HELP: I don’t know what to do

[AriannaFaith]

my name’s Arianna and my little holland lop, Obsidian, has proven to be quite difficult to care for. I did rescue him from living in a cage out of a car with a big dog, and from conversation I know that he was handled very poorly with his previous owner. However, I’ve had him for a year and I’ve tried a lot of things in an effort to help, but I’m not sure if so many changes in the short amount of time has made things easier or harder for him.
Shortly after I rescued him, I got him a new cage that goes on the floor so he could hop around my room and I got him neutered. After I got him neutered he was much more defensive and scared of being picked up and handled, so I did my best to not handle him unless I needed to, because that’s what I was told. But throughout the time I’ve had him, he has gotten more and more afraid of being picked up. Since learning more about bunny care and trying to have the best home for him, I got rid of his cage and bought an X play pen for him to be in, with an opening so that he can go in and out and roam the room as he pleases. Shortly after that, he was litter box trained and seemed to love his new arrangement. He then started getting on my bed and tearing up the bedding, diffing and chewing up everything. I’ve raised my bed now to where he can’t get up there, but he started chewing up my carpet and eating it. Now, recently, I had to take him to the vet because I noticed his poop being somewhat abnormal and he wasn’t running around as often. Sure enough, the vet said he has some inflammation in his GI tract possibly due to eating parts of the carpet, as well as strange bacteria in his poop. We got glaring home with meds a couple of days ago.
The big problem is handling him. He hates to be picked up, he’s petrified of it. I’ve been trying to give him a treat each time he’s picked up in an effort to show positive reinforcement, but his behavior stays the same. He takes one of his medications on his own without handling, because he likes the sweet taste. But picking him up has just gotten more and more difficult to the point he is jumping out of my arms at any height and spitting out the other meds. I’m in desperate need of any advice you could give me in taking better care of him.

[DanaNM]

Awww sorry you are having a rough go of it. 🙁

So at the moment he is probably getting more afraid because he knows the medicine is coming, but that should be temporary. For now, you will just need to resolve to take a tough-love approach, because he does need his meds. I find it helps to take some deep breaths so I stay as calm as possible as well. Some buns do better with giving them on the ground, but I usually either sit the bun on my lap on a towel while I sit on a chair, or put the bun on a towel on the table. What meds is he on?  These videos have some helpful tips on syringe feeding medication (liquid meds too):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmlx_K9RS0A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaHtUy4EX5s

Regarding the chewing etc, some buns just aren’t great candidates for unsupervised free-roam. But as long as he has an x-pen that is fully bunny-proofed, you can lock him in there when you can’t supervise, and then you can let him out for play time each day. Since he was in such a weird situation before, you might find he feels safer having his own smaller space all to him-self as his “burrow”.

For chewing, heavy ceramic tiles are useful to block problem areas, and most buns seem to love shredding phone books (if you can find one!). My big chewers also like cardboard cat scratchers and grass mats. The combo of blocking problem areas and giving safe alternatives should help!

 

 

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

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