The eighth baby has been taken off sale. Keep in mind that I don't chase or catch the colony babies unless I need to check gender or take updated photos. I do sit down and observe them at feeding time every two or three days just to make sure everyone looks good and is accounted for, and nobody is getting bullied away from the food bowl. That said, it's been two or three weeks since we caught all the babies and did gender checks and photos.
Today when the kids rounded up the colony babies, handing them to me one at a time so I can give them a quick once-over check, I noticed something very wrong with this one bunny. One of his back legs was badly swollen. When I looked closer I realized his leg was at an odd angle. This baby has somehow managed to break his leg. It's already started to heal and has set in a nearly 90-degree angle. The wear on the fur tells me it's been like this for a while. How did I not notice this? Well, the fact that he still moves at the same speed and the only notable difference is that he now jumps into the food bowl versus standing beside it to eat. This would tell me the injury is probably about two weeks old.
Because our dog (Moose) came to us as a pup with a broken jaw, I remember the vet saying that the large hard swelling was a sign that the bone was already healing, and that at that point, re-breaking to set the bone was no longer an option. So for now, this bunny is in limbo. The leg has to heal and the bone swelling has to go down before we can truly assess how much it will effect his quality of life. If he can develop a callous where his ankle is (which is now weight bearing), then he should be fine. If he can't develop a callous, he may be at risk for pressure sores and subsequent infections. Unfortunately, splinting it isn't an option anymore (it's already healing up and the bone is hard there), and putting some kind of bandage or padding on it once it's all healed up wouldn't work because he'd just chew it off. For now, he gets along well. He can still run, hop, and kick his feet. When I touched it, he did not pull his leg away or kick or cry out. I'm hesitantly hopeful, but for now this bunny just has to wait and see how he heals.