broken femur healing (seeking help and advice)

[zuzu]

Last month, we came back from our 2-week trip out of state to my rabbit, who now had a broken femur. My dad was left to care for the pets, and something had gone wrong (I still don’t know exactly what). Her leg was kind of splayed out and she wasn’t really using it, so something as obviously wrong. A trip to the vet and some (EXPENSIVE…)  x-rays confirmed she had a broken femur. I was heartbroken.

The vet gave me my options, which where basically either put her down or amputate the leg. Banana Berry is about 8, and she means so much to me. I was there when she was a baby (my friend had rabbits that had bred) and she’s been with me since 5th grade up to me graduating high school a few months ago. I obviously didn’t want to put her down, and I didn’t want to put her through surgery either being 8 years old. I took her back home with pain medication to sit on it for a day or two and think.

I had a brief thought of “what if we tried to just let the bone heal on it’s own” but I didn’t think into it more than that, as I wasn’t sure if it would work. Day 2 into my panicking and wondering what I should do, my mom came in and told me that she was reading online about people who had confined their rabbits and let the bone heal on it’s own. After doing more reading on people’s stories and getting more information, I decided to go for it. Since rabbit bones start healing quickly, and she had probably already had the injury for about a week, I thought it was worth a shot since it was already starting to heal. That day we set her up in a pet carrier with everything she needs. 

I had no trouble at all giving her her pain meds (she put the syringe in her mouth herself lol), which I gave to her every 24 hours. After a week passed though, we decided to take her off the pain meds as we thought it was working a little TOO well, and we didn’t want her using her leg. (We had caught her scratching her ear with it a couple times).

Her attitude hasn’t changed at all, she is still very sassy and demands to be pet. She even tries to jump out of the carrier now. She has been eating a drinking well, and her stool looks normal. The leg still splays out, but on occasion I will come in and she’ll have it tucked normally.

We started the confinement Aug 7, and will probably stop it some time after this month.

I can also post x-rays, if you guys want them.

Do you guys have any advice or help for me? I want to do as much as I can. I wanted to make this post back when this happened but I’m too forgetful.

Also: since she is obviously sitting in the same spot for long periods, her backside has gotten dirty. Any advice to go about safely bathing her?

[Bam]

You can give her a butt bath. That means you only bathe the butt (duh!) in a basin with a little luke-warm water and if needed, a little bit of some unscented shampoo, preferably organic. I use a type for dogs since I’ve never been able to find a bunny-shampoo. If she’s not very dirty, you can do a “dry-bath” meaning you brush the dirt out with corn- or potato-starch.

If you do a wet butt-bath, be sure to dry her properly after. A micro-fiber towel is generally best. You can also use a blow drier on low heat, but be very careful not to burn her skin. It’s important you dry her properly since she probably can’t reach to lick herself dry.

As for rehab, the bone should obviously have healed before she’s allowed to put weight on it. But after that, she of course needs to put weight on it so it gets strong (skeletal bones gets strong from having weight put on them). I don’t know a lot about broken bones in rabbits, but this spring one of our members told us about one of their family-rabbits that had a broken leg that almost miraculously healed on its own. It does seem like your bunny is doing great. I hope others here will have more ideas for you about rehabilitation.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

That’s terrible-I’m so sorry!!

What did your vet say about this plan?
I think the pain medication is very important, and make sure you give it with plenty of food.

I’d love to see your x-rays if you can post them, I have a hard time reading x-rays so I do love to see them.

My Rupert broke his leg before I adopted him, likely as a stray. It healed at a wonky angle and is not very useful but he always got around wonderfully. I have to watch the foot for pressure sores and now that he is older I’m finding he’s a bit uncomfortable on it. I made some changes to his environment (softer little, a thicker subfloor, more out time) and we’re seeing the vet to get some tests run to see what kind of pain killer he could go on long term now. But I’ve had him for almost 8 years now (he was an adult when I adopted him) so that’s a lot of trouble free years.

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