I talk a lot about my dogs on here, but not much about my other pets. The Dude and I also have a cockatoo (Molly) and two rabbits (Silver and Littlefoot). We adopted the rabbits about 3 years ago under the condition that they would stay together. Apparently rabbits usually do not do well if they are caged with the same gender, but even though Littlefoot and Silver are both (neutered) males, they were best buds, and have been ever since we've had them.
That is, until about two months ago. In the period of less than five days, Silver went from looking healthy to having a huge bald spot on his head. We took him to the vet who admitted he'd never seen anything like it and gave us some steroid cream to try out. While we were using the cream, Littlefoot and Silver had to be separated so that Littlefoot wouldn't lick the medicated cream off Silver's head and a) render it ineffective or b) poison himself since it's not meant to be eaten. To our delight, within two weeks the hair was almost completely grown back and we were able to put the rabbits back together.
Until a few days ago, when a bald spot appeared again. The vet had mentioned that one possibility was that the dominant rabbit (which is definitely Littlefoot) could have been plucking/overgrooming Silver and causing the problem. Now that it's happening a second time, it seems more likely that it's a grooming problem and not a health problem. We're looking into a new hutch that keeps them separated but I am devastated to have to split them up as they have always seemed to enjoy each others' company. We're giving them one more try...fingers crossed that it works!
1 comment:
Maybe they can have supervised visits. So sad to see them apart.
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