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Baby bunny injured

22 10:20:01

Question
Just about and hour ago i rescued a baby cottontail from my two cats. So far its been moving slightly and i have it in a basket with a rag and a towel over it. The bunny im guessing is only about a week and a half old but im not positive all i know is it still has the white on its forehead and is small. I checked the bunny for injuries because it had bled about a fifty-cent piece of blood. I found a small but very deep hole on its back close to the spine and im pretty sure i can see flesh or an organ but the bleeding has stopped. i heard that cats have a type of toxin in the mouth and that the bunny can get infected. Also the bunny is not moving its back legs and i think it could be due to the back injury. Please help!

Answer
Dear Lacey,

This does not sound good at all.  When there is a cat injury, fluoroquinolone antibiotics must be administered within a few hours of the bite or scratch to prevent fatal systemic infection by Pasteurella and other deadly bacteria cats have in their mouths.  If a cat actually penetrated into the peritoneum, and you can see organs, then the prognosis is very poor if the baby has not yet gotten medical treatment.

Please find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

and get the baby there without delay.  If he's still alive, it may not be too late to give him injectible Baytril to prevent the Pasteurella from killing him.  Injectible bicillin/Penicillin-G Procaine also may help.

If he's not moving his back end, his back may be broken, or there could be a soft tissue injury that will heal.  The former is not good, and may be a life-ending injury.  But if it's just soft tissue, this could heal with anti-inflammatory drugs.

I hope he will be okay.

Dana