Flystrike

[mdennis]

Hi all,

I live in an apartment, and I’ve never seen any rabbits roaming around near the place that I stay, although I’ve heard rumors about how the area is flooded with rabbits. But this evening, I went out to take my dogs for a walk and I found this wild rabbit laying on the ground behind my porch. I was totally surprised, especially since it wasn’t moving and it didn’t try to run away from me, so I figured it must be sick or injured. I wrapped it up in a towel and brought it inside.

Now, I’m not a rabbit owner by any means. I’ve only owned one rabbit in the past and she unfortunately passed away a very long time ago. So, it’s safe to say I don’t know much about taking care of rabbits anymore. But seeing this poor thing on the ground in the dead of night and injured pushed me to act and hopefully save it if I could.

At first I thought maybe it had been bitten by a snake (that’s how my old rabbit died). I checked all over its body but didn’t really find any wounds. Then all of a sudden I start to notice some wriggling things around its rear… I’ll spare the gross details. The rabbit apparently has flystrike around its rear and on its face. I picked off all the maggots and eggs I found and bundled up the poor thing and put it in a shoebox to sleep in (I don’t have any carriers or anything).

I know that the immediate response anyone is suppose to have for flystrike is to take it to a vet immediately, but that isn’t an option for me right now as I don’t have any means of transportation. I haven’t checked back up on the rabbit yet but I’m pretty worried. Is there anything else I could have done? The condition looked pretty severe, although the rabbit was moving its front half and eating and drinking when I put food/water close to their face. I thought it would have been a lot better for him/her if I took it in and tried to help instead of letting it suffer outside, even though it is a wild animal.

[Bam]

Thank you for trying to help this poor rabbit!

If it’s a wild rabbit, you could call a local wildlife rehaber, or rehab facility, they could perhaps come and get the rabbit.

In this old thread, lulustarman gives tips for emergency home care of a bun with flystrike, it’s post nr 6 in this thread (scroll down):

https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/123945/Default.aspx

Removing all larvae and eggs are of course step one, but there might be larvae that have burrowed deep into the skin and they must be removed with tweezers. A damp warm cloth against the skin of the rabbit can make them want to crawl to the surface of the skin where you (hopefully) can grab them.

If you scroll down, here’s a video of a rabbit being treated for fly strike: http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Skin_diseases/Parasitic/Myiasis/Miyasis_fly.htm

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