Broken leg?

Question
We think our rabbit has a broken leg.  What should we do?

Answer
Dear Sarah,

You need to get your bunny to a rabbit-experienced veterinarian ASAP.  You can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Call around until you find one that has emergency hours.  Avoid taking the bunny to an emergency clinic except for the most basic stabilization of the limb.  Many vets at emergency clinics don't know enough about rabbits to perform safe procedures on them, or know what type of medications are safe (for example, any oral type of penicillin can be fatal to rabbits).  

If you cannot get the bunny to a vet immediately, then keep her confined so she cannot move the leg around and make the fracture worse.  A severely broken leg can be a point of infection, and the less it's moved around, the better until it can be splinted and fully stabilized by a good rabbit vet.

But don't let this go more than over night.  You need to get bun to a good vet as soon as humanly possible.  

I hope this helps.

Dana