Please Help! (Injured Bunny)

[paulandashia]

Here is the situation...
I wanted to start raising meat rabbits for my family. So I found someone who had flemish & california bunnies. I have nice, spacious cages for them, and I am all set up....
This person wanted to trade me a bunny for one of my laying hens, so I thought, SURE! He was supposed to bring a LARGE female flemish over, and before he came over with her, he called me, and asked me if I wanted her bred to his male... Apparently, she has had 2 litters before... So I said, Sure... (thinking he was a RESPONSIBLE rabbit keeper) (I also did not know how old she was, but he made it out that she was "old enough", and healthy enough to breed... So I said yes... (learned my lesson there!)
He called a day later, and said she would NOT accept the buck. But that he was willing to breed her later.... So I said, ok, bring her over.... But when he brought her over, my heart sank.... She was SKIN AND BONES..!!!!! And badly injured on her back leg.!!!
She was living in a tiny cage, wide wire floor, and appears to be totally neglected...
I found out that she is less than a year old, and has already had 2 litters (first litter had 8 babies, and second had 10).
She has a BAD injury on her back leg. Her leg at the main joint in the rear, is severely swollen, and she is not putting any weight on it. When I talked to the owner, he said he "accidentally" stepped on her "foot". But this is NOT a foot injury. It's at the main joint in the back leg. The swelling is SEVERE..!!! And he said she has been like this for over a MONTH..!!!???
She is so VERY VERY thin. Her hip bones are stinking out so badly, that through her thick fur, you can clearly see them. Her other leg (rear) is severely worn out from the wire, and she has no fur on the bottom, just a huge sore that is bloody, and inflamed...
I can not hold her down and put a splint on her leg myself. I need someone to help me, so my best friend is coming over tomorrow, and she is going to try to help me put a splint on her. We are also going to try to "drain" whatever is in there (I think there is some infection in there), and we are going to give her an antibiotic injection for any infection she might have in there... I am also going to bandage up her other foot, so it doesn't get irritated anymore, and I'll try to give her some pain meds.....

When I saw her, I let him know that she needed help. She needed to have her leg stabilized/splinted, get meds and antibiotics. She needed to be on soft ground. She needed a LOT OF TLC.!!!!!!!!! And I made him aware that there is NO WAY IN HECK that I was giving him one of my hens.!!! So he said I could have her for free, because that was more work than he was willing to put into her....Before he left though, he asked again if I wanted her bred to his buck... But the only thing I could say was "Absolutely not! She needs to get healthy first.!!!"
No WONDER she didn't want to accept a buck! ***!? Would you if you were in so much pain???
So I took her.....
And I am going to try to nurse her back to health...

Does anyone out there have any ideas as to what else I can do for this sweetie???
She is breaking my heart.!!! I sat there earlier petting her, and just cried......

 

[mnferalkitty]

She needs xrays etc. If you can't take her to a vet then put her out of her misery.

 

[Bunnylady]

You really have to wonder about some people, don't you?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see the point of splinting a month-old injury. I'm not sure how you'd go about draining a swelling of which you don't know the cause. Also, you have to be very, very careful with antibiotics and rabbits - they can develop fatal diarrhea from the wrong one.

Your desire to help this rabbit is admirable, and I wish you the best of luck, but I really think you need a professional to help you chart a course to this girl's wellness. I'm sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I would take her to the vet, and have the vet help you report this guy for animal neglect. I would guess it would probably be helpful if you could get a written receipt from the guy (with a photo on it of the rabbit if possible, or any tattoo # she might have, etc) saying he sold the rabbit to you.

 

[cafarmgirl]

You really have to wonder about some people, don't you?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I don't see the point of splinting a month-old injury. I'm not sure how you'd go about draining a swelling of which you don't know the cause. Also, you have to be very, very careful with antibiotics and rabbits - they can develop fatal diarrhea from the wrong one.

Your desire to help this rabbit is admirable, and I wish you the best of luck, but I really think you need a professional to help you chart a course to this girl's wellness. I'm sorry I can't be of more help.

Agree. Treating rabbit's with antibiotic's can be really dicey. Kill off all the good bacteria in their gut and you instantly have a bigger problem then you started with and potentially fatal. If you want to save her, this bun really needs to be seen by a vet experienced with rabbits to pinpoint her problems and get you the right meds, if any.

Good luck, hope you are able to pull her through and let her experience a decent life.

 

[Coopacabana]

Take her to the vet. Rabbits are VERY delicate when they get sick or injured. Most importantly, keep her WARM. When rabbits get cold when they are sick. An injured rabbit can get a secondary infection quickly, even in a clean cage. Like in a day quickly. Make sure the vet is a rabbit vet, trained to care for rabbits, ESPECIALLY if they're going to mess with antibiotics. Don't try to use antibiotics yourself.

 

[paulandashia]

Thank you so much guys SO much for your advice....
After my best friend came over, we made an attempt to splint the leg because when we felt it, we could feel bones "moving" so we knew that it has not "merged" yet. The leg was also BADLY swollen, and HOT to the touch..
We thought it was the proper thing to do.... So we administered Antibiotics with an injection, which was EXTREMELY difficult, seeing as this sweetie had absolutely NO meat on her bones, and it was extremely difficult to do...
Afterwards, we finally got a call from a Vet, who told us that we should never have given her Antibiotics, because she was going to die in about 12 hours from "toxic shock". So we ended up doing a "mercy" kill. Which was tragic and heart-breaking... But I think it was for the best....
Later, we found out that the Vet was a MORON, and that she could have lived, but we would have had to force-feed her pro-biotics (yogurt) every hour or 2, and with a severely swollen and broken back leg, it would have been agonizing for her... So we did what we felt we had to to ease her suffering...

I got her for free from someone I do not know... Trying to "save a life"...
And I know that this is going to sound like a lame excuse, but believe me, if I could afford a Vet Visit, I would take her in a second. Unfortunately, that is something I honestly can not afford at the moment, though I wish I could... I can't even afford to take my human kids to a Doc right now!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

I am always lucky if I can find even one vet that I can truly rely on for rabbits, and some 'rabbit specialists' have even proven to be anything but. When I can't find a really good vet, rabbit breeders who have been at it for a long time often have a wealth of information and experience. I think putting her down was actually the right thing to do in this case, even though the vet was incorrect (and some antibiotics are fine for rabbits, it depends what is being given and under what conditions, etc).

 

[CountryKitty]

Bless you for tryingto help her...and for being strong enough to end her pain when you thought there was no other way to help her.

For what it's worth, I took in 3 rabbits temporarily after a house fire. They were in small cages, very thin, and still had their winter coats although it was summer. I knew that shetland ponies when malnourished didn't shed their winter coats as their bodies just didn't have the resources to spare for growing a new summer coat. I bought a bag of feed for pregnant does thinking the extra nutrients, vitamins and minerals would give them a boost. Within a month, they had fine new summer coats growing in and they were filling in. If I had it to do again, I would have mixed up some homemade pedialyte to give them as well. Should you ever care for another neglected critter, I would definitely recommend getting feed intended for a pregnant female of the species.

 

[DuckyGurl]

so sorry to hear she didn't make it. Some people are absolute jerks to animals.

How heart-breaking. At least you know that you did all you could for her. Don't feel bad, you tried. So, so sad. :'(