Males spraying?

[Pepper]

Carolyn wrote:

Hi Pepper,

It's a personal choice whether you have the little guy neutered or not,but I beg to differ about most people not having their pet rabbitsfixed. Certainly some do, and some don't. Istrongly stand by what I said above about it prolonging their lives,mellowing them out, territorializing needs reducing as well asaggressiveness. The percentages of uterine cancer is muchhigher in unspayed females than spayed ones. Males are moreat risk for testicular cancer later in their lives than those that havebeen neutered, but the numbers aren't nearly as high as the unspayedfemale.

Putting a rabbit under anesthesia has to be done precisely because therabbit can be in grave danger if the wrong dosage isadministered. Another reason why the vet really has to knowwhat they're doing. You'll find that many vets don't havemuch training in the area of rabbits, which I would suspect is thereason why they don't treat them. It's a challenge to findvets that are rabbit saavy. When you find one, hold on tightto him/her.

I called the Humane Society of Canada trying to get a price forMyBunnyLovesMe this morning. I was referred to a shelter andthe shelter will spay/neuter any animal that people adopt from them,free of charge. Then I called 3 vets and none of them spayedrabbits. It's a difficult operation to spay a rabbit and youhave to know what you're doing. Neutering isn't asinvasive. Never did find a vet in Canada that spayed, butafter about 4 phone calls, I decided that I'd leave it up to Michelle(MyBunnyLovesMe).

In my area, I do have a good animal hospital and one of the vettechnicians has had rabbits for many many years, so I trustthem. They will deal with neutering rabbits, but notspaying.

Clipping the nails isn't too difficult once you get somepractice. I used to be scared to death of it and Tucker wouldsense it. Now we do it without much effort, but I can relateto wishing to have someone else do it. Never had a problemwith it though except for my breaking out into a sweat and Tuckershedding a bed.

Good luck in whatever choice youmake.

-Carolyn

Hi! Carolyn

I take Pepper to get his nails clipped,from the vet at the animalhospital,because my husband and I are afraid we might clip them wrongand hurt him by accident.We wouldn't want to clip them wrong and hegets hurt.We have a lady vet at the animal hospital and she's the onlyone at the hospital who deals with rabbits.Pepper is well behaved withher.He's a sweet rabbit,but the only thing I noticed with Pepper,iswhen we have visitors come over with little kids,the kids like to puttheir hands in his cage and pet him,he gets nippy with the kids.When,myhusband or myself pick up Pepper,then he will let the kids pet him,onlyif we hang on to him.You sound like you know alot about rabbits,maybeyou should be a vet.I think you sound like a nicepersonwith a kind heart towards rabbits.Do you have anyother pets,besides your rabbit?

 

[Carolyn]

Hi Pepper,

About a week or so ago, there was another poster on a different boardwho wrote to me and said her Pepper died. I thought it was you. Ibelieve I responded to her as if it was you. I was shocked that all ofthe sudden, he was gone. I felt so bad. I remembered pictures of yourlittle guy and I enjoyed our brief conversations. The other woman is aslovely as you and as crazy about her Pepper as you are. I have toadmit, I was quite relieved for your Pepper when I saw you back on theforum.

I couldn't be a vet if I wanted to, and I couldn't breed rabbitsbecause I can't deal with it when they die. Just seeing a dead rabbitor animal at all just freaks me out. That's why I try so hard to keeplearning about rabbits because I'm a mess when things aren't right andthere's illness or death. I've cried harder for losing some animalsthan I have some for some people.

I only have Tucker right now because of size restriction and didn't getanother because I was afraid if one got sick, the other might get ittoo. Now how sane do you think I am?! :shock:

Surprisingly, Tucker doesn't mind kids. I understand why many rabbitswould though. He's been exposed to my niece and nephew who were 3 and 6when I got him and they had to go by the rules on how to treat him orelse I'd put him in his cage and they hated that. I did it for Tucker'sprotection actually. The kids were great and I never had to put Tuckerin his cage with them here. Never. He follows them around because I letthem spoil him with treats so they look like one big Honey Stick andYogurt Drop to him. Once in awhile, even bunnies have to binge,don'tcha think?

