How to Take Care of an Injured Wild Baby Rabbit

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Whether you take found an injured wild rabbit or your own precious pet bunny has been injured, it is important to non try to treat the injury yourself. For wild bunnies, y'all should handle them equally little as possible while taking them to a vet or rehabilitation center. You lot can practice a bit more to keep your pet bunny safe and comfortable while transporting information technology to the vet, including examining your bunny, cleaning shallow wounds, and controlling haemorrhage.

1. 1

   Have your injured rabbit to the vet. You may choose to treat a small shallow cut or injured claw yourself, simply for merely about anything else, information technology is always best to take your rabbit to the vet. Your job is to minimize damage and continue your rabbit as safe and comfy equally possible en route. Know your vet's hours and have a fill-in programme. If your vet is non available for emergencies exterior of office hours, then you should have the number of another clinic or vet that is.

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   Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinary with over 30 years of experience in veterinary surgery and companion animal do. She graduated from the Academy of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinarian medicine and surgery. She has worked at the same animal clinic in her hometown for over 20 years.

   

   Pippa Elliott, MRCVS
   Veterinarian

   Pippa Elliott, a licensed veterinarian, explains: "Rabbits are easily stressed, so it's important to help them feel secure and protected on the way to the vet. Transport them in a box or carrier covered with a towel, as the darkness is similar beingness in a couch and comforting to them."

2. 2

   Be aware of the less obvious signs of injury. If your rabbit is haemorrhage, has been bitten, or has been stepped on, you should take him to the vet. But injuries are not always so obvious, especially since rabbits accept high pain thresholds and instinctively hide pain. Less obvious signs of injury include:^{[1] [2]}

   • Lying on one side for extended periods of time.
   • Falling over.
   • Disability to walk in a straight line.
   • Limping or alter in gait.
   • Awkward posture.
   • Licking, rubbing or scratching a detail area.
   • Failure to eat or drink for 24 hours.
   • Failure to laissez passer fecal pellets for 8 hours or more.

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3. 3

   Examine your rabbit to determine the nature of its injury. How yous care for you rabbit will depend on the injury. If the injury is non immediately life threatening – i.e. the rabbit is haemorrhage heavily, paralyzed, or in shock – perform a brief exam:^[3]

   • Olfactory organ and whiskers – Both sides should look the same. Look for discharge and swelling.
   • Eyes – Glassy or airtight eyes are a sign of shock. Shine a light into them to see if the pupils constrict. If the whites of the eyes are yellow, this indicates a serious liver trouble.
   • Gums and teeth – Elevator the lips to examine them. Gums should exist pinkish and the color should return immediately if after you push on them with a fingertip. Stake gums are a sign of sock. Make sure no teeth are broken.
   • Head and neck – Feel for lumps, bumps, or swelling. Caput tilt may exist a sign of stupor or spinal injury.
   • Limbs - Check for redness, rut or swelling. If none is found, run both hands down each limb from the shoulder to the toes, flexing each joint. Cease immediately if your rabbit appears to be in pain. Cold feet are a sign of shock.
   • Trunk – Run your hands along the ribcage and spine. Feel for swelling or abnormalities. Gently feel your rabbit's breadbasket, searching for swelling or redness. Cheque for rapid breathing and eye crush, a sign of daze.

4. 4

   Accept your rabbit to the vet immediately if it is in daze. Daze tin can kill a rabbit. If its optics are burnished or closed, its extremities cold, and its middle rate and animate rapid, wrap it in a clean towel, identify it in its carrier, call your vet and take it in.^[4]

   • Always place the towel and carrier beside your rabbit, so you lot will have to move it as little as possible.
   • If y'all suspect your rabbit is in daze, proceed him warm and minimize stress equally much as possible. If possible give him a hot water canteen wrapped in a towel (and then he doesn't go scorched.) Place him in a covered box, so that he doesn't feel so exposed and vulnerable which rabbits detect very stressful.

5. 5

   Wrap your rabbit in a towel if your exam discovers no obvious problems. Rabbits lose heat chop-chop due to the stress of injury. If you believe your rabbit is injured, specially if it has been kicked, stepped on, or sat upon, gently wrap it in a make clean towel and take it to the vet.

