Rabbits are social animals, so adopt more than one
Q: I’ve fallen in adore with my friend’s rabbit, and I want one of my individual. I question if the rabbit is lonely when my buddy is at do the job and whether or not I must receive two in its place of one particular. Also, do shelters have rabbits, or need to I go to the pet retail outlet?
A: Rabbits are the 3rd most typically surrendered species at animal shelters, and February is Adopt a Rabbit Thirty day period, so your timing is excellent.
Adopting a rabbit from an animal shelter or rescue group offers quite a few positive aspects.
The rabbit will almost certainly come to you currently sterilized or with a voucher for low-price tag spay/neuter operation. Sterilized rabbits live for a longer period and have much less professional medical and behavioral problems than unsterilized bunnies.
Compared with pet retail store rabbits transported from breeding mills, rescued rabbits are now socialized and experienced to use a litter box. Shelter and rescue workers users know the temperaments of their rabbits and will help you pick the ideal one for your persona and life-style. They also supply assistance in the course of each individual adopted rabbit’s everyday living.
In addition, adopting a bunny is far more rewarding than acquiring 1 at a pet retail outlet because you help you save a existence and cost-free up room for another homeless rabbit.
Rabbits are social creatures that will need the companionship of their personal species, so be sure to think about adopting a bunny and a buddy. If the shelter or rescue has a pair that has previously bonded, opt for them. If not, introduce your rabbits with the assistance of somebody who knows rabbits properly, and consult with the Dwelling Rabbit Culture at rabbit.org.
A bonded pair will take in and engage in together, groom each other and snooze jointly. Watching their interactions will convey you more joy than dwelling with a solitary rabbit.
Your rabbits will in no way be bored with each and every other’s firm, so they will never get into the problems a one rabbit can. When you are at work, you can know your bunnies are not lonely.
Visit your community animal shelter, or locate a rabbit rescue group on the impartial rescue record at the Residence Rabbit Modern society web-site.
Q: My Weimaraner, Axel, experienced a routine blood examination that was favourable for Lyme illness. He has never ever shown any scientific signs, his Lyme vaccination is normally latest, and he utilizes a tick preventive all over the yr. Provided all this, how a great deal can I have confidence in the exam outcome? His veterinarian wants to handle him with an antibiotic. Can this damage him if he doesn’t really will need it?
A: The answer to your quandary is unclear, so enable me start out with what we do know.
Lyme sickness, caused by Borrelia microbes transmitted by means of a tick bite, is characterised by a sudden onset of lameness, lethargy, urge for food loss and fever. The microorganisms hurt the joints and kidneys, producing the kidneys to excrete protein in the urine.
Urine should really not have protein, so most veterinarians who get a favourable Lyme exam final result in the absence of scientific symptoms check the urine for protein.
If a doggy has no scientific signals of Lyme illness and no protein in the urine, most veterinarians would not prescribe an antibiotic. Nevertheless, this situation is debated.
To make a decision how finest to diagnose, address and protect against Lyme condition in pets, board-accredited veterinarians with specific know-how in Lyme disease met to assessment the investigate info. Their consensus statement is posted here’s a shortcut website link: arkansasonline.com/0124rabbit.
If you scroll down to the matter titled “Should really Remedies Be Available for Nonclinical, Nonproteinuric Seropositive Canines?” you may see that most of the professionals did not recommend antibiotic cure for canine like Axel.
In aspect, this is simply because antibiotics usually are not harmless. They can bring about tummy upset and/or diarrhea in some dogs. Utilizing an antibiotic when it really is not necessary can also encourage bacterial resistance, so the antibiotic is not going to be helpful in the foreseeable future when it is needed.
I endorse you inquire your veterinarian to exam Axel’s urine for protein, which will give you just one more piece of data on which to base a treatment method choice.
Lee Pickett, VMD, methods companion animal medication in North Carolina. Get hold of her at
[email protected]