RIP, baby rabbit.

Before anyone tells me that most cottontail ‘orphans’ aren’t, I know this and made good use of it last year when I found a nest of bunnies in the backyard. (Unfortunately, I found them with the lawnmower, but mama never seemed to notice that three of her babies were gone; she just kept on taking care of the rest.)

My problem is that yesterday, when I got home at a quarter to midnight, I found an infant bunny in the middle of my family room. So I think it’s pretty clear that mama isn’t going to show up every night to keep feeding it. I have located the nest this morning, but no one is home. I’m not certain if Adam (my flat-coated retriever) found the nest, or if something else found it and he merely retrieved the (remaining) baby. Quick examination last night showed it was chilled, has one eye still shut and one open, but no apparent injuries, so I set it up in a box with a heating pad, and spent a very sleepless night, what with Adam fussing everytime the bunny moved and having to keep getting up to turn the heating pad back on. (It turns itself off after an hour or so. Great safety feature, perhaps but not so good for overnight critter warming.)
This morning baby is warm and squirmy, but has an odd roll, which I’m not sure is from an injury, immaturity of a side effect of suddenly seeing light on one side. It does not appear to have a head tilt when I hold it upright, but when it’s put down it sort of corkscrews along. I raised gerbils for 15 years, but they were all walking well before their eyes opened, and I don’t think this one can. I’m going to try to call my vet in a bit, since I found out this week that my old one retired (he had no weekend hours; and the nearest emergency clinic is maybe two hours away) but I don’t know if the new vets have any Saturday hours either.

Any advice on what to do with it? There are no licensed rehabbers in this county or any of the surrounding ones, and Animal Control in this county is sort of a part-time job of the police. Putting it back it the nest seems unlikely to be successful this time since there are no sibs to snuggle with, and Adam knows where the nest is now.

(Sticking the edit in first, since I forgot to put it in.) Thanks for the links, rusti, that first one in particular is excellent. Got a short list to go shop with, but the cecotrophs will be easy since I have a house rabbit.

Well, unfortunately, when I got back from the store, the baby had passed on. I admit that I was a bit surprised – not that it died, but that it had done so so quickly. Immediately before I left it was warm, alert and rather feisty, so it was a bit of a shock to find that it was dead and cold when I returned. Had it been weak, or comatose, I’d have expected it.

So, I’ll go out this afternoon and bury it, and fill in the hole in hopes that mama will go somewhere else next time. But, if a 90# dog isn’t reason enough to stay out of the yard, I don’t think I’ll find anything to convince her. I’m still not sure that Adam actually dug up the nest though. I find it difficult to believe there was only one baby, and if there were more he’d have brought them ALL in. (Believe me, I’ve gone all over the house looking for other ‘guests’!) I thought last night that it might have been brought over by the big owl that sits in my oak tree some nights – s/he’s dropped baby squirrels that ended up being fetched in – and Adam merely ‘rescued’ it, but it really has no external injuries at all except the umbilical scab.

Bye, baby bunny.

I’m not beating myself up. I knew the odds were pretty high against from the start, but I couldn’t just put it back outside. And Adam’s enough to stress anybody! Although he did fetch the baby in without actually injuring it. I just wish mama would find some other place to build her nests. But it’s still sad, even if it was expected. I appreciate the sympathetic comments from everybody.

Actually he has several – I got him one of those plush ‘tree stumps’ with the little stuffed squirrels inside (well, they have long furry tails, but they also have chipmunk stripes) and he likes to groom them. He also has a stuffed dog that . . . squonks. It is without a doubt the weirdest sound I’ve ever heard, sounds like someone stepped on a cartoon goose.
He also is very familiar with my rabbit Sable, of course, although they don’t get to play together due to the size mismatch. She’s not a bit afraid of him – she’ll box his nose if his gets too pushy – but she weighs about 3.8# at last weigh in, and he’s about 90#. She’s also 9 years old, so she has seniority on him.