Rabbit Twice Injured Self - How Can We Stop Him?

[gricey2000]

Myself and my partner have a medium sized lop. We keep him in the house and have had him from about 12 weeks of age from a local pet store. He is now 20ish weeks and two weeks ago broke his leg above the knee. He did this overnight in his little run area.

We have kept him in his cage only since then on vets orders while it heals and he has recently began using the leg again and was slowly getting better. Then this morning while confined ot his cage had another of his "crazy" moments and now appears to have hurt himself again. We are taking him to the vets but it looks like a similar injury to his other rear leg now.

He is proned to moments where he just seems to get overly excited and bounces quickly around his cage. I can only imagine this is how he has hurt himself as there is notihng but a food bowl and hay in his cage.

Can anyone offer any advice on this behaviour and also on ways we can protect him from these injuries. I have never known an animal get hurt so severly so often!

Any advice would be great as I am new to rabbits and pets in general and want to ensure im doing whats best for him.

Thanking everyone in advance of any advice or support.

 

[Nela]

Would you happen to have any pictures of the setup you house your bunny in? Maybe members could spot specific issues with the help of pictures? It's possible he is getting his leg caught in the cage. Smores bounces around a ton and it scared me as well. We now have smaller mesh lining the cage so he cannot get stuck. I'm planning on meshing the playpen as well for that reason. How big is the space between cage bars?

 

[gricey2000]

I havent got any pictures to hand but will try and get some. The space between bars is less than an inch. I can get my fingers in between the bars but its tight.

I have had a read around the forums and people suggest the bouncy and dashing is a sign of happiness which is good but im worried that it is leading to potentially serious injury. His first leg is still not healed and was at risk of amputation so dont want that to happen to either.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

I agree, pictures of the setup would really help.

You don't have any wire hay racks in there, do you? If so, remove them immediately.

Cage dimensions?

 

[Nancy McClelland]

if you think the wire floor is the problem, you can always cover it with cardboard. Its cheap and easy to come by.

 

[dixonsrabbitry1]

Are there shelves in the cage? Rabbits can jump off of them and easy injure themselves. Wire bottom cages shouldn't be a problem unless the wire on the bottom has large holes in it where they can catch their feet.

When you get his leg fixed again, confine him to a space where he can only turn around. Like a very small dog cage, or wire rabbit carrier. If you don't he will injur eit again, and it won't heal. Keep him confined like that for a acoupld of weeks until its completely healed. then let him out into his other cage. I know that sounds bad for the rabbit, but thats the best way you are going to get it to heal properly without him damaging it again.

 

[tonyshuman]

I agree about the wire. They can hurt themselves on it without meaning too. Poor little guy. Are you sure nothing is going on that could cause him to freak out, instead of dashing about while happy?