Broken Jaw/Bored Bunny

[Chester A. Arthur]

First post, our Holland Lop Arthur suffered an unfortunate accident when we were cleaning his cage 4 weeks ago when he was accidentally knelt on… We were relieved that his back seemed okay as he hopped away perfectly normal. However, he didn’t show interest in food, and he is our little piggy, so we knew something was wrong. We discovered some blood in his mouth and took him to the vet within a few hours. They wanted to X-ray his spine, to which we objected and asked for them to please examine his mouth as that was the source of the issue. They ended up doing an X-ray and we were relieved when they told us there was no break, just a loose tooth or two and that after a few weeks of a critical care diet he should be as good as new.

2 weeks later and we bring him in for his all clear check up. His teeth are completely misaligned, there is an infection in his gum, and they decide his jaw was in fact broken….

So we decided to keep trying to save our little guy and they did a CT scan the following morning to see the extent of the break and decided that instead of wiring his jaw as was the plan, that they needed to wire his teeth instead. So for some imagery, he basically has braces on his lower teeth to pull his broken lower jaw together. The problem is, by doing this instead of the jaw we were told he still couldn’t eat hay, and that half way through recovery he would need to go through the whole thing again because his teeth and the wire will have grown out too much. So here we are almost halfway, 2 weeks, his next surgery is in 2 days.

Sorry for all of the back story.

My issue, worry, concern, question, problem–

Because he can’t dig around in his hay and chew that he is becoming very bored, and aggressive. We have had to separate him from his bonded friend because she still needs hay. He is free range in the same room as her, and she is still caged with hay. Because he can’t eat hay, he is now trying to eat everything else in the house. Carpet, bed frames, base boards, etc. I get that he needs something to relieve those natural urges to forage and have fun. But are there any suggestions of what activities he can do without chewing? I just want to help the little guy, we’ve had some bad luck with a previous rabbit dying during his neutering, and our little Arthur hasn’t even been with us a year. We want him to be around for a long time and be healthy.

[Daisy]

Can he eat pellets? If so, stuff his pellets inside a treat ball. He will atleast spend up to an hour throwing and rolling around with that to get to the pellets. When my Monster is being a little brat I give him a treat ball so to keep him busy doing something productive rather than ruining my doormat. If he cannot eat pellets, maybe someone knows of something soft, healthy and tasty to put in there instead. I know of raisins, but they are fruit and should not be given in large quantities, thus the fun would be over within 15 minutes or so if you’d fill it with only 3 raisins.

Also, maybe give him a box where he can hop inside in stuffed with towels/blankets. Hopefully he likes digging (it’s a natural hobby of bunnies beside chewing) in that and will be happily digging. Some bunnies may start dragging the towels around/chew them, I’m not sure if your bunny would be allowed to do that with his injury but I’d say just monitor him closely and take the towels away if he starts dragging them around/chew them.

I’ve also saw someone filling a box with plastic balls (like ones you have for kids to play in). I’ve been very tempted to try that, maybe it’s an option for you.

[Bam]

If he can use his incisors you could give him apple or willow twigs to gnaw on. For twig-gnawing they primarily use the incisors. Apple twigs need to be pesticide-free (willow is rarely, if ever, treated with pesticides).

What is he eating now? Critical Care?

A dig box could be fun for him. I’d not use soil from the outside, but the type of plant soil you buy in sacks is as a rule sterilized with heat. It would make a mess indoors though. Daisy’s suggesting of filling a box with balls would be way less messy. You can also use torn up newspaper or scrunched up tissue-paper, but you’d have to monitor him so he doesn’t eat it (a nibble is fine, but large-ish amounts of paper can cause a stomach blockage).

[Author]

Messages