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Hi. :wave:
Im just wondering whether i should/when i should get another rabbit to bond with my baby mini lop rabbit?
Just a short introduction to me while im here to explain why im asking rather than just getting one...
Iv had rabbits all my life, 21 years (my parents adopted a rabbit off their friend who was moving and couldnt take it with them, and had rabbits ever since). We always used to have rabbits on their own, mainly as the one they had was on its own and lived a long (13 years, 9 of them at my parents), happy life. As i got older, i read more about rabbits and found they should be kept in pairs ideally, so when i was 14 bought a second rabbit to bond with by other rabbit, who was 8 at the time. They bonded fine, but unfortunately the older rabbit died 4 months later
, he had an absess, and refused to eat after the operation to get rid of it, and although was given recovery food and fibreflex etc still died. A few weeks later, i bought a second rabbit to bond with the other rabbit, but no matter what we did, they attacked each other, so i had to keep them seperately. A year later, we adpoted a rabbit and guniea pig (i know they shouldnt be kept together, but they were brought up together by the other owner, and i didnt want to seperate them), and the guniea pig died almost a year ago, and the rabbit died 2 months ago (aged between 9-10 1/2, the owner didnt know exactly how old she was).
So anyway...i decided to buy some more rabbits (iv still got my other 2, ones just turned 7 and the others 4 months younger) as i had the spare cage. I wanted 2, but ended up getting 3 as i didnt want to leave it on its own, it looked for the other 2 when we took them out, and i felt so sorry for it. They're mini lops, and were told they were born on the 14th january, so were almost 8 weeks old when we got them 2 and a half weeks ago on. They seemed to settled in fine, running, eating, drinking etc, but on the first saturday (4 days after getting them), one had major diarohhea (sorry, i cant spell it), and had sat in its own wee, so took it straight to the vets, who gave it an injection to rehydrate it and antibiotics, fibreplex and recovery food, thinking it was stress. It picked up that night, but then keeled over and died by midnight. Then on the monday, i went down to feed them at just gone 8am to find one having a fit on its side, so took it straight to the vets, who did everything they could but it died by 1pm. It was the vet i normally see this time, who immediately suspected VHD, due to the sudden deaths, so gave the surviving rabbit the VHD injection. Im still awaiting post-mortem results, the vet has been hassling the company but still no results.
Anyway, the next day, the surviving rabbit stopped eating, drinking and pooing, so i took her straight to the vets, who presumed it could be the injection but gave her fibreplex and recovery food, since then iv been back 4 times, shes been put on antibiotics (baytril), zantac syrup (to keep her gut going), and bio-lapis, and had 3 metaclopramide injectons to get her gut going, aswell as syringe feeding her. She was constantly grinding her teeth from saturday and i went back (it was a differet vet though) and asked for pain killers but got told she doesnt need them, which clearly she did! Went back monday and my regular vet gave her a mild one. It seemed to do the trick as as soon as i got home she started eating, tuesday she finally pooed (a lot, she must have been constipated), and since then shes been eating and pooing, today her poos are back to normal and shes been eating like a horse since yesterday, and really running around again full of energy. Shes lost a lot of weight, so hopefully will put it on soon.
Im obviously going to wait until shes put more weight on and is better before getting another rabbit if i do, and until we have the post-morten results, but i figure the sooner the better if the other 2 rabbits didnt die of VHD (i dont think it was that, the rabbits in the pet shop are all fine, the breeders rabbits are fine, and so are my other two, they hadnt been vaccinated as i didnt really know about vaccinations when i was younger, and didnt think they needed them, but i actually booked the babies in for the injections before they got ill!They also died a bit differently, and didnt have any blood which is apparently a sign of VHD)
So back to the original question...do you advise me getting her a friend? And when would you advise me to get one? Iv been looking around for breeders around where i live, and found one that has two male mini lops ready from this monday, which i think is a bit soon, but the other breeder i found wont be ready until the end of april, which is a while off yet...I want to keep the new rabbit seperate for a week and get a health check from the vets just to make sure, before introducing them. So if i did buy one of the males (i am planning on getting them spayed/neutered, so no unexpected rabbits), and keet it seperate, it wouldnt be until at least a week and a half before i started to introduce them. Is this too early if i got it?
Any advice is grealty appreciated!
