baby wild rabbit help please??

[marvella]

my son just came in from weed eating and told me he just whacked off the ear of a baby rabbit.

is there any chance of saving it, or should we just put him out of his misery now?

tia!!

[mistletoad]

Call Pony, she could squish it for you! Sorry Pony, gonna take a while to get past that one.

[MaineFarmMom]

It should be fine as long as the ear isn't bleeding a lot. If it is, you should be able to stop the flow with flour. I'd put it back out near the place your son found it and keep an eye out for it.

[albionjessica]

Just drop the wild animal wherever you found it. If that little bunny was meant to survive, he can do it without your help. Plus, why didn't the thing run off in the first place? It's bound to have some sort of problem, and maybe the only solution is for it to be taken out of the chain of life... whether by weedeater or predator.

Bunnies are cute and all, but if there is some chance it may be diseased or eating my garden veggies up... that wascally wabbit is not going to find any kindness from me.

[PyroDon]

wash it carefully to remove any oils from your hands . cotton tails will lick them selves clean the oils off your hands will mess up their digestion.
when ever handling wild kits wear gloves to avoid the oil issue .
we have had great luck raising wildrabits when we observed this little trick.
and without fail we lost everyone when handled with bare hands .

[popscott]

Letting it go may be the best, as I've tried raising babies several times and they have never survived. As I read the one article below, it says they need an adults poop, GAGAGAgagaGAgaGAgAg. (cecotropes (the soft green droppings that the rabbit usually eats))

Look through some of these links to aid you in your decision

http://www.2ndchance.info/bunnies.htm

http://www.wildliferescueleague.org/...va_rabbit.html

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/orphan.html

http://www.cvm.uiuc.edu/petcolumns/s...cle.cfm?id=416

http://www.orphanedwildlifecare.com/rabbitandhare.htm

Thanks,
Pam and Scott
http://www.justkiddinfarm.com/
come by and see us, the coffees on.

[marvella]

thanks all!

what i ended up doing was try to recreate his usual environment. he is 3 or 4 inches long, fully furred. it was the tip of his ear that was cut. bled more than i thought it should for such a little guy.

he was still in the nest. my son was weed eating inside the garden lot, that unfortunately had grown up enough i couldn't get in there with a mower. he tried to get away when i picked him up, but carried him in a pouch at the bottom of my tshirt. my son got an old wire rabbit cage. i scooped up the nest, put the bunny back in it with a few handfuls of cut grass over top. once he was hidden again he settled right down. i keft the cage door open, in hopes if he is still nursing, mama can find him. best i could think of to do was try and recreate where he was and let nature take it's course. i know they die of stress pretty easy. if he's still alive but feeble in the morning, i'll take care of it.

i curse the rabbits for getting into the garden and eating all my cabbage, but gosh the littles ones are cute.

[Paula]

The cuteness is a trick so we won't kill 'em. Then they can grow up and eat all our stuff.
I'm not advising you to do this, but we call the dogs whenever we find a nest or small bunnies that have come out of the nest. My dh has no compassion, and I'm losing mine fast.

[ozark_jewels]

We have saved many nests of baby bunnies that the dogs have found or we ran over with the mower. We feed them raw goats or cows milk from an eyedropper until they are eating plenty of greens. Then we take them out far into the woods and let them go. Not really for any particular reason, but it is really good experience for the children. Some die, but most have lived. Any that have been *seriously*injured have died, so now we just put the injured ones down and save the healthy ones. If it has just the tip of an ear cut, he should be alright, unless he gets "shocky". He will need milk, fresh greens and water......and if he is very small, since he is alone, he will need something warm to cuddle with. We usually fill a plastic jug with very hot water and then drape a piece of flannel over that so he has a warm, soft surface to cuddle against. Just how we have done it.

[Jillis]

My dh ran over a nest and the mother rabbit died. He brought home three little kits. We called the Nature Center and they told us that it is very difficult to raise baby rabbits. They usually die, maybe it is the oil thing Don was mentioning...

We took them to the Nature Center, they often rehab wild animals. Don't know if they made it from there. If you have no goat's milk you can get "kitten formula" at the vets if you need to.

[ozark_jewels]

Originally Posted by Jillis

My dh ran over a nest and the mother rabbit died. He brought home three little kits. We called the Nature Center and they told us that it is very difficult to raise baby rabbits. They usually die, maybe it is the oil thing Don was mentioning...

We took them to the Nature Center, they often rehab wild animals. Don't know if they made it from there. If you have no goat's milk you can get "kitten formula" at the vets if you need to.

We have also successfully used *raw* cows milk for raising rabbit kits. Raised 5 this spring actually. Have always handled them with bare hands and have raised many with success....??

[marvella]

thank you!!

i'm not going to go the whole route of trying to bottle feed. they aren't THAT cute.

after i thought about it last night, i don't know why i thought to put him in the cage. i could have left it in the nest and just piled grass over it again.

i've seen rabbits die just from being scared, just wanted to optimize his possible survival.

[Pony]

Originally Posted by mistletoad

Call Pony, she could squish it for you! Sorry Pony, gonna take a while to get past that one.

Oh, that's alright, I actually thought, "Is it small enough to stomp?" and "I wonder if those were rabbits and not wee mousies... "

BWAHahahaha!

Seriously, if there are rabbits, I do call the dog. Buster makes a quick job of them. Circle of Stuff and all that.

The cats are no good for that because I keep them inside all the time. It will be different when we get our rural place, and I will get outdoor cats then, but in the city limits, outdoor cats are a nuisance.

Pony!

[marvella]

well, when i went out to check on it, he was still alive. lifted him out of the cage, and golly if he didn't just hop off into the tall weeds. no blood, and spry enough.

guess that's that.