Bad eyesight and bloody noses

[Sonn]

My new foster Moonshine has terrible eyesight. The last rabbit that I had with poor eyesight was Banji who was blind. But he was very slow and methodical. Moonshine is fast and rams into things a lot. I have only had him for a day and he has given himself 5 bloody noses and it is worrying me. For now he is only allowed in my living room for playtime where I can completely pad the place with pillows. 

Does anyone have any suggestions how to make my house friendlier to a not so patient bun? 

I am hoping that he will eventually learn where everything is since he does have some vision and not just  run full force into things when he gets excited. 

[MimzMum]

Gosh Sonn, I wish I had any ideas on the whole house, but all I can think of now is, maybe just keep him in a more confined area till he’s more used to all the smells and noises of your place and slowly widen out the area he can roam, like when bonding bunnies. Poor bub. Hopefully as he gets used to where he is he’ll calm down a bit and take things more slowly.
Is there any chance eventually bonding him with Gypsy so that she could be his “seeing eye bun?” Obviously not right away, but at some point in future.

[Sonn]

My living room is very small so it isn’t hard to make that an area that he can’t bang into things. So trying to figure out how to make kind of a path from the living room to my ridiculously long hallway so he can zoom around. I tried just the hallway but since his pen is in the living room he kept trying to leap over the gate to the room before the living room to get back to his pen.

Wonder if lining x-pens end to end to make a path would work.

I really hope that made sense. I had to type it a couple of times. Lol. I am on a new migraine medication that makes forming complete sentences a task to say the least.

[JackRabbit]

The xpen thing would probably work — great idea. I think MimzMum is right about slowly expanding his area when going for the whole house. Until he gets the whole place mapped out, you may just have to try padding new areas as you open them up to him.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Can you try giving him less room? Is he running around happily and binkying or does he appear to be running in fear? Was his eyesight just lost? How long has he been with you for fostering?

My gut is he’s either just adjusting to the new loss (and not doing a great job of it) or he’s happy/fearful in his new digs and moving much too much and too fast. So I’d proof a room if you can (maybe pool noodles in towels along the wall??) and limit him in there so he can’t hurt himself and can adjust slowly to his new surroundings.

[Sonn]

His eyesight has been like this for as long as the shelter has has him and probably even before. He doesn’t seem fearful he does binkies and zooms around then stops and grooms himself. He has been with me since Thursday. I’ve got him only in my living room for now and my living room is very small. It is pretty much big enough for his pen, my couch, a chair, and a small table. He does pretty well in the living room except he bangs into the table frequently so I have the legs padded with some rolled up towels and small pillows for now.

I think I will do as suggested and just limit him in here for now until he settles in a bit more and gets used to everything before inching him a bit more towards the rest of the house.

I also like the pool noodle idea I have a ton of those from my younger cousins leaving them here.

[Author]

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