Ohio Rabbit Crisis

[seniorcats]

[align=center]Can You Help These Bunnies? [/align]

Buckeye HRS volunteers have learned of a very serious rabbitoverpopulation situation in a private home where 80-90 rabbits arerunning loose in the bedrooms, basement, garage, and attic. Volunteersare currently trying to round up, separate, and provide cages for allof these rabbits. We need to find homes for them quickly or they may beat risk of being destroyed.

Volunteers are currently working with the owner to get theserabbits separated to prevent any more pregnancies; there are currently1-2 litters born every week. Most of the rabbits are in good health andare being fed pellets and water, however, they are living in filthyconditions and some are even escaping from the garage and running loosein the neighborhood.

We currently need donations of cages, carriers, humane traps,hay, pellets, food dishes, and water bottles. We also welcome anymonetary donations for veterinary care, especially for spay/neutersurgeries.

What we need more that anything else are both temporary and permanent homes for these sweet little bunnies




http://www.ohare.org/alerts.htm

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I volunteer with Buckeye HRS and we are tying to help theserabbits. After a second all day visit to this person's home,we may be dealing with over 100 rabbits. Pleasenote: this is in not a breeder. She startedout with a pair of rabbits at Easter - unspayed and unneutered - housedtogether. This is the result of months of uncontrolled,unintentional breeding. She could not stand to see therabbits caged or penned. Now she realizes she is in way overher head and needshelp.

She contacted HRS for help after realizing she can no longer afford tofeed and care for the rabbits. She thought she only had 35rabbits. The first day, we rounded up 77. We havetaken over many, many supplies for these rabbits - hay, pellets, cages,food crocks, water bottles, etc. In addition, we have hauledout many bags of used, filthy straw, cleaned rabbits, sexed them andseperated, scrubbed walls and floors, etc.

98% of these rabbits are black and white Dutch bunnies. Theother 2% are fawn and white. It's likely many of the femalesare pregnant. We are trying to get some pictures up on theweb site.

Please check out the Buckeye HRS web site alert. If you canfoster, adopt or loan some cages, please contact Kristen (info on theweb site) or pm me here. This person is not a 'bad'person. She is in need of help and at least has recognizedthat fact. She has managed to keep them fed and in goodhealth but is now overwhelmed.

Prayers and good thoughts will also be greatly appreciated!
Thanks! Ann//seniorcats

 

What are theInbreeding Conciquences with these rabbits. Surely there are some defects ifshe started with only 2 and is now up to100 , If all is healthy itwould be fine to rehome them IF there isdeficiencies and genetic issues it wouldbe better and more humane toput them to sleep . sorry JMO. Ihave hadto deal with inbreeding extremes and thisis sounding like areally nasty case of it.

 

[seniorcats]

Gypsy, I have some of the sameconcerns. The rabbits all appear healthy at this point exceptfor 2 who seemed really subdued. Those 2were takenand placed in quarantine. 2 appeared to be having soft stoolsand were placed in another home quarantine and vet checked.

She got the original 2 rabbits at Easter 2004 so none of therabbitsare over 2 years old. If there are geneticissues, they either haven't appeared yet or they aren't visible and areinternal. Surprisingly, none appear to have any problems withtheir teeth. I think bad teeth could be a genetic//inbreedingissue. There don't appear to be any physical deformities onthe rabbits.

Another surprise is the small size of the litters. The motherrabbits only had 1 to 2 babies each. This seems like a lot ofvery small litters. This may be upsetting to some but thewoman also has 4 fat cats and 2 fat terriers. It's possiblethe cats and terriers are eating some of the babies.

Are there other specific genetic issues we should be looking for? I appreciate any information you can provide.

 

[naturestee]

Blindness and deafness might be morecommon. Those would be harder to notice, too, unless the eyeswere an odd color like Amy's Nimue. Most rabbits seem to faketheir senses pretty well.

 

I can think of a few butthey would be more internal than externalproblems , such as heart ,lung,intestinal , Brain issue would also be aconcern to me . overly aggressiveor overly complacent wouldworry me . seizures would alsopresent . as would spinning issues (spinning in a circle for no apparent reason ) .Blindness wouldnt be apparent imediatelyunless they never move much orwalk into things , gradual blueing of the pupilwould be slowly apparent , watch for anyrabbit hopping sideways , yes it happensI have had one who did that , instead ofit hopping in a straight lineit will hop in a left or right pattern ,thats a few when I can find allmy notes on the inbreds that have come inI will post more .

external would be pinched up hips, andnormal deformaties you wouldnotice very quickly .

Yes the small litterscould very well be greedy dogsand cats , that is a sickeningthought but inattentive ownerswould never really notice , Ifeel bad she wasnt properly informed onspay neuter , but seems tome after 2 years she would know how babybunnies were produced and would haveconsulted with someone , even if it was aneighbor or her cat/ dog vet ?

 

[seniorcats]

She is in her 40's and should know where babiesoriginate.... I think there are some mental health issueshere. We are trying to get information on counseling for herso this doesn't happen all over again. From what she hassaid, there were past marital abuse issues.

Thanks for the info on genetic issues. I will be spending some time doing extra research so we don't miss anything.

 

[pamnock]

naturestee wrote:

Blindness and deafness might be more common. Thosewould be harder to notice, too, unless the eyes were an odd color likeAmy's Nimue. Most rabbits seem to fake their senses prettywell.

