Rehome/Foster until July

Hi everyone,

An Angora type rabbit (if not fully angora) was brought into the practice today. The owner wants to rehome it as she cannot deal with the rabbit. It's a house rabbit. It was in for wet tail and urine scald. Otherwise fine. Good teeth, although on a bad diet, and the vet judged it a little overweight (I don't quite see it, but)...

Purchased from a garden centre, it's unknown how old he is, although he was fully grown when purchased. Unknown if HE really is a HE as no testicles, but possibly female. We didn't want to check due to severe irritation/damage to the genital area. Either neutered male or female.

I want to take him when I move in July, as the girls will be moving outside to one of the sheds/stables. However, until then I'd be happier if he could live with someone who has more room for him. He needs to remain a house rabbit as he's an Angora. His name's Bluie, he's a lovely chap, cuddled me quite nicely, no seeming problems.

I'm ok to take him on if no one wants to rehome him but am unsure about trying him with the girls. I'll do it if necessary, but...

So basic info:
name: Bluie
Location: Bristol
Age: unknown, estimated 2.5/3
Sex: Male neutered OR female
colour: blue
breed: Angora (or cross)
Problems: diet (no hay!!!), wet tail, urine scald, otherwise good, owner never grooms, but no matts in coat!!!

Anyone got any ideas? The owner does want him gone relatively soon although not immediately if necessary. I will take him on if there's no responses. He NEEDS to go to an indoor bunny home as he will be that in July and has been that so far, and the new owner NEEDS to be willing and able to groom him daily and treat his sore spots with vaseline, etc. AND they'll need to be able to let him go to me in July...

If it was a girlie id be tempted but you wouldnt get the bunny back!
Guess you need someone closer really...

Hehe, it might be a girlie, Chris, I have no real idea if it's a neutered male or female!

But I'd want him/her back

i would not take the bun on if i was you maaike if indeed you dont get a response, for the sake of your own buns, when getting new buns, you should always quarentine them from your own rabbbits for at least six weeks... and you dont have the room to do this, how would you feel if this rabbit gave your resident rabbits snuffles, or vhd or mysi.

i would think carefully about this before taking it on, but goodluck

Eve x

We've had him at the vet's Eve. I'm looking for a home for him, ok? Not asking about opinions or even advice. Let it rest.

If the rabbit you take on has had its myxi and vhd jabs etc, do you still need to make sure and quarantine him/her? I'm asking out of interest as I've only ever had one rabbit at a time so have never had do anything like this. xx

Good luck Maaike,hope someone can help you out :wink:

I must be a bad bunny mum then as i never quarantined lilac and shadow they went straight into the bunny room with claude and miffy
I havent had any probs

Romy said:

If the rabbit you take on has had its myxi and vhd jabs etc, do you still need to make sure and quarantine him/her? I'm asking out of interest as I've only ever had one rabbit at a time so have never had do anything like this. xx

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romy l i have allways quarentined new bunnies for 6 weeks, even if they have had there jabs, because they have had their jabs dont mean they cant get it, and how about if they had snuffles or mites, you would be passing that on too your health rabbit.


and as for maaikke the above is all i was saying quarentining is importamt for the health of your own rabbits. but since you know everything i will "give you a rest" ... since you have such a chip on your shoulder!!

No arguing!! As the bun has been at the vets I'm sure that he is being checked over there, thereby having a quarantine period.

I haven't quarantined my new buns as I knew them before I got them and knew where they came from etc but from an unknown source I think it would prob be a good idea to quarantine if you had the room. It's a risk I'm sure a lot of us take, which normally turns out OK but obv up to the individual.

Nicola

Maaike, is there not a rescue centre near to you that this bun could go to? With your limited space, surely it would be difficult to take on this bun should you not find anyone to look after it until July.
Re. quarantining - I think it depends on where the bun has come from and how much information you have on it. If I picked up a bun off the streets with absolutely no history, then I would keep it away from my buns for a couple of weeks to see if it showed any symptoms of anything nasty, during that time it would visit the vets and be checked over.
If a new bun came from a rescue centre which I knew had given the rabbit a vet check and it was vaccinated, then I would not hesitate in intoducing it immediately to my buns.
How long do rescues quarantine their buns for? I thought that 2 weeks was the norm.

bunnylove said:

romy l i have allways quarentined new bunnies for 6 weeks, even if they have had there jabs, because they have had their jabs dont mean they cant get it, and how about if they had snuffles or mites, you would be passing that on too your health rabbit.


and as for maaikke the above is all i was saying quarentining is importamt for the health of your own rabbits. but since you know everything i will "give you a rest" ... since you have such a chip on your shoulder!!

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with all due respect Eve, not every one quarantines bunnies, especially those entering a home environment with the intention of bonding. It seems to me that only rescues quarantine for 6 weeks as they are dealing with multiple rabbits. VHD is an airborne virus with very little physical symtoms anyway and anyone can bring this virus into contact with their healthy buns at anytime via their cloths, shoes etc. EC is another one that any potential bunny could be carrying but know one acquiring a new bunny instantly goes to have the test before putting them with another rabbit. Mites, flea's etc can be passed on by another rabbit but they can also be contracted at anytime, especially if they are in the garden where neighbouring cats can access your garden. Most on here have rescued a rabbit to bond with their own and while they are not put together straight away, I dont see anyone waiting 6 weeks before bonding starts and there are many who have have rabbits that do not get on but they have contact with each other even though there is a wire mesh barrier between them.!!!

