Cottontail bunnies

Question
Last night 7/12/06, my sister miniture poodle almost ate a week old cottontail bunny. She saved him from her dogs mouth. Due to this trauma, it caused the bunnie to have fluid in the head.His siblings seem to be healthy and their heads is not swallen. After an hour or so from saving him, he began to have a seizure.I later realized that he continue to have seizures approximately every 20 minutes or so. We actually don't know if they were abandon or not because their mother has not come around. Out of five, two were found dead and disqusting as this may seem, he miniture poodle ate one of the dead one. There are three remaining. We were planning to drop them off to a specialist facility to nourish them but I'm afraid they will put the sickly one to sleep. I actually waiting for a miracle for a healthy speedy recovery. That night we call the emergency vet hospital and they recommended a milk recipe for them.  I know it contains, evoporated milk, corn syrup, egg yolk and water. We were also recommended to feed them every two hours. However we researched that they feed twice a day by their mother who comes back to feed them during dawn and dusk. Although we started to feed them every two hours as the hospital requested, we are still concern for their health being. What would you advice on the sickly bunnie that have fluid around his cranial and continue to have seizures every 20 minutes or so. Should this bunnie be put to sleep? or there hope yet? Please help.

Answer
Dear Diana,

Please read this for complete information on what to do with the remaining wild bunnies:

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

I don't know if the baby with head trauma will make it or not.  No one can really know for sure--especially without expensive diagnostic tests.  But it doesn't sound good.  If the vet thinks the baby will not recover, it might be kinder to let the baby gently be put to sleep.

You can find a rabbit vet to help  you here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

I hope this helps.

Dana