Rabbit Trauma

Question
This morning we discovered our bunny under his hutch. My husband had left the lid up, he'd apparently gone into the adjoining cage with our other (aggressive) bunny (there was brown fur in the white bun's cage) and then fallen to the ground. I picked up the bun from under the hutch and put him inside his own location. He didn't appear bloody, and moved about the cage and went into his little sleeping area. He won't touch his food - even his favorite apples - nothing. He was probably out all night. There is ivy and morning glory in the yard, too, but I can't tell if he ate any. Is he just traumatized? While he come out of this? We just discovered all this not two hours ago.

Answer
Dear Jennifer,

The best thing would be to get the bunny indoors right away and take his temperature with the instructions here:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.html

He may be in shock from the trouncing he got, and need to be warmed up if he is hypothermic (a common side effect of shock/trauma).  Once you have his temperature normal, and he's in a nice, quiet area being loved and comforted, find a good rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

The other most common side effect of stress/pain is ileus, which means that the GI tract shuts down.  This can cause not only tremendous pain, but death if it is not treated promptly and aggressively.  Please read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

and print this for the vet, if you think s/he will be receptive to information from the internet:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.pdf

But the most important thing for the moment is body temperature. Full instructions are in the sickbun.html post shown above.

Please write back to let me know how he's doing, if you have the time.

I hope this helps.

Dana