Animal Health 08/20/20 - Bunny Injuries

Dr. Emerson and Haley Emerson show us the healing process for a dwarf bunny, Kemosabe.

Good morning, sunrisers.

I'm dr. karen emerson.

And today i have with me, my daughter haley, and this cute little guy is a dwarf bunny named kemosabe.

Kemosabe actually presented in may for a broken leg.

He was accidentally stepped on.

As you can see, kemosabe is wearing a splint.

Yes, rabbits can wear splints.

Not most rabbits.

Some rabbits do chew on their splints, but kemosabe has been such a trooper.

This has actually been going on for several weeks and his owner has been driving back and forth once a week.

And we've been changing the splint.

We do put kemosabe under anesthesia, which is very, very safe, to remove the splint.

Dr. karen emerson: and then we're going to take another x-ray and i am going to show you the x-ray when it first happened.

And then you're actually going to get to see the x- ray now after the healing process has occurred, so you can see actually how well rabbits do in splints.

This is one of the number one causes that people euthanize their bunnies is when they get stepped on and they get a broken extremity.

But as you can see, it goes very well.

They do very well.

He has not chewed on his little cast, and we do have an external layer of duct tape on the outside, just in case he does want to chew.

But the most important thing is, is to keep it as dry as possible.

And that's why we're having her come back weekly.

Dr. karen emerson: so now we're going to put him under anesthesia and take the splint off.

This is how bad the break was.

See, it was just broken right in half.

And see, this is today.

See how well it's healed almost completely straight?

So that is really an awesome healing process for a bunny with a splint because it's hard to keep bunnies immobile.

So this is basically where the callus forms. you can tell it's not a perfect a union, but it's better.

It's going to be stabilized enough where he can get around very well.

Dr. karen emerson: so if you have a bunny or you're thinking about getting a bunny and you have a lot of questions or just want to get on the right path with your bunny, give us a call today.

We will work you all through everything.

We'll get you an appointment, get you set up and i promise your pets will thank you.

Speaker 2: wcbi animal health with dr. emerson was brought to you by emerson animal hospital in