Rabbit took a beating HELP!!!

[collector]

We got 6 NZs yesterday from CL for free. they were free range, the folks we got them from had no idea about the sex. they ended up putting two males in the same hutch. The big red male issued a sever beating to the black male. his ears are tore up pretty bad and he has several bites on his body, one has the hide and some meat missing. When we got them home we brought the beatup one inside to watch him, we gave him some food,water, and timmothy hay he is eating and drinking just fine so far. He really does not move around much though, maybe hes pretty sore though. What can or should we be doing for him, as far as dealing with his wounds and such, we are not sure. Any advice or ideas would be a big help. T.Y

 

[DianeS]

Hmmmmm. I would definately keep an eye out for infection. There are very few antibiotics that rabbits can have, so you might want to go ahead and get some if you can find good ones.

I might be tempted to go ahead and process that one, since you have an overabundance of bucks compared to does anyway. Unless there is reason to think that he has the best body conformation or size and you'd really want him for breeding rather than any of the others.

If you want to keep him and not process him, I'd see if you can handle him well enough to clean those wounds well. Just soap and lots of water. Pat dry, don't rub.

I might also be putting a little something in his water to make it more acidic. Unsweetened cranberry juice, or apple cider vinegar, or that type of thing. Just like they help avoid bladder and uninary tract infections, they can help ward off other types of infections, too. Not as well as antibiotics, but if he's on the border of getting an infection or not it might be enough to help.

I'm looking forward to pictures of all of them!

 

[collector]

Dianes, My first thought was to cull also but my 16 yr old has other plans. she wants to nurse him then breed him to her california white. her rabbits are pets, we can usually sell the kits from her rabbits to help with the feed bill.
I am going to keep all the rabbits for a couple weeks to see which ones i like the best. The red buck seems to be a real nice looking and meaty rabbit so he will probably be hanging around. I will have to find some females to breed him to . All of these rabbits came from the same batch we were told so need to find a different buck for the two does and find 2 does for the red buck.