Bunny with broken leg

[PeanuttheBun]

Peanut broke his front leg (no idea how, but he IS at least 11 years old) and I went to the vet yesterday and they taped it up. Since they taped it, he hasn’t eaten or drank on his own, he just sits there. He was actually hopping and eating without the tape for 2 days when I saw him limping with his paw up. I was hoping it was nothing but the vet said it’s near the shoulder joint.

Because he’s not eating or drinking I’m starting to freak out a little that he’s going to have GI stasis. He’ll eat if I feed him one piece of lettuce or hay at a time, but obviously I can’t sit there all day doing that. Do you think it’s worth it to try to take the tape off myself or just bring him back to the vet tomorrow?  

[Bam]

He might be in pain. Bunnies in pain often react by losing their appetite. That’s of course very dangerous, as you seem well aware of. If you could syringe him some Critical Care or pellet-slurry, at least he’d have something to keep his tummy working until you can reach your vet and discuss what to do. I think a pain-killer (metacam) could be of use to him, and he might need to be re-taped or have the tape removed completely.

If you try to take the tape off yourself, use scissors and don’t pull, you don’t want to disclocate the broken bone-pieces. It’s best if your vet does it. (((((Peanut)))))

[Ohbunny]

I wouldn’t try to take the taping off on my own of he has a break. I’m going through something similar with my buns, although his xray showed no break, he still had to be splinted and taped. Our vet advised us to remove if we felt there was a threat of a sore developing because they are so hard to treat in bunnies. Two days later and we had to remove his tape and split because of the way it rubbed in his arm pit area. After we removed it, I completely understood why they gave him a little bit of gas to put the spilt on. It was a two people job and my buns ended up with a haircut to get the tape off of his leg. I can’t imagine what kind of pain the pulling of the adhesive on the tape might give your buns since his leg is already broke. There is definitely resistance when you take it off. I would be worried about causing more damage to the break.

[Eepster]

I would not remove the tape. It’s more likely the stress of having gone to the vet and going through the pain of getting taped up than the tape itself. Trying to remove it will cause more stress and pain.

Call the vet about getting more/better pain meds. Also, try critical care.

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