* Acorn found his forever home with amazing people! Yippee! *

Acorn was found as a stray and brought to Hamilton Animal Services. He was in rough shape when he arrived, and wasn’t happy with human attention at all.  During his time at HAS, staff did their best to make him feel comfortable and safe, to help calm his fears. After a few weeks, he was much less bitey and he allowed them to handle and pet him.
When a foster home opened up, we were happy to get Acorn out of the stress of shelter life. We had him neutered shortly after his rescue. Soon after, Acorn was adopted, but unfortunately returned because of his behaviour.

When Acorn arrived at his current foster home in 2020, he was just cute as a button but also surprisingly intimidating—he would attack everyone and everything for seemingly no reason! He also needed an urgent vet visit because he was sneezing and sounded very congested (which is a classic sign of “snuffles,” or an upper respiratory infection, in rabbits). Acorn was immediately started on antibiotics with the expectation that the infection would quickly be resolved, and his aggression was initially believed to be behavioural.

However, when several rounds of antibiotics did little to alleviate his sneezing, a CAT scan was ordered to dig deeper into the source of Acorn’s persistent infection. It revealed that Acorn was actually dealing with a considerable amount of pain, and it was no wonder he was lashing out! The specialist exotics vets at Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph diagnosed Acorn with bilateral ear infections and chronic rhinitis. To resolve his ear infections, he needed to undergo two separate and very delicate PECA-BO procedures. These surgeries removed part of both ear canals and the pockets of infection lurking deep in his inner ears. They were costly and not without risk, but surgery was the only option; otherwise, Acorn would have lived in constant pain. The surgeries needed to be spaced out, since they were extremely invasive and required long periods of recovery (which was further complicated by COVID), but Acorn did well for both. Over a period of two years, Acorn rotated through all the bunny-safe antibiotics to try to rid him of the numerous infections that kept cropping up between his two PECA-BOs. Aside from the pockets of infection in both of his ears and in his nose, Acorn also experienced skin infections, a cheek abscess that burst and required flushing at home, an eye infection that morphed into an abscess, and an eye ulcer. On top of that, Acorn needed a dental trim as well.

Acorn’s health has been a constant battle, but it’s one that he has bravely fought and won! Despite all of the setbacks he has faced, he has blossomed into an incredibly sweet and affectionate bunny. Acorn begins every day by standing on his hind legs so his foster mom can give him a kiss. He loves brief cuddles, lots of treats, and is an excellent hay eater. He does the most adorable binkies when he’s happy, and he’s dog friendly, too! Acorn has been in excellent health for the past several months, so it looks like the PECA-BO surgeries he had were more than successful—he isn’t on any medication, and despite his diagnosis of chronic rhinitis, he’s no longer sneezy!

Acorn is now looking for his forever home. He is used to having his own bunny-proofed bedroom with supervised free-roam time outside of it, but he would be an excellent candidate to be a fully free-roam bunny since he’s not at all destructive and is very good about going back to his room to use his litter box (with the exception of a few territorial poops and a bad habit of trying to mark his favourite spot on the sofa). Acorn would likely bond well with a gentle female bunny, as there is another rabbit in his foster home and he has never shown any aggression towards her. Because Acorn has had parts of his ear canals removed, he is totally deaf. This doesn’t really affect caring for him at all, and in fact, it makes it easier! He is super chill in the car (he’s been on a lot of road trips to the vets in Guelph!), he loves to follow the vacuum around, you never have to worry about loud noises scaring him, and he almost never thumps because he can’t hear anything that might upset him. Acorn is such a joy to spend time with, and it’s been a privilege to watch him transform from a bitey bunny into a truly lovely lop. He will make a lucky adopter so very happy!

SEPTEMBER 15, 2020 UPDATE

OCTOBER 16, 2020 UPDATE

DECEMBER 5, 2020 UPDATE

DECEMBER 10th, 2020 UPDATE

MARCH 8, 2021 UPDATE

JULY 27, 2021 UPDATE

SEPTEMBER 23, 2021 UPDATE

OCTOBER 8, 2021 UPDATE

FEBRUARY 10, 2022 UPDATE

MARCH 19, 2022 UPDATE

MARCH 28, 2022 UPDATE

Is a rabbit the right pet for you? Click here to find out.

Our fostered rabbits are housed in x-pens or similar enclosures so they have lots of room to move around when they aren’t out for floor time. Some of our rabbits are free range in their foster home.
Commercially made pet store rabbit cages are far too small to allow rabbits to stretch out and move around with ease.
Here are some great websites and photos outlining alternative rabbit housing using x pens and similar enclosures.
bunnyapproved.com
hopperhome.com
therabbithouse.com
Pinterest- Rabbit home idea

Can’t adopt but want to help? Donations of Oxbow Adult Rabbit food, Timothy hay, newspaper based litter, and rabbit toys are always appreciated!

Donations of these items can be dropped off (and purchased) at Dundas Pet Valu – 86 Main Street, Dundas, Ontario. Or you can purchase items and have them delivered to us through our Amazon Wish List or through Tiny Paws Emporium