Rabbit w/Broken Femur

[fluffernutterluver]

Just a heads up we have an account here but for the life of me cannot remember my password information and the forgot password is not working.

So this morning my wife called in a panic, our 8 year old Holland Lop was not using his back leg.  She had an appointment with the vet and was on her way there already (go wife!). After doing all the necessary xrays and such the vet identified that he has a broken femur quite high up on one of his back legs.  They’ve given him pain medications and such but now we have the tough road of figuring out what to do.

We really respect our vet but I wanted to get some opinions from anyone who may have any experience in the Minnesota area.  The vet referred us to an emergency clinic, which quoted us 2000-2500 to do an amputation. Trying to have his leg pinned would be closer to 4000.  We are both extremely depressed and devastated because we cannot even figure out what happened to cause it.  The vet did rule out cancer based on multiple tests.

Our key questions are.  

Does that price seem high?  If so, does anyone have any rabbit vet recommendations for Minnesota in the twin cities or outlying areas?

We are considering the amputation because we feel like putting him to sleep (pts) is an extreme measure in this case but cannot afford the higher expense of pinning with a risk of it not healing.  What are your thoughts?

Are we being selfish and just setting him up to have a poor quality of life and pts is the best bet?

[Sarita]

I had a young rabbit with a broken femur and the only thing we could do and did do was cage rest – no amputation, no pinning of the leg. I’m not sure I would put a rabbit of that age through either but I would seek a second opinion…of course I’m not sure exactly what your break is compared to my rabbits, but that was the only thing my vet suggested – it healed.

[Bam]

I too think a second opinion would be great. It is sometimes possible for a femur to heal on it’s own even in an old rabbit, but it will of course depend on the severity of the break and on how the pieces of the bone are aligned. Sometimes casting is recommended, but it has to be done right, ie by someone experienced and savvy.

[Author]

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