We are new bunny owners. We adopted our 6 month old male bunny, Max, with a sore hock. The vet was already seeing him and had put a firm bandage on him. This severely disabled his hopping ability, but we brought him home with his 1 year old mother, a bonded bun. They were very frustrated by the long car ride and the new environment, but within a couple days were very happy and the female even binkied a couple times, we were very happy. They nose-bonked a little and wouldn't deny us petting them, except Max sometimes, as he's a bit timid from the get go.
Now move on to one week later. We brought him in for his checkup (40 miles each way, took about 3 hours. They honestly took it very well. They seemed to trust me a lot.), and the vet took the bandage off (ripping off the scab in the process), and it was still missing several layers of skin/looked raw(although i'm sure the scab would have helped a bit longer). The vet said it should heal in open-air. She gave us Silvadene to apply twice daily, and said we should soak his paw in epsom salt once daily.
Since then the bunnies have gotten progressively angrier at us, and terrified of hands. And of humans, by association. There's no way to apply this stuff other than picking him up. And I'll give you a guess as to what he hates more than anything else. I have to chase the poor little guy around the 6x8 pen about 4 times until i've managed to grab him, scaring the life out of him every darn time. Then I get his foot soaked. He may escape after this, leaving his now raw wound to romp around his pen floor. Then I pick him up again after another rodeo, and apply the silvadene, which immediately gets wiped off onto whatever pant leg or carpet is next to contact his leg. They then stay on the side by the wall behind whatever they can find, absolutely spiteful of us.
After all this has ensued, the dominant one, the 8lb female, is extremely angry to say the least. If we have any time together within half a day of this nonsense, she'll be unruly and he'll stay far far away. I've been bitten/scratched, had the mother thump the ground, throw her rear feet at me in retreat, tear up my foot and arm. This is all while doing things like feeding them and giving them treats with the pen opened up.
What do we do? It seems like this treatment is ineffective considering the wound just gets open and dirtier and all the ointment gets wiped off near immediately. The wound appears to be closing up when left to itself for half a day. All we're doing is causing then undue stress in their new home, and I don't want them to be unhappy here and destroy an attempt at bonding with us.
Now move on to one week later. We brought him in for his checkup (40 miles each way, took about 3 hours. They honestly took it very well. They seemed to trust me a lot.), and the vet took the bandage off (ripping off the scab in the process), and it was still missing several layers of skin/looked raw(although i'm sure the scab would have helped a bit longer). The vet said it should heal in open-air. She gave us Silvadene to apply twice daily, and said we should soak his paw in epsom salt once daily.
Since then the bunnies have gotten progressively angrier at us, and terrified of hands. And of humans, by association. There's no way to apply this stuff other than picking him up. And I'll give you a guess as to what he hates more than anything else. I have to chase the poor little guy around the 6x8 pen about 4 times until i've managed to grab him, scaring the life out of him every darn time. Then I get his foot soaked. He may escape after this, leaving his now raw wound to romp around his pen floor. Then I pick him up again after another rodeo, and apply the silvadene, which immediately gets wiped off onto whatever pant leg or carpet is next to contact his leg. They then stay on the side by the wall behind whatever they can find, absolutely spiteful of us.
After all this has ensued, the dominant one, the 8lb female, is extremely angry to say the least. If we have any time together within half a day of this nonsense, she'll be unruly and he'll stay far far away. I've been bitten/scratched, had the mother thump the ground, throw her rear feet at me in retreat, tear up my foot and arm. This is all while doing things like feeding them and giving them treats with the pen opened up.
What do we do? It seems like this treatment is ineffective considering the wound just gets open and dirtier and all the ointment gets wiped off near immediately. The wound appears to be closing up when left to itself for half a day. All we're doing is causing then undue stress in their new home, and I don't want them to be unhappy here and destroy an attempt at bonding with us.
