New female rabbit has scabs

Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Lois south

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2019
Messages
24
Reaction score
10
Location
London
Hello everyone,
I recently got a female bunny to bond with my male bun. Both a neutered. So far the pre bonding process is going well. However, when I was giving her pets today I discovered that she had three scabs on her sides, they don't look like mites, the seem like scabs on the shape of teeth marks. I put sudocrem on them but I feel awful. The previous owner said that she had trouble bonding this rabbit with her other ones. She didn't say the bunny was bitten. So far my male bunny and her seem to like each others smells when I switched toys, but now that I know that this rabbit has been injured I feel so afraid to put her in a situation where it could happen again or could re traumatize her. Should I wait until the scabs disappear before perusing bonding further? Should I be trying to bond them since she has previous trauma? Any advice would be appreciated this is my first time bonding. Also is there anything I should be doing to help the scabs? When my male rabbit had a scab from his vaccine I just wiped it with salt water and put sudocrem on it and it was gone in a week.
Thank you
 
Do you know if the scabs are from her previous home or did she get them while with you? Any sharp wire or other animals in the house that could have caused them?

I would keep an eye on the scabs and allow them to heal prior to allowing contact- simply because stress can delay the healing process of ANY injury or disease. Keep doctoring them as you have been, they should heal. I still think it would be worth trying to bond them. Who knows how the previous owner attempted the process, and it's possible the bunny just didn't LIKE any of the "friends" she was offered. The process will not be traumatizing as long as you're careful and vigilant ;) it may or may not work out, but patience typically pays off!

Congrats on the new bunny 🐰
 
Hello everyone,
I recently got a female bunny to bond with my male bun. Both a neutered. So far the pre bonding process is going well. However, when I was giving her pets today I discovered that she had three scabs on her sides, they don't look like mites, the seem like scabs on the shape of teeth marks. I put sudocrem on them but I feel awful. The previous owner said that she had trouble bonding this rabbit with her other ones. She didn't say the bunny was bitten. So far my male bunny and her seem to like each others smells when I switched toys, but now that I know that this rabbit has been injured I feel so afraid to put her in a situation where it could happen again or could re traumatize her. Should I wait until the scabs disappear before perusing bonding further? Should I be trying to bond them since she has previous trauma? Any advice would be appreciated this is my first time bonding. Also is there anything I should be doing to help the scabs? When my male rabbit had a scab from his vaccine I just wiped it with salt water and put sudocrem on it and it was gone in a week.
Thank you
Hi, how bad are the scabs can you post a pic perhaps?

How old is she?

If she was housed with other rabbits it is not unusual that they bite each other, it can be love bites as well or showing dominance, but in my experience scabs usually don't need to be healed they will disappear in a few days without any actions from you. Of course you keep an eye and if you see it's swollen or there's any redness, inflammation saline is great for disinfecting, I wouldn't even put anything else on them. If it was very bad large areas affected etc you may want to use something, but from your description and you said you used salt water already so I don't think she feels any pain at all. Do they look like fresh marks or well scabbed?

If you say bonding goes well I wouldn't stop it to wait until they're healed, it's nothing serious I believe. If your other rabbit is not aggressive to her you can just continue and watch how it goes if she gets scared or not.
 
Hi, how bad are the scabs can you post a pic perhaps?

How old is she?

If she was housed with other rabbits it is not unusual that they bite each other, it can be love bites as well or showing dominance, but in my experience scabs usually don't need to be healed they will disappear in a few days without any actions from you. Of course you keep an eye and if you see it's swollen or there's any redness, inflammation saline is great for disinfecting, I wouldn't even put anything else on them. If it was very bad large areas affected etc you may want to use something, but from your description and you said you used salt water already so I don't think she feels any pain at all. Do they look like fresh marks or well scabbed?

If you say bonding goes well I wouldn't stop it to wait until they're healed, it's nothing serious I believe. If your other rabbit is not aggressive to her you can just continue and watch how it goes if she gets scared or not.

The scabs are almost all healed now. They have almost all fallen off and there is healthy skin beneath. I think that because I wasn't expecting scabs I freaked out a bit because my male rabbit is by himself I've never had to deal with bites. Thank you for your help I will continue pre bonding
 
Do you know if the scabs are from her previous home or did she get them while with you? Any sharp wire or other animals in the house that could have caused them?

I would keep an eye on the scabs and allow them to heal prior to allowing contact- simply because stress can delay the healing process of ANY injury or disease. Keep doctoring them as you have been, they should heal. I still think it would be worth trying to bond them. Who knows how the previous owner attempted the process, and it's possible the bunny just didn't LIKE any of the "friends" she was offered. The process will not be traumatizing as long as you're careful and vigilant ;) it may or may not work out, but patience typically pays off!

Congrats on the new bunny 🐰
Thank you. She definitely got them at her old home. The previous owner said she attempted bonding and it failed. Shes been living inside on soft blankets so I'm definite that she couldn't have got them here plus they looked like bites. I have been monitoring the scabs and cleaning them with saltwater and so far 2 have fallen off and there is nice healthy skin underneath. I've never experienced rabbit bites as my male has always lived alone and I think I freaked out. Thank you for the encouragement I will continue with the pre bonding
 

Latest posts

Back
Top