Thank you for taking this rabbit in!

It seems he hasn’t been kept in ideal conditions, to say the least. He really needs you 🧡

What flea treatment are you using? We always warn members to never use any compound containing fipronil on a rabbit, it can be deadly toxic to rabbits (but its fine for cats and dogs). You can use Advantage on rabbits.

I’d brush him to help him get rid of the dead fleas. You will probably need to do a repeat treatment in a few weeks. I have not found a Furminator useful for rabbits – it can nip the skin. I use a slicker brush with plastic knows on the bristles plus I pluck out loose tufts with my fingers.

If the feet aren’t wet with pee I don’t think you need to give him a bath. He will be living in a clean and nice place now, so the dried urine will wear off and the hair grow out and hopefully he’ll become more interested in cleaning himself.  It’s great that you’ve cut out mats. I find it’s no use bothering with a comb or brush when there’s bad matting.

For sore hocks, it is recommended that you line the bandage with rabbit fur. I have used the kind of wrapping described in this article:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sorehocks.html

He could’ve just got the sore hocks due to long nails and a dirty living space, perhaps with in appropriate flooring and too little room to move around. So hopefully this will heal with wound care, good hygiene and rabbit-appropriate food.

We’d love to hear how you get on!

Oh, sounds like little Gimli has won the lottery 😃

Having long nails could possibly have contributed to the conjunctivitis, if he’s scratched himself with long and dirty nails. There are several causes of conjunctivitis, hopefully in his case it’s just due to the stress to the stress his  previous living conditions must’ve put on his immune system.

If it doesn’t go away with rinsing the eye with saline and antibiotic eye ointment (fucidine eye ointment is safe for rabbits), he should be seen by a rabbit vet. They can check his tear canals and his teeth,. It highly recommended to see a rabbit (exotics) vet for anything suspected to be teeth-related, because normal vets as a rule aren’t very good at diagnosing teeth problems in rabbits.

Have you any idea how old Gimli could be? Do you know if he was given hay before he came to you?

Poor baby! Thank you for rescuing him!

I agree that a bath may not be necessary, but if he is really crusty you could do just a bum bath, so his back paws would rest in a small amount of water.

But it’s also true that he will likely improve leaps and bounds with just having a clean environment and proper care!

Depending on how dirty his bum is would affect whether I’d bathe him or not. My main concern is that I don’t think it would be a good idea to get his sore hocks wet. If his bum is really bad, by all means give him a butt bath, just make sure to pat dry the sore hocks very thoroughly. As others said though, I think his hocks should improve quite well now that his nails are the appropriate length and he’s in a clean environment. He’s lucky to have you 🙂

I would be combing out the fleas and flea dirt using a flea comb, most other combs the teeth are too far apart to catch the fleas. That being said, I have found rabbit fur can be very tricky to comb out with a flea comb because if how dense it is, so just see how you go.

Aww, poor little bun!

Some people on the forum have found booties for sore hocks on Etsy. Something like that might work better for long term treatment.

It’s great that he’s had hay! That makes it less likely that he’ll have overgrown tooth roots at this adult, but still young age.

I think it’s very wise of you to take things slow with him. He’s had quite enough stress in lis life until you came and saved him 🙂

You can use baby wipes on a rabbit, but I’d avoid wiping the sore hocks. If you need to clean the hocks I’d rather use chlorhexidine or similar and be very, very gentle. Hopefully the hocks will heal very soon.