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Emergency abanded bunnies found

Shimmer said:
It's absolutely no reflection on your intentions - but you are now the only one who can make sure those babies get the appropriate specialist care needed to keep them alive, if it is possible. An adult rabbit that hasn't eaten or passed anything in 2 days would be in a bad way, never mind tiny babies that ought to still be with mum for another month.
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Totally agree with this. Time is of the essence for this poor babies. I hope you get chance/can find the support to help turn their lives around. There is a rescue network called Bunny Angels (active via Facebook) that I am sure would be able to find rescue help in your area to give them the best chance. This is the kind of situation that they are set up for.
 
This morning I was a bit worried about the baby bunnies so I called the RSPCA and I told them I have some baby bunnies that I rescued and the receptionist seemed to be very short with me and she hung up the phone before I could explain they wasn't interested at all. That is the last time they get any donations from me.

I don't really do facebook but I can always set up an account just for the bunnies and I will check out Bunny Angels.

I have some good news... The babies drank the milk, if I'm not in the room with them they will drink the milk. They appear to be scared of my presence. They are currently very active and running about doing little binkies I have been observing them on a baby monitor. When I go into the room they run back to there nest box to hide. They all seem to be doing alright.
 
At this time I am confident they will make it but if they start showing any signs of declining I will get them to a vet or rescue asap. I'll be monitoring them closely. So far so good.

There are 5 babies in total, two black bunnies and three multi color striped bunnies. If all goes well with the baby bunnies in my care I will re-home the two black bunnies but I'll hang onto the three striped ones for a while longer and then I will be keeping one of them or possibly two and re-homing the other one.

So far so good.
 
It would help if you can accurately weigh each baby (daily?) to make sure they are all thriving. If you are leaving them to their own devices, it's difficult to assess who is eating what. A cheap pair of digital kitchen scales will do the job.
 
I will have a look for some digital kitchen scales. I have an old Victorian kitchen scale, maybe I could use that?

They are full of energy thins morning and they are passing stools so all looks good. Here is are some photos of three of the baby bunnies. I didn't want to get them all out because they hate being picked up or touched.

One has dried poop stuck to it so I'll have to find a way of gently removing it.

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One looks like it has blue eyes.
 
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I'd say they are about 4 - 5 weeks of age. As long as they are now all eating hay and a few pellets and drinking water I wouldnt give them any milk substitute.

They will need vaccinating which can be done from 5 weeks of age.

https://www.noahcompendium.co.uk/?id=-476284

Given you know nothing of their history I would get them all assessed by a Vet and discuss giving them all a 28 day course of Fenbendazole (Panacur) to cover for exposure to EC. I would also give Coxoid to make sure they are not carrying a heavy load of coccidia. If they are GI tract problems can easily occur, usually prior to 8 weeks of age.

https://netvet.co.uk/rabbits/coccid... causing coccidiosis affect different animals.

https://ukpetdrugs.co.uk/coxoid
 
Kitchen scales - I don't think you will get the level of accuracy you need from old-style scales, especially with lively babies. Places like Wilko or B&M will have digital kitchen scales for under £10. You need to get to 10g (or less) accurately when they are this small. 50g is quite a lot of baby bunny.

Panacur - cheaper to get a bottle of cat/dog 10% liquid to dose them all than the rabbit paste syringes. It will also give you much more accurate dosing. Rabbits really don't like it - so be prepared to work on technique to get a 1ml syringe in the mouth (from the side) and squirt it quickly. When I'm doing multiples, I get all the syringes loaded up (in a saucer or similar) and colour code the ends of all the plungers with marker pen so I know which ones have been dosed. I usually pick colours to match the rabbit as far as possible, to make it easier to remember, especially if they are on different doses. Syringes can be rinsed and re-used. You can get syringes from the vet or online. I may have some spares somewhere that I could post to you, but I suspect they won't get there this year.

I think you are about to find out how expensive and time-consuming rescuing animals can be. Hope all goes well.
 
So at 4 to 5 weeks of age they are almost ready to be independent which is great news. I'll go hunting for scales soon. I will have them checked over by a vet as soon as I can. Vets are only dealing with emergencies at the moment so its going to be hard getting a space booked.

I have Harkers Coxoid Coccidiosis Treatment that I bought for my birds. The baby rabbits seem pretty healthy. They are eating hay.
 
Lord Trellis said:
So at 4 to 5 weeks of age they are almost ready to be independent which is great news. I'll go hunting for scales soon. I will have them checked over by a vet as soon as I can. Vets are only dealing with emergencies at the moment so its going to be hard getting a space booked.

