First Aid Kit

First Aid for rabbits is the most important thing you will need to know prior to getting a rabbit. Preparing a first aid kit is probably the very first thing you should do before even bringing your rabbit home, along with making sure you have a rabbit savvy vet to take your little friend to if need be. This should even be done before you buy, set up and decorate your rabbit’s new home. Not everyone is aware of this but rabbits are considered to be “EXOTIC PETS”. Crazy, right?!

How could that cute little ball of fluff be considered exotic? It isn’t like a reptile or a monkey, yet that is what veterinarian’s classify them as. For those of us that have rabbits, we know how important it is to have a first aid kit on hand. Illness with rabbits can happen very quickly and can become fatal in the matter of minutes to a few hours. Not to mention, exotic vets are expensive.

Sometimes you may not even have a vet available in your area to see right away, this is why it’s even more important to know what to have on hand & how to handle sensitive issues with your bunny. It is crucial to research what possible complications your new companion animal could encounter and how to alleviate any pain, ensure they are eating & drinking and what to do if they aren’t. Having a first aid kit also gives you, the owner, piece of mind knowing that you are 100% prepared if an emergency does occur. Trust me, at one point or another, it will. That isn’t me being pessimistic, that is me being realistic. Rabbits are very fragile little animals.

As always, when there is an emergency, a trip to the vet should be the very first move you make. I cannot stress this enough, be sure you have done your research about vets in your area, as not all vets see rabbits. Visit www.houserabbitsociety.org to find a rabbit savvy vet in your area as well as a vast amount of great content for Bunny Moms and Dads! A little word of advice, and I don’t say this to deter anyone from having a rabbit, it’s just best to know what you’re getting into rather than not knowing. Rabbits are very expensive. They are much more expensive than you’d ever expect they are. Making sure you are financially stable before having a bunny is just as important as making sure you are taking good care of them throughout their life.

In the past year and a half alone, my boyfriend and I have spent nearly $5,000 in vet bills for emergency’s and dental issues. Leo has gone through two bouts of GI stasis twice, back to back and stayed in the animal hospital for 5 nights to get better. Leo also had to have a tooth removed and teeth shaved down because he had dental issues due to improper breeding. I rescued him from a hoarding situation. Hershey, has gone through GI stasis once. All 7 of them have been spayed or neutered, totaling $1000 in total on a low spay/neuter program. Usually, spays and neuter’s can cost anywhere from $130-$1000, depending on where you live. Those are just vet bills. Getting fresh hay, fresh greens & pellets, the cost adds up. As with their food, the cost of toys, treats, their living space items…IT ALL ADDS UP and its A LOT.

Not everyone can afford that. For every bunny you have the cost inevitably goes up. Imagine not having enough money to help your little pal get the care and medicines they need to get better. Or not having enough to give them the best food or living arrangements. Like I said, none of this is said to deter anyone from getting a rabbit. They are great companion animals if you can afford it and are capable of providing a great home. But you do need to understand the cost that goes into it as well, in order to make the best decision about adding a pet to your home. That goes for any pet you plan to add to your family. Luckily, to help you out in the vet cost arena, there is pet insurance available. Be sure to ask your vet how and where to apply.

Why is it so important to have a first aid kit?

In addition to what I explained above, having a first aid kits provides you with the tools you’ll need for minor accidents but it will also offer you temporary fixes for the more serious emergencies too. I keep majority of the items for their first aid kit right in their living space. You’ll want your first aid kit to be easily accessible to you and anyone else who may need to use it to help the bun out. It’s invaluable to have a first aid kit if you live in an area that is affected by natural disasters, especially, if you need to evacuate. You’ll have everything on hand, in one place and that is surely comforting when you are trying to frantically get things together to leave your home.

What should you have in your first aid kit?

For me, I have a small notebook that I keep with my first aid kit. In it, I have our primary vets information and two 24/7 vet clinics in our area. It’s always good to have a few listed. Some 24 hour vets only have specialty/exotic vets on hand during the day and rarely at night or the wee early hours of the morning when emergency’s tend to arise, at least in my case. So you’ll want a list of a few 24 hour vets. Out of the 6 rabbits I have, I have two that I have had to bring to the emergency vet.

While I wait in the car or the waiting room, I try to write down all the things I can remember about their behavior before I had to take them into the vets. Were they eating or drinking? Was it one or the other? Were they immobile and lethargic? Were their eyes squinting in pain? Have they been pressing their abdomen on the floor to relive gas pain? Have they urinated or defecated? What color is the urine? What does their feces look like? Were they little round pellets or were they stringed together by hair? Did the bun have diarrhea? Were the feces tinier than normal? Then throughout their recovery process, I document that as well. I write if everything is going smoothly, what the rabbit can’t stand…for instance, one of my rabbits only likes to take meds from large syringes. My other rabbit hates large syringes and will only take from small syringes. Did they give me problems with meds? Were they tolerable of meds? I note when I begin to see that they are urinating and defecating normally and how many days into the recovery it was. I write all of this down so I can be more aware the next time if an emergency is to arise and what signs to look out for. I also make copies of the vet paperwork and staple it in the notebook. It’s always best to have it all on hand if you were to have to take your pet to a different vet because your regular one is unavailable.

In the first aid kit I make sure I have plenty of gauze pads, cotton rounds & Q-tips. These are great tools to help clean and apply topical ointments from small wounds or even in the eye area. Self-adhesive or non-adhesive bandages are also great to have on hand. If you need to use them, these types of bandages won’t cause the loss of hair or any pain when removing. Styptic powder is used for toe nails, if they are cut too close to the quick and cause bleeding. If the nail breaks off or you cut it too short, the nail will most likely begin to bleed a lot. Making sure you have this powder on hand is vital. It will clot the blood immediately. Antibiotic cream such as Neosporin WITHOUT THE PAIN RELIVER. You must get the original with no pain relief. The one with pain relief can be fatal to your rabbit. This is for scratches, small wounds or skin irritations. You’ll put this on using a Q-tip, cotton round or cotton ball.

