Better days

I am slowly but surely recovering from the terrible loss of Bunbun. Yesterday, EVERY song on the radio made me cry if it had "love" or "she" or "never forget" in it. Let's just say that if "I will remember you" by Sarah McLaughlin came on, I would probably have driven off a bridge (not really, but that's how it felt).

Anyway, I got a few really good cries in, and I had trouble with idealizing the relationship Bunbun and I had. To be realistic, she was a few steps under being referred to as "feral", and refused to be touched or interacted with at all. However, this is not to discount the hours of entertaniment and company she gave me. Her antics were hilarious, and her massive personality undeniable. I had trouble with thinking "If I could only touch her, hold her again", but I had to snap myself out of that, because I never did (unless you count burritoing her to force feed her Critical Care. Boy, did she love me after that.). The relationship I and my husband had with Bunbun was difficult to describe. 

We spent a long time last night just reminiscing and realizing our relationship with her. It was very good for the both of us. It was good to do some good-natured ribbing, because if Bunbun was a people, she'd be doing the same thing to us. We remembered times she was naughty and she knew it, times where when we lay on the floor for some close-time, she would purposefully come up to you, lull you into a false sense of security, and then nip at the skin between your pants and shirt. She enjoyed freaking us out like that. And then she would run to her litterbox, "home base" where mommy and daddy weren't allowed, and just sit there.
She was such a funny rabbit, and although she was never (and never would be) a cuddle bunny, or even a sociable bunny, she was perfect. Sassy and ridiculous.

I am also allowing myself to feel happy about the prospect (WAAY in the future!) of a new friend. Of course, I am planning on adopting from a rescue shelter. A few minutes at my local rescue's website, and I actually feel better. I think that there are many buns out there with loving personalities that need love too. And while I am not going to be ready for that for a long time, I am trying to look to the future, about the future buns that I will be priviliged to encounter, and how I will shower them with all the love and affection they deserve. 
I am also excited at the prospect of finding a bun that likes to cuddle. If Bunbun's spirit could talk, I know she'd say "Go for it. I ain't into that mushy stuff." That's her blessing.

Oh, my silly, crazy, ridiculous Bunbun. I will miss you and love you always.

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Lilly Update - E.Cuniculi

Hello all. I'm updating here to let you all know about some developments with my Lilly. I'd previously updated .

To keep track of Lilly's meds, I made a calendar and marked off the 28 days she was supposed to take her medicine. I also kept notes on her condition each day, because I read online that if she didn't improve, or if she worsened, in the first two weeks of medication, to contact the vet about changing the medicine.

In the first few days on meds, Lilly seemed to improve. Then she rapidly got worse. Her very slight head tilt became severe, and she couldn't get in and out of her litterbox. Although she kept eating, she ate less food and ate less enthusiastically than normal. She had a small amount of diahhrea one day, but otherwise her poop was pretty normal, for eating less.

Last Friday night, I picked her up to medicate her. I would always pick her up, then sit in a chair with a pillowcase on my lap, and burrito her with the pillowcase. But that time, I picked her up, her head tilted severely, and her body followed. I held onto her, but she would roll if I hadn't. She did this in my lap, too. Her breathing would get strained, her legs would scramble, and she just couldn't right herself. She also now had discharge from both eyes, which she hadn't had at all the week before. I gave her her meds and carefully set her back in her cage.

The way I always set her back was to leave her in the pillowcase til she was on the ground. Then I'd unwrap her, and she'd hop free. Friday, she took a wobbly step forward and rolled, kicked her legs, and flopped. I was able to steady her, and after a moment, she calmed down and could stand on her own, leaning against the side of the cage. I was terrified, thinking she'd had a stroke or something and that I needed to rush her to the emergency vet. But I sat with her for a while, and she had recovered.

With my vet's office hours, I couldn't get an appointment til Monday. I got to see my usual vet this time, who specializes in exotics, specifically bunnies and chins. (I was told that the vet I saw last time also had experience with exotics.) With the calendar list of progressing symptoms, my vet said that this might still be Pasteurella, but with the quick worsening, it's probably e.cuniculi, a parasite.

I was given the option to do a blood test called a titer to see which it is, or to simply treat her for both. However, one of the medications for e.cuniculi, Panacur, has a side effect of sudden death. I do not want to treat Lilly with something that could kill her, and then find out that she never needed that medicine in the first place. They drew blood for the test, but they had to send it out to a lab, and I won't know the results til this coming Monday. Until then, Lilly is now taking Bene-Bac and liquid Baytril, and she's also getting gel artificial tears three times a day to help her bulging and squinting eyes.

