How to meet our rabbits’ need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury, and disease
 |
| Radiology is now a common diagnostic procedure: Dijon had x-rays to check his teeth |
Rabbit healthcare has come a long way since we adopted our first houserabbit in 1998, and, thanks to these advances, it’s now much more possible to meet the fifth Welfare Need for all pets ‘to be protected from pain, suffering, injury, and disease’. Improvements include:
· Neutering and vaccinations – these are now routine at most veterinary clinics.
· Diagnostic testing – more vets recognise the importance of diagnostic testing, appreciating that rabbits hide symptoms. Vets have access to a wider range of techniques: checking medical history; clinical signs; physical examination; diagnostic tools including x-rays, CT scans, ultrasound, blood tests, faecal analysis, and urinalysis.
· Pain management and anaesthesia – the safe and effective use of pain management and anaesthesia in rabbits are more widely understood.
· Treatment and management – there are now treatment options for many diseases and health conditions, whereas prognoses in the past were often euthanasia.
Sadly though, despite these opportunities, many owners fail to recognise their responsibilities, resulting in their rabbits suffering poor health and wellbeing. Rabbits continue to be misunderstood, bought as cheap, easy starter pets by people who assume they know how to care for them. In fact, many don’t understand rabbits or their care needs, and don’t realise that caring for rabbits is a long-term commitment and potentially extremely expensive.
Pet retailers fuel the rabbit welfare crisis by:
· Selling lone rabbits.
· Mis-sexing baby rabbits.
· Marketing hutches and cages as suitable rabbit homes.
· Selling muesli-based food.
· Failing to ensure potential buyers have proper care knowledge.
· Not conducting home checks prior to sales.
All these factors perpetuate the myth that rabbits are low-maintenance, short-term pets… a myth that results in thousands of rabbits suffering physically and mentally. Countless rabbits’ lives are cut short by health conditions that could have been avoided, if only their owners had known about and provided for their basic welfare needs.
Rabbits can live into their teens, yet a recent study revealed the mean average lifespan to be just 4 years and 4 months!
If we are responsible for a rabbit, we must ensure that its “its need to be protected from pain, suffering, injury and disease” is met (the fifth Welfare Need listed under the Animal Welfare Act, 2006). Read these Bunnymad pages to discover:
· Essential routine home healthcare
· Essential routine veterinary care
To meet their healthcare needs, we must also provide for our rabbits' other four Welfare Needs:
· Environment – eg. a rabbit’s health is determined by its home environment: a spacious, safe, hygienic home, filled with plenty of enrichment items to encourage exercise and normal behaviour patterns, is essential for good health and wellbeing.
· Diet – eg. the main cause of most health problems seen in rabbits is an inappropriate diet: a diet reflecting that of their wild counterparts (consisting of at least 85% hay or grass) is vital for their health and wellbeing.
· Behaviour patterns – eg. a rabbit will suffer physically and mentally if unable to exhibit normal behaviour patterns: a spacious home with enrichment, and hay/grass to allow rabbits to perform their natural behaviours, such as running, stretching, foraging, and digging, is imperative to keep them happy and healthy.
· Rabbit companionship – eg. a lone rabbit will be more anxious, stressed, frustrated, and less active: bonded companion(s) can prevent loneliness, give comfort and warmth, reduce stress, help with grooming, aid recovery from illness, and encourage exercise in rabbits.
Meeting these welfare needs can significantly protect rabbits against the risk of common health problems.
Follow the links below to read about some of the most common rabbit health problems, and what we can do to protect our rabbits from them:
Rabbit Viral Haemorrhagic Disease (RVHD1 and RVHD2)
Here at Bunnymad, we’ve chosen to focus on how to prevent health problems in rabbits, rather than provide detailed information on pain management or treatment plans. That’s because there’s no substitute for the advice of a good, rabbit-friendly vet when a rabbit needs help, and it’s far better to see a vet immediately than to delay a visit by attempts to diagnose or treat a rabbit at home. However, there’s plenty of information available on the RWAF website , which is useful when you want to understand more about a diagnosis.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for your comment. The bunnies will review it and respond as soon as possible.