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Generalbella 8d agoMy rabbit is a young male Lionhead who was completely normal and acting like himself the…My rabbit is a young male Lionhead who was completely normal and acting like himself the night before this happened. He was out of his cage, moving around normally, and I did not notice any limp or problem with either back leg. The next morning, he immediately went underneath my bed and stayed there for most of the day, which was unusual for him because he is normally very active, playful, digs, tries to escape his cage, and wants to be around me. At first I thought he was hiding because his litter had been changed and my cats were acting differently, but when I shook his treat bag he came out and ate normally. That was when I noticed that his left back leg looked slightly abnormal. Later, when he came out from under the bed, I noticed that he was limping and avoiding putting much pressure on the left hind leg. He does not seem completely unable to use it, but he usually lifts it up instead of putting normal weight on it. When he is sitting, the leg sometimes appears to angle slightly toward the left, and the area that seems most abnormal is around the lower leg/knee area closer to the paw. He can move the paw and toes. He can stand, turn around, stretch both hind legs, and he has voluntarily hopped several times. He even hopped into his litter box normally, and he has tried to hop out of his cage toward me. He is still eating, appears to be drinking, is producing normal-looking poop, and is grooming himself normally, including grooming the affected leg. He has also been able to stand and move around without falling over. When I first picked him up to show my dad, he kicked while I was trying to hold him and made a small whimpering/crying sound, but I immediately put him down and I have not noticed him crying when he is simply sitting, eating, grooming, or moving on his own. He has not been constantly screaming or showing obvious severe pain, but he is much quieter and more still than his normal personality. He normally spends a lot of time digging, playing with toys, trying to get out of his cage, and hopping around, whereas now he mostly sits, eats, uses the litter box, grooms, or rests. His breathing also seems somewhat faster than normal while he is sitting still, although I am not sure whether this is from pain, fear, or stress. The symptoms have been present since approximately 7–8 PM and have stayed about the same or possibly improved slightly rather than rapidly getting worse. There were two awkward incidents around the time before I noticed the limp: the day before, I dropped him from the bed and he landed somewhat on his side, although it did not seem like a hard fall and he acted completely normal for several hours afterward; there was also a later slip/awkward landing when he hopped off a small platform. After the second incident, he was still able to hop and move, but I became concerned about the leg. I have now put him in his cage with fresh bedding, hay, food, water, litter, and toys and am keeping him confined so he cannot run or jump. The cats are being kept away from him. I have not tried to straighten, massage, or splint the leg. I am trying to determine whether this could be a sprain, fracture, joint/hip injury, or another problem and whether he needs emergency care tonight or can safely wait for an exotic/rabbit veterinarian tomorrow. I am especially concerned because he is clearly avoiding normal weight-bearing on the left hind leg and is quieter than usual, but he is still eating, pooping, grooming, standing, stretching both hind legs, moving his paw/toes, turning normally, and voluntarily hopping1 replyVet answered
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GeneralMichaelAug 17Find your nearest 24 hour emergency vet now, while nothing is wrongRegular vets close. Emergencies happen at 11pm on a Sunday, because of course they do. And the worst possible moment to work out where you're going is while you're holding a dog who just ate something. Takes ten minutes once. Look up the closest 24 hour emergency vet and confirm they're genuinely 24 hours, because a lot of clinics advertise emergency and then shut at 10. Call and ask what hours they take walk ins, whether they want a deposit up front, and roughly what the exam fee runs. Save the number and the address in your phone as a contact and get the drive route into your head. Then do a second one further out, because ER vets go on diversion when they're full and that happens more than people realize. Poison control, put both of these in your phone too. ASPCA Animal Poison Control is (888) 426-4435 and Pet Poison Helpline is (855) 764-7661. Both charge a consult fee, somewhere in the 75 to 95 dollar range. Pay it without thinking about it, because the case number they give you lets the ER treat off an actual toxicology protocol instead of guessing, and they're who the ER would be calling anyway. Then the money question, which nobody enjoys. An emergency visit commonly runs several hundred dollars before anything actually happens, and overnight care with surgery gets into the thousands quickly. Decide now how you'd cover that. Insurance, a dedicated savings buffer, CareCredit approved in advance, whatever fits. The reason to decide now is that financial decisions made in an exam room at 2am are uniformly terrible, and "let me think about it" costs time the animal might not have. One last piece. Know your pet's normal. What color their gums are when they're healthy (pink and moist), how fast the color comes back when you press on the gum with a finger, what their breathing looks like resting or asleep. Thirty seconds of paying attention now, and it's the first thing an ER is going to ask you about.0 repliesNo vet yet
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GeneralNateAug 17Go check that your pet's microchip is actually registered. Most people find out it is not.The chip is not a GPS and it isn't a database on its own. It's a number. It only does anything if that number sits in a registry attached to a phone number that still reaches you. The study that gets cited on this, published in JAVMA, looked at over 7,700 stray animals entering shelters. Microchipped dogs were more than twice as likely to get home. Microchipped cats were over twenty times as likely. Enormous effect. But then it looked at the microchipped animals whose owners were never found, and the reasons are almost entirely administrative. Roughly 35 percent came down to a wrong or disconnected phone number. About 17 percent were registered in a database that wasn't the chip manufacturer's. Nearly 10 percent were never registered at all. So the failure is basically never the chip. It's that you moved, or changed carriers, or the vet implanted it and nobody ever finished the registration, or the breeder registered it in their own name and never transferred it to you. Five minute fix. Get the chip number, which is on your adoption paperwork, or your vet has it on file, and any vet or shelter will scan for it free. Look it up at petmicrochiplookup.org, the AAHA universal tool, which tells you which registry actually holds it. Log into that registry and confirm your current phone, a backup number for someone else, and your email. If it's still registered to a breeder or a rescue, transfer it now. Do it today. It costs nothing and it's the difference between getting a phone call and stapling flyers to poles.0 repliesNo vet yet

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