Monday, December 3, 2018

Swift Missed Our Last Show of the Year

The year is winding down and so is our plans for rabbit shows for the year.  The latest show that we attended was on November 17th up in Wichita, Kansas.  This show was an unexpected show we weren't planning to attend, but when Seriah finally got arrangements settled for purchasing her English Spot rabbits she has been saving for and wanting to get it became a last minute show.

As part of my process of deciding who gets to go I start doing weight checks and verifying age groups on each of the bunnies I am considering taking.  That left me with some tough decisions on who was going.  All except one of my junior does were bred or at least I was hoping they were bred so they were staying home.  And both of the Carrots and Swift transitioned to seniors a couple of days prior to the event and Carrots was 3/4 of a pound under senior weight so he was not going.

While I was weighing and checking Swift over I found a quarter sized spot on his hip that some how he had completely skinned while in the safety and comfort of his hutch.  No way was he going to the show.  We cleaned his skinned hip although it looked good and clean already and treated it with some bag balm.

Then I put him in a show carrier while I went over his hutch with a fine tooth comb so to speak.  Looking for anything that was sharp or sticking out or bent in such a way as to allow him to get himself caught up and scraped.  Not one thing did I find.  I did remove all the older clips and replace them with brand new ones, just to make sure everything was in good working over before returning him to his hutch.  Then we started in on daily wound watch.

Over the following week I checked him daily and watched as the skin quickly healed and hair started to grow back in.  Today he has the shortest and darkest jet black patch of round fur entirely covering the area and beyond it being shorter than anything else you would never know that he hurt himself.  I still don't know how it happened but I am grateful for the weekly habit of weigh checks and rabbit handling that we do here at the bowery, because it allows me to catch things in the early stages before they can become big problems.

My daughter and I had a wonderful time at the show, and I only ended up taking Sardona, Tucker, and Onyx but we came home with two new bunnies and Seriah is now on her way towards raising English Spots here at the bowery.  And so the 2018 show season wraps up here as we take December off to raise our fall litters and help make sure all of our intermediates who are transitioning to seniors keep condition and make senior weight as we look forward to the holidays and upcoming 2019 show year.

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