Update abt Sweetie

Took her to the vet this morning. He said its just that sprawled leg syndrom(sp?). Nothing can be done about it but make her as comfy as possible and as long as she's mobile that is all that matters. She is roughly 5 pounds and is a Holland Lop/Mix. He also said that she is in relative good health, gave her her rabies shots, a few shots that is required for bunny's to stay healthy(dont remember the name). He said she is in virtually no pain.. He was watching her reactions when he started playing with her legs, Yes she didn't like it but didn't react like she was in pain. He specializes in Rabbits it turns out, wife breeds them and they have several as pets and he grew up with pet rabbits and feeder rabbits. He said that my brothers girlfriend/his vet tech was right about her approx age. She's in excellent/great condition. No skin problems, courtesy blood work came back healthy. He put her in a rabbit playpen he has for ppl who have several rabbits to allow them to roam abt while confined while watching them for anything out of ordinary 'n examing their buddies.... and he said she gets around just fine for a bunny with 2 good legs and she has approx 85% use of her right rear leg, and has approx 5% use of her right front leg*very limited use due to how it is*. He said she is a healthy weight for her size. And to reduce the amount of pellets available at all times until we get her used to a regulated diet as she is used to free feeding pellets. He does applaud my ingenius way of making a bed for her(gotta get the supplies to make it but i approached him abt the concept and he said that he'll buy 'em for their bunnies 'n his clinic if i ever decide to do that for profit*which i might do if it comes out like i want and he approves~which will be excellent to get a vet approval~*).

O he also said that since she's already 3yrs old, that most likely she'll be able to live to a "old" age for a bunny. So she'll be here for quite awhile. he said avg life-span for a disabled bunny is dependent on the disablity.

she goes back in 2 weeks when the blood work he had sent out to be anyalized comes back. and he plans to do a xray at that time as well.

Good to hear she's okay

As far as I know, the rabies vaccine isn't supposed to be given to rabbits. Different species can have adverse reactions to it. In any case, the chances of a house rabbit getting rabies is slim to none so it isn't really needed. What other shots did he give her? Rabbits in the US don't need any shots. I'd be worried that the vet isn't a certified rabbit specialist if he's given a rabbit shots

he said he gave her a killed vaccine of the rabies and a very small amount, since we dont know if she was kept inside at her prior home. and it was just a distemper type of shots. They actually recommend some shots for rabbits here in the US if you dont know if they were inside or outside pets b4 and if you dont know what their living environment was like before.

And he is certified to care for exotic critters. Him 'n his wife had had rabbits live up into their young teen years while under his care as a vet.

Rabbits can't get distemper, just so you know.

There aren't any shots in the US approved for rabbits so it just isn't safe to get them because we don't know how they may react towards them.

Hey,

I was reading an old thread, found a link to info about finding a good rabbit vet in the US and thought of the discussion here.

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html

Vita said:

Hey,

I was reading an old thread, found a link to info about finding a good rabbit vet in the US and thought of the discussion here.

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/vet.html

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Good idea

It doesn't look like there's any listings for Nebraska under the vets in certain states area but maybe there are good ones nearby in surrounding states (if you live on the border of Nebraska or something).

And this is an old thread but it has a few NE vets listed http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=11616&forum_id=9

I have down my own research and there is no such site that says that you should never vacc a rabbit. its just not recommend when coming from a sanitary environment.. Which I do NOT know if she did or did not. So it IS customary to take precautions against common illness's by giving shots to a newly arrived rabbit. That is what my vet told me and i agreed with him as I do rescue work on cats and dogs and hamsters, and now rabbits. I would rather be safe then wonder "what could I have done differently?"... I would rather know, "i did this, and this and that" so that if it happened again, I will know! Further-More. Unless Somebody wants to pay me $50 bucks in gas Plus $100(cost of daily wage) just to travel for over 4 hrs just to visit a "recognized" vet is just plain stupid. The vet I go to, is quite smart, and very good. And further-more, I happen to trust him as I have taken all of my rescue animals there to be examined and vacc'd. I know that personally, i would prefere to know that she is healthy and vacc'd against common illness's that are transferrable between cats-dogs-rabbits. And since I have housed cats and dogs in my apartment before, I wanted to make sure that she would be kept safe from anything left behind that was missed before i deep clean in a week. Plus I really hate it when ppl come-across as concending... and thats what those 2 posts sounded like to me.

