Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum BEHAVIOR Bunny can’t be neutered, other options?

Viewing 7 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • NadAnt
      Participant
      3 posts Send Private Message

        Hello everyone,

        Our previously well-behaved and litter-trained bun Alice (aka Flumpy) has begun pooping/peeing everywhere except in the tray, and has been spraying us with pee. This behaviour began about a month ago and he’s approx. 5 months old so we wanted to get him spayed to hopefully get the territorial behavior under control. 

        The problem is we live in Vietnam and haven’t been able to find any vets who were willing or able to spay her. Until we found one vet who agreed to see her today. After an initial consultation it turns out that Alice is a boy and because of his head-tilt condition, surgery is too risky. In any case we didn’t feel that the vet was experienced enough to perform it (she had recommended fasting prior to surgery which I believe is a no no for buns).

        SO now we have an extremely territorial bunny who was previously a free-range in our room, but due to the pee spraying we have confined her to a smaller space. Does anyone know if this behaviour will settle down with time, e.g after puberty? Is there anything we can do to stop the spraying or to make him less territorial? We plan on lining the floor of the area he’s confined to with plastic sheets and cardboard to protect the floorboards, but is there anything else we can do so he doesn’t spray us every time we enter his pen? We want to be able to give him cuddles and a good area to run about but without getting covered in pee!

        Thank you so much in advance if anyone has any tips for behaviour management when neutering is not an option.


      • Autumn's Dad
        Participant
        208 posts Send Private Message

          I’m sorry to hear of the situation, first off you will want to see the vet if you have not already to determine the cause of the tilt and thus possibly reverse it with medication. I would keep looking for a decent vet, as these issues will not subside left untreated.
            
            I am by no means an expert but Autumn still marks over a year after her spay so what I do is actually allow some marked areas to stay marked while covering them so they are not visible. Not the cleanest of solutions but it stops her continually re-marking. Spraying is difficult to deal with as that is partly how un- neutered male rabbits show affection/courtship so by socially interacting spraying may be inevitable.

          In short- determine the cause of head tilt, put a treatment plan in place and after the cause of the tilt has been illuminated (cancer, infection) go ahead with the neuter if possible.


        • LBJ10
          Moderator
          16869 posts Send Private Message

            If Alice is a boy, then not neutering does not carry the same health risks as not spaying a girl bun. Neutering has it’s benefits, they are just mostly behavioral. Do you plan to bond Alice with another bun in the future? If not, then there probably isn’t much harm in leaving him with his family jewels.

            You asked if the behavior will go away over time. Yes and no. As bunnies move past puberty, many will eventually calm down. The hormone-driven behaviors will reduce, but I would say in most cases it does not completely disappear. The behaviors can become reduced enough though that they are just an inconvenience every once in awhile. Many bunny owners with crazy hormonal boys going through puberty, however, do not wait to find out! LOL


          • vanessa
            Participant
            2212 posts Send Private Message

              I’m curious about the surgery being considered risky due to is head tilt condition. Do you have any more information about his condition?


            • NadAnt
              Participant
              3 posts Send Private Message

                Thank you for all your replies. I’ll try to explain a bit more about his situation but we are still very much in the dark living here in Vietnam where rabbits are a rare pet to have.

                About 5 months ago we heard the local animal shelter had rescued a baby bun from a trash bin somewhere here in Hanoi, Vietnam. The shelter was struggling as it was overrun with dogs and cats and had no experience caring for a rabbit. My bf and I had had rabbits before (though not in this country) and couldn’t bear the thought of the little guy being put down or left in terrible living conditions so we went to see him at the vets for a checkup and possible adoption. We asked about the head tilt and the vet said it could be due to a parasite, infection, damage to the neck or inbreeding but he said there is no way to know for sure. He also told us the bunny was female and about 8 weeks old at that time and otherwise healthy apart from the head tilt. We took Alice home with the antiparasite meds the vet had prescribed and continued to research the condition since the vet couldn’t tell us anything more.

                The head tilt never improved and we’re pretty sure now that Alice is mostly blind and deaf, but he gets around great which his sense of smell and we think he can see a little, just not as well as other bunnies. He runs around, plays with toys and generally enjoys life, and is the most affectionate cuddly bunny we’ve ever had. The down-tilted side of his face is a slightly different shape from the upper side so we assume the headtilt is a result of a slight deformation, maybe due to mishandling as a bun or due to severe in-breeding.

                Since we got him we’ve taken Alice to 3 other vets in Hanoi (all known to be the top clinics in the city). Only one of these agreed to see him for a surgery consultation to get him spayed when this spraying behaviour started last month (would be about 6 months old now). When we took the bun to this new vet she immediately said that surgery will be too risky because of the head tilt. Her English was not great so it was difficult to ascertain why exactly it would not be safe, but she indicated it was the anaesthetic which was risky.

