caring for a broken back leg

[Akikta]

Last Sunday we discovered our 7 to 8 year old rabbit had a broken back leg that is completely unexplainable to any of us in the family. All we know is that he was alone in the house for about two hours during his normal nap time that day. We have no other pets or small children. He hadn’t shown any kind of discomfort or pain before that, so … we’re all stumped.

X-Rays on Monday showed a three-pronged twisted fracture above the knee that runs from his knee joint to about 3/4 of the way to his hip. The exotic animal x-ray specialist in our province said it’s definitely not due to cancer, but from having his foot caught and leg twisted in order to release his foot. They can’t splint it because of the location of the fracture, we can’t spend the $4000 for surgery, and the vet said to put him in a little box to prevent him from moving around.

So, now our little guy has gone from a full-out house rabbit to stuck in his 16″ by 13″ litter box which is inside a cage, but set up so he can’t get out of the litter box. We had given him more space but he moved around so much he dislocated the shoulder on his front leg on the same side as the break!

Okay, so my question is this: Has anyone ever dealt with this kind of thing before? I have pain killers, anti-inflammatory meds, and gut mobility meds, but he’s SOOO unhappy stuck in this box. I can’t blame him. We thought about letting him get put to sleep but we just can’t do it. He’s otherwise very healthy and we believe he has lots of time left in him. Does anyone have any ideas of how to make him happier?

[Bam]

I’m sorry this happened to your bun. We have had buns with “inexplicable” bone breaks here before. I remember one case with an elderly rabbit, the humans were planning to have the mysteriously broken thigh bone pinned (highly specialised and very costly procedure), but when the vet was doing the surgery they found the bones had started to fuse spontaneously, so they never had to pin it. The bun healed well and regained full strength and mobility.

Lots of company, pets, sticks to chew (apple twigs from pestice-free trees, willow) are the only things I can think of that would help distract him a little bit. (Petting releases pleasure-hormones (oxytocin) in both animals and humans, so it could really help make him feel better).

[Akikta]

Thank you so much for the encouragement, Bam. We have someone with him 24/7 Right now. His cage is in the living room and we take turns sleeping on the couch. He gets tons of cuddling too, which calms him down a bit. It’s really good to know he can heal well. We’ll find sticks for him, and hopefully other chew toys. It’s great to know there’s hope.

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