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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.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum THE LOUNGE Sick of “exotic vets”

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    • Marzipan The Bunny
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        Honestly, I’m kind of putting off Mars’s vet checkup. At this point, the best place I can get good veterinary advice is this forum.

        The first vet I brought My bun to was for a boarding service/ checkup. They wouldn’t let us in the room while they did his checkup and just picked him up out of my arms and took him to the back while telling us that we could leave now. mind you, he was only 3 months old. They refused to show us where he was going to stay and didn’t tell us anything about his kennel. from my view, I could see 2 feet tall pens with cats roaming around. honestly, I regret leaving him there. In the middle of my trip, they call us and tell us that they gave him a few doses of medicine without my consent and wouldn’t even tell us what medicine it was. needless to say, we cut the trip short and came to pick our baby up along with the abnormal expensive fee. 

        The next incident was when I was going to get him neutered, at around 6 months old. They called us and told us not to feed him before the surgery. Even I knew bunnies are supposed to eat before surgery. They basically broke my trust when the claimed to be a “rabbit savvy vet.” We canceled his surgery and never went back

        About a month later, we scheduled a different neuter surgery. the vets there seemed to know a good amount about rabbits, and based on their 5-star reviews (which i later found out was because the vet office deleted the bad reviews) they seemed like the best choice. before surgery, the only thing they told us was to feed him hay. no explaining the surgery, no reassurance, nothing. After the surgery, they showed us how to give him his meds. they used chicken/liver flavored medicine and basically shoved it down his throat. I know PERFECTLY WELL that he didn’t need that much force to feed him those meds because he took another dose willingly in the car, which was far more stressful than the vet’s office. I noticed him chewing his stitches and called them multiple times but every time they said not to do anything because putting a cone on him was too stressful. I would normally agree to this but at this point, his skin was raw and almost bloody. I drove there anyway and asked for a cone, where once they believed that he was actually chewing his stitches, gave him one. They never told us anything on how to care for him with a cone, and I had to learn through this forum how to feed him his cecotropes and give him water.

        A few months later I reluctantly brought him to the same vet since I literally couldn’t find any vet in the suburban atlanta area that had good reviews and treated rabbits. I drove 3 hours to the vet just for them to weigh him and say everything was fine. I CAN WEIGH HIM AT HOME!!! I brought him to the vet to give him an actually check up. I had to literally tell the vet what I wanted them to do. I convinced him to check his ears since he was scratching them quite a bit, and they came to the conclusion that he MIGHT have ear mites by literally looking inside his ears for two seconds. really? they charged us quite a bit for all the medicine for his ears. Honestly, the last straw was when the vet asked me “so what do you feed him, carrots” OH MY GOODNESS! HOW WERE THEY AN EXOTIC VET?? I passive-aggressively paid and took him home. 

        Its the day after his 1st birthday and I’m just so sick of this. It’s scary realizing that in an event of an emergency, I don’t have any vet to turn to except for these uneducated exotic vets. I have looked at almost every single vet office in a 2-4 hour radius, and at this point, i think I will have to look for vets 6-8 hours away. 


      • LBJ10
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          Is this Atlanta, GA? Here is a list of vets on the Georgia HRS website: https://www.houserabbitga.com/vets?page_id=466

          You may need to think outside the box though. The HRS only lists one “rabbit” vet for my state. I do not take my boys there. I take them to a vet that does exotics/small animals, but supplements by seeing dogs and cats as well (there isn’t enough of a demand in my area for exotics-only vets). Looking at their website, you would have no clue that they are good with rabbits. But they have been so awesome. My point in telling you this is that perhaps you need to broaden your search a bit. Just because a vet is listed as an exotics vet doesn’t necessarily mean they are a good vet for rabbits… or even a good vet period. Do you know any rabbit or pocket pet owners in your area? It doesn’t hurt to ask others if they have recommendations.


        • Wick & Fable
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            It is true that exotic vets cover a wide variety of animals, so if you happen upon some that are poor for rabbits, they may have much more experience with snakes, fish, etc.. Wick’s current vet (exotic) is well-known because he has done operations on fish… like seahorses. Surgery. What even! Though yes, this should not excuse poor treatment or blatant misinformation if you have lesser experience with another “exotic” animal.

            Two of the three vets I’ve had with Wick have been avian & exotic vets, meaning they also see birds. I’ve been told by someone in the veterinary field that the pairing is common to make more money, so perhaps broaden from exotic to avian for a search and see if websites also mention rabbits?

            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.


          • LBJ10
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              Yes, my vet was long advertised as an avian vet!


            • Marzipan The Bunny
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                Alright, I spent a few hours this morning looking at avian vets instead of exotic vets and i was pleasantly surprised to find a pretty good vet! I’ve never heard of taking bunnies to avian vets but the vet i’ve looked at had an almost 5 star rating and treats many rabbits.


              • LBJ10
                Moderator
                16869 posts Send Private Message

                  That’s great! You’ll have to check them out and then let us know how it went. Hopefully they will work better for you.


                • joea64
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                    My own exotic vet clinic (Stahl Exotic Animal Veterinary Services in Fairfax, VA) is headed by a gentleman who’s known as one of the country’s leading avian veterinarians. However, they have a couple of people on-staff who are top-notch rabbit doctors, and one of them is Panda and Fernando’s primary care provider. Which reminds me, their semiannual checkup is coming due in May.

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                Forum THE LOUNGE Sick of “exotic vets”