Routine Care
Food and Water
The rabbit should be fed a basic rabbit mix each
morning and evening and should also be fed fruit and/or vegetables.
It should also have a plentiful supply of hay at all times.
Fresh water should always be available and Pet Shops
also sell vitamin drops which can be added to water and these
can be particularly beneficial to the growing and weak rabbits.
The rabbit should never be without access to water.
Grooming
Short coated rabbits do not generally need grooming
but the long haired varieties will require regular grooming to
prevent the coat from becoming matted.
Cage Cleaning
The cage or hutch should be cleaned weekly by removing
the rabbit from the cage and throwing away all old woodshavings,
Hay and food and replacing with fresh shavings, hay and food.
Health Checks
When you clean the cage you should check the rabbit
over for any signs of illness. This is an ideal time to check
that the droppings in the cage look normal: soft droppings could
indicate diarrhoea, lack of droppings could indicate constipation.
Vaccinations
Rabbits should be vaccinated once 6 weeks old against
Viral Haemorrhagic Disease (VHD) and Myxomatosis and thereafter
vaccinated annually.
General health concerns
Red Urine
Rabbits' urine varies in color from clear to yellow to brown to
bright red. This is usually not a cause for alarm unless there
are additional signs such as sitting and straining to urinate,
loss of appetite or temperature. When you see red urine, don't
panic. Just keep your eyes open for other signs that might indicate
a problem. If in doubt, you can have your veterinarian test to
see whether there is blood in the urine.
Amoxicillin Danger
Never let a veterinarian give your rabbit amoxicillin. It is a
pink liquid antibiotic that smells like bubble gum. Amoxicillin
is very dangerous for rabbits, and has killed many more than it
has helped. Any penicillin-based drug can be dangerous for your
rabbit, so try to find a veterinarian who is knowledgeable about
rabbit-safe antibiotics, and who is familiar with the safer drugs
such as Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline, sulfa-drugs based like
Septra or TMS, or enrofloxins such as Baytril or Cipro.
Cedar and Pine Shavings
These are very bad for your rabbit and other pets. The aromatic
hydrocarbons produced from softwood beddings can cause both respiratory
and liver damage in rabbits and other small animals. Use organic
litter in the litter box and put newspaper in the cage tray.
Spay/Neuter
The House Rabbit Society has had over 1000 rabbits spayed or neutered
with approximately .1% mortality due to anesthesia. On the other
hand, the risk of reproductive cancer (which is fatal) for an
unspayed female rabbit stands at approximately 85%, which makes
spaying a necessity. For male rabbits, the benefits are primarily
behavioral (eliminating spraying and hormone-related aggression),
but are just as important. A knowledgeable rabbit veterinarian
can spay or neuter your rabbit with very little risk to a healthy
rabbit.
Teeth
Rabbits' teeth can be misaligned. This condition is known as malocclusion,
which means that a rabbit's constantly-growing teeth are not wearing
down properly. If the misalignment is bad, the teeth will need
to be clipped periodically so that the rabbit can eat. Your veterinarian
can do this for you, or can show you how to do it at home. Usually
malocclusion just strikes the front teeth, but occasionally, the
back teeth can also be misaligned. One indication of this is a
wet chin that is caused by drooling. If this is the case, your
rabbit will need his molars trimmed by a veterinarian on a regular
basis.
Hairballs
Rabbits shed their hair every three months. Every second shedding
is light, followed three months later by a heavy shedding. This
is an important factor in rabbit deaths. You need to brush and
comb your rabbit to get the hair off of them when they start to
shed. Rabbits groom themselves like cats and will ingest all of
the loose hair, which they cannot vomit as can cats. For this
reason, besides regular grooming, they must have constant access
to fresh hay every day, as the fiber helps the hair pass through
the digestive system. You can also give your rabbit cat hairball
preparations such as Petromalt or Laxatone once a week when not
shedding and daily during their molt. Finally, daily exercise
is another important factor in the prevention of hairballs.
Surgeries
Make sure your rabbit is in good health prior to elective surgeries.
Food and water should not be removed from a rabbit the evening
before surgery! Any change in diet can upset a rabbit's sensitive
digestive tract and cause problems in post- operative recovery.
One of the reasons some veterinarians recommend
removing animals' food before surgery is the possibility that
they may vomit. Rabbits cannot throw up, thus this is not a concern.
Additionally, some veterinarians are concerned about spaying rabbits
with a full cecum. Unfortunately, the cecum would take 3-4 days
of fasting to empty out, and by that time, the rabbit would be
dead. So please, do not fast your rabbit before surgery!
After surgery, make sure the rabbit's cage is clean,
and check her incision site daily for swelling or discharge. Do
everything you can to get your rabbit to eat again as soon as
possible after returning home. To coax him to eat again, you may
have to offer a variety of treats, including his regular pellets
and hay. If your rabbit has not eaten for 48 hours after surgery,
consult your veterinarian.
Bacterial Infections
The first indication of an infection may be a runny nose or eye,
sometimes a high temperature, sometimes a rattling sound from
the lungs or (rarely) a coughing sound. It is important to see
your veterinarian as soon as the first symptoms of any infection
appear, as they are more easily cured when caught in the early
stages. The bacteria you may hear the most about is called Pasteurella.
This used to be a major problem, but with the newer antibiotics,
this bacteria can often be eliminated. And, if not totally eliminated,
it can be controlled with the use of long term antibiotics. Most
of the symptoms described are quite common for many types of bacteria,
so it is important to have your veterinarian do a culture to determine
exactly what is being treated.
Digestive Problems
The following symptoms require that you see your veterinarian
immediately. Diarrhea--as in human children, diarrhea in rabbits
can be fatal. Rabbits have various kinds of diarrhea, if it's
runny, messy and smelly it's easy to identify. A more subtle form
of diarrhea (which does not require the urgency of runny diarrhea)
is when the droppings appear to be normal, but "squash"
when you touch or sweep them up. You may also see "clumpy"
diarrhea. This will be the consistency of silly putty, with normal
round droppings mixed in. Diarrhea usually requires antibiotics
from your veterinarian. Other signs to watch for are loud tummy
growling, small and/or misshapen droppings or no droppings at
all. See your veterinarian if any of these symptoms appear. (Veterinarians
often misdiagnose this problem as being a hairball.)
Primary Author(s): Sandi Ackerman
Sources: HRH, various articles from the HRJ
