Broken leg – habitat recommendations?

[Lyss]

My 2 year old bunny broke his leg tonight… he was circling around me and I lost my balance and stepped on his front leg. He doesn’t seem to blame me though I still feel awful!

He is part of a bonded pair. We could not bring his mate to the vet with us because she moves around too much in the car and would have injured it further. The vet said so far that we will need to keep him confined to a small cage for as long as his leg is splinted. Vet said it is our call whether we keep him in the same cage as his mate, depending on whether she will get too rambunctious. She is VERY hyper and I think it’s best to keep them separate and then rebond after.

For anyone who has experience with this, is there anything we can do to his mini cage set up to make him more comfortable? Thoughts on the plan to keep the pair separate while he heals?

Thank you!

[Azerane]

Oh no, the poor little guy I hope his leg heals up well.

In terms of caging, if his bond mate is hyper like you mentioned, it probably is worth keeping them separate however you could allow them together for supervised interaction for short periods of time. For the caging setup, assuming you have a dog crate or similar to house him in, I would put the crate inside their regular play pen, or have it as part of the wall of the playpen so that the girl can still come up to him through the bars and they can interact and lay against each other through the bars. Rather than keeping them completely separate which could be stressful for them both.

As for keeping him comfortable, make sure the flooring on the cage is padded (a folded fleece blanket for example) and that it can’t slip around. If it slips around he could risk hurting his leg further. Drape a blanket over half of the cage to help him feel secure (assuming there is no room for a hidey box) and ensure he has lots of things to do to keep him busy (toys to chew, toilet paper tubes to pull hay out of etc) because he is likely to get quite bored.

[Lyss]

Thanks.

We did the blanket over the play pen and he seemed to appreciate it.

We tried to let them interact a bit as you suggested, but the girl attacked him! We started out with their cages side-by-side so they could see each other, and they obviously knew who each other were because they were practically climbing the bars to get to each other. But when we put them within physical proximity, she attacked. It must be that he smells different (particularly the splint, which smells like a vet clinic).

Now they are in separate cages, about 2 inches apart, with a blanket in between them for parts of the day (we lift it for other parts so they can see each other). They each have a fleece blanket in their cage and I’m going to start swapping the blankets out every day so they will have each other’s smells in their respective cages. When he goes in for his 2 week check-up, I’ll take her in a separate carrier so they both come back smelling relatively the same. They will probably have to go through the bonding process again when he is all healed up, but I’m hoping these adjustments will make that easier/faster.

[cinnybun2015]

If he’s having a hard time getting into his litterbox, I would recommend a litterbox with a lower lip so he can hop in and out easier. I have never had experience with bonded rabbits, but I think that the idea of swapping the blankets is good so that they’re still used to the scent of each other.
Hope he recovers speedily!!

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