Bonded rabbit tore hair off the ear of companion rabbit

[BunnyMomOf6]

. I don't know what's going on with them. Lola and Mopsey have be bonded for a year and both are 1 year old. Do you think this is aggressive grooming from the other? I do not know if I should separate them to stop this or just keep them together. I don't want them to get depressed that they don't have one another. Please any advise will be greatly appreciated

 

[BunnyMomOf6]

I separated both but they got out to play together before they go to bed. I have both of their cages together so they are able to see each other. I hope this works it's self out! I would hate to separate them for good.

 

[JBun]

Could it possibly have gotten smashed or caught in something? It looks a bit sore in the picture. Have you checked it to make sure there isn't a wound, or looked in the ear itself to see if there are signs of any issues that might be the cause of this?

Separation may not be needed at this point. If you could spend some time observing them to see if you can spot any potential problems, might be a good first step.

 

[BunnyMomOf6]

I have looked at the entire ear and I do not see any other problems. I left the house for about an hour and this is what I came back to. I don't think anything in their cage would have smashed it and I see Lola licking her ears lot!

 

[BunnyMomOf6]

Lola may have bitten Mopsey a bit while pulling out the fur. I freaked when I saw it! I thought a large piece of flesh was missing. It looked bloody but was only bloody red color

 

[Imbrium]

Just to double-check... they're both spayed, correct?

If not, they can't truly be considered bonded and their hormones can provoke vicious or even deadly fights, so they would definitely need to be separated and kept apart until about a month after their spays (takes that long for hormones to die down), then re-bonded.

If they are... my girls have never gotten into a bad enough fight to actually result in an injury, but their bond HAS broken a couple times. If they're both spayed yet they're fighting that badly, then something has obviously upset their bond - I would try taking them to neutral territory (somewhere that neither girl has ever been before) and letting them have a supervised play-date there (like you would do if bonding two adult rabbits for the first time). With my girls, that was enough to fix things both times - the first time, I set them up in an x-pen in my neighbor's kitchen and the second time, we used an x-pen in the front yard. The neutral territory is a bit of a reboot for them, it seems. The first time was during recovery from their spays, so they did actually live separately in adjacent recovery enclosures; the second time I went right for the neutral territory trick and never had to separate them at all.

If you can't mend their bond with just some time on neutral territory, then I would separate them where they can still see/smell each other but not fight through bars and continue to try a play-date on neutral territory once or twice a day. If that doesn't work, you'll need to separate them *completely* (different rooms and everything) for 3-4 weeks - this essentially resets things completely and you'll have to bond them again from scratch. If you have to resort to that, then it's best if neither girl stays in the territory they normally share... otherwise you'll have to do a really thorough job of cleaning/deodorizing the entire area to make it neutral again (so that the girl who was allowed to stay there doesn't now claim it as "hers").

 

[lovelops]

View attachment 6848. I don't know what's going on with them. Lola and Mopsey have be bonded for a year and both are 1 year old. Do you think this is aggressive grooming from the other? I do not know if I should separate them to stop this or just keep them together. I don't want them to get depressed that they don't have one another. Please any advise will be greatly appreciated

How are things now? What has been going on?

Vanessa

 

[BunnyMomOf6]

I still have them separated. I do have a
multi level cage and I split it up for the two. I just don't want to leave the house and something else happen. They act fine towards each other when they are out playing and her ear looks really red but it doesn't seem to bother her much. Is there anything that I could put on it to help healing and to prevent infection?

 

[lovelops]

I still have them separated. I do have a
multi level cage and I split it up for the two. I just don't want to leave the house and something else happen. They act fine towards each other when they are out playing and her ear looks really red but it doesn't seem to bother her much. Is there anything that I could put on it to help healing and to prevent infection?

From when Chico lost some of this toes on his left front paw from an accident I use the kids FOAM antiseptic and antibacterial FOAM. It's easy to put up and it's not toxic if they lick it off. I had to use that on Chico for like 14 days and it worked fine. I know they are going to lick it off but the vet told me to use it so I think that should work for you also!

Vanessa

 

[JBun]

If there isn't an open wound, you don't need to put anything on it. Is it still looking red and irritated?

 

[Bindi]

Towards the end of her life, my Bandit couldn't groom herself any more. Her bonded partner Oren used to wash her back end for her. Somehow, one day, Bandit injured the base of her tail. After it got rapidly worse, it turned out that Oren was overgrooming it and they were separated for a few days until it healed.

One thing that I wondered- if your lop is anything like mine was, perhaps something got stuck to the bottom of the ear and your other rabbit might have overgroomed it to get it off? There might be no malice in it. If the ear has healed now, I'd be tempted to put them back together under supervision and see how it goes.

 

[BunnyMomOf6]

Thank you everyone that replied. Her ear looks kinda like it was skinned. I will keep them separated till it heals and supervise the when they get put back together