Bad fight between rabbits

[Sydneyfinch]

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice on what to do about a very recent fight between my two rabbits. I have a neutered 15 month old female Rex rabbit at I have had for over a year during which time she lived on her own. Almost two months ago we bought a 9 week old Netherland dwarf (he is now about four months old). The male dwarf is not neutered, at the vet this week she told to bring him back at six months.

We thought that we had successfully bonded our two rabbits. We kept them in neighbouring pens for the first couple weeks and they were able to run around the house and garden together freely whilst we supervised. For the last six weeks the two rabbits have been living in the same pen (3m x1.5m) within which each rabbit has its own double storied cage. The two of them have gotten along without any issues since the first few days of bonding. We have been so pleased with how well they were getting along.

This evening though they got into a pretty serious fight. I was upstairs so didn’t witness it but my partner was watching. Our female Rex started by chasing he dwarf out of the room their cage is in and into our living room. The dwarf (Bailey) was jumping around our Rex (Bonsai), jumping off her head and racing around the Rex before Bonsai managed to get hold of Bailey, pin him on his back and bite him in the belly tearing out a lot of fur. We separated them as fast as possible but unfortunately were not quick enough to prevent injury.

Bailey has a wound on his belly, where the skin has been torn but it doesn’t look too deep. We cleaned up the blood and washed the wound with saline solution but weren’t sure if we should put anything stronger on (we have some DETOL that we could dilute but I was worried this was too strong). The wound looks painful but stopped bleeding immediately. Bailey was shook up at first but after five minutes seemed to be behaving normally. He is running around, eating, drinking, coming over for strokes and eager to try and get back in his normal cage where we have shut Bonsai. We have now separated their pens so that they each have their own enclosure (1.5 X1.5 m), though there is only the metal bars of their enclosures separating the two rabbits. Their behaviour towards each other through the bars seems completely normal and friendly. Nonetheless, we are going to keep them separated whilst unsupervised until after Bailey has been neutered.

What I’m concerned about and looking for advice on is Baileys injury. At the least we will be taking him to our vet first thing in the morning (8am) but I wasn’t sure whether we should be seeking emergency vet treatment before then. There is an emergency vet clinic thats open all night about 50 minutes away or I could try calling in our local vet this tonight (it’s already after midnight). I’m just not sure how much of an emergency this is. From baileys behaviour I wouldn’t have guessed anything was different from normal. I don’t want to make our vet come in at his time of night if it’s really not necessary. But I’m also not sure if the moment you get any injury that had drawn blood whether you should be getting to th vet as soon as possible.

I would also be interested in hearing suggestions for why this incident might have occurred and how to prevent it in future. We are assuming that perhaps Bailey (Not neutered) has started to hassle Bonsai a bit and she fought back. We did originally concider keeping them separate until Bailey was old enough to be neutered but their bonding sessions were so successful we may have been tempted into moving faster than we should have.

Any advice would be welcome.

Thank you.

[Roberta]

Yes, an unneutered bun will be a bit annoying for a spayed female bun and that is quite possibly what started it. Definitely get the wound on his belly looked at.

[Sydneyfinch]

Thank you for your response. We took him in early the next morning and the vet said it was not a serious enough injury to have needed emergency attention.

He is on a five day treatment of oral antibiotics and doesn’t seem to have been at all phased by the incident.

Thank you.

[Roberta]

That’s great Sydney… Sometimes a serious spat can put a dent in any plans at future rebonding but if it was just a graze and some missing fur there is hope post neuter. All buns are different and some function fine in a mixed pair but generally a hump happy male will usually find himself getting thumped by his female partner, the biggest concern is when they hump the girls head and their dangly bits get too close to sharp teeth. Book him in for his neuter then allow 4-6 weeks for his mormones to settle and try rebonding them. It usually takes a month for hormones to subside post surgery and the little buggers can still have motile sperm during that time, which I found out the hard way.

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