"The Rules" were that they couldn't chase him, they couldn't try topick him up, they couldn't move quickly around him, they couldn't teasehim, they couldn't scare him, and when I said to leave him alone,they'd have to walk away. Some children can get grabby, and I have noproblem telling other kids that visit what The Rules are before I evenlet them touch Tucker. Believe me, the little kiddies chomp at the bitand will do anything to touch that rabbit!

I understand what you mean about the nails of Pepper. Why not trying tolearn the techniques from the woman who's doing it. It's not hard,especially since you've got your husband to help. Many people shine aflashlight into the rabbit's nail so they can see where the quickstarts. You can trim a little bit of the nail, and then the quick willfall back a little and you can go back and trim a little more the nextday. It's got to be kind of a pain to take him in all the time. It'sreally not hard to do especially since Pepper sits so well for you andyour husband. You'd make a great team, I bet!

-Carolyn

 

[Pepper]

Carolyn wrote:

Hi Pepper,

About a week or so ago, there was another poster on a different boardwho wrote to me and said her Pepper died. I thought it was you. Ibelieve I responded to her as if it was you. I was shocked that all ofthe sudden, he was gone. I felt so bad. I remembered pictures of yourlittle guy and I enjoyed our brief conversations. The other woman is aslovely as you and as crazy about her Pepper as you are. I have toadmit, I was quite relieved for your Pepper when I saw you back on theforum.

I couldn't be a vet if I wanted to, and I couldn't breed rabbitsbecause I can't deal with it when they die. Just seeing a dead rabbitor animal at all just freaks me out. That's why I try so hard to keeplearning about rabbits because I'm a mess when things aren't right andthere's illness or death. I've cried harder for losing some animalsthan I have some for some people.

I only have Tucker right now because of size restriction and didn't getanother because I was afraid if one got sick, the other might get ittoo. Now how sane do you think I am?! :shock:

Surprisingly, Tucker doesn't mind kids. I understand why many rabbitswould though. He's been exposed to my niece and nephew who were 3 and 6when I got him and they had to go by the rules on how to treat him orelse I'd put him in his cage and they hated that. I did it for Tucker'sprotection actually. The kids were great and I never had to put Tuckerin his cage with them here. Never. He follows them around because I letthem spoil him with treats so they look like one big Honey Stick andYogurt Drop to him. Once in awhile, even bunnies have to binge,don'tcha think?

"The Rules" were that they couldn't chase him, they couldn't try topick him up, they couldn't move quickly around him, they couldn't teasehim, they couldn't scare him, and when I said to leave him alone,they'd have to walk away. Some children can get grabby, and I have noproblem telling other kids that visit what The Rules are before I evenlet them touch Tucker. Believe me, the little kiddies chomp at the bitand will do anything to touch that rabbit!

I understand what you mean about the nails of Pepper. Why not trying tolearn the techniques from the woman who's doing it. It's not hard,especially since you've got your husband to help. Many people shine aflashlight into the rabbit's nail so they can see where the quickstarts. You can trim a little bit of the nail, and then the quick willfall back a little and you can go back and trim a little more the nextday. It's got to be kind of a pain to take him in all the time. It'sreally not hard to do especially since Pepper sits so well for you andyour husband. You'd make a great team, I bet!

-Carolyn

My Pepper is very healthy and very much alive.Do youknow what board the other Pepper(the one that died)was on?I would liketo read that board.I know what you mean,when you said you cry harderfor losing an animal then for some people.I feel the same way.When,itcomes to Pepper's nails we aren't brave enough to do it,because we'reafraid we're clip to much and hurt him.Do you know how often,we shouldget his nails clipped?We took himabout 3 or 4 times to gethis nails clipped,since we had him last June.How is your Tucker doing?He is a cutie.I forgot how old is Tucker.

 

[Carolyn]

Hi Pepper!

Tucker's 3 this June. He's not a boy anymore. He's my little man.

I think once a month or so is sufficient on nail clipping for mostpeople. It depends on how quickly they grow because some rabbits justgrow faster than others. Just like our fingernails. Most people seem toget away with it once a month. I do it every 2-3 weeks because I onlytake off a tiny bit. And then go back a day or two later and clip a bitmore.

Buck Jones posted a thread in here about the 'old' Rabbits Only forum.You can get the link in there and I think she posted it on 'Carolyn'.Someone else posted to me because she wanted me to see her Lion Heads.Check them out if you go in there. They're amazing!

-Carolyn