Taking Your Pet Rabbit to the Vet

"Hi my name is Sarah and this is Halibut, and I am one of the exotic technicians here at Extra Care Animal Hospital, and on behalf of Expert Village.com, I am going to provide you with some helpful information on owning a rabbit. It is important that when you purchase your rabbit that you take your bunny to a veterinarian for an exam and a stool check. You want to make sure that your rabbit looks healthy and does not have any intestinal parasites. If any intestinal parasites are found, your rabbit will scrape down an appropriate dewormer. Other important aspects of your bunny’s care, in addition to the first visit, are annual exams just like you do with a dog or a cat. Rabbits do not need vaccines, but they do need annual exams to make sure that there is no signs of any disease processes, make sure you are keeping them on the appropriate diet, make sure they don’t look too thin or too fat—which obesity does tend to be a problem in rabbits. Once your rabbit is 5 years of age or older, he or she should be taken to your veterinarian twice a year for exams. That is to check their teeth regularly, because much like horses, rabbit’s teeth grow throughout their entire life. Thus, rabbits do tend to have problems with dental disease, so it is always very important that when your rabbit does a full physical exam that he or she checks the rabbit’s teeth. When the vet checks the rabbit’s teeth, he or she will look for malocclusion, which can lead to the rabbit’s teeth overgrowing and a number of other dental problems. In addition to the exam twice a year, once your rabbit is older, your vet may or may not recommend some wellness blood work just like you do with a dog or a cat. I do have two older rabbits myself, and they get senior wellness blood work every year just to make sure there are no early signs of any disease processes with the liver, kidney or any other internal organs like that. As far as bathing goes, rabbits generally do not need baths. They spend a lot of the day grooming themselves, and therefore keep themselves very clean. Your rabbit may have diarrhea from time to time and might need a little bath on its rear end, but generally an overall bath is not necessary and can be even stressful to your rabbit. If you would like more information about our animal hospital, you can visit our website at www.extracareanimalhospital.net."