Bunny's Leg Limb Has DETACHED FROM SKIN | Bondi Vet

We've just come home and they've got a new rabbit. And I don't know, we just found her in the garage. Her leg's sort of, I mean, almost off. Like the back, her hind leg's so up, we don't know what's happening. Alice is the much-loved first pet of Pia and Mimi. Come through straight away. Mum Nikki and her distraught daughters came home to find their bunny with horrific leg injuries. You just got home, it was just a few minutes ago? Yeah, I was just literally about to start as soon as I saw her. I just grabbed her, put her in the... It's alright, darling. I just put her in the... I just put her in the house. It's okay. So no idea what could have caused it? No idea. Absolutely no idea. Yeah. I don't know whether she's tried to get herself through a really ridiculous space and it's... I don't know. She's got a big skin tear on the side of her body there. Leg's hanging really loose, which is a big concern. They can sometimes panic themselves and do things that make no sense and if they get stuck in a particular place they can push themselves or leap off and catch themselves on something. But I just don't know at this stage what she's done. My priority really has to be to stabilise her first and then we'll go looking for injuries next. Right now we just need to make sure she's going to pull through this. Go ahead. Yeah, sure. She's got a really fast heart rate, so she's quite shocky. This is some C-lumps. This is going to go straight and make the skin there and she'll absorb that really quickly. The goal of this is really to go into a bloodstream almost immediately and try to boost her blood pressure. If we can do that, it just keeps that blood circulating and really keeps her alive. You're just going to want to do absolutely everything you can, okay? We're two little girls that really want you to come home, okay? So how about we work together as a team and make that happen? Huh? This is just your worst nightmare. I mean, I'm so concerned about Alice, but at the same time, those girls, I mean, it's their first ever pet. And this shouldn't be how it is. To make Alice better, okay sweetheart? It's alright. Okay, alright, so she's hanging in there. She's been a tough little girl. Fourteen week old Alice is struggling to survive a terrible trauma. Both her back legs have been mutilated. She's just resting in a cage at the moment, which is the best thing for her. The reason she's being so tough out there and being so brave is because she knows how much you love her, okay? She's a gorgeous little thing. She's beautiful. We love her. So yeah, you know, it's devastating. It's devastating. As Nicky takes the girls home to wait for news, Chris begins x-raying Alice. I'm going to learn it's scary. This is where her worry is. That's the one with the big gash in it. This one here, it's intact. But here, on that leg that looks awful and is just hanging free, we've got a big fracture there. The big test really is if she doesn't feel any pain in her toes, it means the nerves have been severed as well, and that leg will have to come off. We're just going to go in here. Alice needs to rest and recover from the shock. She must stabilise before Chris can treat her injuries. Just relax there. Later that afternoon, Nicky brings the girls back to the clinic with get-well messages for their young buddy. I love you, Alice, from your best friend Mimi. That's very sweet. So we put that one there. That's beautiful. See, she's having a read now. Sadly, there's news that Chris doesn't want the little girls to hear. That leg, I think is probably going to have to come off. If she does pull through, I'd probably operate on it tomorrow. Oh, thank you, sweetie. Thank you, Pia. Thank you, Mimi. OK, we're going to work really hard to make everything OK. Next day at the Bondi clinic, Alice needs more time to recover before Chris can begin surgery on her badly damaged legs. It's a bit slower, isn't it? That's better. While the bunny is resting, another fluffy creature has mysteriously entered the premises. Who's that? Hello? She doesn't have an appointment. Hey, buddy. Can I hug you? You're gone. And she doesn't appear to have an owner. Maybe she's out of work and wants a job. I don't know. We've never employed a dog before. This sort of breaks all the rules. I guess you'd be able to talk their language. Oh, look at that. You'd be doing Neil out of a job. I know. We'll see if we can find your mum and dad. Hello, it's Neil here from Bondi Junction Vet Hospital. You've lost a little dog called Lollipop. She's just dropped in for a visit, so if you'd like to come and pick her up, that would be great. OK, thank you. Bye-bye. Dogs don't typically walk in without their owners. Normally their owners have to drag them in here. The vet clinic is not the place to be for an animal. Neil, any word yet, mate? Yeah, no, the lady's just arrived already. Oh, hello. How are you? Meanwhile, Lollipop's owner Clarissa has arrived to reclaim her