Sunday, June 27, 2010

Walter

Friday evening I let the sheep and goats into a small paddock in the yard so they could graze, and I heard an animal start screeching. I looked over and saw that June had stepped in a nest of baby bunnies, and there were several babies scrambling to get away from the nest.

I ran and grabbed them all up and put them back in the nest, but noticed two had been injured. One bunny was hurt badly, it's skin was ripped over the ribcage. Another one had torn skin on the side of it's ribcage, but it didn't look as badly injured. I covered the nest with a box, then I grabbed both babies and brought them inside. The worse of the two died pretty shortly after I brought them in. The other one looked like it might have a chance, so I flushed the wound and stitched the wound closed (David helped me hold it down). I also applied a good bit of an antibiotic ointment on the wound.

I knew it was a long shot because baby bunnies are so incredibly fragile, but I wanted to at least try to save it.



I put him in a clothes basket on a heating pad with a towel over him. A few hours later I went to check on him, and he was still alive, so I tried to feed him some goat milk. He wasn't very interested in drinking, but he seemed perky (and jumpy, like baby rabbits are).

He made it all day Saturday, and even showed improvement at drinking. I decided to name him Walter. He was probably around 9 days old by my estimation.



Baby bunnies are so cute. Just look at those little feet!


Unfortunately this morning I went to check on him and he'd died overnight. I knew it would be hard to save him, but I'm glad I tried. Rest in peace, Walter!

And I went back to look at the nest on Saturday, and it was empty. I hope that means momma bunny moved them to a safer place.

4 comments:

Jen said...

Awwww... poor Walter. Nice of you to try to save him.

Kim said...

Awww. You are a dear to try to save the little guy. I saw one more baby bun in our flower garden this week. Our dog, Sadie isn't as interested in the area now so they must all be gone. They are soooo cute! Sorry he died.

Deb Johnson, Quiltbeeme said...

You amazing girl!!! You are so sweet to have gone through all that work to save Walter and sib. I am sorry he passed but love that you tried! At least you gave him a clean peaceful place to go. I just went out and found that one of my little Phoebe bird babies had fallen out of the nest and was dead on the ground. I am so sad but knew it would happen since the nest is so small and there were 5 babies in it. I am so proud of your take charge attitude and medical skills. You are the best. Love you, Momma

Becky said...

:( I'm sorry he died. Gosh, was he ever cute! Good job trying to save him. Stitching him up and everything!
Those momma bunnies need to find a safer place to put their nests. I wonder why they pick the sheep/goat pasture?

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