• Flea Control
• Gastric Stasis (commonly called a hairball or wool block)

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What follows next is a brief list of commonly encountered problems that you can start treating at home, before consulting your vet. Of course, individual situations vary, and if you have any doubts, consult a professional!

Cuts, bites, and lacerations

• Wash your hands with antiseptic soap before attending to your bun.
• If there is hair stuck to or in the wound, clip the fur with clean scissors.
• Clean the wound – use hydrogen peroxide to clean around the wound (it cuts through blood really well) but try to avoid getting peroxide in the wound, especially if it is deep. For in-the-wound cleaning, rinse with plain saline solution. Rinse until you are fairly sure you have removed all hair, dirt, hay etc. from inside the wound. You may even need to sterilize your tweezers and pick some debris out.
• DO NOT use a triple antibiotic cream (Neosporin, etc.) on the wound! Bunny will lick it off, and it could cause digestive upset.
• Instead, use a thin coating of silver sulfadiazene cream. Cover the wound if it is large or deep – use a telfa pad 1^st, then roll gauze, then a self adhesive wrap as the outer layer.

Warbles

• These gross little critters are actually fly larvae that set up housekeeping in your bunny’s skin.
• The classic appearance is a raised bump about 1/2 inch in diameter. They can occur anywhere on your bun, with a small hole (it may appear to be a scab at first) in the center. This is the larvae’s air hole. If you watch closely, you can see the larvae come up to breathe from time to time.
• Do not attempt to remove these on your own – if you crush the larvae, it can release chemicals causing a serious reaction.
• Warble sites can become infected, and in rare cases lead to serious complications, including toxic shock.
• Make an appointment with your vet ASAP.

The classic ADR (ain’t doin’ right) bunny

• Classic signs include mild lethargy, decreased appetite, changes in stool consistency and amount.
• Causes are multiple, and you need to get to the root of the problem by working with your vet, but:
• Anytime your bunny goes off food, you should immediately start addressing the problem of GI Hypomotility (slow motion of the digestive tract) to keep it from progressing to GI Stasis (stoppage of the digestive tract).
• Remember, bunnies are walking digestion vats – anything that affects the rest of the body can affect the digestive tract, and anything that affects the digestive tract can affect the rest of the body.
• So – until you get to the root of your bunny’s problem, your #1 job is: KEEP THE RABBIT EATING!
• Ways to do this include:
  1. Make sure you are offering fresh, clean water. You may have to force extra water with a syringe. You can also try offering unsweetened pedialyte or fruit juices.
  2. Make sure you are offering fresh, wet leafy veggies. Try herbs such as mint, basil, parsley, and dill to entice the appetite.
  3. Make sure you are offering a good quality hay – it should be light green, not brown, and should smell sweet, not moldy. You may have to resort to alfalfa hay if bunny refuses her regular fare.
  4. Force feeding pellet mush: soak pellets in water or chamomile tea, then mix in a little canned pumpkin or vegetable baby food. Feed at least 15-20cc of this mixture by syringe 3-4 times daily. Feed slowly to avoid food inhalation.
  5. Abdominal massage – back off if bunny expresses pain. You can even try a vibrating massager!
  6. Lactobacillus acidophilus powder can be added to the pellet mush.
  7. Mineral oil or hairball remedies may help in some cases.
  8. Simethicone liquid – 0.5 - 1 cc by mouth 2 times daily will help keep the gas moving through your bun’s digestive tract.
  9. And finally, for experienced caregivers: subcutaneous fluids 1-2 times daily.

Giving Subcutaneous Fluids (or, how to turn your rabbit into a camel)

• The basic idea here is that we are giving your bunny fluids that are physiologically very similar to the fluid that is already circulating in his bloodstream. Because your average person takes quite a bit of practice to reliably access the bloodstream of a rabbit, and since your rabbit probably won’t appreciate being practiced on, we aren’t going to put the fluid directly in his bloodstream. Instead, we are going to put it into the subcutaneous space (the space between the skin and muscle, where the fat lives) and from there it will gradually be absorbed into the bloodstream. This technique is quite effective at treating and preventing mild dehydration.
• Don’t give subcutaneous fluids if your bunny has a breathing or heart disorder, unless specifically instructed to do so by your veterinarian. Fluids can make those conditions worse.
• The fluids that we will use have several names, the most common being Lactated Ringer’s Solution, 0.9% saline solution, Plasmalyte-R, and Normosol-R.
• Use the largest bore needle your bunny will tolerate. This is because fluids can be administered MUCH faster with a larger bore needle – it can mean the difference between giving the fluids in 3 minutes or 15 minutes! We typically use an 18-22 gauge needle.
• Make sure you have fresh solution. If the bag has been open for more than 5-7 days, throw it away.
• Location: you can give the fluids anywhere you can "pinch an inch" on your bunny – that is, anywhere there is loose skin. The most commonly used area is in the vicinity of the shoulder blades.
• Dose: 10-15cc per pound of rabbit, 1-2 times daily. For example, a 6 pound bunny would receive 60-90 cc of fluids at a time.
• Technique:
  1. Set up your fluids (make sure you can see your drip chamber) and attach the appropriate needle. Leave the cap on the needle for now.
  2. Secure your bun in a towel, or get a helper to hold the bun for you.
  3. Create a "skin tent" over the selected area on your bun by lifting the skin between your thumb and fingers. Feel the area to be injected with your other hand to determine the exact area of the injection. You may want to wet that area down with a small amount of alcohol.
  4. Remove the needle cap and insert the needle firmly under the skin.
  5. Hold the needle in place with one hand, and open the fluid valve with the other.
  6. Make small adjustments in needle position until you can see fluid running smoothly through the drip chamber. Check the fur to ensure the fluid is actually going INTO the bunny, instead of ONTO the bunny.
  7. Hold everything until the appropriate dose of fluids is reached. Your bunny should now have a soft, jiggly bleb under the skin.
  8. Turn off the fluid valve.
  9. Withdraw the needle and gently pinch or press the area where the needle was. A small amount of fluid leakage is normal.
  10. Change the needle. Discard the old one in an empty plastic soda container.

Congratulations! You have just done your bunny a world of good. You can use a similar technique to give medications under the skin if necessary. You can even give most injectable medications with the fluids, so that your bunny will only have to be poked once instead of twice. She’ll appreciate that – just ask her!