Female lop bleeding

Question
I have just adopted a mini lop from a friend, she is a female and I already have a male who is fixed but the female has not been.  This is her first encounter with another rabbit and they have been chasing each other and she began to hump him.  Also, she began bleeding and will not stop chasing or humping the male. He seems unharmed.  They are both about the same age of 6.5 months.


Answer
Dear Vicki,

Can you tell where the blood is coming from?  Although unspayed/unbred female rabbits have a high risk of uterine cancer (which can cause bleeding from the vulva), it would be unusual for such a young bunny to have this problem.  Check her paws to see if she broke a nail in her zest for the male bunny and their running around, and try to find out where the blood is coming from.

She probably won't calm down soon unless you have her spayed, which is good for her health and longevity:

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/spay-neuter.html

And it's important that you do the bunny bonding carefully so that the humping doesn't evolve into fighting--which is quite possible.  See the excellent articles here for tips:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp_a=sp06282400&sp_f=iso-8859-1&sp_q=bonding

Until she's spayed and calmed down, you should separate them so the male isn't mercilessly harrassed, which could jeopardize their eventual friendship.

I hope this helps.

Dana