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Bunny has a deformed back end- Please help- Should i put her to sleep?

A

Ambience

Warren Veteran
I have to make the decision whether to have one of our bunnies ava put to sleep.

She has got messed up in urine and poo because she is peeing and pooing all over herself.

The vets have her under anesthetic and she doesn't have any broken bones, but she is infected on her skin.

There is the option of amputating her after the infection has cleared up, after some antibiotics.

I'm really worried about her. I really would like to keep her alive. The vets don't seem to think she would have any quality of life, but i'd like to do everything i can before i give up on her.

Does anyone else have any bunnys without use of backends- do they cope, can they cope- is it fair?

They are currently shaving and cleaning her up.

Thanks
 
What kind of personality does Ava have?

I only ask because some of mine would not tolerate a life like that well at all, but some bunnies could be happier like that.

That all said, what does your gut instinct say is best for her?
 
Sky-O said:
What kind of personality does Ava have?

I only ask because some of mine would not tolerate a life like that well at all, but some bunnies could be happier like that.

That all said, what does your gut instinct say is best for her?
Click to expand...

She is very gentle. She lives with her two bonded girls. She snuggles up to them and is happy. She manages to hop about quite well normally despite the deformity.

It's just the urine burns and the poo that is getting matted into her coat that is a problem. I can sort this with baths now that i'm aware of it though.

The vet said she is walking on her hip though and this is eventually going to effect her spine and she will eventually deteriorate more and lose all back end function.

Does anyone care for bunnies on here that have back ends that don't work at all.

If she is amputated, i don't know if her other leg will support her. I'm prepared to be with her 24/7 and do everything she needs though to help her.

She is such a happy joyous soul, it would be a shame to put her down, she doesn't seem ready to go, but she does need help.

I've seen bunny devises on TV made to support rabbits without back leg function.

Don't know what to do :( *crys*

My gut instinct says that she needs to come home. She doesn't even mind baths- she was happy sat in the bathroom with me the last couple of nights on the bath mat drying off.
 
Ambience said:
She is very gentle. She lives with her two bonded girls. She snuggles up to them and is happy. She manages to hop about quite well normally despite the deformity.

It's just the urine burns and the poo that is getting matted into her coat that is a problem. I can sort this with baths now that i'm aware of it though.

The vet said she is walking on her hip though and this is eventually going to effect her spine and she will eventually deteriorate more and lose all back end function.

Does anyone care for bunnies on here that have back ends that don't work at all.

If she is amputated, i don't know if her other leg will support her. I'm prepared to be with her 24/7 and do everything she needs though to help her.

She is such a happy joyous soul, it would be a shame to put her down, she doesn't seem ready to go, but she does need help.

I've seen bunny devises on TV made to support rabbits without back leg function.

Don't know what to do :( *crys*

My gut instinct says that she needs to come home. She doesn't even mind baths- she was happy sat in the bathroom with me the last couple of nights on the bath mat drying off.
Click to expand...

Trust it, trust that.

Liz may be a good person to talk about about husbandry for such a sick bunny.
 
Thankyou Sky,

How do i pm liz, what is liz username on here if that's okay with you. I hope she wouldn't mind me asking some questions.

I'll do everything i can for her. Thankyou for your support. It's very difficult when the vets are saying put her down and i do trust them.

It's just that i do also know ava and how she copes and it really is amazing. She isn't upset at all. She is very happy in herself.
 
Liz is Hugo's There, but she is a very busy lady so she may not be able to get back to you.

I think its important to listen to the vets and discuss your feelings with them, being totally honest, and explain exactly why you feel as you do. Vets can be wrong about when to PTS an animal, but they base it on what they see and their medical knowledge, but they don't see how the bunny is in its normal place, where it feels comfortable and safe, so its so important to discuss the situation thoroughly, ideally face to face unless you know your vet very well.
 
Sky-O said:
Liz is Hugo's There, but she is a very busy lady so she may not be able to get back to you.

I think its important to listen to the vets and discuss your feelings with them, being totally honest, and explain exactly why you feel as you do. Vets can be wrong about when to PTS an animal, but they base it on what they see and their medical knowledge, but they don't see how the bunny is in its normal place, where it feels comfortable and safe, so its so important to discuss the situation thoroughly, ideally face to face unless you know your vet very well.
Click to expand...

The vet came out today. I made it clear i'd rather try other routes before putting her to sleep. It's hard to go against the vets advice though. They made it really clear at there end the best option was PTS.

Thanks i'll pm liz when i get chance. I didn't realise Hugos' There was liz, although i'm sure she has probably told me in conversations before.

Thanks alot xx
 
Liz is definitely the lady to talk to, or try amysmokeymary on here, she also cares for disabled buns.

I know Liz has buns which live a full and happy life with deformities so don't give up!
 
How quickly did the deterioration in her condition happen? I'm just wondering if there could be an underlying problem if she went from coping well with her disability to incontinent and suffering in a very short space of time.

As Sky-O said, it's impossible to give an opinion on the situation unless you have actually seen the bunny. You can only make an informed decision based on your own instinct and the opinion of your vet.

