Help! Wild rabbit baby!

[PixieofCatan]

I'm at work, the dog caught a small rabbit this morning, not a tiny baby but still a baby. He actually caught it twice. It's fine, just in shock. I put it to the edge of the forest (no clue where it came from unfortunately!) and kept the dog indoors. I checked on it am hour later and it was hiding under a plant about 10cm away.

Not otherwise hurt I put it in an outbuilding and left it a bowl of water, milk and spinach.

Now what? I've looked through the window and has had some milk and spinach by the looks of things. DP is bringing rabbit food later when he picks me up and I was planning to just keep it in there until it seems comfortable enough to just run back to wherever it came from without being caught by the dog or two cats!

So help please! What can I do? I leave at six and won't be back until tomorrow, kids granny is here and happy to supervise bunny until I'm back on Tuesday if he isn't ready to run, I'm hoping he will be by tomorrow but she's not sure!

If you want, hand it in to your local vets, they will give it a once ovr and release it somewhere suitable

It's home is in this garden though (200 acres) which is suitable, I'm just worried about it getting caught again. The dog has free access to much less of the space I just don't want to release it if it's going to be a sitting duck, which is what happened earlier. How long will it take for it to come out of shock? When I've been near it it has wedged itself against a wall or under wood in the hopes that I won't see it.

The fact that baby rabbit is actively hiding from you is a good sign. He is wary and wild enough to see itself as prey and you/dog as "threat".
If a wild animal is not afraid, it won't survive (or in the case of rabbits, it can be a sign they have myxie)

If you leave at 6pm, see how he is then, they are more active at dawn and dusk.
Would he be safe overnight in the outbuilding?

Yes will be safe. Lockable door and big room :) thanks!

Re moxy: should I shower before I go home? Don't want to risk my rats catching anything?

As far as I know it's a species specific disease.
The bunnys at my DD school (who were vaccinated) were infected by some rogue wild rabbits who came visiting.

Guinea-Pigs can;t get it. so I'm sure rats would be the same.

Best to shower and change before you kiss the rats "Hello" though, no idea what wild animals are harbouring (fleas/mites/lice)

Any activity from the long eared lodger?

Bunny died :(

I poked my head to look in the window around 3 and it was in a ball in the centre of the room, I thought sleeping as it was breathing, then went to give it food around half four when DP showed up and it was lying dead :(

DP disposed of it.

There was some milk on the floor when I first checked up on it (through the window) a bit away from the bowl I set out but I thought nothing of it. DP pointed out to me in the car that it was probably sick. So it must've thrown it back up. There was also an old rat poison box that I hadn't seen before (I thought that'd I'd checked the room well, but not well enough it seems) that had come out from somewhere. I don't know where because I chose that outbuilding because I could see under everything stored in there and there wasn't a huge amount in there, but it may have been wedged in a piece of furniture or something.

So I feel awful :( Poor bunny. I have no clue if he died from shock or if there was even poison in the old box and he died from that. I know he would have died had I not 'saved' him from the dog but it seems that I only delayed it a few hours :(

Aw very but as you say , if you'd done nothing, he'd have been picked off (not necessarily by your dog, any fox or bird of prey would take the opportunity)

Most likely delayed shock, wild animals , especially prey animals hide their illnesses well.
Even if he had eaten poison, would it work so quickly? (I have no idea if rabbits can throw up, GPs cannot, but rabbits aren't rodents)

Give your rats an extra cuddle and tell them just how lucky they are to have you . They will know already but it doesn't hurt to remind them

Thanks, I feel a bit better about it now. I think it was shock really, the dog caught him at least twice and I had to chase/catch him three times. He let me pick him up without a struggle and as long as I held him tightly he didn't move. Poor thing :(

My fat rat seems to sense something is up as he's not exploring the desks and bookcase like his brother and is switching between my lap and shoulder and bruxing in my ear :) I do love my rats :)