Injured Buck

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Albert

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On this morning's rounds it looks like our buck Cheddar has been injured somewhere on his head. He has light brown to red staining smeared everywhere on his head.

Has he injured himself somewhere and spread the blood trying to clean himself or is it something more sinister like a rat attack?

IMG_20220302_093500173_HDR.jpg
 
Can you send a picture of the actual injury.
It must be a pin prick because I can't find an actual wound anywhere on him. I have since wondered if one of our barn cats has crossed the road into our garden and tried to claw him through the wire.
 
What about a torn toenail? That can bleed quite a bit, and sometimes intermittently due to them bumping it and causing it to start bleeding again. I wonder if he was scratching his head and just spread the blood from his nail? Ripped toenails are the most common cause of blood I have ever found on a rabbit, and it can be a challenge to spot the offending nail. Often there is only a little brown crust on the end of the nail unless it gets bumped and starts bleeding again. You may have to take him out to check for that, though.
 
have you considered that he might have been spraying and got caught in some blow back? If there is no injury, that would be my bet.
 
have you considered that he might have been spraying and got caught in some blow back? If there is no injury, that would be my bet.
I'm really sorry I don't follow that, could you be a bit more descriptive please? If it was urine wouldn't it be yellow?
 
red urine is normal?

I've never had it as red as that image. Whenever we have dark urine (a mix of the "amber" and "red" from that graphic), we'll dump some hydrogen peroxide in the litterbox to make sure there is no blood in it. I do the same when my urine is dark. It's a pretty nifty test!

That website from which I pulled the infographic suggests the same, and provides some explanation for red urine:

Red pee — when is it bad?​

For the most part, if your rabbit has red pee then there is nothing to worry about. While it’s not necessarily a ‘normal’ rabbit urine color, it’s rarely a sign of any health concerns.

If the rabbit pee is a uniform, consistent red color (bright or dark red), it is almost certain that the coloring is not from blood. It’s rare for rabbit urine to have blood in it, but if it does the blood will more likely appear in splotches, rather than uniformly throughout the urine.

What are the main causes of red rabbit urine?

  • Antibiotics: sometimes rabbit pee changes color when they are taking an antibiotic treatment.
  • Cold weather: When the temperature first starts to drop in the fall, some rabbits will inexplicably have red pee for a few days.
  • Diet: If a rabbits diet is high in beta carotene (carrots, spinach, etc.) or red berries (strawberries, raspberries, etc.), their pee may become a red color.

Hydrogen peroxide test​

If you are still worried that there might be blood in your rabbits pee, or the color has not returned to a golden or amber color after a few weeks, you can perform a hydrogen peroxide test to determine if there is any blood in your rabbit’s urine.

Get a sample of your rabbits pee and pour a little bit of hydrogen peroxide on it. Hydrogen peroxide shouldn’t react to plain urine, but if there is blood present, the mixture will start to foam up.
 
I also think it's probably urine. Some of the bucks I've had put out some startling shades of red. If he peed at the entrance to his house and sat under it later it could have dripped on his head. Bucks like doing things like that.
 
I also think it's probably urine. Some of the bucks I've had put out some startling shades of red. If he peed at the entrance to his house and sat under it later it could have dripped on his head. Bucks like doing things like that.
Every day's a school day! He's cleaned himself up now and if I hadn't taken a picture I'd start to think I had imagined it. There's not a mark on him.
 
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