rabbit health problem

Question
my rabbit is dragging her hind legs as if she has no feeling in them but still manages to get around. she is eating normally but seems like she has lost weight. she also seems to be urinating more & drinking more water. she has lost fur on her hind legs & the skin looks sore & she is unable to clean her rear end. she is almost five years old.

Answer
Hi,

you have to get her to a good rabbit vet immediately.  It could be any number of things including a physical injury, an infection affecting her back/legs, a brain infection affecting her motor areas of the brain.

This is extremely serious, please get to your good rabbit vet immediately.  Call them up, explain what's going on, if they refer you to an emergency service I'd go, if they can't see you today.  

If you need to find a good rabbit vet (not all are) go here:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

for a listing of American rabbit recommended vets, or

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/Vet_EU-UK.html

or

http://members.shaw.ca/cocoasun/Eurovets.htm  (UK at the bottom of the page)

these two sites have UK vet listings that are recommended for rabbit owners.

Please get her in.  Try to keep her dry and if the skin looks irritated if you have some regular old preparation H you can apply it in a thin layer to the irritated skin, do not do so if she struggles a lot, you don't know if her back is fractured.


When you transport her make sure she's got towels underneath and rolled up around the sides of the carrier, you want to minimize movement and reduce the chance she will tip and bang around.  So use rolled up towels around the sides of the carrier as bumpers and to prop her right side up.