Bite Wound on Rabbit

[Laura]

Hello, Before I state the problem I am going to give some context to avoid confusion. I have 2 males rabbits, Ivy, a Mini Lop (8 Months Old) and Lily, a Netherland Dwarf (9 Months old). Nether have been neutered yet, but both have the required blood test and Ivy is getting neutered first in a couple of weeks. They live in a very large C&C cage that measures about 2 1/2×9, and is split down the middle with the wire panels the cage is built out of. I chose this design because I hope they could eventually become companions, and I want them to get used to being near eachother. To be clear, they don’t have access eachothers cages, they are neighbors and would often lick and sniff eachother, but were never hostile or aggressive until yesterday evening. Yesterday morning, Ivy was playfully nipping at Lily a little bit, but only causing a tiny scab about the size of the tip of a pin. Last night, I went over to Lily’s cage after I heard Ivy biting him. I was horrified to see that the fur over the bridge of Lily’s nose was completely gone.  I immediately took Ivy out of his cage and put him into his carrier to tend to Lily’s wound. Lily seemed to be in a bit of pain, but wasn’t crying or screaming. I cleaned Lily’s wound with a mixture of warm water and anti-microbial soap on a gauze square, and then dried it and put a decent amount of antibiotic ointment on it. I also gave him 0.2 ml of Metacam that I had left over from a leg injury Ivy had to help with the pain. I separated their cages completely to avoid any further injury. Lily seemed to calm down after about an hour and was eating and playing like normal. Today, the wound has scabbed up a little bit and looks less swollen than yesterday. Lily has been acting completely normal and has been eating, drinking, pooping, playing, and grooming like normal, but I have seen very little pee in his cage and littler box. I even gave him some wet parsley, and he ate it, but still nothing. Should I be worried about this? My mother is an ER doctor and seeing abscesses and infections every shift, so we know what to look out for if it starts getting infected/an abscess starts forming. My routine for his wound care is; 0.2 ml of Metacam every 24 hrs, wound cleaning/antibiotic ointment application every 12-24 hrs. My main questions are; Should I be worried about lack of pee? Should I see a vet? Will the fur grow back? 

[Laura]

UPDATE: Lily loves to dig in his litter box and upon digging a bit in it, i’ve found that he has been peeing.

[BanditCamp]

Most likely Lilly was sniffing though the cage and the other bun took it as an invasion of space. When bonding rabbits it should always be supervised and at least 3-4 inches of space between the edges to prevent this occurance. For now as long as she’s eating, pooping, and check her tray for urine now and then she should be fine. My only worry that she might get a resputory infection I would take her to a vet just to make sure and maybe he can prescribe some antibiotics to quell anything not visible on the surface.

[BanditCamp]

*accidental double post please ignore/delete*

[Author]

Messages