I'm so mad at the first vet I saw, because she never told me there were other things that caused head tilt. If she'd told me on the 3rd when she saw Lilly, I would have done the test then, and we'd know by now what to treat. I think she was distracted by Lilly's sniffle, even though I TOLD her that Lilly has allergies. She's been treated for that sniffle before, and it's an allergy. She never had any discharge, eye or nose, until AFTER being on meds for her supposed Pasteurella infection. (I'm not saying they caused the discharge, only emphasizing it didn't appear before now.) And it offends me if that's why she told me it was Pasteurella, because I know my own bunny. I know if she has discharge.

It's so frustrating, because I drive 40 minutes away to go to my bunny vet. My dog's vet is 15 minutes away, and they have what they call a bunny vet, but he is stupid. He looked for testes on my neutered lop, Cinnamon, who I had before Lilly. So I drive farther, with these gas prices, I pay a higher appointment fee, last Friday I had to pay an emergency fee, and I end up paying MORE, because they couldn't tell me the first time to do this test.

Lilly now dreads me picking her up, because it's always to shove things down her throat. She eats her Bene-Bac off her pellets, and I can put her eye gel in while she's in her cage. I hate picking her up and making her so obviously uncomfortable, so I don't unless I have to. I have found, however, that if I burrito her in the cage, hold her very securely, and just let her head tilt, she's ok. As long as I keep her legs still, her body doesn't follow her head.

So. Has anyone had a bunny with e.cuniculi?

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Flying Bunnies

Hello!

My buns are going to fly down to Tasmania with me in December for a holiday. Does anyone have suggestions on keeping them calm since they can't go in the plane cabin with me? Coffee is pretty relaxed about everything, but I worry a bit about Komi, she's so high strung

There will be two flights and the total time will be about 5-6 hours. 2.5 hours of it in plane.



We're going on a holiday!

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inspired by the post about the passing of bunbun, i'd like to share my own experience in hopes to save another loved pet.

I used to have 2 pet bunnies, Winston and Woodrow.  they were both neutered and loved playing and cuddling each other.  One day I put them both in the pet carrier as I was going to visit my mom for the weekend.  I rarely travelled with my rabbits, but I decided to bring them along anyhow.  Being scared, Winston and Woodrow decided to fight.  Winston bit a chunk of skin clear off of Woodrow. It wasn't deep, but it was enough to worry me.  I took Woodrow to the vet shortly after.  The vet prescripted some antibiotics for Woodrow. Woodrow started getting worse. I upped his dosage a little in hopes of making him better. Instead, he got worse and worse.  He wasn't eating, he had no energy. He died a few days later.

I decided to do a little research. I found out that antibiotics can KILL rabbits.  they have a balance of bacteria in their stomachs. Without this bacteria, the rabbit will fail to properly digest food (that explained the runny poo, him stopping to eat, and the loss of weight) and will eventually die. I was so angry! Woodrow would have been fine if i would have ignored the wound he got on his back.  Instead, the vet (who was inexperienced with rabbits.... small town, no other choices) instructed me to pretty much make my rabbit worse.

IF antibiotics must be given to a rabbit, it must be followed with Bene-Bac (beneficial bacteria). You can buy this cheaply on the internet and also at pet-co and petsmart.  It is also great if your rabbit ever gets stressed out and has runny poo for any reason.  Rabbits like it too. Apparently it must taste wonderful.



SO... the moral of the story is..... do your research! Don't always trust the vet. 


****picture of woodrow and I in the first comment****

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Karnage immortalized

Some of you may recall that back in November, I had a contest to draw a picture of Karnage for me to use as the basis for a tattoo. pixie_bee won the contest, but it's taken me up until now to get the tattoo done. The pics don't really do it justice, because the antibiotic ointment causes a bit of a glare, but I really wanted to share this as soon as possible:





(Humongous and more detailed version can be found here.)




(Humongous and more detailed version can be found here.)

This next one was taken with my son's cell phone; it's dark, but there's none of the glare:




(Humongous and more detailed version can be found here.)

Once things have healed up and I can get a better pic, I'll post one. Now that he's gone, it really made this important to me, and I think the tattoo artist did a great job with Pixie's art.

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LOL

more animals

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Putting all my bunnies into one basket....

Fraggle has always been separate to Ozzy and Loopy for lots of reasons. First, I felt she may be vunerable due to her having one eye. She was also a very snuggly bunny in the early days and I kinda liked that.

However, the past year has been different. She hasn't been a snuggle bunny for some time. I worried that she may be bored, be unfit due to lack of exercise and to be honest, lonely. Everytime I have let her out of her cage in the past few weeks, she has made a beeline for the bunny room and has spent time sniffing the fencing and doing very little else. I felt bad that she has no one to snuggle and that she can hear them moving about.

I decided to move her cage into their room yesterday, and see how they get on. I do have some concerns:
1. What if poor old Loopy doesn't get a fair share of the food?
2. What if Ozzy or Loopy don't take to her?
3. What if Fraggle and one-bun take, but leave one out?
4. What if it's too stressful for Loopy?

