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Abcess on Bunny that won't heal

Wow. I am glad I did. There are no rabbit savy Veterinarians close to me here. She is their only rabbit patient. So this has been an interesting journey.
 
I opened the hutch door this morning and just let her free roam the entire house. She gets along with my dogs just fine. She grew up with them so they don't pay any attention to her and her to them. Ella May and her bonded and played a lot when she was young. She is very cage aggressive 😳 Out of the cage she is great. Sweet and docile.
 
She could just be the type of Rabbit who is, well, a Rabbit’s Rabbit. Some Rabbits never want to have a lot of interaction with humans. And as stated, Rabbits really need a companion of their own kind. She might be a lot happier with a Rabbit friend and to just be a Pet you watch rather than interact with. We can never be as good a companion to a Rabbit as can another Rabbit.
My rabbit is very much a rabbit's rabbit, it's just the way some of them are. I feel bad because she recently lost her friend but she is getting more human interaction on her terms.

Remember if you do get her a friend, you'll need to introduce them on neutral territory and take things slowly, female buns are usually more territorial than males.
 
I understand that. She is most definitely territorial. She does not like even me taking her litter pan out to clean it. I get slapped when I reach to quickly so I pet her and go slow. The house privileges are going really well for her. I hope it helps calm her some.
 
Female rabbits in particular can get quite territorial. It's also them (male or female) protecting 'their' space as they don't have anywhere else to go when something invades (ie you cleaning up)- it means they need much more space and the hutch / cage is too small. NZs are quite big rabbits, so any 'standard' commercially available hutch / cage is going to be way too small for them anyway. As meat rabbits, they are kept in small commercial cages to grow them on - not to keep them as happy bunnies.
 
My husband built her a very large hutch when we put her outside and she still would attack my hands, so that idea doesn't work. I stated before it was at least 3 ft or 4 ft high and 6 ft long. He put a jack on it so I could open the top to let air in for her. It goes up a foot at least. There is wiring so she can't hop out. I put a fan in front so she is cool. This is his creation. She has a hiding place as well for her to go into. It is really neat and a place to jump up on to. So she is just cage aggressive. I do not leave her in the outside hutch when she has the abcess. I bring her in. She does not have the luxury of a large hutch in here, but I let her free roam every day.
 
To be honest her behaviour sounds pretty normal for a Doe who is confined to a small space, sorry, but the space is too small even if she has some time out. Also for a Doe who has no companion and is a breed who almost certainly has poor eyesight.


Personally I think making environmental changes will be more useful to her and to you than looking for ‘genetic’ or medical reasons to account for her ‘bad attitude’.
 
I wish the picture of this would come through so you could see it. She has a lot of room. Then she runs free for hours. (It has an extension to the hutch as well).
She has access to several rooms of our home not just one which she has always done. She is great outside of her hutch. She is only aggressive inside it. I can pick her up fine out of it. The abcess worries me so I will always seek medical care. I love my animals.
 
I wish the picture of this would come through so you could see it. She has a lot of room. Then she runs free for hours. (It has an extension to the hutch as well).
She has access to several rooms of our home not just one which she has always done. She is great outside of her hutch. She is only aggressive inside it. I can pick her up fine out of it. The abcess worries me so I will always seek medical care. I love my animals.



 
Also, to add, you have described the wound as both ‘an ulcer’ and ‘an abscess’. Obviously these are two different presentations and would require different management.

if it is an abscess then is likely that it was not adequately treated before. Rabbit abscesses are much more difficult to treat than those in many other animals. Rabbit abscesses usually wall off and the pus within them is extremely thick. This means that surgery to remove the entire abscess capsule, with a good margin of healthy tissue is almost always needed. I know your Doe had surgery, but was it done correctly. You allude to a lack of ‘Rabbit Savvy’ Vets, so I wonder if the abscess was just opened and debrided and so some infected tissue was left behind. Also, in order to ascertain the most appropriate antibiotic to prescribe after surgery the Vet needs to get a sample of tissue from the abscess wall to have analysed to identify the specific bacteria involved. Often the course of antibiotics needs to continue for a few weeks, not just 7-10 days. I don’t know if this occurred last time ?


It is possible that there is an internal abscess. Has this been investigated?

 
My last dwarf bunny was territorial when I went to pick up his litter tray. Like you, I would pet him to distract him while I reached with my other hand for the litterbox. One day I realized he lets me pick him up, so I would move him to another area/room while I cleaned his litterbox/area.

It is good to hear Snowflake is a calmer bunny when she has time to run.

Have you spoken to her vets about the return of the sore area on her belly?
 
Yes, she has an appointment tomorrow so we shall see what the outcome is. I really want this resolved for her. I think she has been really coming in to her own and becoming a really sweet bunny. She does not need to be dealing with this constantly. She would be so much happier. She loves coming out and running around the house freely.
 
There has never been any pus with these sores she has thus the reason I say ulcers at times. It is possible her Vet missed something? She said she did not see anything inside when she did the surgery, it was all superficial, which it still appears to be. It is not deep seated. It does appear to stem from some behavior problems caused by inbreeding. I talked to her original owners daughter yesterday. The ones who bred them in mass for meat. They did not care what buck and doe they put together. They just wanted more. I will see what I can work out with my Vet. She may need intervention of some type. It could be some left over hormonal issues from a poor spay even. A different Vet did that. I changed to a better group now where my mom worked. I am quite hopeful they will figure it out, they are affiliated with our local University.
 
Well Snowflake went to the Vet this morning. All of her sores are superficial. She is self mutilating. The Vet isn't quite sure why she started doing this. She had a successful surgery that healed fine in May. She started doing this after that. We are going to try several things for her. She is on antibiotics and pain meds right now.
 
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