PS: My Local Humane Society, THEY give shots to newly arrived rabbits!!! Rabies and a few common vacc's that can be spread between cats-dogs-rabbits.

sorry abt last post. didnt mean to come across snippy or uppity.... just kinda irked that everybody said he isn't a good vet and doesn't know rabbits or that... when he grew up around rabbits, raised rabbits, wife is a rabbit breeder... and none of their rabbits are ill or ever been ill under his veterinary care(including him giving them shots every once in awhile when a new rabbit was intro'd).

I'm just saying it's not recommended to vaccinate ANY animal with a vaccine that isn't approved. Maybe this post will be of some use to someone that's goggling about rabbit vaccines or something. There aren't any vaccines in the US that are approved for rabbits and there's a reason for that.

I'm not saying he isn't experienced but I wouldn't trust him with my rabbits because of the vaccines. It's really risky. The Humane Society shouldn't be vaccinating rabbits either. Rabies isn't a concern with rabbits because they're small and delicate, so they likely would be seriously injured or killed if attacked by a rabid animal. They also would die of rabies a lot faster than a larger animal would. I've heard of rabbits at fairs requiring rabies shots, a long time ago when they were ignorant of the dangers, and some of the rabbits died.

There aren't any other diseases that a rabbit in the US can get, other than rabies. They can't get distemper or any other dog/cat diseases so there isn't any reason to vaccinate them for those. I wouldn't trust a vet or Humane Society that thinks rabbits can get those diseases. It's not good to unnecessarily vaccinate cats/dogs with approved vaccines, much less rabbits, where it's 100% unnecessary. There's no telling if weeks/months/years down the line some rabbits have died or become ill due to vaccines.

I'm not trying to be mean but shots in general is something I'm really opinionated on. Too many people over-vaccinate cats/dogs and don't realize that it could cause long term damage to them- cancer, tumors, organ damage, etc...so the thought of rabbits getting unnecessary shots is something I really disagree with.

We're lucky we live here and don't need to vaccinate our rabbits, in the UK rabbits need myxi shots every 6 months and VHD every year and some rabbits have bad reactions to even those shots (cylap burn and such) and they're approved and used by thousands of people. Just imagine how many rabbits must get bad reactions to cat/dog vaccines if there are vets giving them those.

I tried to Google for up to date authoritative info on vaccinations for rabbits in the US (not easy even on google.com as it still brings up loads of UK results due to the IP address). But everything that looked to be from a reputable source was a couple of years old or more - and did say that rabbits over there don't get / need vaccinations.
Though this 2005 article from the Wisconsin House Rabbit Society mentions that there was an outbreak of VHD in Iowa. Buns get vaccinated against that here - don't know if it led to anything in certain areas of the US.

Rabbits get different infectious illnesses from cats and dogs, so they wouldn't need the same shots. (You don't give cats shots for dog diseases or vice versa, and rabbits are different again.)

Over here, at least, rabbit breeders in general don't have a very good reputation - though of course there will be some who are better - and so posters may assume that a vet with a background of working with breeder and feeder rabbits will have a different attitude and approach from one who specialises in the care of rabbits as pets. The end paragraph of the linked article makes a similar point:

Don't assume that just because a veterinarian works with breeders or local 4-H clubs, that they are experienced with house rabbits or the medical needs of older rabbits. Unfortunately, such veterinarians often tend to approach rabbits as stock animals rather than as beloved companions. They may never have done a spay or neuter and "treatment" of any difficulty may amount to euthanasia (when dealing with stock or show animals, the financial bottom line may be the primary consideration).

