Hi friends,
I would greatly appreciate any help with my pregnant Netherland dwarf doe. Here's the long and short of the story:
She is due for her second litter in 3 days and has been acting a bit defensive around her cage for about a week, with growling and general avoidance when I pet her or try to pick her up. She's normally the sweetest girl, but since she's due in a short time, I didn't pay it any mind. This morning I cleaned up her cage thoroughly in preparation for her upcoming litter, so despite her protest she had to get out of the cage and in a playpen while I cleaned things up. She is a house rabbit and has a long cage with an attached hideout that is large enough to place her nest in, so I clean and disinfect everything often and just before any litter because I won't do so for a number of weeks when her kits are unable to move in and out of her nest box.
When I placed her in the playpen, I noticed she was limping badly, not putting any weight on her left hind leg. I inspected her and saw no visible injury on the leg, her foot or anywhere on her skin. She is however showing signs of pain if I stretch her leg out. I don't believe it's broken since she lets me manipulate it and only displayed signs of pain when I stretched it, but can't be certain.
I have no idea how she might have gotten an injury. She wasn't dropped or hurt to he best of my knowledge.
Now I am torn as to what to do. I could bring her to a vet, but what are they going to do anyway? They can't X-Ray her since she's about to kindle, right? Even then, what would they do? I never heard of a cast on a rabbit. My inclination since she's eating well and seems to act normally in her cage is to wait and see how she recovers. If it's a sprain then it should go back to normal by itself.
My real question is, what else could this be? Any poisoning that can result in hind-leg pain? Any disease? Parasites?
Thanks for any help
I would greatly appreciate any help with my pregnant Netherland dwarf doe. Here's the long and short of the story:
She is due for her second litter in 3 days and has been acting a bit defensive around her cage for about a week, with growling and general avoidance when I pet her or try to pick her up. She's normally the sweetest girl, but since she's due in a short time, I didn't pay it any mind. This morning I cleaned up her cage thoroughly in preparation for her upcoming litter, so despite her protest she had to get out of the cage and in a playpen while I cleaned things up. She is a house rabbit and has a long cage with an attached hideout that is large enough to place her nest in, so I clean and disinfect everything often and just before any litter because I won't do so for a number of weeks when her kits are unable to move in and out of her nest box.
When I placed her in the playpen, I noticed she was limping badly, not putting any weight on her left hind leg. I inspected her and saw no visible injury on the leg, her foot or anywhere on her skin. She is however showing signs of pain if I stretch her leg out. I don't believe it's broken since she lets me manipulate it and only displayed signs of pain when I stretched it, but can't be certain.
I have no idea how she might have gotten an injury. She wasn't dropped or hurt to he best of my knowledge.
Now I am torn as to what to do. I could bring her to a vet, but what are they going to do anyway? They can't X-Ray her since she's about to kindle, right? Even then, what would they do? I never heard of a cast on a rabbit. My inclination since she's eating well and seems to act normally in her cage is to wait and see how she recovers. If it's a sprain then it should go back to normal by itself.
My real question is, what else could this be? Any poisoning that can result in hind-leg pain? Any disease? Parasites?
Thanks for any help