Do Not Put A Hammock In Your Cage! We now have a crippled rabbit because of hammocks!

[TheatreBAngel]

We have a rabbit and a guinea pig and in the rabbits cage was one of those little hammock things, well the rabbit got it's back foot caught in the hammock and it looked okay after we got it's foot out, but a few days later it had swollen huge and all the fur had fallen out and it was yellow and purple and covered in pus. Needless to say we took it to the vet right away and he said that it probably wouldn't make it and would we like to put it down, we said no. So the rabbit spent three days at the vets, then came home and went through 7 months of us washing and cleaning and wrapping it twice a day every day. The rabbit survived but lost all the toes on that foot, he can still hop on it and everything, but if you have a hammock in your cage, my advice is to take it down, fold it in half and sew up the sides to make a cozy.

 

[Katie]

Can you please give more detail? How did it's foot get caught in the Hammock, a solid piece of material? Did you see the foot get caught?

 

[TheatreBAngel]

His foot got caught in it because it was attached to a shelf, hence the way it would hang like a hammock, it got tangled in the string that attached one corner of the hammock to the shelf .

 

[Katie]

This was just a freak accident, I don't think it will stop anyone from using a Hammock. Cavies have gotten their heads stuck in the grids of C&C cages, but that hasn't stopped anyone from using them.

 

[morrigan]

Maybe it's not advisable to put a hammock on the rabbit cage. Maybe the rabbit isn't capable of using a hammock. or maybe it's not the hammock at all. Maybe it's something else that made the rabbit's foot swell.

I'm not a rabbit expert.

I think the concern here in this forum at least is the about guinea pigs. What happened to your guinea pig when he/she uses the hammock?