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Though I hear what you're saying about some of your vet's wife's bunnies having lived to a great age, so it's not like they're the type of breeders with no time for rabbits whose litter-producing days are over.

With the USA being such a massive country, travelling a bit further to a specialist vet could be in a whole different league from what it is here. So what you're doing already: seeing this vet, doing your own research on top of that - and as you find out more, maybe making suggestions to him about what you'd like to do for Sweetie - maybe is the most practical option.

But please don't discount the House Rabbit Society site just cos a few people on a forum were sceptical about your vet. There is tons of useful info on there and probably on more of the state house rabbit society sites like the one above.

i read that abt UK rabbits too..... I"m the type that i'd rather be safe then sorry. and if she got a "unneccessary" vacc, and no harm came about it.... i'd be comforted to know. because once warmer weather approaches us again, she will be outfitted for leash 'n harness and be taken outside to enjoy some outside time. and we have wild rabbits in our neighborhood, and not just a few, i've counted at least 20. And i Only intended those 2 shots to be a one time deal. its only because I dont know what her living situation was like prior. they said that they only changed her bedding once every 2 weeks and that was when she got out let out for longer a few minutes(the 30min time's basically).

I take her back in 2 weeks to get the results of the blood work he had done and sent off. He drew blood to run for cancers, diseases, and any illness's that can be hidden. It also allows us to look at her blood to determine if she has the right diet... too much or too little iron, sugar intake, cetra cetra etc.

considering the vacc's werent a full, only a quarter of the amt that is for weight-wise, i am not worried about it. and she hasn't had any side-effects and its been a full 36 hrs since the appt, and all would have made an appearance by now.

and yes the courtesy blood draw done for his office, evaled those same things, but on a smaller scale so if he 'n his staff missed anything it wouldn't be noticed unless the lab catch's it which is why he did the full blood work-up.

We have cottontail rabbits here which are a whole different species from our pet rabbits. They can't pass any diseases to our rabbits. Or at least I haven't heard of them getting myxi or VHD. There have been very rare cases of rabbits in the US getting myxi and VHD like Vita mentioned but I don't think cottontails were the carriers,were they?

People will disagree with using a harness and leash. I've used it and my rabbits were fine and I only put a harness on them so I wouldn't be as concerned about birds of prey swooping down and grabbing them (we have loads of birds of prey here). But different rabbits respond to harnesses differently, some don't like them and struggle, which could possibly cause them to break their delicate spine, or twist a leg in the harness/leash. Take it slow, let the rabbit guide you, and use the stretchy leash that the harness comes with, not a dog leash. If she ran the dog leash would jerk her back and that could hurt her.

Over here, at least, rabbit breeders in general don't have a very good reputation - though of course there will be some who are better - and so posters may assume that a vet with a background of working with breeder and feeder rabbits will have a different attitude and approach from one who specialises in the care of rabbits as pets.

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It's pretty much the same over here. Some are good breeders but the majority aren't.

You might not have to travel far to a different vet, I have several good ones around me. I have no idea what Nebraska is like though, I'm in Florida.

William said:

People will disagree with using a harness and leash. I've used it and my rabbits were fine and I only put a harness on them so I wouldn't be as concerned about birds of prey swooping down and grabbing them (we have loads of birds of prey here). But different rabbits respond to harnesses differently, some don't like them and struggle, which could possibly cause them to break their delicate spine, or twist a leg in the harness/leash. Take it slow, let the rabbit guide you, and use the stretchy leash that the harness comes with, not a dog leash. If she ran the dog leash would jerk her back and that could hurt her.

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I don't have any experience of leads for rabbits, but logic would suggest that extra caution would be necessary for a rabbit with disabled legs. If she's having some time outside in the garden and you're concerned about her running away or being got by predators, then a covered pen or run is almost certainly better.


In general, I'd suggest a thread title including something about caring for disabled rabbits, so posters who've experience of this respond.