I have Harkers Coxoid Coccidiosis Treatment that I bought for my birds. The baby rabbits seem pretty healthy. They are eating hay.
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Vaccinations are really important. I am in the London area and there is no problem here getting a Vet to do vaccinations.
 
Vets aren’t only dealing with emergencies. I use multiple vets for the rescue and use them every single day, for neuter and vaccinations.
 
I will get them vaccinated in January. Lamb Chop and Lacey are going to be booked in for there neutering anyway so I'll get the babies booked in for vaccines then.
 
Shimmer said:
Kitchen scales - I don't think you will get the level of accuracy you need from old-style scales, especially with lively babies. Places like Wilko or B&M will have digital kitchen scales for under £10. You need to get to 10g (or less) accurately when they are this small. 50g is quite a lot of baby bunny.

Panacur - cheaper to get a bottle of cat/dog 10% liquid to dose them all than the rabbit paste syringes. It will also give you much more accurate dosing. Rabbits really don't like it - so be prepared to work on technique to get a 1ml syringe in the mouth (from the side) and squirt it quickly. When I'm doing multiples, I get all the syringes loaded up (in a saucer or similar) and colour code the ends of all the plungers with marker pen so I know which ones have been dosed. I usually pick colours to match the rabbit as far as possible, to make it easier to remember, especially if they are on different doses. Syringes can be rinsed and re-used. You can get syringes from the vet or online. I may have some spares somewhere that I could post to you, but I suspect they won't get there this year.

I think you are about to find out how expensive and time-consuming rescuing animals can be. Hope all goes well.
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I realize how expensive vets are for sure but I try not to think about the cost. I've always got money put aside for things like this. My animals give me a lot more in my life in so many ways plus I enjoy working with animals and rescuing them. In the mornings I could spend an hour or sometimes two hours just feeding and cleaning there enclosures. I don't have many animals its mainly birds and rabbits.

My Canary sings every morning it sounds amazing, its like having nature indoors. While I'm cleaning out the bunny enclosures my Canary provides me with some bird song. Lucky gets let out into the living room during that time while I clean out his enclosure, feed and water him. His litter tray was very dirty this morning. He is very good at containing everything which makes cleaning easy. Lamb Chop is messy he goes to the toilet where ever there is hay and he does binkies at me when its time for feeding but he will throw tantrums if he is not first to be fed. Lacey waits patiently by her food bowl.
 
It would be useful if you could just buy the jabs ready made from pet stores it would save a lot of unnecessary expense, plus the vets time. Just a thought.
 
Lord Trellis said:
It would be useful if you could just buy the jabs ready made from pet stores it would save a lot of unnecessary expense, plus the vets time. Just a thought.
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There is an issue with keeping vaccines at the appropriate temperature before use, they will be ineffective if the protocols are not followed. There is also a legal obligation for there to be a health check before vaccinating. I can't remember the details but even if a vet allows you to vaccinate your own rabbits, they have to make a declaration that the animal is under their care and have had a health check recently. It's dangerous not to do it properly, hence all the red tape.
 
Lord Trellis said:
It would be useful if you could just buy the jabs ready made from pet stores it would save a lot of unnecessary expense, plus the vets time. Just a thought.
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That’s never going to happen, because it must be given by a veterinary professional. You managed to get an appointment for vaccs and neutering booked in Jan then? :)
 
There are also different ways and locations to give injections. Some are quite specialist - one of the rabbit ones used to be SC and a proportion also in a fluid bubble just under the skin surface. You can't just jab them in to whichever bit of the animal you have access to. If they are not administered properly to a health checked animal, they may not work to promote the correct immune response, or cold be lethal if eg vaccination or air goes into a vein. I certainly wouldn't trust the general Jo Public to do it correctly, and they have no emergency backup either.

I don't think vets make much on vaccine administration - but it is an excellent opportunity to get a 'free' health check and discuss any other issues which may improve the health of the animal and save on other future procedures. Prevention rather than cure.
 
That kinda sucks. I'm getting them all booked in for January anyway, it will be a busy month for them but also an exciting one watching the babies growing up. They are already out and about and eating solid food from the bowl... well four of them are. I'm getting slightly concerned about the 5th bunny it wants to stay in the nesting box I picked it up and its very energetic so maybe I'm worrying about nothing which reminds me I forgot to pop to Argos to get some scales. I knew there was something I hadn't done today.
 
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