runaway. I just adopted her. She'd been abandoned by every single owner that she had because she just keeps running, so no one wanted to keep her. I just fell in love with her straight away. Yeah, yeah. You're back. It's certainly turning out to be an eventful day for Chris. Excuse me, my daughter wants to know, are you married? She's 23 and she's gorgeous looking. She wants to know your working hours here. I said, why don't you ring and speak with Neil? She's gorgeous looking. No, we didn't set her up, did we? Nothing to do with me. No, no, no, no. Chris is getting all these proposals. What about me? What do I get? Nothing. It's all Chris Brown, Chris Brown, Chris Brown. Get back to work, Neil. I think someone needs some emotional intensive care. The next morning, things get a lot more serious at the clinic as Chris and Neil prepare Alice for her major surgery. Seen my face once, really. Yeah, not good. The 14-week-old bunny was found at home with shocking injuries to her back legs. She has no idea that I'm doing that, no. That leg, it just can't stay there. She's just going to drag it around and cause injuries to herself. So I decided it does have to come off. This isn't going to be an easy operation. You look at Alice and you can see that she's small. And because of that, everything is so delicate, she can't afford to lose much blood because she doesn't really have a lot to start with. Somehow she's already managed to cope with all this shock and all this trauma. I just hope she's got enough fight left in her to handle this surgery. First thing you always have to do here is just work out where the big beating arteries are because they're the ones that if you nick them, Alice is going to be in trouble really quickly. Yeah, it's really tricky. They're just so sensitive, you just have to do tiny increments. In the Bondi operating theatre, Chris is about to begin the delicate amputation of Alice's back leg. The little bunny is the first pet of Pia and Mimi. To know what those two little girls have just been through, coming home and discovering Alice looking like that, of course it's going to put more pressure on you to try to make that better, try to give them their little Alice back. So what that work's really been leading to, just trying to clear away the blood vessels and the muscles so we can get at this bone here. It's not the nicest thing for Alice, but this bit is really essential. That leg's now off, the wound's been nicely sewed up, so now we move on to the other leg. But as Chris begins work on Alice's other leg, her heart suddenly stops. Just stop for a second. I don't know if I've got a heartbeat though. No. For nearly 10 minutes, Chris and Neil desperately try to revive Alice, to get her back. Yep, it's there. So I'm just going to really faint heartbeat here, it's quite slow. I'm just trying to stimulate him with some atropine to try and quicken up his heart. Just a few minutes later, the bunny slips away again. No. Stop. With precious seconds ticking by, Chris is again trying everything he can to kick-start Alice's heart. For 15 minutes, he refuses to give up. Come on, bunny. Come on, old man. Surprise us all, mate. She's young, she's fragile, she's already been through a lot, and just suddenly, it was too much for her. It was absolutely... as gutting a feeling as you can get. You think about Pia and Mimi and... Probably guess who this little guy's for. I'm just really hoping that this is just the best possible surprise for Pia and Mimi. I think they deserve it. It's been two months since Pia and Mimi's pet rabbit passed away. Little Alice suffered horrific injuries to her back legs and sadly died during surgery. My biggest fear throughout all this was that Pia and Mimi would really lose faith and be scared to ever connect with anything living again. Hey, your mum and I were talking and we think that it's not right that you girls don't have a little bunny to love in your lives. I think they quite literally thought I'd pulled a rabbit out of my hat. I think they're in total shock. Then I just saw its ears and its eyes and then I just recognised it and I was like, whoa, that's a rabbit. He's a little boy. It's a boy, guys. I just watched their faces go from this absolute look of surprise to all of a sudden their eyes soften and this little smile come over their face and you knew it was meant to be. If you had to choose a name for a boy rabbit, what do you think? You helped us. Really? I had to choose that name because it was all I could think of. Christopher Rabbit. That's pretty cute. Nicky's a great mum. Really taking time before they even consider getting another pet. I think he's spot on. You've got to be honest but at the same time you have to eventually let them love again. She's done that. Hi, I'm Dr Dani Dusek from Bondi Vet. If you love our show and want to see more plus some amazing content about pets and how to care for them hit the subscribe button. Click that little notification bell and we'll see you on our next video.