Rabbit Wound - Possibly Infected? (UPDATED - Advice?)

Hi, I realise that help and advice over a forum is not as helpful as a vets advice, but I would appreciate anyone's advice who has had experience/come across rabbit wounds!

About a week and a half ago, my two female dwarf lop rabbits who had been together for almost 3 years without any problems, had a really bad fight, well, when I say fight, it was more one attacking the other! I removed the injured rabbit from the hutch immediatly and when I brought her inside realised she had an open wound about 3x2 cm on the outer part of her ear - where the skin looked as if it simply had been ripped off. The veins under the skin on the injury could be seen, and we rang the vets straight away and they agreed to let us bring her straight down.

The vet gave us antibiotics to give her (1ml a day for a week), and cream to apply 2/3 times a day. She cleaned up the wound, and that was about it. We were told however, that they weren't allowed to be put together again, and we simply did not have the room for two rabbits in seperate hutches, as much as I pleaded with my dad! That night, the injured rabbit slept in the house, and within a day or so we were able find a good home for the other bunny, who funnily enough is great with people! Just apparently not her sister!

Anyway, sorry for the long story! But I've been applying the cream around twice a day, and gave the antibiotics for a week, but the wound does not seem to be healing very well. I'm unsure whether it's infected or not... At first the wound (when it was open) was fairly smooth, as if the skin/fur had been cleanly ripped off, but now it's very scabby and lumpy in different places, even though I've been cleaning it. I've never had an injured rabbit before, and although I'm planning to ring the vets this afternoon, so ask their advice and possibly to take her down again I was wondering if anyone can give me advice as to what the wound should look like if it's healing properly!

Even though I am cleaning it, it just doesn't seem to look very clean... The hutch is being cleaned once every 2 days to make sure it's clean for her to minimise chances of infection, and she is happy enough - in fact more friendly and lively than when there were two of them! She's hopping around as normal (she's in the house for a couple of hours once a day), and is bright eyed and friendly and doesn't seem to be in THAT much pain from it, she allows me to apply cream to the wound and doesn't struggle or anything... But I'm just a little worried that the wound is so scabby and to be honest, at one place in the wound, it looks like there actually is a small hole RIGHT through her ear!

Sorry for the really long post, I would just really appreciate advice! Thanks for any help anyone can give me!

Being scabbed over is good, that means it's healing

Signs of infection would be puss, the wound weeping or swelling around the wound.

Can you take a picture to show us?

Tamsin

Well that's settled my mind a little, thank you! There is no swelling and no pus, it just looks very dirty!

I'll try and take a picture as soon as I can, thank you!

Okay, managed to take some pictures of the wound, however, I only applied cream around an hour ago, so some of it's still on, however, the main scabby/lumpy bits are visible. Sorry about the bad quality, I had to take them on my mobile phone as my digital camera isn't working at the moment!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h251/stillcountingstars/SP_A0512.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h251/stillcountingstars/SP_A0513.jpg

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h251/stillcountingstars/SP_A0514.jpg

And a normal picture of her for good measure!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h251/stillcountingstars/SP_A0515.jpg

That looks fine to me I think it looks a bit untidy because a big patch of skin has gone rather than a slice type wound where the edges heal together neatly.

It's possible there is a small hole through her ear. I've seen rabbits with healed up ears that have a tear or hole left. It won't cause her any trouble though if it does heal with a little gap.

Tamsin

Obviously, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest if she has a little hole through her ear! ...And I think if she does, it'll be very small, although it seems that there's a bit of overlapping skin that SHOULD heal over the hole! However, as long as it doesn't cause her any distress then nothing to worry about!

Thanks for your help Tamsin, greatly appreciated!

Helen

Right, I went to look at the wound this morning, and as I had a look at it and cleaned it before putting the cream on and the scabby bit where I thought it was healing, was only attatched to the rest of her ear by a tiny little bit of dead skin/fur and was basically like a flap! As I tried to get a better look at it, it actually came away from the rest of her ear - so was like, sticking up into the air away from her ear, leaving a smallish hole... Basically, I was like "whaaat?" because I thought it was healing attatched! The skin around the hole has healed fine, it just seems it's healed around the skin that was wounded, rather than attatched The scabby dead skin came off and it's left a hole in her ear, but it's pretty much healed except for a small patch at one side which is still a bit open, but I've applied cream to it and hopefully it'll heal okay!

Looks like Daisy comes with a hole from now on! The skin that I thought was all scabby and lumpy, turns out wasn't actually attatched properly, it was just dried blood that was keeping it there, and with a good clean this morning has come away properly...

Hopefully she'll be okay though! Will a hole in her ear bother her?

It sounds like the scab came off. If the skin is all healed underneath that's great You may find she always has a furless bit but it won't cause any problems at all, nor will having a hole in her ear

Yeah, it's definately the scab that's come off - but it's come off leaving a hole where the scab was... I'll edit the picture to show you haha!

http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h251/stillcountingstars/SP_A05121.jpg

The only thing I was worried about was the fact that I thought it was healing as a scab, but when the scab has come away, it's left a hole in her ear... It was quite a deep and messy wound so it's probably to be expected because her ears are very thin, and the wound looked as if it had only left one layer of skin that wasn't wounded!

Sorry for coming across like a bit of a worry-wort, it's just this is the first problem I've ever had with any of my rabbits, and I'm home alone during the day after finishing my GCSE's, so I basically panic and have no one to check with haha! Thanks again.

It's no problem, we all worry As long as the skin is healed and there isn't any swelling it's fine.

There was possibly a bit of skin there that don't have any blood supply so it helped form the scab but when it died and the scab came away there was hole left.

My first bunny had a fight with his brother and ended up with an inch long tear in his ear. The edges healed fine but it didn't go back together so he had a permanent bit missing.

Nope no swelling! Just a bit of a sort of wound were the scab came away at one side (where I've labelled it on the picture.)

Like I said, it doesn't matter in the slightest to me if she has a little hole in her ear, as long as she isn't in any pain or it isn't bothering her! Hopefully, the little wound that's left will heal properly as it's very thick underneath, unlike before.

Thank you for all your help!