the wendyhouse there's the bottom bit boardd but the door open. Is he free range in there as could easily jump out?

lol don't worry the board is only there so that he doesn't dash out when i open the door, its closed and locked with the wooden latch and a bolt at the bottom when he's in there :)

What will happen when you and your friend no longer live together - will you have a custody hearing for the bonded buns?!

:lol: one or the other of us will take them, depending on our situation - hopefully we'll be living together for at least 3 years (medical degrees are looong!) and after that we'll decide who's best suited to keeping them. it'll probably be me though, i think i'm the most animal mad :lol:

I love the dome idea for the run! It looks fab!

thanks, i was originally going to build a box run, but the mesh i got is really sturdy and kept its curve very well even when cut off the roll. so i went for a high dome as it still has plenty of head room but makes the run much more lightweight :)
 
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:wave: I read your post when you found him - it made me smile then and to see what you have done for him has given me a warm glow!!! You have done everything right by this little guy and his new potential wifey looks beautiful !!

Well done - I wish there were more people like you in the world!! :D:wave:
 
I'm so happy and thankful you found this bunny! He looks so happy, he's in a very good place with you :D
 
I missed your first post - so well done on giving this fella a new home & caring so much for him :D He is beautiful & his wife to be is stunning! :love::love::love:

Keep us posted on the bonding & look forward to more pics of them both together :)
 
Lovely to see his update and hear all his news and meet his new wife-to-be! He looks very happy and seems to have really landed on his feet with you. :love:
 
Lovely update. Great accommodation.

Did your vet say whether the cataract was congenital or caused by EC? Once he has recovered from the castration and vaccinations, it might be be worth doing a course of Panacur as a precaution. I wouldnt pay again, as you can get Panacur on line, but I would call and ask him whether he thinks you should administer Panacur as cataracts can be caused by EC. Alternatively, the vet can do a test for EC, which shows whether they have been exposed to the parasite. Many rescues administer Panacur to all new bunnies coming in as routine.

http://goldenbunnies.org.uk/showthread.php?t=3459

Meanwhile I give you a link http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=122478&page=2
 
Thank you again for all the lovely comments :)

Otto had his stitches out today, the vet was very impressed with him, he didnt even flinch! he is such a good boy.

Did your vet say whether the cataract was congenital or caused by EC? Once he has recovered from the castration and vaccinations, it might be be worth doing a course of Panacur as a precaution. I wouldnt pay again, as you can get Panacur on line, but I would call and ask him whether he thinks you should administer Panacur as cataracts can be caused by EC. Alternatively, the vet can do a test for EC, which shows whether they have been exposed to the parasite. Many rescues administer Panacur to all new bunnies coming in as routine.

Thanks for the links, interesting reading. the vet doesn't think the cataracts are EC related as he shows no other symptoms, and from what i've read EC cataracts only tend to be found in baby buns whose mother was infected? so in theory he would have had progressive neurological symptoms by now if he did have granulomas in his lenses. i got an 18 dose syringe of Panacur from the vets today anyway, i intend to give him a 9 day preventative course just to be safe. does that sound like a good idea?

I am having a bit of an issue with fleas though - have started a thread if anyone has advice :)

Otto says thanks for all the compliments :love: (although what he's actually saying here is "Pwweeeeeeeeeese can i have some dandelions??" :lol:)
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Om nom nom
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He really is one gorgeous little bunster :love:

I've only ever done 9 day preventative Panacur - but this was two years ago. From what I understand some vets feel this is ineffective and that a 28 day preventative course is more realistic than bothering with the 9 day at all. My vet is also rather skeptical about the effectiveness of the 9 day treatment so to date we haven't repeated it.
 
He is just the sweetest looking little man ever! We found our little girl in the same way (however our capture took 15 minutes of crawling around a carpark and reaching under cars!).

He is so lucky to have found you, and your rats seem well looked after too! (I also have ratties)

We found Gypsy in April and she had been seen roaming around over the xmas period!! Which means she was also free for over 5 months and through the winter- I am so amazed at how well these little critters survive after being domesticated then let loose!
 
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