Rabbit With Leg Injury Makes Miracle Recovery

This story was shared by licensed wildlife rehabilitator Deanna Epps of Waxhaw, North Carolina.

I received an adult Eastern cottontail from my veterinarian’s office. It was unknown what had happened to him. He had a large tear with partial degloving to the left hind leg area. Intake weight was 900 grams (about 2 pounds).

On Day 1, the wound was cleaned and pain medication along with antibiotics were given. I called our wildlife vets, but both were out of town for 10 days. I then called my local vet to see if he would stitch up the bunny. He looked at my pictures and said, “He won’t recover even with surgery.” So I called our wildlife vets back and made an appointment for when they returned.

In the meantime I continued wound care, debridement of dead tissue, pain meds, and antibiotics.

At the start of Day 1, I started feeding him EmerAid IC Herbivore daily with fluids. I made a slurry of the EmerAid Sustain Herbivore that I put in his container in the evening. In the morning when I would go in to feed him, all of the Sustain was gone, as were the greens I provided. I continued this daily.

I then cut back on the regular Herbivore feeding, but kept the Sustain feedings every night.

I finally got him to our vet. He cut off the dead tissue and stitched him up. I brought him home and continued meds and EmerAid Sustain Herbivore nightly. He did very well with no problems after the surgery. He healed very quickly and gained weight.

Finally, 28 days later, I released him weighing 1,000 grams (about 2.2 pounds).