Boarding issues

Hello ... I have two Netherland Dwarf rabbits ... Luna (doe) who is 7 and Rufus (buck) who is 2.

I sent them to rabbit boarding in May for three nights and when I picked them up Rufus persistently tried to mount Luna on their return home. He really wasn't himself and I did put it down to the stress of being with other rabbits.

They have recently been in the same place for 16 nights and I collected them yesterday ... I didn't have time to check them over properly, but was told that Rufus possibly had mites as the woman had brushed him before collection. (I had treated him two weeks prior to boarding, but the lady uses untreated hay from the local farm, so could this be the cause?)


When I got them I was horrified to see that Luna had a huge bald patch from her neck, halfway down her back. The woman had been holding her at the time I got there and had said she had lost some fur due to Rufus mounting her, but the extent is so bad as you can hopefully see from the photo.

The lady in charge of the boarding had gone on holiday herself whilst we were away and left the rabbits in the care of her parents.

I am rather annoyed as they could have partitioned the large cage with a wired separator so that my rabbits could see and smell one another but Luna wouldn't have been in such a bad state.


Not sure what to do and am asking for your advice.

https://flic.kr/p/W6RvTm

Your poor baby. That's terrible I would be so angry too.

Saffy2017 said:

Hello ... I have two Netherland Dwarf rabbits ... Luna (doe) who is 7 and Rufus (buck) who is 2.

I sent them to rabbit boarding in May for three nights and when I picked them up Rufus persistently tried to mount Luna on their return home. He really wasn't himself and I did put it down to the stress of being with other rabbits.

They have recently been in the same place for 16 nights and I collected them yesterday ... I didn't have time to check them over properly, but was told that Rufus possibly had mites as the woman had brushed him before collection. (I had treated him two weeks prior to boarding, but the lady uses untreated hay from the local farm, so could this be the cause?)


When I got them I was horrified to see that Luna had a huge bald patch from her neck, halfway down her back. The woman had been holding her at the time I got there and had said she had lost some fur due to Rufus mounting her, but the extent is so bad as you can hopefully see from the photo.

The lady in charge of the boarding had gone on holiday herself whilst we were away and left the rabbits in the care of her parents.

I am rather annoyed as they could have partitioned the large cage with a wired separator so that my rabbits could see and smell one another but Luna wouldn't have been in such a bad state.


Not sure what to do and am asking for your advice.

https://flic.kr/p/W6RvTm

Click to expand...

Have you attempted to contact the lady in charge of the Boarding yet ? Personally I would do that first, including the image of Luna's bald back, before posting any negative comments on the establishment's FB page (if there is one).

Does Rufus only do the incessant mounting when in boarding/just after being boarded ? Or does it happen at home sometimes too ? Have things settled down now, or have you had to keep them separated ?

How old was Rufus when he was neutered ?

Saffy2017 said:

Hello ... I have two Netherland Dwarf rabbits ... Luna (doe) who is 7 and Rufus (buck) who is 2.

I sent them to rabbit boarding in May for three nights and when I picked them up Rufus persistently tried to mount Luna on their return home. He really wasn't himself and I did put it down to the stress of being with other rabbits.

They have recently been in the same place for 16 nights and I collected them yesterday ... I didn't have time to check them over properly, but was told that Rufus possibly had mites as the woman had brushed him before collection. (I had treated him two weeks prior to boarding, but the lady uses untreated hay from the local farm, so could this be the cause?)


When I got them I was horrified to see that Luna had a huge bald patch from her neck, halfway down her back. The woman had been holding her at the time I got there and had said she had lost some fur due to Rufus mounting her, but the extent is so bad as you can hopefully see from the photo.

The lady in charge of the boarding had gone on holiday herself whilst we were away and left the rabbits in the care of her parents.

I am rather annoyed as they could have partitioned the large cage with a wired separator so that my rabbits could see and smell one another but Luna wouldn't have been in such a bad state.


Not sure what to do and am asking for your advice.

https://flic.kr/p/W6RvTm

Click to expand...

