LarryMolly
Warren Scout
Hi all - we unexpectedly took on a third rabbit on Thursday.
We'd been toying with the idea of bonding a third to our pair but hadn't actually decided for sure either way yet. Anyway I saw a rabbit for sale online living in the most horrendous conditions (surprised that they'd advertised her in that state) and after seeing that my partner and I couldn't leave her, so we went to get her the following day.
We're lucky that we have the space and spare pens etc so she's living upstairs in a 6x2 pen in our spare bedroom recuperating. (Will be increasing the pen overtime but she's been confined to a tiny cage all her life so don't want to overwhelm).
We went to the vet on Friday for a general health check and bum clean as she was filthy and she's booked in again for this Friday for another health check and her mixi/vhd vaccination. Vhd2 a few weeks after that and then she'll be spayed when she's properly settled and healthy.
But there are a few things about her health I'm looking for some advice on:
- her bum is now clean but she's a white rabbit so there is a lot of urine staining covering all her feet, tail, tummy and bum. Do I need to wait for her to moult for this to go? Can I do anything?
- she was being fed muesli mix and carrots and has never eaten hay before. She now has tons of hay and we're weaning her off muesli (she's hardly getting any in the hope she'll eat more hay). Any tips on how we can get her to start eating hay? She's reluctantly nibbling it at the moment. Not giving her green veggies yet but will be starting this in a few days once it looks like her fibre is better.
- she is eating but her poos are tiny. She started producing more normal looking ceocotrophs yesterday but is spitting half of them out. Should I try giving her anything like fibrefirst? Or just hold and let her start eating more hay.
- the vet said we need to keep an eye on her back teeth.
- she's learnt to drink from a bowl but has been drinking two full ceramic bowls of water a day. She was dehydrated I'm presuming when we got her as her water bottle was empty and green inside. But that does seems like quite a lot to me as our bonded pair drink one a day between them. I should also say that she's a mini lionhead lop so is small.
- in terms of her mental health - we've given her lots of stimulation and hidey houses which she seems to be loving. As well as a cuddly toy to keep her company when we can't be there as we read this can help them feel more comfortable.
Overall she's settling in very well. She a very sweet gentle rabbit and doesn't seem to have any aggression from the way she's been treated but any thoughts on the above points would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
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We'd been toying with the idea of bonding a third to our pair but hadn't actually decided for sure either way yet. Anyway I saw a rabbit for sale online living in the most horrendous conditions (surprised that they'd advertised her in that state) and after seeing that my partner and I couldn't leave her, so we went to get her the following day.
We're lucky that we have the space and spare pens etc so she's living upstairs in a 6x2 pen in our spare bedroom recuperating. (Will be increasing the pen overtime but she's been confined to a tiny cage all her life so don't want to overwhelm).
We went to the vet on Friday for a general health check and bum clean as she was filthy and she's booked in again for this Friday for another health check and her mixi/vhd vaccination. Vhd2 a few weeks after that and then she'll be spayed when she's properly settled and healthy.
But there are a few things about her health I'm looking for some advice on:
- her bum is now clean but she's a white rabbit so there is a lot of urine staining covering all her feet, tail, tummy and bum. Do I need to wait for her to moult for this to go? Can I do anything?
- she was being fed muesli mix and carrots and has never eaten hay before. She now has tons of hay and we're weaning her off muesli (she's hardly getting any in the hope she'll eat more hay). Any tips on how we can get her to start eating hay? She's reluctantly nibbling it at the moment. Not giving her green veggies yet but will be starting this in a few days once it looks like her fibre is better.
- she is eating but her poos are tiny. She started producing more normal looking ceocotrophs yesterday but is spitting half of them out. Should I try giving her anything like fibrefirst? Or just hold and let her start eating more hay.
- the vet said we need to keep an eye on her back teeth.
- she's learnt to drink from a bowl but has been drinking two full ceramic bowls of water a day. She was dehydrated I'm presuming when we got her as her water bottle was empty and green inside. But that does seems like quite a lot to me as our bonded pair drink one a day between them. I should also say that she's a mini lionhead lop so is small.
- in terms of her mental health - we've given her lots of stimulation and hidey houses which she seems to be loving. As well as a cuddly toy to keep her company when we can't be there as we read this can help them feel more comfortable.
Overall she's settling in very well. She a very sweet gentle rabbit and doesn't seem to have any aggression from the way she's been treated but any thoughts on the above points would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk