Selecting a Qualified House Rabbit Veterinarian

As a veteran rabbit rescuer, I find the most challenging aspect of rabbit adoption to be convincing the new rabbit caretaker to take their rabbit to a qualified rabbit veterinarian.

I always hear in response, "Oh I have a wonderful veterinarian 3 blocks from my house and he's great with my cat, I really feel very comfortable with him." Well, folks, that's great for your cat! It's great that you don't have to drive very far either, but most responsible rabbit caretakers find themselves with a long drive to find the very best and most qualified exotic veterinarian and are glad to do so.

If you are to be a successful, responsible, and caring house rabbit caretaker, you must research and select a veterinarian for your rabbit just as carefully as you would do to find a specialist for your child.

What's The Fuss All About?

So what is the big deal about rabbit medicine? Why can't just regular, every day dog and cat vets treat your rabbit? Well, the answer is they haven't had any training! How can that be, they went to vet school right? Yes, we hope so, but the problem is that in vet school, the curriculum does not include companion rabbit medicine.

Oh, well, actually it does include an afternoon's lecture on treating rabbits who are being raised for meat or fur and how to keep sick ones from infecting a healthy herd. How is that done? The traditional method of keeping sick rabbits from infecting a healthy herd is to 'cull' them. That's a handy little euphemism for 'kill' that sounds just slightly different. Cull, kill, same thing. Not much of a treatment is it? If you have maybe one or two hutch rabbits in your backyard and you want to keep them breathing a little longer, maybe your cat and dog vet might be able to do that, keep them breathing a little bit longer. They do this by keeping the Merck Manual of Veterinary Medicine around the office. It has a short section on rabbit care that was written many, many years ago before it was even safe to spay and neuter bunnies.

Rebecca, once paralyzed due to e. cuniculi, made a full recovery and goes to her exotics vet for an annual wellness exam.

Credit: Patti Henningsen

Copyright: Patti Henningsen