I have various sizes of syringes for food, water & medicines. Bigger syringes for when I need to do assisted feeding of food and water. It’s not 100% necessary to have all those syringes but I like to make sure I have different sizes because you never know which ones your rabbit will or won’t be sensitive to using. Disinfectants that I use are Vetericyn, which is highly recommended by vets. I use it for urine scald or small/minor skin irritations and cuts. I also have hydrogen peroxide that comes in a spray bottle. I dilute half of the bottle with water. Rabbit skin is very sensitive and can easily tear so you’ll want to dab the skin instead of scrubbing. Saline solution is for washing out the rabbit’s eye if any debris is to get in or to clean it of eye boogers. Along with the saline solution, I also have an eye dropper.

Nasal aspirators are for if they have any nasal discharge. You do not push it up their nose, you will gently use it at the very tip of the nose and you will find that you will get a lot of junk out if they have nasal discharge. Simethicone, otherwise known as baby gas drops for when they have gas pains. You’ll notice your rabbit is pressing his stomach on the floor. Most likely its gas pain. The pressing of the abdomen on the flat surface provides them with slight comfort. You’ll administer baby gas drops 1ml every hour, for 4 hours. If there is no improvement after 10 hours you’ll want to treat this as an emergency and see a vet.

While this won’t be kept in your first aid kit, it’s great to have on standby in your freezer. Ice Bottles! It’s great for the summer time in warm climates. You can do ice packs but water in a bottle is a safer option if the rabbit attempts to chew on it. On the flip side, a heating pad should definitely be part of your rabbit’s first aid kit. When rabbits get stressed, sick, battling GI stasis or have just had surgery, their temperatures can drop. This is a bad sign and you’ll want to regulate their temperature by having it on low setting while you are supervising. Never leave the rabbit alone while on a heating pad.

I have used heating pads after neuters and spays to keep them comfortable after surgery. I will lay them in my lap or on my chest for 20minutes while I give them head and neck massages. Heating pads are a temporary fix to a non-life-threatening scenario when their temp is low. If you notice your rabbit’s temperature is not going up and they are pretty cold to the touch, treat this as an emergency and get to the vet as soon as possible.

I don’t have a picture of it but we have a rectal thermometer and of course Vaseline. When you give your vet a call, having your rabbits temp on hand is great so they can give you better information prior to your appointment or to let you know that you have to get to a vet ASAP. The Vaseline is for lubricant to ensure your rabbit is not feeling any discomfort when you take their temperature. A normal temp is anywhere between 101.5ºF and 103.5ºF. I highly suggest to ask your vet to show you how to take their temps, it’s very beneficial. Another thing to ask you vet how to do, is administering subcutaneous fluids. This will help tremendously if they are dehydrated which does happen when they go into GI stasis. Of course when you are taught by your vet on how to do this, you’ll want to make sure you have all the tools you’ll need to do SubQT fluids at home. Again, this is a temporary fix and does not mean that you don’t have to go to the vet if your rabbit bounces back to health. You still need to have the bun checked.

I keep a bottle of unflavored pedialyte in my pantry if they aren’t drinking fluids. It will replace nutrients effectively and more efficiently. In the summer months, I soak their lettuce in pedialyte just ensure they are well hydrated and still getting good nutrients in them more so than just water. In addition to the pedialyte, I also keep some two jars of banana baby food on hand. I use this to mix in with Critical Care. I also think it’s a great idea to keep any medications you haven’t used up or haven’t expired yet. Medication can be expensive, I always ask the vet to give me more than they anticipate because I have many rabbits and it can potentially hold me over if I can’t get to the vet for a day or two. Usually, they are accommodating. If not, you’ll almost always be left with enough to give in the event of another emergency. I always have at least two days’ worth of medicine left over if I haven’t asked the vet to intentionally give me more. Some will stay in the refrigerator and some won’t need to be kept in the fridge.

A huge life saver for a first aid kit is Critical Care & bene-bac. Bene-bac is a probiotic. The moment a rabbit isn’t eating I will give them some of this in its gel form. Critical Care is force-feed for rabbits in emergency. It’s usually used administered for GI stasis which is the slowing down of or an immobile gut. A rabbits GI tract has to constantly be moving which is why they eat throughout the day, exercising also helps to promote their gut to move normally. When it doesn’t, Critical Care or something similar is given as an in-patient recovery method & out patient.

You can get Critical Care at your vets or on amazon and I believe small pet select still sells this. It gives them the proper nutrients to promote the gut to begin moving and aids in their overall digestion. It is a powder formula that you’ll mix with water and is based on your pet’s weight. You will feed this by syringe for typically a week or until your rabbit is eating, drinking, urinating and defecating normally. There is nothing that will excite you more than seeing little golden poops while they are recovering. It’s at that point that you are out of the red zone. My vet suggested I always have this on hand. It has an expiration date but can be put in the fridge to last an additional 3-6 months after expiration. I have at least two on hand because I have 6 babies and you just never know when you will need it or how much you will need.

Other items found in my first aid kit are nail clippers and their grooming brushes. It’s just an easy place to have them and keeps things in one spot so that you don’t misplace them when you need it. These are just the basics of what should be included in a first aid kit and I’m sure many people include more. If you have any additional products that should be in a first aid kit, say “Hi” and feel free to comment to spread the word on the best items to have as a bunny mom or dad in a first aid kit!

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