Is It Time You Got Speutered?

Hi there! I'm Señor Spaghetti! I'm one of the sanctuary bunnies here at HFR. Mrs. Brighton's off polishing her tiaras, so I decided to take over her blog for this month and talk to you about your bunny's health. We're going to start with speutering - that's short for spaying and neutering!

You see, I know some of you got yourself a cute little baby bunny at Easter and now that little cutie is starting to act more like a Tasmanian Devil. In fact, this is the time of year that rabbit rescues dread - when the cute little babies become hormonal nut jobs and their people decide to dump them. Please don't dump your bunny - I have the solution: speutering!

Let's talk about this, shall we? Here are a few reasons that spaying or neutering is a good thing to do:

1. Not fond of your Tasmanian Devil? Most of the behaviors that are driving you crazy (lunging, spraying, not using the litter box, mounting your feet, biting, etc, etc, etc) are the result of bunny hormones. What's the answer? Get rid of the hormones! It can take a few weeks, but after speutering the hormones will dissipate and your little fluff ball will be much better behaved.

2. The C-word. Sadly, unspeutered bunnies are very prone to reproductive cancers. Not spaying or neutering is almost like inviting cancer into your bunny's life. Seriously.

3. We're less stinky! That litter box smell? So much better after speutering!

4. No, we won't get fat and lazy! Plus we'll be a whole lot calmer, and can focus on playing with you instead of looking for a mate.

5. Bunnies are very social, and speutering makes it easier for you to have two (or more!) Unspeutered rabbits tend to want to guard their territory and will fight - even if they are siblings. If your bunnies are male and female, they'll reproduce. You may not see this as a problem, but please think about this: rabbits are the third most often euthanized animals at shelters across the country! By letting your bunnies have bunnies, you are contributing to this serious problem.

Please don't think you can just get one of your pair done. Nope. It doesn't work that way. The intact bunny will still act out their hormonal behaviors, and fighting is still a strong possibility. Plus if you get your male neutered and leave your female unspayed, he is still able to father baby bunnies for several months after surgery. You could still wind up with a litter of bouncing baby bunnies!

6. You may think getting your rabbit speutered isn't "natural". Well, no, it isn't - but neither is keeping a rabbit as a pet either. Remember that we've only been domesticated a few hundred years, and we have many of our wild behaviors still. Getting us spayed/neutered is definitely a good way of helping us adjust to this "unnatural" situation.

7. If you do let your rabbits reproduce, things tend to get out of control fast. This is where I need to tell you my story!

This is me and my siblings when we were just three days old:

I know, we're adorable! Don't you want to kiss us?

Our original person got our parents from someone who raised rabbits for meat, and occasionally sold them as pets. He swore to my parents' person that even though my parents were only 6 weeks old he could tell their sex, and they were both girls. Absolutely, positively two girls. 

A couple of months later, one of the two "girls" gave birth to three adorable babies! 

Lesson #1: It's very hard to sex young rabbits. Very, very hard!

Lesson #2: Rabbits can get pregnant as early as three months old!

Our person was wonderful, but didn't know much about bunnies and didn't realize she needed to separate my parents immediately. She didn't figure that out until a couple of days later, but by then it was too late. About a month after the first litter, my mom had eleven more babies!

Lesson #3: Rabbits can get pregnant the day they give birth, and their gestation period is only about 30 days. And bunny litters can be large - lots and lots of babies!

My secretary has seen situations where two bunnies turned into 60 or 70 in less than four months. It's crazy, right?! In my case, my parents were lucky, because our person knew she was in over her head. She got help from my secretary's rescue and we all got speutered before any more babies happened!

The costs of taking care of 14 babies and two parents were over $4000 - money that the rescue had to raise because our person couldn't afford it. Plus, since we were New Zealands, very few people wanted to adopt us, and five years later three of us are still here in sanctuary. My secretary says we were worth it, but still - if you have the chance to get your bunny taken care of, why bring extra bunnies into the world? Especially when there are some real benefits to spay and neuter!

