My rescue rabbit Ariel x

I just really needed to rant somewhere about this...
A friend of my boyfriend lives in a shared house and one of his housemates bought a rabbit a few years ago called Ariel, she was kept in a small indoor cage in their living room (which was dusty and dirty), he moved out and left her there. As a result she wasn't fed or cleaned out properly and craved attention so I eventually offered to take her off their hands.
A trip to the vet was the first thing on my mind, she'd never had any vaccinations and had bad matted spots behind her ears and by her tail (she had to be sedated to be de-matted). I wanted to get her spayed to give her a full and long life, but she was sneezing lots and instead was put on antibiotics for a week. I went to the vets again this morning to see if they would spay her, to be told that she probably has quite bad lung damage from the conditions that she lived in and will always have the bunny snuffles, as a result she's had years knocked off her life and will probably never be able to be spayed.
I'm so angry and her past owner for treating her this way, people like that should not be allowed to buy pets in the first place. It's upsetting as she's such a beautiful and friendly rabbit, I know I'm going to do all I can to make her life better but I can't help feeling like I've failed

Sorry for the rant but I really needed to get it all off my chest! xx

Poor little bun People like that shuld NOT be allowed to have pets, I wish there was a way to stop it from happening. I dread to think of the conditions some buns "live" in

Ariel has been let down poorly, but NOT BY YOU. I'm sooooo glad you've taken her out of that horrible situation. Even if her life is somewhat shortened it will be a life full of love and happiness, which is better than a bun living a life of misery and neglect for 20 years. Well done, its a couragious thing to do, especially as you know she has health issues.

You must get some piccys up of her when shes settled in xxxxxxxxxxx

I'm just trying to upload them to photobucket at the moment, it's not playing ball but will get some up as soon as I can x

Hi there.

Firstly, welcome to the mad world that is bunny lovin'.

Sorry that you have been almost 'forced' into rescuing a bunny, but how great that you have gotten Ariel now.

I can understand why you are so upset and angry about this, but don't worry about the past, just enjoy the future with her. Whilst your vet may well be right about her not getting spayed, he could also be erring on the side of caution. My vet tends to paint the darkest picture so that we or anyone who adopts from us, knows exactly what they are taking on. Then, if things are better than that, it's a bonus.

Ariel may well improve sufficiently over a period of time with good husbandry to enable her to be spayed, but obviously only your vet will know if this is the case.

In the meanwhile giving her time, love, space and good care is going to feel wonderful for her.

Experiences like yours with Ariel are exactly what rabbit welfare campaigns are about - shouting about it and telling others. So now you have a reason to shout even louder than you did before - because you have hands on experience of a rotten situation.

Keep us posted with pictures of course and updates on her progress. If it's her in your avatar, then she looks gorgeous.

Helen

Hello
Here are some pics as promised!

Ariel's bum before her trip to be de-matted


Her posh new hutch


Ariel's Elvis impression

She's gorgeous! Very photogenic.

Just a thought, did you vet suggest to you about trying different litters to try and help her breathing?

Something like Bed 0 Linum or Hemcore which is no-dust and very soft might help her in the long term and possibly good for a bun with fluff for bedding to get stuck in.

Keep the photos coming!

Aww she is gorgeous
So glad she now has you to take care of her

Yeh keep the pics coming Shes beautiful, I especially love her quiff :lol:
shes lucky to have you and she looks very happy and content

We changed her bedding over from sawdust to a paper based one which is supposed to be dust free when we got her, she still sneezes a bit but not hardly as much as she did when we got her.
Not that she really likes any sort of bedding, she'll kick most of it out of her bed area anyway! (Which she uses as a litter tray, we've tried a proper litter tray but she just wont use it)

She's been put on another 10days of antibiotics, so we'll see how it goes!

Well done for taking care of Ariel, she is beautiful.

We recently adopted one who was abandoned by his family and he is the most playful and affectionate bun which makes you wonder how they could have just walked away from him. Anyway, their loss is our gain.

Well that sounds good - paper based litter will be a massive help. I know what you mean about kicking the litter out - some of ours are atrocious at doing this, even when we pile hay on top to keep it in. If you find an answer that works let us know

You might find that this blast of anti-biotics might do the trick. You've certainly given her the best chance of a fab new life.

She`s a doll and im so glad she has you. xxxxxx