                Alice does have some breathing problems which have been there since we got him. Again no vet can tell us with certainty why. But she’s been on a course of antibiotics for a supposed lung infection a few months ago and the meds took their toll on her and did nothing to improve her breathing. So she just lives with a slightly stuffy nose now which we don’t know what else we can do about.

                We knew it would be difficult to raise a bunny in country where we don’t speak the local language and where rabbits are not kept as pets. But leaving him in that shelter wasn’t an option so now we’re just trying to do our best with the available resources. This last week we’ve had to confine him to a pen in the corner of the room which has helped a little on clean-up space. But everytime we go in there to fix up or change litter or hay he sprays us. The only time it’s safe to go near now is when he’s already lying down in cuddle flump mode and we can just pet him. But if he’s up and about the buzzing begins and that’s the warning that we better run and jump out of the pen asap. I feel so bad having him in that pen when he’s been used to being a free roam bunny since he can remember, he looks lonely and is extra cuddle needy now.

                We will continue to give him lots of new toys and try to keep the pen area interesting but if anyone has any other ideas we would love to hear them. Thank you so much!


              • LBJ10
                Moderator
                16869 posts Send Private Message

                  Do you remember the medications you where given? What was the anti-parasitic and antibiotic? You said his face is lopsided. That sounds to me like it could be facial paralysis due to infection. Wooly has more or less permanent facial paralysis because of his chronic URIs and ear infections. In his case, the infections are caused by tooth roots growing into his sinuses. But I’m hoping that since your bunny is young, he simply has an infection that can be cured with the right medication.


                • NadAnt
                  Participant
                  3 posts Send Private Message

                    I don’t know the name of the first med he was given, it was in an unlabeled bottle but the vet said it was for parasites, just in case that is what’s causing the tilt, and he said it may or may not work. After 10 days of med there hadn’t been any difference to the tilt but she seemed otherwise healthy and growing stronger.

                    The next time she took a med was a couple months later when we noticed she may have earmites. We took her to that same vet and he checked her ears and declared nothing was wrong, no earmites. We were sure he was mistaken due to the ear crusts so we went to another clinic and bought Revolution (selemectin) for kittens and administered it ourselves. Sure enough it worked and she’s had immaculately clean ears ever since.

                    The next time we went to a different vet for her sneezing and wet nose (which she has had since we got her) who said she must have a lung infection and prescribed an antibiotic, again in an unlabeled bottle so not sure which one. It was traumatic for her to be force fed a whole syringe full of the nasty stuff twice a day for 2 weeks and at the end of it there was no improvement in her sniffles and sneezing. Plus the meds had been harsh on her tummy and fearing GI stasis I didn’t want to put her on another course of antibiotics.

                    As much as I’d love to find a cure for the head tilt there just are no other rabbit savy vets in Hanoi to help diagnose him. And though Alice is young he’s fully-grown now and the head tilt seems permanent, he can’t really put his head up straight even if I prop it up, it just won’t turn that way.

                    Apologies for the confusing use of ‘he’ and ‘she’. Alice is a boy but we’re still getting used to calling him one since we thought he was a she for the first 5 months.

                    So with all this in mind we are focusing on managing the spraying behaviour while keeping her as happy and healthy as possible. I do hope the spraying will stop once he gets over the puberty hurdle, but if not we have no option but to keep him confined and only go near him when he’s in relaxing cuddle mode.


                  • LBJ10
                    Moderator
                    16869 posts Send Private Message

                      The URI symptoms just add to the growing list of evidence. I’m not a vet, but I’m willing to bet his head tilt is linked to an infection. Now the damage could already be done and his head tilt is permanent. But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to clear up whatever his infection is. There could be improvement in his head tilt and (apparent) facial paralysis. Plus you don’t want a URI to continue unchecked. It could become much more serious down the road. I’m going to assume the antibiotic was Baytril (Enrofloxacin) since it is very common and widely distributed. But it very well could have been something else. Since your vet isn’t very rabbit-savvy, a culture is probably out of the question. So maybe you need to explore other rabbit-safe antibiotics? You could show this list to the vet and see what they think. Another broad-spectrum antibiotic may be what you need. It’s also worth noting that a longer course is often needed.

                      http://www.medirabbit.com/Safe_medication/Antibiotics/Safe_antibiotics.htm

                  Viewing 7 reply threads
                  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                  Forum BEHAVIOR Bunny can’t be neutered, other options?