Safe products to use on wounds in the nose/mouth area?

[Ivana]

Hi, my male rabbit Mya was bitten a few hours ago on the nose/mouth area by his brother Timbit. It’s not a serious wound but it did bleed a little bit. This isn’t the first time that Timbit has bitten Mya either. In the past, I have used witch hazel to clean the wound and afterward applied either polysporin, calendula cream (LivRelief Wound Healing Cream) or pure aloe vera gel on the wound to prevent infection and speed up healing. 

My question is whether it would be safe to use Banda-Sil Liquid Gel Spray? I have looked online and not been able to find any information if this product is safe for animals, and rabbits specifically. The ingredients are chelated silver (200ppm), aqua, vegan chitosan and other polycationic polymers, and glycerin l-arginine.

I was also wondering whether anyone would know what would be a good product to use on Mya’s previously healed wounds in the nose/mouth area in order to soften the scabs/skin. I remember reading about various different products such as udder cream, bag balm, sweet almond oil, sudocream, vaseline, etc but am concerned about how safe these products would be for use in the nose/mouth area since Mya would definitely be ingesting some of it.

Any advice on either of my questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks  

[kurottabun]

I’m not sure about which product to use as I’ve never had firsthand experiences, but I know sudocream and vaseline are two things others have use to apply on certain types of sores/wounds.

I think the more important thing is why is Timbit biting Mya? Bonded rabbits don’t tend to bite till blood is drawn, not to mention multiple times at that. It can be quite stressful for both the bunnies

[Sirius&Luna]

If your bunny has been bitten around the mouth area, I think it would be best to take her to a vet, as it could easily get infected.

As Kurotta said, your bunnies shouldn’t be biting each other. I think you need to separate them before an even more serious injury occurs. Are they neutered? Have you gone through a proper bonding process with them?

[Ivana]

Yes, I agree with both of you. But it is a very complicated situation for my two sibling bunnies. I have taken Mya to the vet once before for the worst injury that Timbit caused. The vet gave Mya an antibiotic shot, but since it was about 18 hours after the injury it was too late to do stitches. The vet told me that other than the aesthetic appearance, the injury itself will not cause any problems for Mya. The thing is that these injuries are being inflicted through the cage. And it’s completely one-sided, meaning it’s always Timbit biting Mya and not the other way around. I have to keep them separated because of the fighting, so I let them out at different times ie. Timbit comes out for 12 hours then goes back into one of the cages, and then Mya comes out. However, they both hang out by each other’s cages and poke their noses through the cage. As I said earlier Mya never bites Timbit but Timbit is almost always trying to bite Mya. Most of the time I will put Timbit in the cage that’s on top of another cage so that they can’t get to each other, but Mya will literally spend hours trying to jump on top of the bottom cage so he can get to Timbit. Even though Timbit bites him he is still always running to Timbit and poking his little nose into the cage.

The complication that I was talking about earlier is that when I first got Timbit and Mya 14 months ago (they were 4 months old at the time), I was told that they were both girls. When I got home I realized one of them was a boy. I returned him that day but missed him too much and went back for him within two days. When I brought him back home I decided to seperate them in different cages since I thought that there was a risk of pregnancy. They had the same system as they do now ie. one stays out for 12 hrs while the other is inside the cage and vice versa. About 8 months after I got them and when I was cleaning Mya’s anal scent glands one day, I realized that Mya is actually a boy! But because of the fighting between them, I still couldn’t let them be together at the same time.

In between this time – for about 7 months and then up until about a month ago, there was a third rabbit in the household, Roki. Roki was an amazing little mini rex who got along with not just both the bunnies but also my 2 dogs and my 3 cats. He was a really special bunny and there will never be one like him again. When I picked him up, I was told he was about 3 years old. And the place that I got him from I could tell that he was mostly kept inside the cage and was by himself. Unfortunately, Roki passed away on July 17th, 2018 (very suddenly – I noticed that he wasn’t breathing normally at 3:30 am and his condition just kept rapidly deteriorating until 6:15 am when he passed away). Before Roki passed away though, he was always outside (ie. free running in the house), and since he got along with both the bunnies I never had to separate him. He would stay with Timbit for 12 hours and when Timbit went inside the cage, he would be with Mya. Both Timbit and Mya got along great with Roki and they would groom each other and play and eat together and always be close to each other. But all three of them still wouldn’t forget whoever was in the cage at the time, and Mya especially would still poke his nose into Timbit’s cage. The worst injury actually, the one where I had to bring Mya to the vet, happened while Roki was with us.

I’m sorry for the long post, I just wanted to explain the whole situation and why it’s so complicated. Now, most importantly they’re not neutered. And I’m sure that this has a big effect on their behavior toward each other, especially regarding Timbit. I will definitely be getting them both neutered, hopefully within the next 2 months. I really don’t know what else to do in the meantime though. When I first got my sibling bunnies, they got along great but after separating them for two days, when I brought Timbit home it was like they didn’t even know each other! And then because I mistakenly thought Mya was a girl, they were separated for the next 8 months. And now when they can actually be together I can’t put them together because of the fighting. I would very much appreciate any advice that anybody could give me. I know it’s most important to have them both neutered first and then take it from there, but in the meantime is there anything else that I can do? The thing that most concerns me is that I’ve read that once bunnies start fighting with each other, it’s almost impossible to bond them after that. Is that true? Either way, they will soon be neutered and afterward I will do whatever I can to help them bond with each other. But is it too late for the two of them to ever be bonded again? When I first brought them home, weren’t they actually bonded at that point? But then the 2-day separation and subsequent circumstances caused them to somehow un-bond? Is there anything I can do in the meantime before their surgeries to help them bond, or should I just continue doing what I’m doing now and just wait until after the surgeries? I honestly have no idea what to do as this seems like such a complicated and unique situation. So really any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[Sirius&Luna]

The thing is, it is your job to protect the rabbits from biting each other. They can be stupid and stick their nose into a bunny who wants to bites them’s cage – you need to make sure that they can’t. You need a set of double bars separating them at all times – it’s not good enough to say she will always try to get him. You have to ensure that she can’t. You can buy a pen, use cardboard to temporarily block the cage, rearrange furniture.

There’s nothing especially unusual or complicated about your situation. Unneutered bunnies always need to be separated regardless of whether they’re the same sex or siblings, because as you’ve seen, they can do serious injury to each other as they mature.

Once you have them both neutered, you may be able to bond them, if the bitten one doesn’t hold a constant grudge. You must take it very slowly though, wait for both to be neutered, then spend a month prebonding before they meet face to face. Every time they meet before being neutered and fight it makes it less likely that they’ll bond in the future.

The way you ‘bonded’ them both with he previous bunny is very unconventional and unlikely to work again.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I`ve had buns that hated each other stay in the same room. They both lived in cube condos so when one would come out for free-roam time, they could easily bite each other through the holes. I needed to use an X-pen and put it around the remaining rabbits condo to keep them separate from each other`s teeth.

Bunny bites can be serious and cause abscesses. You need to figure out something that works to keep them separate and safe.

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