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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum DIET & CARE Help! Rescue Rabbit Care – Terrible Neglect

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    • Remmy
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        Hi everyone. This is my first post on this website as I have been trying to find somewhere to help me with this.
        One of my cousins has had a rabbit for the past I believe 6 years or so. My rabbit, who I purchased from the same breeder and actually was the one who referred them to her when they expressed interest, has recently passed at the age of 9 and I am pretty heartbroken. Since I was feeling so down I found myself wanting to check up on how their rabbit was doing. What I found was horrifying. I asked them about him and they said they’d left the care to their daughter but she wasn’t much interested in him. She often forgets to feed him, they casually stated that he got fed probably every 3 days or so. She doesn’t clean his litter box, he told me that last time he checked it had been 3 weeks since it was cleaned, it smelt like death and when he lifted the litter box up the urine had actually soaked through the plastic of the litter box, past the newspaper and into the wood of his hutch. I could barely breathe in there and they acted like it was nothing. The rabbit is a lion haired bred and all the hair under his eye was glued together with gunk most likely from respitory problems from the ammonia. Since his daughter is disinterest enough to barely care for him, she obviously does not ever play with him. For the last I don’t know how long he has been sitting in a cage with just enough room to lay down, get up, turn around, and repeat. With no toys and not even a full bowl of food to keep him company. I have never been so upset in my life and was immediately trying to figure out how to convince my cousin to relinquish the rabbit to me. Turns out I didn’t have too. Almost as soon as his long, apathetic, spiel about the rabbits poor living conditions ( which he had done nothing to change) was finished, he mentioned he was thinking about ‘getting rid’ of him. I have no idea what he meant by that but I didn’t really care to and immediately told him I would take him. Now I have him here and he is oh so sweet and I’ve never been sadder about anything in my life. It is so unfair what they did to him in that house. Looking at him now and knowing how he spent the first six years of his life, not only breaks my heart, but also fills me with guilt as I was the one who led them to purchase him. I tried not to beat myself up too much over that though, as if it hadn’t been my breeder, it would have been a different one, nevertheless though I am extremely disappointed by my family’s actions and you can best believe that was expressed to them after the rabbit was safely in my care. This poor tiny soul is so full of love and energy. He is not aggressive, he is not scared of humans, he is oh so forgiving and seemingly happy to be able to feel something under his feet other than urine soaked wood and newspapers. But that brings a new problem, his feet. Other than the obvious problems, underweight, matter fur, respitory, etc. His nails look like they haven’t been clipped in years. They probably haven’t. They are the longest set of nails I’ve ever seen on a rabbit and he can’t walk or jump around properly because of them. Because he was docile and not at all jumpy I thought it wouldn’t be too hard to at least TRY to begin clipping. Turns out he is afraid of anything going near his feet. I though maybe it was the clippers he is afraid of but no it actually seems the fear is centered around anything approaching his feet or nails. He won’t bite but he will freak out and run off and start thumping, then he won’t let me go near for a while. He won’t stay still long enough for me to clip the nail. I am also worried about the fact that they are just SO long. I would attach pics if I could get some good ones, maybe I will later. I’m wondering if it is actually possible for the quik to even go up that high. I want to know if I can cut a good bit of them off first and then start with the weekly small trimmings or if I’ll have to do the whole process like that. Once I’ve got an answer on that would also greatly appreciate any tips on how I could go about trying to trim his nails in the first place. I’ve never experienced this as my rabbit was always very chill about it. I’m going to have a whole slew of issues to deal with for this poor bunny but right now I’m hoping to try and get this squared away first, so if anyone could give me any guidance with the nail care questions above I would be so grateful.
        Thank you for reading.


      • DanaNM
        Moderator
        9054 posts Send Private Message

          Wow, how sad But how wonderful that you were able to rescue him.

          I had a similar situation… with my little sisters. The decided to get rabbits for 4-H/ FFA, but once they got old, they were super neglected. I didn’t realize how bad it had gotten… I ended up taking them to a rescue because I could not keep them, but needed to get them out of there.

          I think given how long he’s been in this bad condition, I would have the vet do his nails and do a thorough health check. That way you don’t have to worry about hurting him accidentally, and they can asses other things as well (teeth, ears, skin), to see if there are other things that need attention.

          That said, in the future, you might look at desensitizing him to the nail clipper and to having his feet touched. This video shows a technique that might be really helpful for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OEFrHZbw6tQ

          . . . 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.  


        • FlemishDad
          Participant
          114 posts Send Private Message

            With that treatment I would worry about rashes or infections on his feet so I agree a vet trim and checkup would be great.


          • Dface
            Participant
            1084 posts Send Private Message

              Hey and welcome to the forum! Thank you for giving this lil bun a much needed home. Dont blame yourself either, people are responsible for their own actions and negligent people will always find a way to be negligent.

              Rabbits do often bounce back well from this stuff, and it makes it justifiable when you spend too much on treats…

              As for the nails, its likely that they are very very painful for your bun. Extremely long nails have a weird pressure distribution and it is very uncomfortable when someone attempts to cut them or even touch them. The quick can and does grow up the length of the nail in some situations so, like the others Id recommend getting a vet to do it. My rabbit needed regular nail filing for a while to get the quick to receed back to a normal place.

              It would also be worthwhile getting that eye checked and also teeth, as a diet that poor might have caused dental problems (which he could be hiding)


            • Remmy
              Participant
              2 posts Send Private Message

                Thank you all for the helpful replies! I was planning on taking him to the vet tomorrow anyway to get him checked up on so I will let the nails alone for now and just have the vet do them for me. And thank you Dana for that video!!! I will try doing that with him as he is definitely very food motivated

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            Forum DIET & CARE Help! Rescue Rabbit Care – Terrible Neglect