   • Minimize his stress by giving him a nighttime rubber place to hide. Rabbits have been known to die from pure stress, and then while you are assessing his injuries, or waiting to hear dorsum from the vet, make him experience every bit safety as possible.

6. 6

   Take care with broken bones. Exercise not attempt to splint cleaved basic, as this may crusade more injury. Identify the rabbit in a box and then that he doesn't endeavour to hop or motility around. If the fractured ends of the bones are exposed through the skin, comprehend them with sterile gauze from a first assistance kit. If you don't accept sterile gauze then place a freshly laundered (clean) handkerchief over the bones to reduce the amount of bacterial contamination from the air. If you don't have a clean piece of fabric then go out the bones exposed just inform the vet and so that they can determine if antibiotics are necessary. Never, under any circumstances attempt to push the bone ends back beneath the pare.

   • If a leg is dangling, at an odd angle, or cannot motion properly, this may be a sign of a spinal injury. Do extra care when moving your rabbit onto the towel and into the carrier.

7. vii

   Make clean shallow cuts or bite wounds. If your rabbit has been bitten, the wound is only skin deep, and your rabbit is not in stupor, you can take time to clean the wound before taking your rabbit to the vet. Flush the wound using iodine solution diluted in warm water to the color of iced tea. If you do not accept iodine, use an antiseptic soap in warm water^[5] or make upwardly a common salt h2o solution, which consists of one teaspoon of common salt to 1 loving cup of previously boiled h2o.

   • Be certain the water is warm, as common cold water may induce shock.
   • If a cutting is very minor, you lot may clean it and treat with antibiotic ointment yourself. Be sure to bank check it regularly to be sure it is healing well.

8. 8

   Apply force per unit area to bleeding. Particularly if the bleeding from a wound is pulsing or gushing, applying pressure level may save your rabbit's life. Using a sterile gauze pad, or a make clean towel or cloth if a pad is not bachelor, use business firm simply gentle pressure level to the wound. Practise not remove the cloth or pad if information technology becomes saturated with claret. Apply another one over it and go along applying pressure. Get your rabbit to the vet as quickly as possible.^[six]

   • If you don't have assist and need to drive to the vet, bandage the pressure pad in place.

9. nine

   Flush burns with cool water. If a hot liquid or caustic chemical has been spilled on your rabbit, let cool running h2o menstruation over the burn for a minimum of 10 minutes. Do this before moving the rabbit to the vet as it is the near effective manner of minimizing complications from a fresh burn.^[seven]

   • Exercise not apply whatever ointments, as this volition interfere with the vet's care for your pet.
   • If your bunny has suffered a burn from biting an electric cord, its oral cavity may be burnt or in that location may exist fluid in the lungs. If he is breathing quickly, the latter is more than likely. Keep stress to a minimum, and place him in a well ventilated place while y'all fetch help.

10. 10

    Put styptic powder such as Quick-Stop on an injured claw. If the claw has been completely torn off, you'll want to see your vet, but a broken claw, or ane that has been trimmed likewise close, tin can be dealt with at dwelling. Utilise styptic pulverisation to stop the bleeding (it may accept several applications), and bank check regularly to be sure the claw is healing.

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1. i

   Do not attempt to intendance for a wild rabbit yourself. Get-go off, information technology is illegal to go on a wild creature unless yous are licensed by your state's Department of Environmental Protection. Secondly, caring for injured rabbits requires conscientious preparation and expertise. Without it, you volition probably only make the situation worse.^[viii]

2. 2

   Make sure the rabbit is wild. Almost all wild rabbits are dark-brown with white tails. If you meet a rabbit in the wild with different colors – pure white, jet blackness, gray, striped, spotted, or mixed – it is likely a domesticated rabbit that has escaped or been set loose. These rabbits need your help. They should exist captured fifty-fifty if uninjured and taken to a vet to check for diseases. Afterward, you lot can care for them yourself or have the rabbit adopted.^[9]

3. 3

   Be sure the rabbit is really injured. In nigh cases, wild fauna should be left alone. Inexperienced handlers tin hands fracture a rabbit'south spine picking it up. In addition, the stress of capture oft hastens death. If you are going to take a wild rabbit out of its natural environment, you need to be sure information technology is really injured and needs your assistance. Some signs that a rabbit is injured include:^[10]

   • Lying on their sides for extended periods of time.
   • Falling over or inability to run in a straight line.
   • Bleeding or puncture wounds.