They do not appear blind -- it's just the "red eye" from the cameraflash. In one of the first photos, the chocolate Dutch isshowing the common "ruby glow" in subdued light that chocolate rabbitshave.

Pam

 

[pamnock]

I was pleased to note that Kristen Doherty isstill involved in the Buckeye chapter. Wonderful lady whogave an outstanding presentation for one of our 4-H meetings when I wasan advisor in Ohio.



Pam

 

[bluebird]

That is so sad,small litters might be from inbreeding.bluebird

 

I hadnt noticed the Link forpictures and story until Pam mentionedthe Red eyes . Now that I look atit i can see whatyou mean Pam I hadnt refered toit before . just generalizing some of theproblems I had noticed previously withones here .

The one thing I did notice out of proportion ishow small some of the older rabbits are ,this maybe normal , I have a small Dutch under 4lbs .

True BlueBird , small litters can also bea result of the inbreeding,but I would wager my bet on the catand dog .

I forgot to ask Anne , were thecat and dog altered ? justcurious if they were and why notthe rabbits ?

 

[seniorcats]

pamnock wrote:

Iwas pleased to note that Kristen Doherty is still involved in theBuckeye chapter. Wonderful lady who gave an outstandingpresentation for one of our 4-H meetings when I was an advisor in Ohio.



Pam

I'll pass the compliment along to Kristen. She devotes all ofher free time and energy to rabbits. She has a dozen fostersplus 4 sanctuary rabbits (rabbits with physical disabilities and onewho hates people).

Gypsy, the cats and dogs are all neutered and spayed. One ofthe dogs has been to the vet recently for an ear infection. They areolder animals obtained prior to her divorce when she was better offfinancially. I think finances and lack of knowledge are themain reasons the first pair of rabbits weren'tneutered/spayed.So many people just don't realizethat rabbits can be altered and litter trained. She willprobably keep a few rabbits but Buckeye will be paying for them to bealtered.

About the size of the rabbits, I noticed that too especially from thepictures. They seem smaller than my Dutch boy who just passedaway. He was around 5 - 5.5 pounds. The femalesseem to be larger than the males. A couple of the mom rabbitsor pregnant buns are really big and grumpy. There is about a50//50 mix of males to females.

One of our members lives closer and has more opportunity to observetheir appearance and behavior. If we can get some in fosterhomes that will give us more of a chance to assess thephysicalhealth and temperament

 

Hi Anne ,

Typically , At least with myexperience with Dutch Mothers they areacting normal with regards to beingpregnant , Dutch can be either sweet assugar or nasty as Poop while pregnant. I had one who was so sweetyou could do anything with herwhlie pregnant and another that IF youeven dared look at her she would growland try to remove what everbody part was closest . Please tell them not to judgethe Pregnant ones untill after kindle and weaning. it wouldnt be fair to them . Especiallyif they have an overly aggressive one . afterweaning she may actually turnout to be a sweetheart .

Dutch arethe oddest Rabbits Ihave come acrossed Doing what I do .I wouldnt trade that experiencefor all the money in the World .

I have cage space for 3 ofthe pregnant ones If wecan figure a way to get them up here. I am experienced in handlingthe snottiest of the bunch . Itwould also allow me to Validatethe sudden passing of my Lightning , whoof course was one of those snotty removeyour body parts Dutch .
edit :

I forgot to mention some FemaleDutch have a unexplainable hatredof sneakers, tell themto watch their feet while therabbits are on a hop about if they arewearing sneakers .

 

[seniorcats]

Gypsy, thanks so much for all the valuableinformation! We have 2 members who were in 4-H when they wereyoung and they some experience with pregnancies. I'll let youknow what we are doing with the pregnant does and thanks for your offerto foster. Babies and pregnant does cannot come to my housebecause we have 14 senior cats and 4 younger cats. They areeither afraid of the adult rabbits or they ignore themtotally. Having tiny babies around all these cats would beasking for trouble.

Dutchies are such characters. We'll have to warch thesneakers and see if they attack. My big lop,Melody, absolutely hates one of my friends and constantly attacks herfeet. I think she smells Theresa's 7 bunnies and flipsout. Having a big French lop come after you is a littlescarey.

 

I hear you about a FrenchLop in attack mode lol , I ave one who does thatIf you spend too much time fussing withher babies . all snuff , snort andnip lol .

Let me know If you need them fostered out. Dutch always have aHome in My Barn !.

 

[seniorcats]

http://www.ohare.org/alerts.htm

Some new pictures have been added in case anyone wants to take alook. There some 'before' pictures - before the place wasswept and scrubbed.Only 2-3 volunteersare being allowed in at a time because the woman is ashamed of how herhouse looks. Most of the house is ok just everything iswell-used and worn but necessarily dirty.

So far we have found places for the weaned babies and 10 adults.

Again, many thanks to the board members who offered in posts or PM's tofoster some of the rabbits. I'm checking to see if we canmake out of state arrangements. RO members are the greatest!

 

HI Anne !!

Omg! there is a little Blue Dutch baby that isto die for posted on that site ..!!! whata cute little thing it is . When You getinformation on out of state Fosters letme know I will do what Ican but I would really love to give thatBlue baby a permenent home .
Just look at this face!!!!!!