Im just wondering whether i should/when i should get another rabbit to bond with my baby mini lop rabbit?
Just a short introduction to me while im here to explain why im asking rather than just getting one...
Iv had rabbits all my life, 21 years (my parents adopted a rabbit off their friend who was moving and couldnt take it with them, and had rabbits ever since). We always used to have rabbits on their own, mainly as the one they had was on its own and lived a long (13 years, 9 of them at my parents), happy life. As i got older, i read more about rabbits and found they should be kept in pairs ideally, so when i was 14 bought a second rabbit to bond with by other rabbit, who was 8 at the time. They bonded fine, but unfortunately the older rabbit died 4 months later
, he had an absess, and refused to eat after the operation to get rid of it, and although was given recovery food and fibreflex etc still died. A few weeks later, i bought a second rabbit to bond with the other rabbit, but no matter what we did, they attacked each other, so i had to keep them seperately. A year later, we adpoted a rabbit and guniea pig (i know they shouldnt be kept together, but they were brought up together by the other owner, and i didnt want to seperate them), and the guniea pig died almost a year ago, and the rabbit died 2 months ago (aged between 9-10 1/2, the owner didnt know exactly how old she was).So anyway...i decided to buy some more rabbits (iv still got my other 2, ones just turned 7 and the others 4 months younger) as i had the spare cage. I wanted 2, but ended up getting 3 as i didnt want to leave it on its own, it looked for the other 2 when we took them out, and i felt so sorry for it. They're mini lops, and were told they were born on the 14th january, so were almost 8 weeks old when we got them 2 and a half weeks ago on. They seemed to settled in fine, running, eating, drinking etc, but on the first saturday (4 days after getting them), one had major diarohhea (sorry, i cant spell it), and had sat in its own wee, so took it straight to the vets, who gave it an injection to rehydrate it and antibiotics, fibreplex and recovery food, thinking it was stress. It picked up that night, but then keeled over and died by midnight. Then on the monday, i went down to feed them at just gone 8am to find one having a fit on its side, so took it straight to the vets, who did everything they could but it died by 1pm. It was the vet i normally see this time, who immediately suspected VHD, due to the sudden deaths, so gave the surviving rabbit the VHD injection. Im still awaiting post-mortem results, the vet has been hassling the company but still no results.
Anyway, the next day, the surviving rabbit stopped eating, drinking and pooing, so i took her straight to the vets, who presumed it could be the injection but gave her fibreplex and recovery food, since then iv been back 4 times, shes been put on antibiotics (baytril), zantac syrup (to keep her gut going), and bio-lapis, and had 3 metaclopramide injectons to get her gut going, aswell as syringe feeding her. She was constantly grinding her teeth from saturday and i went back (it was a differet vet though) and asked for pain killers but got told she doesnt need them, which clearly she did! Went back monday and my regular vet gave her a mild one. It seemed to do the trick as as soon as i got home she started eating, tuesday she finally pooed (a lot, she must have been constipated), and since then shes been eating and pooing, today her poos are back to normal and shes been eating like a horse since yesterday, and really running around again full of energy. Shes lost a lot of weight, so hopefully will put it on soon.
Im obviously going to wait until shes put more weight on and is better before getting another rabbit if i do, and until we have the post-morten results, but i figure the sooner the better if the other 2 rabbits didnt die of VHD (i dont think it was that, the rabbits in the pet shop are all fine, the breeders rabbits are fine, and so are my other two, they hadnt been vaccinated as i didnt really know about vaccinations when i was younger, and didnt think they needed them, but i actually booked the babies in for the injections before they got ill!They also died a bit differently, and didnt have any blood which is apparently a sign of VHD)
So back to the original question...do you advise me getting her a friend? And when would you advise me to get one? Iv been looking around for breeders around where i live, and found one that has two male mini lops ready from this monday, which i think is a bit soon, but the other breeder i found wont be ready until the end of april, which is a while off yet...I want to keep the new rabbit seperate for a week and get a health check from the vets just to make sure, before introducing them. So if i did buy one of the males (i am planning on getting them spayed/neutered, so no unexpected rabbits), and keet it seperate, it wouldnt be until at least a week and a half before i started to introduce them. Is this too early if i got it?
Any advice is grealty appreciated!
