Traumatic nail trim. Yikes!

[Kbana]

Ok, so I have a normal bun vet that I love that is an hour away.  LOVE her!  But since Albert won’t let me get near his feets for a trim I wanted to take him somewhere closer.  I found a vet on the HRS website that happens to be 5 min from the house. Yay! I thought at least I had a close back up in case my regular vet, who is part time, wasn’t available. I figured a nail trim would be a good way to test her out. Oh boy! First, though everyone was super friendly, they tranced Albert before even trying to clip his nails without it. He is already so well behaved at the vet and has never fought my main vet when she trims his nails. The look on his face almost killed me! You could see in his eyes he was terrified.   Then, she said she would help me with his mats which I was greatly appreciative of because they get so bad and he won’t let me near them. Well, she started pulling them out with her bare hands and fingernails! All of this was while he was still on his back. In my head I’m thinking, OK, definitely not an option to come back, but then when I was asking her how many buns she sees she said a few a week, but “she is definitely no expert, though she sees them and most vets don’t.”

Yikes! Maybe I’m overreacting but since my primary vet is the only vet I have ever dealt with I was just so taken aback by how “rough” she was on him.  My other vet is so kind and gentle and owns bunnies herself. This vet said she doesn’t own bunnies anymore because they are so hard to take care of. Ahhh!!! I’m bummed because driving him an hour to get a nail trim isn’t super practical but don’t want to take him back there.

Am I overreacting?

[LBJ10]

I’m sure it was more traumatic for you than it was for him. My vet doesn’t try to trance anyone if they are doing a nail trim. The vet holds and the vet tech cuts. But I’m sure Albert will be fine. Maybe a little annoyed with you, but fine. What type of hair does he have? Is it wooly? With wooly breeds, you can “pluck”. You just have to make sure the mat or fur being plucked is actually going to release when you tug on it. It doesn’t hurt them if it is meant to come off. Although it does look like you’re just being horrible to them.

[Kbana]

Oh LB, he was so mad at me when we got home! Plenty of foot flicks and ignored me for a few hours. He is wooly underneath a bit. He is a lop/lionhead mix. He gets matted on his bottom and under his hinds. I was just so shocked because my main vet mentioned just getting the mats when he was under for his neuter since they were hard to get at. And then this vet just comes and rips them out! I was horrified!

[LBJ10]

I wouldn’t worry too much. I suppose you can’t get a good look at the area since he doesn’t let you touch it. You could see if it looks irritated where she plucked. Like I said, if the fur was meant to come out then it shouldn’t have hurt him.

[Sindri]

This reminds me of a similar situation I just has this last Friday. My rabbit vet is an hour away and I wanted to get my rabbits nails trimmed so I call the place here in town that I take our other pets too. My rabbits were mad at me when I brought them home from their nail trims. Kilala kicked her back feet at me and ran away. She didn’t even want a small piece of apple which she loves. Usagi ran away and turned and gave me a sad look. Both were mad at me for 2 days. I really didn’t like taking then to this vet and I seriously thinking of taking them to their normal vet for the next nail trim. I asked if I could go back with them for the nail trim and they seemed to be a little mad about that. Trancing your rabbit doesn’t sound very good to me. If it was me I wouldn’t take him back. I have heard that is not good to do to rabbits but maybe I am wrong? Other than that I wouldn’t worry too much about your bunny I am sure he is fine now.

[Isabelle]

For nails trims we go to our vet tech, who we love. I always hold Dutchess, I never trance her, and she flips or wiggles every few toes when she wants a break. So I plop her down, give her a few pets and pick her up again. The trance might have been more difficult than the trim and hair. I sometimes will pull a few of Dutchess’ gently if they have a little tangle, and she is not bothered by it. In the future, maybe if you need to use her for a nail trim, just hold him yourself and don’t trance him, and try and give him a good grooming before you go so she won’t need to deal with hair tangles.

[JackRabbit]

Are mats just matted fur?  If so, our vet showed us how to use a flea comb to gently comb out matted fur that had poop stuck in it (it’s kinda like combing a knot out of human hair a little at a time).  He said to make sure to hold the fur between your fingers as much as possible so that there’s no tugging on the rabbit’s skin (apparently rabbit skin is thin and delicate and can tear?).  It worked for us, but definitely takes two to do the job, and doing the bunny burrito thing helped too. 

[Kbana]

Yeah, mats are just matted fur. I know how to get them out and I have a really good comb for it, he just won’t let me do it. And, he won’t burrito either. No matter how securely I swaddle him he struggles and wriggles out of it. It is like he panics the minute he is confined in any way. He doesn’t mind me combing him on his back or head but the minute I get near his legs he freaks out. Getting under his legs is a joke! Ha! oh well. Guess I’ll be driving to my regular vet from now on. I hate to put him through the hour car ride but I guess it is better than being tranced and it is only once a month or so. Or like Isabelle said, if I go back to this vet, tell her not to trance him. Thank goodness we don’t have to go back for a while now!

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