Rabbit Savvy Vets

Hi everyone, in this blog entry I want to speak about the important of having a rabbit savvy vet. I am going to share my own experiences with different vets and different practices. I will also share some good resources in how to find a rabbit savvy vet.

So, there’s no better place to start than at the beginning, when we were first time rabbit owners we did as most new pet owners would do and went and registered our new rabbits with our local vet. They had all there usually checks, a few weeks later we noticed that the vets offer a free rabbit health check and advice clinic. We jumped at the chance and thought this would be great for us as new rabbit owners, when we got to the vets they were rather surprised that someone had taken them up on this offer and seemed confused on what to actually do. In the end a young vet assistant took us and our two new bunnies into a very small side room and weighed them both, had a feel of them and sent us on our way. It was a complete waste of time really as the assistant couldn’t give us any advice as he seemed to know very little about rabbits.

Sadly, a couple of weeks later we lost our little man Pumpkin to E Cuniculi. One morning we woke up and he was lay at the bottom of the hutch unable to support his own body weight, his sister Butters was caring for him. We rushed Pumpkin to the Vets but sadly he passed whilst they were trying to save him. Both myself and my partner were devastated, we just didn’t understand how he could pass so quickly, he went to bed a happy little bunny and overnight he was essentially gone. I believe that he hung on just so he could say goodbye to myself and my partner and thank us for giving him the best possible life he could have had during such a short time.

We both now know that E. Cuniculi is a silent killer and there’s nothing that we or the vets could have done to prevent this. I believe that Pumpkin must have been born with E. Cuniculi as just over half of rabbits carry the infection, luckily only a small proportion of these become ill. Click here for more on E. Cuniculi.

Only after when we were going through Pumpkins vet documents did we notice that from when we had first taken him to the vets and had him registered to a few weeks later for the free rabbit clinic he had in fact lost a slight bit of weight. It’s difficult to tell when some breeds of rabbits lose weight because of the amount of fur they can have. In hindsight we should have known as young rabbit Pumpkin should have been gaining weight. We certainly were not under feeding but because Pumpkin lived with his sister Butters it is often difficult to keep track who’s eating what. I do believe the Vets should have picked up on this weight loss and that is where I am disappointed. I will always wonder if because he was underweight that made him more susceptible to E. Cuniculi developing.

After this we decided to find a rabbit savvy vets by using the RWAF Rabbit savvy vets list. We have since taken both Butters & her companion Bertie there, we have seen several different vets they’re over the years and have rarely been disappointed with the vet we have seen. They have been very knowledgeable and, on most occasions, have owned rabbits themselves so they understand just how complex yet loving our furry little friends are.

I hope you have found this read educational and can help prevent further Rabbit losses in the future.