Baby bunnies first vet visit

[New rabbit owner]

Hi,

Flash and George are booked in to see the vet for the first time tomorrow. Is there anything I should really been asking? I have taken dates to the vet before, but not rabbits, any advice greatfully received. X

 

[tonibun]

Are they going for their vaccinations?

 

[New rabbit owner]

I think so. Took the cat for her annual vaccnations today and registered them while we were there and I asked when we should first see the vet, with the rabbits being 8 weeks old, and the receptionist said that it could be a soon as I wanted, so thought we’d get it over with sooner rather than later. X

 

[tonibun]

I hope it all goes ok. Well done!

 

[New rabbit owner]

Well just got back from the vets. Rabbits are absolut fine, but after being checked by 3 vets it has been declared that George, the stripy one, is actually a girl and is now called Georgie. They had their RHD and myxi injections, they are going back in 2 weeks to have their RHD 2 vaccinations as there has been a few cases of it in our area. The vet says we can book them both in when they are 4 months old to be neatured, espically now as we have 1 on each, lol.

 

[tonibun]

It is really best to have brother/sister as they should get along with each other very well. I normally wait until the female is about 6 months old before I have them spayed, do you know if your Vet is experienced in rabbits. If you want to make sure you have a Rabbit Savvy Vet you can make a new thread entitled Rabbit Savvy Vet in .... and put your location and someone will get back to you. This is quite important. Hope your bunnies have settled down again after being at the Vets.

 

[New rabbit owner]

Thanks tonibun. I always wanted a brother and sister pair. Vets wise we use our local vets 4 pets and the vet we saw did go and speak to his colleagues and they said 4 months would be better as it would mean we could keep them together all the time x

 

[TandD]

I know this is a few weeks old. But just advising to be careful with vets 4 pets. I’ve had bad experience with the advice there. Don’t get me wrong the spay and neutering my rabbits have had done there have all been fine but the advice on how to keep them before/after the procedure is a bit inaccurate in my opinion. It’s best advised to separate baby buns until after their neuter/spay. Also be aware that male bunnies can still be fertile for about 2 weeks after a neuter so your female could very well end up pregnant if you keep them together. Last year I had two boys and at the time I wasn’t aware of how bonding should be carried out. I got both boys neutered at 4 months. They were fine until 2 weeks post op. They fought like crazy. From what I understand there can be a surge in hormones and the rabbits also smell unfamiliar to each other due to the changes in hormone levels. Vets 4 pets told me I was okay to continue keeping them together. As I say, I naively believed that because they were litter mates and neutered early that all would be well. I think this is a common misunderstanding with new rabbit owners. Bonding is actually a very important process and if not done right can have serious consequences. after doing research it would have been best for me to have the boys separated and gone through the appropriate bonding procedures. A few months down the line I was unable to put these two males back together and had to rehome one. I now have one of my males happily paired with a female and this is thanks to plenty of research and bonding the right way. I’m always drawn to posts like this because of how upsetting my whole experience has been and how different it could have been if someone at the vets would have just pointed me in the right direction rather than fuelling these misconceptions that exist. I hope this is helpful. You might already have this info in another post. I only just joined today and it caught my eye