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Potential broken leg ***Update post #27***

xlaurax

Mama Doe
I feel truly dreadful.

Picked Bluebell up yesterday (anyone who has seen my recent threads knows she's has a rough time recently) for the first time in the 7.5 years I've had her, she leapt out of my arms. It was such a shock.

She landed on concrete.

She's now limping on one front paw.

Took her to our vets last night who gave her pain relief. They're not rabbit specialists so referred me to Holly House. They can't see her unntil tomorrow - 36 hours after the injury.

I have called round so many places but nobody can help me. I feel sick. This is my fault
 
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I feel truly dreadful.

Picked Bluebell up yesterday (anyone who has seen my recent threads knows she's has a rough time recently) for the first time in the 7.5 years I've had her, she leapt out of my arms. It was such a shock.

She landed on concrete.

She's now limping on one front paw.

Took her to our vets last night who gave her pain relief. They're not rabbit specialists so referred me to Holly House. They can't see her unntil tomorrow - 36 hours after the injury.

I have called round so many places but nobody can help me. I feel sick. This is my fault

Oh no, I am so sorry :cry: I can understand that you feel it to be your fault, but accidents happen. I have had two particularly devastating ones in my 22 years of keeping Rabbits. It may be that she has not sustained a fracture but severe bruising/ torn muscles. Have you been given ongoing pain relief for her until tomorrow ? This is absolutely essential. I'd keep her confined to a small area too as if she has a fracture attempting to use the limb may cause more damage.
 
Thanks Jane. Yes I've got her in her carry box within a small pen.

I just feel truly dreadful. Poor girl.

Holly House have us pencilled in for 11.30am tomorrow as their orthopedic surgeon isn't working today. So fingers crossed I can keep her comfortable until then. Not looking forward to the next 24 hours :(

Ps yes we have pain relief, a few days worth
 
Thanks Jane. Yes I've got her in her carry box within a small pen.

I just feel truly dreadful. Poor girl.

Holly House have us pencilled in for 11.30am tomorrow as their orthopedic surgeon isn't working today. So fingers crossed I can keep her comfortable until then. Not looking forward to the next 24 hours :(

Ps yes we have pain relief, a few days worth

Make sure that she keeps eating and pooing. This will be important if she has to have a GA tomorrow xx
 
Sending lots of vibes for Bluebell. It may not be fractured as Rabbits are pretty good at landing, it could be a broken toe or not even that.
 
Thank you everyone. I'm feeling much better at the moment, than I did this morning. She's just eaten 10 large dandelion leaves, a carrot and half a stick of celery. She's also been grazing on pellets. Ideally I'd like to get some hay in her but I'll take anything at the moment! Trying to keep her strength up for tomorrow
 
Sending lots of vibes for Bluebell. I'm glad she is eating well. This was an accident, which could have happened to any of us.
 
Firstly - thank you to everyone for your responses.

She has had anesthetic and xray with both a rabbit savvy vet and a rabbit orthopedic vet present.

Her elbow is fractured, with small amounts of bone floating around in her. They said they could try and operate but there were a few issues with this:

(1) The length of time she would be asleep for, her age (8.5 years) and the fact she's recently had pneumonia all mean she may not survive the anesthetic.
(2) Risk of infection after the operation, in the affected area is high
(3) Because of the location of the fracture, and the fact rabbit bones are hard to work with in general means surgery may be unsuccessful in any case.

Option two was that we bring her home with pain relief, keep her in a smaller area, away from ramps and places to jump for 4-6 weeks and see what happens. The vet says that the chances are she'll heal and although she will be left with a crooked leg, she will learn to live with it.

We already believe she has started with arthritis and as that's now extremely likely in that joint, we'll be given pain relief to manage it.

We are going with option 2. I feel like that's what's going to be best for her long term. My main concern is that I want her to have the best quality of life, and right now I don't think that involves surgery and all the risks that come with it.

We can collect her this evening, I can't wait to bring her home!
 
Oh I'm sorry that the x-ray indicated a fracture :( I do think that you have made the right decision for her though. There is a very good chance that it will heal and that she will cope with it fine. The option of the operation would not have been in her best interests in my opinion.

Sending her lots of healing vibes.
 
I agree with Omi and J&B, I think you have made the best decision for her. Sending lots more vibes xx
 
Rabbit front legs have very fine bones. My tripod had a couple of attempts to realign the bones but it proved impossible to keep them in position and they were too small / fine to pin, so he became a tripod. I think you have made a good call on all counts.
 
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