Vita said:

I don't have any experience of leads for rabbits, but logic would suggest that extra caution would be necessary for a rabbit with disabled legs. If she's having some time outside in the garden and you're concerned about her running away or being got by predators, then a covered pen or run is almost certainly better.


In general, I'd suggest a thread title including something about caring for disabled rabbits, so posters who've experience of this respond.

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Yes, I agree. I think it's fine with rabbits that aren't disabled and that are okay with a harness, but it would seem like her legs could get tangled in the leash or something like that. A run would be better, or if your yard is fenced and you don't have loads of birds of prey like I've got then you could just sit out in the yard with her.

I will NOT change vets. Not unless somebody wants to pay for my 1/2 tank of gas each trip plus my time off work just to make a day trip of it. Lincoln may not seem like it on distance away from Omaha. However, Considering i have to go through town to get to interstate, get on interstate deal with construction being done on interstate, then get off interstate and deal with in-city roads.. and repeat in reverse... It goes from 45min trip up to nearly 2 hrs! just for ONE way. That is 4 hrs Round Trip!!! Plus the time at the vet.. Nearly 5 hrs .... not when there are local vets within 30min of where I live where I wont have to miss any work(missed work means no income, no income means cant provide for my 2 special need children nor my oldest's pets NOR my own personal needs or rent/housing expenses! ).

And these are NOT cottontail rabbits. I live in an apartment community. my personal outdoor space is a 4ftx10ft balcony. and we arent allowed anything on it that isn't patio furniture.

Wouldn't they have to be cottontail rabbits...? Unless people have released their pet rabbits? European rabbits aren't native to the US...

Like I said, I have no idea what Nebraska is like or how many vets there are. I was just saying you may have more vets around you. Or it would be good to know in advance of other vets in case that vet isn't in, isn't willing/able to do something, etc. I would be willing to travel if I didn't have good rabbit vets around me. Chances are it wouldn't need to be a regular occurrence anyway.

I can not afford to take a day off work. My only schedule day off work is Sunday's. so unless by some miracle there is a vet open on sundays. I wouldn't bet/count on me changing vets anytime soon. There is only 3 exotic vets in my city and i am now using one of them. and i refuse to waste a complete day just for a 30min vet appt. I am very opinionated about that. Because I have a 8month old AND a 9yr old. and I would have to arrange for a day off well in advance to go to lincoln, Plus I need to arrange it with my babysitter to watch my 2 daughters and pay her $50 to watch them for an entire day(to spare me the screaming crying hissy fit that BOTH would cause me due to the long ass day in the car). Plus it costs $50 to fill my tank up. So unless somebody wants to pay the entire vet bill AND $100 to me for my expenses, I say lay off on the vet thing.

Sometimes it is necessary to go to another vet. No one likes it but sometimes you have to sacrifice things for your pets. That's all I'm saying. No one has tried to force you to go to another vet, I'm just letting you know how important it is to have a good vet.

I can not afford to miss a single day at work, in fact, I need MORE hours from work and i go in whenever somebody calls in sick or he's short-staffed. Its not cheap having a special needs children. my 9yr old has ad/hd and needs to have therapy every other week, and my 8mo old is a preemie and requires special care as well as she isn't a normal baby on growth. she's almost 9months old and is still fitting 6-9mo and those are alot big on her when bought brand new, and 2nd hand fits but are still huge on her. I simply can not afford to take any time off work just to make a day trip to see another vet not when there's 2 others in my city that are capable of caring for rabbits.. and i know this vet and trust this vet. i have this trust issue... i dont take my kids to a doc i dont know or trust, and i dont take my pets to a vet i dont know or trust. i lost a pet years ago due to a quak of a vet who didn't know sh!t and so, i only go to ppl i know and trust. which does limit it but i'd rather know the person and have trust 'n faith in the person then go to a complete stranger and trust a beloved pet/child into their care and risk losing that pet/child forever. and Sweetie has yet to show any side-effects and its been 3 full days since the appt .... called my brother's girlfriend and she said that she'd have had a reaction by now if she was to have one.