On June 27th, a weeks-old baby mountain cottontail was hit by a car on a road in Rexburg, Idaho, and badly injured. A caring young woman saw him, picked him up, and called Earthfire. Hearing of the extent of his injuries, we recommended that she take him to our local vet immediately for medical care. We told her Earthfire would pay the bills and we would retrieve and care for him when the vet felt he was ready. Upon examination the vet gave him a 50% chance of survival, and after treating him for shock, essentially put him into rabbit ICU for a month. He had a damaged jaw, a damaged eye, and his hind legs and hips were “degloved” (skinned) with bone showing. Undaunted, rather than euthanizing him, she gave him the best treatment she could.
It was a month until he was ready to be picked up, but he did well! That tough little bunny has a will to live. His eye is still healing but he has his sight; his fur is filling in and he is eating, growing, and feistily objecting to all remaining medical treatment. (At the moment he has done so well that said medical treatment consists of only eye drops three times a day.) This morning, he feasted on fresh dandelion greens, red clover, carrot top greens, and wild rose petals. Interestingly—or maybe because of all the handling for medical treatment—he has not tamed down at all and really wants nothing to do with humans, which bodes well for a successful release.