None of the bunnies seem overly stressed. Ozzy has peed outside her cage, but that's to be expected.

I feel the guilts...any advice?

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Pine cones

My mum brought me some pine cones for Arthur.  I plan to rinse them, but is there anything else I should do to them before giving them to my bunny?

x-posted

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Pine cones

My mum brought me some pine cones for Arthur.  I plan to rinse them, but is there anything else I should do to them before giving them to my bunny?

x-posted

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Peticure

Anyone tried using the Peticure with your buns?

I'm trying to find out if this will even work for them and how effective it is. My rabbits, like most, are not too big on having their nails clipped and my little girl bunny always gives me this look like if she was human, she'd be bawling her eyes out. (She has, in the past, screamed at me for trimming her nails, even when I hadn't hit the quick.)

If I can make it less scary or painful for them, I certainly would. The little nail nippers I have used to seem so quick & effective but I guess they're wearing out. I was going to replace them, but I figured if a Peticure was better, I'd do that instead. The website says that the tool can be used on small animals like ferrets, guinea pigs, and bunnies and they do sell a small version called the Petite. Any thoughts?

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Bella Update #2

So I finally gave up my vet search for the time being and went back to same guy as before. Horrible, I know, but my search wasn't getting me anywhere and I couldn't live with myself if I didn't get Bella help soon. They put her on Baytril, a liquid antibiotic. I don't view it as a solution and I told the vet that, in my research, everyone recommended impregnating antibiotic beads in the jaw itself. He ignored me. Insisted on trying an oral antibiotic first, then if that doesn't succeed he will use the beads. I think this is absolute crap. He just wants to earn more money at the expense of my rabbit's health. I'm furious at myself for going along with it.

I've been trying different things to help her eat. Thanks whuffle for your pumpkin recipe. She isn't devouring it at quite the speed I'd hoped, but she is at least eating something other than bananas. She is also showing more interest in eating her haycob, which is great. She has lost a lot of weight from what I can tell when she's cuddling with me. I can feel her bones much more prominently than in the past... it makes me nervous but she's still eating her fattie foods, like the bananas and other treats.

She has been extremely affectionate lately. She's always been a sweet rabbit. She's never bitten, kicked, or scratched anyone. She doesn't fight being held, in fact she has always seemed to enjoy it. But now she refuses to let you put her down. She will just put her front legs up on you, or rub her head to your ankle until you pick her back up.

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A sad day

So, as you may recall, I got a bunny back in January from Petco, was told it was a neutered male, and named it Martin van Bunbun. Since then (about 2 months ago) I found out that Bunbun was not a he but a she. So I informed Petco and they offered to pay for the spaying. I was always nervous about doing it, but 2 weeks ago, I finally made the appointment to get her spayed.
I took her in at 7:00 am yesterday and left her. They told me to be back at 3 to pick her up.
Around noon, the surgeon called me and told me that they did not find any body parts. She had been spayed already when she was very young (this accounts for the fact that no one saw a scar to begin with). I felt simply awful for putting my beloved bunny through that, a totally unnecessary surgical procedure that would  stress her/him out.
I went to pick her up at 3ish, and she was very groggy. They gave me pain meds to administer later that evening. Then I brought her home to put into her bun ward (I had made her cage a safe, warm, quiet place for recovery). She went into her bun ward and sat. I gave her pain meds in the evening.
This morning, I woke up to find she was a little disoriented inside her bun ward. She had pushed it a little and wasn't sure about where she was. She also was freaking out. I bent down to try to extricate her from her bun ward, and did so successfully, but for some reason her front legs didn't want to work. They splayed out next to her and she started to squeal-hiccup because she was stressing out so terriblly because she couldn't move or get away. At this point, Paul and I panicked and I went to get properly dressed so we could rush her to the vet. I guess she just had a bad reaction to the meds or something, because she was completely disoriented and in my heart of hearts I knew she was going to go when I saw her like that.
Unfortunately, while I was getting dressed, Bunbun had a heart attack and passed away. She was almost a year old.

I loved my little Bunbun very much, and am extremely sad. Little hearts in my (and Bunbun's) direction would be greatly appreciated. It's so hard to think that this could all have been avoided if someone had just double checked paperwork. Now, a perfectly healthy and extremely loved part of my family is gone for no reason other than human error. I know "it's not fair" is overused when talking about death, but really, in this case it really wasn't fair.

At least I get to think of her now as a mischievous bunny spirit that can finally get into places in the apartment that mommy and daddy wouldn't let her go. I will probably find chewed items for many weeks to come. I am also hugely thankful for the time I got to spend with the insane little dwarf lionhead with the exclamation point on her rump.
It's going to be hard for a little while, I know. I loved that rabbit, as wild as she was. I just feel so bad about everything... but I know and have been reassured that I did everything right. This was just a terrible string of errors.

