hi,
Great info. I was did have something improtant that I wanted to add orhave people watch out for. I have english lops (their the ones with therealy realy long ears.) I also have flemish giants. Our rabbits live ina heated area during the winter since in Iowa the conditions do getpretty bad. With the lops you need to raise up the water bowls, or usethe water bottles if it isnt freezing temps yet. If you dont theproblem is that the lops can easily get their ears wet, or even frozenin the water bowls. My first english lop that I got did this. I wentout one night when the temps droped for the first time. At that time wedid not heat where the rabbits lived. I heard Fionna my english lop doeplaying with her water crock. I thought that is wierd she never didthat before and when I came around the corner and saw in her pen I sawthat she wasnt playing with her crock she was playing with her toy (ithink it was her ping pong ball) and the crock was frozen on the tip ofher ear and just sliding around with her. Scared me to death. I knewright away that I needed to get it thawed off her ear, and that her earwas going to be frost bite once I did. Just too many blood vessels inthe ears. The hard part was that I bought her breed and she was due inthree days and not use to me and being handled
. The hair dryer scaredher too much and I was terrifyed that it would cause the ice to crackdamaging the ear farther. So I had to put it in a bowl of cool water,and then added a little bit of warmer water every few seconds just tookeep it cooler untill the crock completely thawed and then I left italone for a little while later while I did the same thing with the earstill in the water bowl. That night I snowed as well, and I could notget her to the town where our vet is. When I did get her to the vet thenext afternoon (once the roads were plowed) I found out what i alreadyknew. The ear was frost bite. Once the litter came we had herear operated on and fixed (just the tip was removed, if too much ear isremoved a rabbit cannot cool itself right.) Something else to watch outfor is a rabbit that ears get too cold (I suspect that this happendswhen the ear gets numb like your fingers or toes do when they get cold)a rabbit will try to fix it on their own. If a rabbit can reach itsears withits mouth(like for example the englishlops can or the french lops) they tend to start to chew on their ears.Now this can realy alarm a person if they go out one night and findthis so that is why I decided to tell you all about this problem Fionnadid this when her ear got frost bit. Now dont worry or over think this.It realy is not that grose of a sight, they dont totally mutate theirears or anything like that. It is usauly just the edges of it, or evenone bite alot of times. It is most common in english lops because theirears are not usauly that well covered with hair, their ears are alotthinner than other rabbits ears are, they are farther away from therabbits body so the blood flowing in it is alot cooler by the time itreaches the ends of the ears, and their ears are more exposed. Alot oftimes people dont even notice that the rabbit has chewed on the earunless they make the edges un even, or the hair grows back white( likeon a colored rabbit). When 4-hers brings a rabbit to our fair (I am cosuperintendent of our counties rabbit department) and it is a longeared lop i can look at the ears and tell them if it is a rabbit thatwas housed outside during the winter in a unsheltered cage because thetips of the ears will not be rounded, or the edges of them will bebald. I just give them instructions for next winter that sounds justlike what you just gave.
Another thing I have encountered in my english lops are chapped ears.In the winter they can get dry, and red. I put petrolium jelly on themand it seems to work well.(if you have bedding inthe cage this can make a mess)Oh but if you have a rabbit that licks itoff (havent met one yet that has though) you should mix it withsomthing, Im not sure what you call it but our vet gave it to us forFionna when she chewed on her ear, I think it was called sour apple. Isaw it before at a farm supply store its for horses, but check beforeyou use anything thats not aproved for rabbits on rabbits.
I wanted to tell everyone about a item that is just for rabbits thatyou might think a little about for next winter if you think they need awarm box. There is a actual rabbit nest box warmer. It is metal and sonothing for the rabbit to chew on or through. The cord has a metalpiece around it and the rest of the cord has kind of like a metalspring on it. It is pretty nice. Ive also heard of people using it forthe water bowls they just set the water bowls on top of it.
I hope that this helps just some more info.
