Rosie just wont stop...Please help, someone

I recently bought Pebbles a jumper to wear so that his shoulder can heal



It fitted fine, he didn't quite love having it on but it did mean his shoulder started to scab over.

But today I let them out and it was horribly hot and sunny, no clouds or breeze. So because the jumper is black and would make him quite hot I decided to take it off for the day. I thought that because Rosie and Pebbles were in the whole garden they would have space and she wont want to nibble his shoulder as she would be too busy eating everything etc etc

Well she ripped the whole scab off his shoulder and it is back down to sore red skin...



I just don't know how to stop her. Pebbles can't live in that jumper forever, especially if this hot weather keeps up. How do I get to the root of the problem???

Rosie is essentially trying to 'fix' him because she knows it's wrong and is trying to sort it out. Sadly she doesn't realise the damage she is causing- she's actually a 'nurse bunny'.

I had one of my Dopeys do this to the other Dopeys. I tried a variety of things (can't remember what, this was about 5 years ago) but in the end I separated them any time I wasn't supervising them. They area healed quickly and they rebonded smoothly within a week but if nothing else works, that may be your only option.

Sky-O said:

Rosie is essentially trying to 'fix' him because she knows it's wrong and is trying to sort it out. Sadly she doesn't realise the damage she is causing- she's actually a 'nurse bunny'.

I had one of my Dopeys do this to the other Dopeys. I tried a variety of things (can't remember what, this was about 5 years ago) but in the end I separated them any time I wasn't supervising them. They area healed quickly and they rebonded smoothly within a week but if nothing else works, that may be your only option.

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Do you think separation would be the best? and they get to see each other during garden time? I did try it when I first noticed she was overgrooming a certain area. But they missed each other and kept on trying to find one another...Do you think I should try again?
They really do like being with each other and there has never been any aggression...

I will try to separate them again

It might be worth a try, however, what i would say is that if you don't know what has caused her to groom there then i would bet he has sometihng wrong inside that area and you'll need to 'fix' that to stop the overgrooming. If, however, it's from say a wound, or a vaccination, then hopefully healing the wound will stop the grooming.

Well I never saw anything wrong with him in the first place, he seemed healthy and happy from what I could tell. There wasn't a wound there previously or anything like that...Maybe she just didn't realise how much she was grooming at first and then the more she did it the more she wanted to fix it?

Whereabouts on his body is it?

Sky-O said:

Whereabouts on his body is it?

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His shoulder

This sounds mad (and may well be so see what others say before you do this!) but we used to put mustard on our horses' tails so that the others in the field wouldn't chew them. Could something like that work?
S x

Wouldn't that sting? Also keep an eye out for flystrike...You really should separate. They will be all right. The priority is to get that shoulder better!