Cottontail Rabbit Suffers Open Wound

This story about a cottontail rabbit was shared by licensed wildlife rehabilitator Deanna Epps of North Carolina, who forwarded it from Reese McKnight of Animal Rehabilitators of the Carolinas.

On May 11th, a juvenile cottontail rabbit was brought into care after a cat attack. She had a significant open wound with degloving on her right hind leg area. Our wildlife vet was on vacation until early the next week, and my local vet was not comfortable working with wildlife, so I took the first available appointment and immediately began pain medicine and antibiotics.

As a new rehabilitator, this was the most significant injury I had yet encountered. With the guidance of rehabilitator and wound specialist Deanna Epps, I began both wound care and feeding EmerAid IC Herbivore.

For the first two days, she was very lethargic and not interested in either fresh food or the prepared slurry, so I fed her the EmerAid through a specially adapted feeding syringe. She enthusiastically ate the EmerAid through the syringe. I was hopeful that she would eventually graduate to eating the slurry independently.

Every evening, I left her slurry alongside her dish of fresh greens, and on the third night she ate the entire serving of slurry out of her dish. Every night after that, all of the EmerAid slurry would be gone in the morning, along with gradually more and more of the fresh greens. I reduced the syringe feedings until she was eating entirely independently.

Twice daily I continued wound care along with antibiotics and pain medication. I found great success in using manuka honey as part of the wound treatment plan while waiting for the vet appointment.

Upon examination the vet was impressed at her overall health and condition considering the severity of the wound, the amount of stress she endured during her ordeal, and the amount of time that had to pass before she could be seen. He credited the EmerAid with delivering the vital nutrients she needed at a critical time for healing. He was able to stitch her up with no complications.

On June 11th — exactly one month after she came into care — she was ready for release.