I quarantined Scooby and Zippy when I took them in, this was from Eve's advice. It was a good job I did listen, as when they went to the vets two days later it was found they both had mites, which I didn't notice.

They are still quarantined at the moment and go for their second mite jab tonight. Thanks to Eve I avoided the problem of all my buns getting mites.

Sometimes advice is good even if you think you know better as it doesn't always work accoring to plan and it's always better to be safe then sorry.

Denny said:

bunnylove said:

romy l i have allways quarentined new bunnies for 6 weeks, even if they have had there jabs, because they have had their jabs dont mean they cant get it, and how about if they had snuffles or mites, you would be passing that on too your health rabbit.


and as for maaikke the above is all i was saying quarentining is importamt for the health of your own rabbits. but since you know everything i will "give you a rest" ... since you have such a chip on your shoulder!!

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with all due respect Eve, not every one quarantines bunnies, especially those entering a home environment with the intention of bonding. It seems to me that only rescues quarantine for 6 weeks as they are dealing with multiple rabbits. VHD is an airborne virus with very little physical symtoms anyway and anyone can bring this virus into contact with their healthy buns at anytime via their cloths, shoes etc. EC is another one that any potential bunny could be carrying but know one acquiring a new bunny instantly goes to have the test before putting them with another rabbit. Mites, flea's etc can be passed on by another rabbit but they can also be contracted at anytime, especially if they are in the garden where neighbouring cats can access your garden. Most on here have rescued a rabbit to bond with their own and while they are not put together straight away, I dont see anyone waiting 6 weeks before bonding starts and there are many who have have rabbits that do not get on but they have contact with each other even though there is a wire mesh barrier between them.!!!

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i always have done this, i would hate to bring a rabbit into the enviorment of my resident rabbits and they caught something...

and yes i do change clothing wear gloves and keep the rabbits to there restricted areas while the quarentine period is on....

but this is what i do taking a rabbit for a health check (which i do with every rabbit i take on anyway) does NOT tell you if a rabbit has a potiential ilness if no symptoms are present.

this was only advise to maaikee, and like any advise given you dont have to accept it. nor does anyone else on here, but as this rabbit has medical problems and maaike doesnt really know how the rabbit has been looked after, i would not risk it with limited space but as i say this is ONLY advise, with due respect.

Just another thought, if the genital area is too bad to even tell which is the correct sex of the bun, you can't hand on heart say there isn't any hidden illness's this bun may have. Also unless the vet is a really rabbit savvy vet (not many of them are), there may be something that they have over looked. Please keep your own bunnies safe.

as i said tree taking the rabbit to the vets doesnt tell you if the rabbits had something that is showing no symptoms (but this is not to say the rabbit doesnt have anything)

and also vacination a rabbit, it take 2 weeks for the vacination to take effect so you could go and vacinate your new rabbit and it still leaves your residence bunns open to these dieases.

bunnylove said:

and also vacination a rabbit, it take 2 weeks for the vacination to take effect so you could go and vacinate your new rabbit and it still leaves your residence bunns open to these dieases.

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Gosh, I didn't know that it took two weeks for the vaccinations to take effect. Having read all the pros and cons here I think I have to say that I would quarantine for while first before introducing a bunster to my Darcy. Better safe than sorry!

I must admit I never quarantined my new two from my old two as they had been checked over by the rescue centre and Violet was jabbed.

I did wait and get a vet check up before introducing Violet to my original pair and Cosmos too but when I took Zeus on his dates and later Violet on hers they had to meet several bunnies in a short space of time so I had to rely on the rescue centres to have made sure they were only meeting with healthy bunnies.

In some ways I wish I had kept the pairs seperate as neither pair like the other and everytime they had the opportunity they fought. Then they all ended up getting mites after Zeus came down with them so in my case my existing bunny gave something to my new ones.

I now let them interact across a foot of "no rabbit's land" between their two runs but that is as close as they get. They each are aware the other pair is still in residence but for now there will not be any chance of them fighting.

In your case Maaike I would think the vets were keeping it in for long enough to be a good quarantine period, then perhaps a rescue could board him/her until you are able to take them - that way you could be sure there would be nothing to transmit as it does sound like the poor thing is very poorly.

Caz

as i said caz a vets check up does not really tell you if a rabbit has something with no symptoms showing, so thats why i quarentine...

but getting back to the original post CAN ANYONE TAKE ON THIS BUN?

Another point to add is that there may be a disease present with no symptoms that doesn't show until after quarantine is finished!! So I guess we can never be completely safe .....

nicolar said:

Another point to add is that there may be a disease present with no symptoms that doesn't show until after quarantine is finished!! So I guess we can never be completely safe .....

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no according to my vet everything would show up within the quarentine period, thats why they recommend 6 weeks.