HELP!!! Kitty just drug home a rabbit!

[gritsar]

It's about half grown. The one wound is about the size of a large egg. The fur is gone and it appears the skin is too; but there is no blood. Some blood vessels are visible and the wound area is red, but the muscle appears to be intact. The rabbit is not acting shocky. It's moving around and investigating the box I put it in.
What do I do now? My first thought is to keep it overnight to give it a chance to rest, then doctor it's wound in the morning (with neosporin, maybe?) and then turn it loose on the edge of our woods; far away from the house and Kitty. Or should I have my SO put it down immediately? Does it have a chance of survival?
Please help.

 

[pdsavage]

wild rabbits tend to die easy and stress easy.keep it warm and in a quite dark place.Good luck with it.

 

[RobinEgg]

we have the same problem, I knew my cats probably caught rabbits but had never witnessed it until yesterday when my soft hearted animal loving son witnessed it, only this is small baby just guessing i'd say around 4 weeks, he managed to take it away from the cat and bring it to me, so we have a tiny rabbit that somehow the cat manages to strip it's hair off it's back from behind the front shoulders to above it's little tail. I can find no other wounds and no puncture wounds. I know with certainity if placed back outside it will die. So I cleaned it best i could, minimizing the time and placed it in a small cage with a heating pad and put it in the bedroom where it is quite , I actually placed some dandelions in half hearted attempt to get it to eat. Well this morn it's still alive and had eaten the dandelions and strong enough to almost get away from me.I did cover all the skinned areas with neosporin of course there is no way I can keep guaze on it , that i"ve figured out yet. DS is 13 and such a softie , the cats are his and we had to have a LONG talk about this behavior and the possible fate of this bunny. Gosh life is tuff . Anyway didn't men to be so long winded. Hope things with your rescue are going good, we'll just keep giving this one TLC and pray for the best.
Oh and I know rabbit esp baby ones are difficult to save but it does happen!

 

[raindrop]

Take it to a certified wildlife rehaber. If the wounds were caused by a cat, it will most likely need systemic antibiotics or an abscess will form within days. Rabbits are very particular about the antibiotics they can tolerate, many will ruin their GI flora (all the good bacteria that digest the food).

 

[kees]

Hi,
I am a Wildlife Rehabber in NY and half of the animals that I've seen have been attacked by a cat or dog. Even if you don't see a puncture wound, there is one there. The best thing that you can do is take it to a vet and get it treated with some antibiotic. Then, as someone suggested, ask the vet about a rehabber. Some vets work with them for good Public Relations. They will look at the animal for free and then may call a rehabber or have a vet tech who is a rehabber take care of it. A good rehabber has a 50/50 chance of saving an animal.
Other vets don't want to be bothered with helping animals even if they are to be released to the wild because they only work for money. I once rehabbed a vulture (yuck) and a vet in Westchester wanted $650 to look at it even though I explained that I just wanted to take care of it enough to release it.
If you are going to keep you cat outdoors, please put a bell on it, along with a collar that releases in case your cat gets caught on something. At least that will give the wild animals a chance to get away. Not a lecture, but I've nursed many baby birds that needed to be fed every 40 minutes because the parents were killed. These babies had to be fed 14 hours a day and it wasn't uncommon for them to die after a month. And I did have a 50% successful rehab rate. It's heartbreaking when you put that kind of effort into an animal and it dies.

Let us know what happens. We care.
Suzy

 

[Parson's Wife]

I'm sorry. We had a cat that drug EVERYTHING thru the doggie door! One day it was a rabbit 2X's it's size! The rabbit was still alive, kicking, and squealing! I grabbed a broom,made my cat drop it, opened wide the front door and it went out...eventually.

It should be noted here...this cat was a Casanova! 3 families claimed him as theirs. No kidding. My older neighbor lady, us, and another neighbor lady. He simply went from house to house, eating, being petted and spoiled. One night, snow on the ground, cold, really cold, we were sitting the stove was blazing and our dogs (Maltese) were sitting in front of the fire. In walked this big black cat, plopped down on the rug in front of the fire and began cleaning himself! His chest was white, with a white spot on one paw. We had never seen this cat before...the dogs went wild. He paid them absolutely no mind. Refused to budge, and spent, most nights, at our house.
He also brought in birds, another rabbit, and refused to kill mice. He just preferred to play with them. After I hit him with the broom (it really wasn't that hard) he didn't bring anymore in. * Note-They were not gift offerings...he brought them in to torment and slowly kill them. We called him Pilgrim...but I can think of another name.
Sooo, I don't know, nor do I know about the rabbit...I would treat it, and release it. We also belled our cat. That was the key I'm sure...we had to put a large bell, not the little kind that tinkle.

 

[RobinEgg]

The first thing I did when son brought in rabbit was call a rehabber( yes she is certified and cared for many baby rabbits and birds) she's undergoing chemo so unable to give hands on right now but can advise , as to feeding and medications. If we have no internal damage to organs she said it can be done. Vets in our area never work for free esp with wild animals, not that I expect them too. It's respirations aren't labored and no wheezing it's warm and not lethargic, it is eating today and has drank water, so we'll keep it warm and in quite area and leave the rest to God. Oh and we're off to get bells for the cats!

 

[Buff Hooligans]

This will happen again unless you keep the cat indoors.

 

[gritsar]

Quote:
Buff, my SO is a die hard country boy that doesn't believe in animals in the house. Charlie girl is allowed in the house only because of her perfect manners and excellent nature. She's the first animal to have ever lived in the house in the 40+ year history of this farm.
Kitty was a 3 week old feral when I rescued her from certain death at my workplace. Her half sister? born the next summer didn't last a month before she was killed on the highway next to work. Kitty has a good home here. Her health and well-being are taken care of. She's spayed, well-fed, and well loved. She just cannot be in the house. She makes an excellent farm cat because we no longer have the rodent problem we had before she came to live with us. If she has to take a rabbit or bird from time to time, there's not much I can do about it, except put a large bell around her neck; which I have did months ago. It hasn't made any change in her killing ability, except maybe for the birds.
As for the rabbit, I had doctored him and had him in a box on the porch. When I opened the box to check on him, he took off running around the porch. Once I captured him again, we took him down the road to our woods and released him. We drove him down there to prevent Kitty from following us. It was the best I could do with a bad situation. We don't even have animal control around here, let alone any rescue organizations.
Thanks for your replies.