Human Infant Pants for Postoperative Protection during Social Housing of New Zealand White Rabbits ().

Elizabethan collars (E-collars) are commonly used in various species to safeguard healing wounds. However, E-collars inadvertently restrict the expression of normal species-typical behaviors, including coprophagy, self-grooming, and social housing. To maintain social housing in accordance with recommendations in the 8th edition of the , we implemented the use of human infant pants instead of E-collars for postsurgical protection. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of 154 intact male New Zealand white rabbits (age, 2 to 3 mo) regarding the use of E-collars (group 1; = 72) compared with human infant pants (group 2; = 82) for postoperative protection after 308 femoral angioplasty procedures. Maintenance of social pairs throughout the postoperative phase, replacement rate of infant pants, and self-mutilation rates were measured. Our findings indicate that using infant pants for postoperative protection was most successful in maintaining social housing, offers a more cost-effective option to E-collars, and does not increase the rate of self-mutilation in intact male New Zealand white rabbits.