Rabbit Rescue

We've had our first hand experience with bunny rescue and adoption. Last week a neighbor found a bun, a baby, most likely an Easter dump- in a parking garage. Since she knew I already lived with a bun she thought we'd take the new bun.

Of course. But getting our bun and dog to accept a new bun, as well as the challenge finding good bunny/dog sitters for necessary out of town trips was a challenge. In addition this new bun was quite stressed and frail.

So the good news is a new forever home was found in no time. Educating the human who'd be a newbie bunny companion reminded me to post a few pointers here.

1. Patience- a bun needs time, and quite time to get comfortable in new surroundings.
2. Practice your 'bunny voice', a quiet, deep tone just reassuring bunny he/she is safe is a good thing for the first few days (as of course quiet radio).
3. Be prepared! Have food, housing and the name and contact of a good 'bunny' vet before you bring the bunny home.
4. Use the House Rabbit Society pages to read and learn all about bun behavior, feeding, health etc.
4. Use the internet to find online communities of bunny folk to talk with. For example, ravelry.com has a bunny rabbit lovers group and yahoo.com has several groups NYC bunny group, Etherbun etc.

Bunny Health & Wellness

Rabbit health and wellness is important. You must know when your bunny is sick. Because they are prey animals, house rabbits often do not show outward signs of distress, a sensitive human will notice symptoms like hiding in an unusual place, sitting in a hunched position or refusing food or favorite treat. These changes in rabbit behavior can signal that something is or will soon be seriously wrong. A list of rabbit savvy vets can be found at the House Rabbit Society and other rabbit rescue groups. There is also a list or rabbit veterinarians at the vet page of Bun Space

Although it can be difficult to determine when your rabbit needs an emergency visit to the bunny vet, some important steps include: offering your bun a favorite treat, at least twice- if he/she refuses then it is time to check temperature. Ask your rabbit veterinarian to teach you.

Next is to listen to your bunny’s intestinal sounds. Total silence could mean gastrointestinal stasis Ileus), a potentially life threatening emergency while loud gurgling could mean gas. The gas pains could push the bunny into ileus, so gas should not be taken lightly.

This past week we’ve gotten through both kinds of rabbit health and wellnessexperiences. The first was clearly the bunny emergency and in addition to the subtle behavioral signs we found a small trail of tiny, hard cecals that she’d passed during the night. The cecals for us meant don’t walk, run to the bunny vet. Last night HRH was suffering from gas, and the recommended bunny massage along with sympathetic attention and lots of fussing got us through the night. By about 2 a.m. she nibbled some timothy hay- of course holding out for the long green stalks, and by noon today she was eating again and passing cecals.