Hi Saffy and welcome to the Forum :wave:

Sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with your rabbits. I have to say the bald patch on Luna's back does look rather dramatic.

Are they both neutered/spayed? And if so, when was that done?

They can often mount one another persistently when other rabbits are around, or if they come back from somewhere to be at home again. That's perfectly normal behaviour.

I am surprised that Rufus got mites again so soon, but his immune system will have been challenged by the stress of being in a new place so that could have caused a flare up. When you treated him, what did you use, and how many applications over what period? This will affect the efficacy of the treatments.

I would first of all speak with the lady who boarded your rabbits about Luna's back, as to me that's the most pressing concern at the moment.

Good luck xx

Hi .. thank you for your reply. Rufus does sometimes err, try to dominate Luna at home, but certainly not to the extent that her fur comes out.

We had him neutered as soon as was possible - age/weight etc. He is not three, so it would have been as soon as the vet allowed.

We took him to a bunny savvy vet who said that neither had mites - she did a strip test and checked under a microscope, so despite the lady claiming my buck had mites, he hadn't. She did suggest I find a different place to board them though.

The vet also said that they should have been separated when I told her about the option to partition the large cage with a wire 'fence' so that they could still smell and see one another but Rufus couldn't cause more damage.

Now the lady says that Luna's fur only started coming out half an hour before I collected her and yet in early e mails she said that her fur was already like this !

I have contracted her via e mail but she gets quite angry with me ... all I want is for her to admit that perhaps she should have contacted my emergency contacts to as whether she should separate the two as above.

I can now no longer keep them together at night as he is still being overly dominant towards Luna - so have had to go and buy an indoor cage. (I put them out together in the day where I can see them and check him if he tries to mount her)

It's all been pretty stressful ... and my daughter put a review on the page saying that she was unhappy with how the rabbits were treated and the owner of the facility has threatened to 'do' her for slandering the boarding facility - rather made me chuckle as people are allowed their say in a review and what my daughter put was true.

Anyway .. the good news is, they don't have mites and Luna's fur will grow back. The not so good part is, it's going to take a while before I can trust them to be together for the night or when I go out.

They still groom one another ... but then he gets carried away ... typical male!

MightyMax said:

Hi Saffy and welcome to the Forum :wave:

Sorry to hear about the troubles you're having with your rabbits. I have to say the bald patch on Luna's back does look rather dramatic.

Are they both neutered/spayed? And if so, when was that done?

They can often mount one another persistently when other rabbits are around, or if they come back from somewhere to be at home again. That's perfectly normal behaviour.

I am surprised that Rufus got mites again so soon, but his immune system will have been challenged by the stress of being in a new place so that could have caused a flare up. When you treated him, what did you use, and how many applications over what period? This will affect the efficacy of the treatments.

I would first of all speak with the lady who boarded your rabbits about Luna's back, as to me that's the most pressing concern at the moment.

Good luck xx

Click to expand...

Thank you so much for the reassurance that this is more normal than I thought ... the dominance when returning home and in being with other rabbits.

Luna had E.C. When she was 3 (she's now 7) ... it was pretty bad ... she had seizures and lost the use of her back legs and has become blind in one eye. I've started her on another course of Lapizole as a precaution.

Saffy2017 said:

Hi .. thank you for your reply. Rufus does sometimes err, try to dominate Luna at home, but certainly not to the extent that her fur comes out.

We had him neutered as soon as was possible - age/weight etc. He is not three, so it would have been as soon as the vet allowed.

We took him to a bunny savvy vet who said that neither had mites - she did a strip test and checked under a microscope, so despite the lady claiming my buck had mites, he hadn't. She did suggest I find a different place to board them though.

The vet also said that they should have been separated when I told her about the option to partition the large cage with a wire 'fence' so that they could still smell and see one another but Rufus couldn't cause more damage.

Now the lady says that Luna's fur only started coming out half an hour before I collected her and yet in early e mails she said that her fur was already like this !

I have contracted her via e mail but she gets quite angry with me ... all I want is for her to admit that perhaps she should have contacted my emergency contacts to as whether she should separate the two as above.