     
Bunbun is now a bunny spirit. She chews on wireless connections now.

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Scratching--how to do it

Dayna is a spayed female, nearly 2 years of age.

As my bunny has gotten older, she's become much less interested in doing all the destructive things she did as a youngster. Namely, scratching and digging. She just doesn't care to do it anymore. She has her dirt box, her cardboard boxes, her burrowing towels, all the scratchy things the cats have...but she doesn't do it anymore.

As a result, her nails are starting to get longer. Dayna is a very calm rabbit, but I fear overstress, freaking out, and biting if anyone were to undertake actually cutting her nails, professional or otherwise. How can I get her excited about scratching again? What will make her happy AND file her nails down? I'd like innovative ideas, please, we've had everything rabbit.org recommends already.

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С любовью и заботой о домашних питомцах!

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Tanzy is looking for a home!

I was asked to be a judge for the Guelph Humane Society's calendar contest.  As I walked into the shelter this evening, my heart dropped.  Tanzy was still there.  Tanzy is a sweet, lovey bunny who has been at the shelter since May.  I first met Tanzy in July as a part of the GHS Adopt-a-thon.  So many people came to look and ooh and awe at her, but no one took her home.

Tanzy is a very sweet girl, who is accustomed to being handled, and has been a free range rabbit in her previous home. She is litter trained, so would be a good free range bunny in the home, with proper introduction to her new surroundings. This big, beautiful lady has a gorgeous coat, and is very sweet and friendly.

I'm unable to take her myself, unfortunately, but if you or anyone you know is looking for a fuzzy addition to their family and they're in the Guelph and surrounding area (or are willing to travel to get her!), please think of Tanzy!

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My rabbit has driven me out of my room and my mind

Keva has been out of control lately. She's being aggressive and horribly loud. She scratches and chews at the bottom of her cage at all hours, not just during normal bunny hours but all during the day too. It's very loud and annoying and nothing will stop her. Even when I open her cage she just stays in there and continues to scratch. Also whenever I put her litter box in there she moves it and then eats it. It's plastic and she is ingesting pieces she tears off. So until I find something to help her I guess I'm sleeping in the basment.

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The Great Spay

So we have noticed that our little girl is growing up (and how!) Today she tried to romance my feet with a series of nibbles and elaborate circular dances. I think now that she's used to us and her new home it is time to have her neutered. I've been reading up on what to expect, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any experiences they'd like to share. I want this to go as easy for her as possible and would love to hear the dos, the don'ts and so on. Also, did your rabbit go through a phase of not eating? Or act odd in other ways? How long did it take for him/her to return "to normal?" Or was he/she forever a changed bunny? Vielen danke! (=

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Hello. I'm new here.

I was going to post a fairly detailed introduction, with mentions of my experiences with bunnies and information about my current bun, but I've been side-tracked by the need for advice.

Buster (blame the 8 year old) is a 4-ish month old, mixed breed bunny. We've only had him since Saturday, but he's been outgoing, friendly, personable and apparently fearless since the moment we first laid eyes on him. His previous owner got him a good bit along the way with litterbox training, and definitely socialized him well. He loves to hop into laps and just absolutely soaks up attention.

Therein lies the problem. If he is out and one of our cats dares to even get *near* my lap, he lunges, growls and bites at them. He hasn't actually done any serious injury yet, but he drew blood this last time and it's seriously starting to worry me. Obviously he's going in to be neutered (appointment is made), and I need to work on it behaviourally, but I honestly haven't got any clue how.

Help?

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awww!

&&for good measure, one of me and my bun! (he's pretty much free range in my apartment, but doesn't like to travel too far..)
he's getting older, but my Siamese kitten keeps him on his toes.
she even uses his litter box, and he doesn't mind!
and loves to clean his ears.

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Bonding a free range bun?

 I've been thinking a lot lately about getting Tsuki a friend.  I don't spend as much time with him as I should (maybe half hour to an hour a day) and sometimes I look in and he's just sitting in bunny loaf form in his cardboard box and he looks soooo bored and depressed.

The problem is that Tsuki has an entire room that is his.  He's never shut up in a hutch or anything, so it's not like I can get another bunny cage and put them next to each other, then just let them out to play.  My only idea is to use the hutch for the new bunny until they get along well, then let them both be free range buns once they're bonded.  Unfortunately the two problems with that are that I keep Tsuki's food in his hutch so he will still feel like he's losing his space, and I'd also feel bad having the poor new bun locked up while Tsuki has the run of the room.

Any advice/ideas?  Also I sleep in Tsuki's room (yes we really do call it that LOL) on a mattress in the floor when I snore too loud and keep my bf up, and it has a bunch of tables and things in it so I can't just split it up into two easily