One rabbit licking anothers wound

Hi, our female rabbit Frisky has a small bite on her shoulders from our male rabbit Cookie - I suspect this is a love bite as we had a surprise litter recently so he has had to be up to something. Cookie is now continually licking this wound on Frisky and making it worse. It's now the size of a 5p piece and is clearly trying to heal as it has a scab.

It makes me wonder why Frisky just sits there and lets him do it but I suspect she thinks she's having a good grooming session.

We've bathed the wound a couple of times with a weak salt water solution to try and help it heal.

Other than separating the buns is there anything we can do to stop Cookie licking it?

Thanks for suggestions

Russ

I'd be inclined to separate anyway but I guess you have decided on more babies. Rabbits grooming others, wounds & all, is usually positive. How come you think Cookie is making it worse? I'd want to check there is no infection via my vet. The bunnies could be out of sorts, over anxious due to their recent experiences. Someone more knowledgeable will chip in soon

Hi, we tried to book them both in for neutering/spaying but the vet said there was an increased risk for the doe as she'd just given birth - we now have a 2-3 week wait according to the vet before she would operate. We are very worried about separating them as they are bonded and friends at the moment so getting them both done at the same time would have been ideal as there would have been no risk of additional babies and no separation. As it is we feel we've been pushed into a corner, stuck between wanting them neutered to avoid more babies and concerned about separating them due to breaking the bond, and knowing that there's a strong likelihood that we'll end up with babies. As they had a surprise litter we had no way of knowing how long they had been together between the birth and us noticing, so there was already a chance that the doe was pregnant again anyway. We had committed ourselves to the idea that getting her spayed within a week-10 days of the original litter might mean we take away any unborn babies, but at a very early stage at least. Now that option has been taken away with the vets advice.

We don't seem to be having a lot of bunny luck at the moment

And now of course there's the bite and the licking...

This is perhaps because Cookie is wanting to mate with Frisky - it could be part of the proceedings. As you have put them back together I don't see how you will be able to stop it. You will have to wait until after Cookie has been neutered and then this behaviour will probably subside.

Separating them would be the best option, she will end up continually pregnant having litters and that itself would kill her, she cannot be spayed whilst nursing kits.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Cookie is booked in to be neutered on Tuesday. As I mentioned, we'd hoped to have Frisky spayed at the same time, but that wasn't an option.

If Frisky is pregnant she won't want any more attention from Cookie and if he keeps pestering her she will get very stressed and could attack him. You need to keep an eye on them.

What happened to her kits? You definitely need to separate for two reasons: he will remain fertile for 3/4 weeks after neutering; he could attack and kill any kits. Did you intend her to have the first litter?

The first litter was a surprise because we were told we had 2 boy rabbits. The kits all died...there was 3

russhill said:

The first litter was a surprise because we were told we had 2 boy rabbits. The kits all died...there was 3

Click to expand...

Oh, how sad. It must have been awful for all of you. Please separate them for the reasons I outlined in my previous
post - it would be awful if he killed the kits and impregnated her straight after she gave birth, which he would.