When Duncan, a chocolate-brown lop-eared bunny, was surrendered to a shelter, his new caretakers didn’t understand why he was so aggressive. He bit anyone who tried to touch him — and no one could get close without being nipped.
Eventually, the shelter reached out to Friends of Rabbits, a Maryland rescue that takes in bunnies with nowhere else to go.
When Duncan arrived, board member Sarah Healy quickly realized something wasn’t right.
“His ears felt like hard rocks,” Healy told The Dodo. “Like bone. We had never seen or felt anything like that before.”
A vet visit revealed the shocking reason: Duncan’s ears were severely infected and completely calcified. Instead of being soft and flexible, they’d turned hard and heavy, pulling down his head.
The vet explained this happens after repeated trauma, much like a human boxer developing cauliflower ear. Blood flow becomes restricted, causing the ear tissue to harden over time.
“He was just very scared and in a lot of pain,” Healy said. “That’s why he was biting.”
Healy took Duncan home so he could recover in comfort while receiving treatment for his ear infections. Almost immediately, she discovered that behind his grumpy exterior was a bunny bursting with personality.
“He has the biggest personality of any rabbit I’ve ever met,” she said. “He would take books off my bookshelf and throw them across the room. And he would jump on counters to steal things.”
While Duncan’s mischievousness kept Healy entertained, his ears slowly healed enough for surgery to clear out the buildup. But during the procedure, vets made another heartbreaking discovery — Duncan was deaf.
His damaged ears had destroyed his eardrums, leaving him unable to hear. And though the surgery helped, it didn’t fix everything. To give Duncan a pain-free life, vets eventually decided that the best option was to remove both ears entirely.
In August, his right ear was amputated. Despite the major operation, Duncan bounced back almost immediately.
“He’s such a trooper,” Healy said. “Every time the vet calls after surgery, it’s the same thing — ‘He’s up and running around already.’”
Once healed, Duncan underwent surgery to remove his left ear as well. Today, his head is smooth and round — no scars, no soreness, no pain. Just fluffy fur and a whole new lease on life.
“Every surgery he’s had, he comes back a little bit better,” Healy said.
Now, Duncan is still his spunky, fearless self — but far happier. He rarely bites anymore and has even become a doting “uncle” to the baby bunnies Healy fosters.
“He got really interested in the baby bunnies,” she said. “They’d snuggle up to him, and he’d just lay there, all stretched out, watching them play.”
Fittingly, he’s earned the nickname Uncle Duncan.
Though Healy would love to keep him forever, she hopes to find him a home where he can be adored as much as he deserves.
“He’s been through so much,” she said. “He deserves to be somewhere where he’s the center of attention all the time — because that’s exactly what he wants.”
If you’d like to give Duncan his forever home, you can reach out to Friends of Rabbits through their website.