I can now no longer keep them together at night as he is still being overly dominant towards Luna - so have had to go and buy an indoor cage. (I put them out together in the day where I can see them and check him if he tries to mount her)

It's all been pretty stressful ... and my daughter put a review on the page saying that she was unhappy with how the rabbits were treated and the owner of the facility has threatened to 'do' her for slandering the boarding facility - rather made me chuckle as people are allowed their say in a review and what my daughter put was true.

Anyway .. the good news is, they don't have mites and Luna's fur will grow back. The not so good part is, it's going to take a while before I can trust them to be together for the night or when I go out.

They still groom one another ... but then he gets carried away ... typical male!

Click to expand...

Another Forum member is experiencing a similar problem at the moment ..

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?466053-Spring-fever-on-Steroids!

Goodness, you've been through the mill, and your bunnies too. I hope things settle eventually and they can go back together x

Oh thank you .. will have a look at that. Much appreciated.

Must go and introduce myself tomorrow on the "Introduction" forum

Saffy2017 said:

Oh thank you .. will have a look at that. Much appreciated.

Must go and introduce myself tomorrow on the "Introduction" forum

Click to expand...

You're welcome

Did the boarder take her to the vets? That's terrible sending the bun home in that state and then trying to cover it up

catherine09 said:

Did the boarder take her to the vets? That's terrible sending the bun home in that state and then trying to cover it up

Click to expand...

No, the boarder didnt take her to the vets ... in fact, the boarder (with the qualification in small animal care for which I had booked the boarding for), was on holiday and the rabbits were left in the care of her parents. (Not named in her business)

She claimed that Luna had the loss of fur when she first got there ... and then she back tracked and said that the fur only came out half an hour before I collected them ...

Then she said that hay was used only in hay racks ... and then I found a picture I had taken and it shows that hay was used as bedding.

She said they had mites and so I had the expense of taking them to the vets .. the vet (rabbit savvy) said neither had mites - she did a strip test and checked under a microscope. She also advised I not use that particular boarder every again. (I did not tell the vet who I used as the lady uses the same vet, as there are not many rabbit savvy vets in our area).

I have now had to buy an indoor cage to seperate them at night.

My daughter gave a bad review on her facebook page and she threatened to 'do' her for slander ... Hey, it was a bad facebook review, get over it!

I did all my correspondence with her via e mail ... she then proceeded to publish my private e mails on her page, which I thought was completely low and unprofessional of her. (She has since taken her Facebook page down and has put up a closed group for her boarding facility)

I'm at a loss as to why she didn't contact either of my two emergency contacts when Luna started to lose so much fur ... she has a facility where she can separate the cage into two with a wire partition and why she didnt do this, I have no idea.

I have no hesitation now in saying the name of the boarding facility ... Hoppingham Palace Pet Care Services of Crich, Derbyshire.

She has not admitted that she should possibly have called one of my contacts, which is my main concern.

Sorry, but that is absolutely dreadful. She should have taken her to the vets and separated them. Thank goodness I've never had bunnies that start fighting / mounting whilst boarding here that I've had to seperate, but if I had to I would. I'm very careful with referred aggression procotol here though - no bunnies can see any other bunnies which reduces the risk of referred aggression. I've seen a lot of boarders keep bunnies quite close to one another so perhaps that's what triggered it? She's deleted her Facebook page so can't see her set up :roll:

catherine09 said:

Sorry, but that is absolutely dreadful. She should have taken her to the vets and separated them. Thank goodness I've never had bunnies that start fighting / mounting whilst boarding here that I've had to seperate, but if I had to I would. I'm very careful with referred aggression procotol here though - no bunnies can see any other bunnies which reduces the risk of referred aggression. I've seen a lot of boarders keep bunnies quite close to one another so perhaps that's what triggered it? She's deleted her Facebook page so can't see her set up :roll:

Click to expand...

https://flic.kr/p/WTG6ej

Here is a photo of her set up. As you can see the cages are together but can be split into two with a wire divider.