I feel like I'm the poster child for why you should get your bunny speutered! Have I convinced you? I hope so!  I know bunny people have lots of concerns about their rabbit having surgery, so that's why my next posts are going to be on how to find a great rabbit-savvy vet, and aftercare for spay/neuter surgery. 

Want more information on spay and neuter? Here's some great links:

*The wonderful Dana Krempels wrote this piece on spay and neuter.

*The Rabbit Welfare Association has a good article here.

*We love Best Friends Animal Sanctuary! Here's their article.

Until next time!

Señor Spaghetti, 

Huntsville Friends of Rabbits Minister of Health

What's Bugging Your Bunny?

 

Summer's here and the time is right for....parasites!! Brace yourselves, because today your friendly neighborhood Education Bunny is going to show you some disgusting characters who want to make a meal of your sweet little fur baby!

Seriously, brace yourself. This is disgusting!

First - some dandruff you won't need Head And Shoulders for! What prompted this post is that one of my friends, Alanis, got "Walking Dandruff". Our vet noticed it on her last check up. Here's a picture of what "Walking Dandruff" looks like:

No, it isn't really dandruff. It's a mite called Cheyletiellosis. It looks like dandruff at first glance, so you might think your bunny just has dry skin. But under the microscope it looks like this:

Our vet gave Alanis medication and she's fine. But how did she get them? And what do you look for when checking your own bunny? 

Mites live in the environment, so they can get tracked in on your shoes, on hay, with other animals in your home. They tend to dig in and multiply on very young or older bunnies who aren't able to groom as well. Alanis is quite arthritic, so she just couldn't get to the area between her shoulder blades where these guys like to hang out. So when you check your bunny, make sure you look between her shoulder blades - it's prime real estate for parasites!

Want to know what's even more disgusting than "Walking Dandruff"? Ear mites!! Also known as "bloody cornflakes" - EWWWWWWW!!!

Warning: This next picture is of a sweet foster bunny named Buttons, who was rescued after someone dumped him in the woods. He was very infested when he came to us, but don't worry - he got better, got adopted and had a fabulous happy ever after!

We'll make this picture small so it isn't totally in your face. This is why I told you to brace yourself:

You can find the best article about ear mites here. Please ignore the treatment section of this article, and instead go to your veterinarian. She can give you the latest treatments and the proper doses. Also, in our experience the crustiness doesn't take 10-14 days to come off. It usually starts to fall off the next day, and just a couple of days later it's miraculously gone!

Here's Buttons all fixed up and ear mite free! 

Finally, we're going to talk about my friend here, Fanny Flea. Fanny was a promotion for a flea medication, but her living counterparts can make your rabbit miserable.

Rabbits get fleas just like other animals. Again, look between your bunny's shoulder blades, and also around her tail and lower back. You may not see the actual fleas, but there could be "flea dirt" (aka: flea poop!) which looks like small specks of dirt that disintegrate into bloody red when they get wet. I know - it's GROSS! You might also notice tiny clear specks, which are flea eggs.

Fleas are very treatable. They can be combed off using a flea comb, but probably the best thing to do is ask your veterinarian for medication. Please do NOT give your bunny any medication that is meant for a cat or dog, without checking with your rabbit-savvy vet! Especially not Frontline, which can be fatal to rabbits. Check with your vet! 

No matter what kind of parasites your bunny has - DO NOT GIVE HER A BATH!! This is so important - do not ever give bath your bunny! Rabbits are prone to hypothermia, and we personally know someone who lost their bunny this way. DON'T DO IT! Go to your vet and get the proper treatment which will break the parasite's life cycle, and then give your house a good cleaning. You can defeat these tiny things!!

And if you find any bugs, don't feel like you are dirty or that you did something wrong. Parasites are in the environment, they're everywhere. It's one of the reasons we recommend rabbits be kept indoors - they are much more likely to get bugs if they live outside. So keep your bunny indoors and check her frequently.

I hope you enjoyed this post! Maybe enjoy isn't the right word. Now go check your bunny for bugs! Look between her shoulder blades and in her ears! You got this!!

Byeeeee! Love,

Mrs. Kitty Brighton, Education Bunny