4. iv

   Keep pets and children away from the animal and leave information technology in place if the injury is non serious. If the rabbit tin move and is not bleeding copiously, it is best to exit information technology in identify. Keep dogs and children away from the rabbit.^[eleven]

5. 5

   Contact a vet if the rabbit is seriously injured. If the rabbit is haemorrhage, lying on its side and cannot walk, or has been in a cat or dogs mouth, contact a vet. You'll desire to make certain in advance that the vet is willing to see wildlife patients. If non, the vet will usually be able to refer you lot to a wildlife care or rehabilitation center.^[12]

6. 6

   Wearable gloves when picking upwards a wild rabbit. Rabbits can exist infected with tularemia, a disease that tin be transmitted to humans. Symptoms may include ulcers, inflamed eyes, a sore throat, diarrhea, and pneumonia. The disease can be fatal without treatment. To protect yourself, always handle wild rabbits with gloves and launder your easily with soap and water afterwards.

7. 7

   Handle the rabbit with care. To a wild rabbit, being picked up by you seems the same as being grabbed by a hawk or other predator, and its response will exist one of fear. You lot must handle the rabbit properly to minimize this fear and reduce the hazard of injuring the rabbit further:^[13]

   • Practise non option the rabbit up past the ears, legs, or scruff. Instead, put one hand below its chest and another under its lesser. Conduct it with its head slightly college than its rear, to reduce it power to kicking out or bite you.
   • Go along the rabbit close to the basis. The but time rabbits ascent loftier off the footing in the wild is when they are captured past hawks. They don't like it.
   • Transfer the rabbit to a carrier every bit quickly as possible. The shorter the distance you carry the rabbit, the meliorate. Y'all can send it to the vet in a basket, shoebox, or carrier. Don't use a carrier that has been used past a cat or dog, as the smells will cause the rabbit anxiety.

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• Question

  What should I do with a rabbit that has a broken back?

  

  Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinarian with over thirty years of feel in veterinary surgery and companion animate being do. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a degree in veterinarian medicine and surgery. She has worked at the same animate being clinic in her hometown for over twenty years.

  

  Veterinary

  Skillful Answer

  

  Back up wikiHow by unlocking this adept respond.

  Unfortunately, rabbits have delicate spines which are hands fractured. The long-term outlook for a cleaved back is bleak, every bit the rabbit will be paralyzed on the back end and have no bladder or bowel control. Therefore, the humane thing to do is contact a vet, animal welfare officer, or clemency to have the rabbit euthanized and save information technology from suffering.

• Question

  How can I help a rabbit with one ear cut off?

  

  Dr. Elliott, BVMS, MRCVS is a veterinary with over 30 years of experience in veterinarian surgery and companion animal practice. She graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1987 with a caste in veterinary medicine and surgery. She has worked at the same creature dispensary in her hometown for over 20 years.

  

  Veterinarian

  Proficient Reply

  

  Support wikiHow past unlocking this expert answer.

  The rabbit will be in pain, traumatized, and possibly suffering from claret loss. Ideally, the rabbit should be seen by a vet who tin can requite hurting relief, antibiotics, and suture the stump then that it heals more than quickly. In the meantime, keep the rabbit warm and tranquility (to minimize shock and stress) and breast-stroke the stump with weak salt water to reduce the take chances of infection.

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Things Yous'll Need

• Sterile gauze pads
• Iodine
• Antibiotic ointment
• Styptic powder
• Muzzle
• Cloth
• phone numbers of your local vets.
• veggies (for pets and wild animals since they could be hungry or scared)

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Article Summary 10

To care for your injured rabbit, flush small wounds with warm h2o and clarified soap. If your rabbit is however bleeding, employ force per unit area with a sterile gauze pad or clean material, and if your rabbit has a fire, flush the affected area with absurd running water. As you care for your rabbit, be sure scout out for signs of daze, which tin exist fatal. If your rabbit has burnished eyes, cold limbs, or rapid heart rate and breathing, go to a vet correct away! For more communication from our Veterinary reviewer, including how to treat small wounds on your own, or intendance for a wild rabbit, read on.

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