LIMPING RABBIT

[juliemjkim]

Hello

I have a male 4 month old not yet neutered netherland dwarf rabbit.

Just a couple of hours ago, I picked him up to take him out of the room and just as I was about to bring him closer to my body, he jumped out of my hands. I am 5'8" and he fell on the carpet from my arms while I was standing. He landed on all four paws.

Now, he is not really using his right front paw and is limping. He still runs but not fast, eats, drinks, poops, and grooms himself.

I called a rabbit savvy vet and she said I can either come in right away or monitor the limping and the paw for the next 24-48 hours. She told me to give him a drop of childrens motrin which I did.

As of right now he is in his litterbox. He hasn't made any sort of noise as if he were in pain.

What do you guys think? I can't go to the vet until Friday...


Now he flopped on his side..the little bunny flops they do when they are happy or what not...

 

[slavetoabunny]

I would palpate the paw and see if you can feel anything unusual or painful to the rabbit. The same thing has happened to me before. Rabbit jumps out of arms and lands wrong. Both times the rabbit was fine within a few days. A friend of mine freaked when her rabbit did this and limped. It cost her $200 to be told to give metacam and restrict activity.

 

[Maureen Las]

In the meantime it is still wise to restrict him to a small space so he can heal.

 

[missyscove]

If he's still eating and drinking and such and you can't get to the vet until Friday anyway, I'd agree with pain meds and restricted activity. Make sure he's on a single level so he can't do much jumping and just keep him in a small area. It may very well be just a sprain. Did your vet give you more specific pain med instructions? Baby aspirin can also be dosed for rabbits if you have access to it.

 

[juliemjkim]

Thanks for the advice. I can't stop worrying about him!

He doesn't live in a cage so I just surrounded his small sized cat litter pan with 5 NIC cubes and put all his food and water in there.

I let him out this morning around 5am to see how he was doing and he was definitely using his front paw a little more than yesterday. He's back in his little prison now. I touched his paw and it was definitely swollen but it didn't seem like anything was broken. I did some Passive range of motion on his paw joint and elbow? Joint and there wasn't any resistance. It was warm to touch and he wasnt showing signs of pain sice he was pooping peeing eating drinking.

As for pain management Im giving him a strawberry dipped a drop or two of childrens liquid motrin which is basically ibuprofen. That's what the vet told me to do.

Will update status soon!