Broken leg aftercare

I say broken leg but I mean dislocated ankle. :?

I'll be finding out details from the vet tomorrow when I speak to her but just wondered if there was any general advice for looking after Alfie when he comes home.

Obviously, he will need cage rest so he and Bubbles will be indoors in a dog crate. What should I do about bedding? And where will he/they wee and poo as I'm guessing he can't be hopping in and out of a litter tray?

What did people do about other buns? I want Alfie and Bubbles to be together as much as possible but am worried Bubbles will get bored and being confined might do her more harm than good.

Anything anybody can think of to makes things easier for me or Alfie over the next few weeks would be appreciated.

I know its not nice to think of them having less space but its only temporary. Think it would be worse if they were seperated.
I had a group of 4 when Phoebe broke her leg and I confined them as much as I could. I would sometimes let the others out in the garden, but this often upset Phoebe to see them playing and she wasn't. So i distracted her with some nice food item and shut her in, whilst the others went out for a bit.
Go with the flow, you will know if you are giving him too much space/exercise that it slows healing.

In fact - the picture in my signature is the day Phoebe came back from the vets with her leg in cast and I was rebonding them in my kitchen.

Thanks for the reassurance - I think Alfie would be incredibly miffed if I kept letting Bubbles out and not him too so I'll have to play it by ear. Although he loves food too, so he'd probably be happy as long as he was fed. :lol::lol::lol:

Any suggestions on what to use on the floor of the dog crate? I'm thinking towels, fleece blankets or vet bed. If I've confined them before I've alwyas just put newspaper down and a litter tray on one side, but am not sure about a tray & newspaper doesn't soak up the wee and will end all over Alfie's bad leg. :?

When Phoebe broke her leg i kept her in her shed but removed anything she could jump onto or off of. She got around quite well, and if her plaster got damaged or wet I went back to have it redone.
At the end of the day she was quite good at keeping herself out of trouble.

Comfrey, nettle and oat straw are higher in calcium and encourage bone growth.

After Elwood had his leg amputated Michelleox sent me some great bed incontinence pad thingys from her work place. They were mainly for Elwoods wound as it was leaking for the first few days which you probably wont have a problem with, but they would probably be great for wee too. I have a few left so if you want me to post you some over just let me know :wave:

Hugo's There said:

I have a few left so if you want me to post you some over just let me know :wave:

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Thta's very kind of you, I'll reimburse your postage of course. Are you sure you don't want to keep them in case you need them in future? Well, not you personally, the buns I mean. :lol::lol:

I've got 6 so will send you 4, hope thats OK :wave:

when peanut was confined after his ops, i let Jelly out on her own to exercise for a bit sometimes because otherwise she got grumpy. he didnt, because he didnt want to move around, he was sore. and jelly was annoying him.

So you may find letting bubbles out for a bit will help as she will then come back and rest with him, rather than bug him.

When Parsnip broke his elbow, my vet said total confinement to a very small cage wasn't recommended but very gentle exercise was essential to ensure a complete range of motion when he was eventually healed. So I gave him a 45" dog crate for the first week and kept him bedded on vetbed but included some low-sided litter trays filled with megazorb and soft hay. He spent most of his time in the litter trays :roll:. I use gravel trays from the garden centre - they're big but low-sided.

Flora stayed with him 24/7 as he was much, much happier with her to help with grooming and company etc. After the first week, I added puppy panels to the dog crate to create a 'run' the same size as the crate. After the third week, I gave him the run of the conservatory but made sure I'd blocked off anything he could climb onto. My conservatory is carpeted so I knew he wouldn't slip. Once he was weight bearing on the limb (about week 4), I added small blocks for him to climb on and gentle slopes to walk up (all advised by the vet nurse as physio exercises).

I'm not sure if the procedure is the same for a dislocation compared to a break but your vet/vet nurse will advise. But I would recommend keeping your bunnies together, unless of course Alfie's partner is a hyped-up and hyper-active maniac :shock: - in which case, you may need to keep them side by side in separate cages.

Mackers said:

But I would recommend keeping your bunnies together, unless of course Alfie's partner is a hyped-up and hyper-active maniac :shock: - in which case, you may need to keep them side by side in separate cages.

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like jelly!:lol:

When Bruce dislocated his hip he had to have complete cage rest for so long because with a dislocation the tendons and muscles that hold the joint in place stretch. These need to rest completely for them to tighten back up again and prevent it coming out of the joint again.

When Elwood had his amputation we were able to let him out of his crate straight away, however he choose not to leave it for two days despite the door being left open.

I have no idea what the situation regarding cage rest will be with Alfie as he has had an op as well as the dislocation, but I am sure the vet will give advice on after care

Mackers said:

unless of course Alfie's partner is a hyped-up and hyper-active maniac :shock: - in which case, you may need to keep them side by side in separate cages.

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:lol::lol::lol: Luckily enough, she isn't. She's very sweet and gentle.

I will ask the vet for advice about confinement etc and what's best and then take it from there. I know that he certainly needs cage rest for the first few days, but will find out more as I go along. He needs to go back to the vet every couple of days once he's home as they want to change the dressing there and make sure it's all holding together, so I can easily get updates from the vet.

Thanks Liz, 4 of the pads would be great.

KarenM said:

Thanks Liz, 4 of the pads would be great.

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They were posted today :wave:

Thanks very much Liz, that's great. I'll let you know when they arrive.

Thanks very much Liz, they just came. :wave::wave: Will paypal you over the postage in a little while.

Brilliant, don't worry about postage I was just happy to help

Do you think they will be any good for Alfie?

Thanks Liz. I'm hoping it'll keep the crate a bit drier than using towels - they're weeing in all 4 corners and I'm struggling to keep up with the washing at the moment. :roll: I just need to watch out that Bubbles doesn't start eating it.

I've put a corner litter tray in and Alfie is using that, but no matter what I put in it (shredded loo roll, just megazorb or shredded newspaper) Bubbles is eating it, so I've lined the tray with cheap face cloths instead & change them every couple of hours.

I've also found puppy training pads good at absorbing for post op buns that can't use a litter tray.