Sending hugs xx
 
We have a disabled bunny that drags one of her legs and she is also incontinent and blind she had her eyes poked out and she was stood on as a baby and dumped along with her Mother. The vet wanted to put her to sleep but she was eating and managing to get herself about and we said we would like to give her a chance. We recently had her fully checked out at the vets as we had talked about having her disabled leg amputated now she is bigger but our vet can't do it due to the position and deformity and she is now starting with arthritis. We have her on pain relief all the time and she is such a happy little soul and we are so glad we made the choice to give her a chance, we know our time with her is limited due to her deformed little body but for now she is happy and very spoilt :D
 
abbymarysmokey said:
How quickly did the deterioration in her condition happen? I'm just wondering if there could be an underlying problem if she went from coping well with her disability to incontinent and suffering in a very short space of time.

As Sky-O said, it's impossible to give an opinion on the situation unless you have actually seen the bunny. You can only make an informed decision based on your own instinct and the opinion of your vet.

Sending hugs xx
Click to expand...

Very quickly- within the last week. Her back end seems to have further deteriorated. She could before, hop around fine, she cleaned herself. Never got dirty.

The hutch is fine, so she is not sitting in anything as there was nothing to sit in,but the wee and poo is sticking to her bum, which is flat to the floor. I think also because it's dragging it's causing irritation to the skin.

I think she could do with some kind of bandaging- i wouldn't mind changing the dressing, but i'm not sure if this is safe for a rabbit or the right thing to do.

Her poos seem normal now but the fur is all messed up, matted and dirty. I've washed her, but it doesn't seem to come out and i have sent her to be cleaned up by the vets now as she needs shaving and sorting out properly under general i would think.

Its awful to look at her underneath. He leg is really sore where she has been putting pressure on the bone. It's like some part of her has collapsed, although i couldn't say what part and the xrays showed no broken bones.
 
Tuckerbunnies said:
We have a disabled bunny that drags one of her legs and she is also incontinent and blind she had her eyes poked out and she was stood on as a baby and dumped along with her Mother. The vet wanted to put her to sleep but she was eating and managing to get herself about and we said we would like to give her a chance. We recently had her fully checked out at the vets as we had talked about having her disabled leg amputated now she is bigger but our vet can't do it due to the position and deformity and she is now starting with arthritis. We have her on pain relief all the time and she is such a happy little soul and we are so glad we made the choice to give her a chance, we know our time with her is limited due to her deformed little body but for now she is happy and very spoilt :D
Click to expand...

My other half said, isn't a dead bunny worse than one that is struggling. I.e no life is worse than not a great life. I guess some people think it's fairer to put animals down and i do to some degree, but i just want to try help her all i can before i have to make that decision.

Thankyou for sharing your story. How do i go about talking to the vet about pain relief- they only seem to do injectable- noone wants to prescribe metacam in the industry i've come across so far. I wonder why not :(
 
I have Inca, she is deformed at her back end. She has no tail, her tail bone is tucked under her skin and kinda presses on het lady bits, her spine is slightly curved and her two back legs/feet are really skinny and deformed.

When kay took her in at bunnyhops, she was so badly urine scalded up her back that they thought she has been burned with chemicals.

At first she used to be really bad wetting all over herself, but a few courses of abx seemed to help. I also got her shaved where she would wet the most, as it was easier to keep her dry then. Since getting her shaved, her fur actually has not grown back in!

She seemed to be getting better for a while, no scalding :) But then she got EC, which gave her hind leg paralysis. We initially thought it was not EC, just her deformity, so she had an x-ray. Turned out she had some back problem with her discs, but she also had EC.

She was in a terrible state, she could stand ok, and get about to a certain extent, but when she lay down she couldnt get back up.

She had a long course of steroids & abx, which later changed to Metacam. She also went back to having bad scalding :(

I cleaned her twice a day with dilute iodine (i did use hibitane first, but it just made her really inflamed) and i apply fusciderm cream. This cleared up the area of scalding through time.

She still has problems with her back end / legs, but i manage to keep it under control by cleaning her lady bits and cleaning her feet with dilute iodine when she pees on them (she does soak them now and again :()

Sorry for the long post, and i know that Inca doesnt have the exact same symptoms, but many are there. I think that if your bunny is a happy bunny and you feel she should be home then bring her home. I would get her daily metacam, or even long acting steroid injections & abx.
 
Ambience said:
My other half said, isn't a dead bunny worse than one that is struggling. I.e no life is worse than not a great life. I guess some people think it's fairer to put animals down and i do to some degree, but i just want to try help her all i can before i have to make that decision.

Thankyou for sharing your story. How do i go about talking to the vet about pain relief- they only seem to do injectable- noone wants to prescribe metacam in the industry i've come across so far. I wonder why not :(
Click to expand...

We decided to try and help her after such a horrendous start to her life and we agreed if at all she was suffering we would have her pts straight away. We sat and talked with our vet about everything and what we could do and we make sure she has regular check up's to see how she is going on.
I don't understand why they don't prescribe metacam as it has made a big difference to Baby Saint our disabled bun, but then Ava sounds as if she could be worse than our girl.
 
Kermit said:
I have Inca, she is deformed at her back end. She has no tail, her tail bone is tucked under her skin and kinda presses on het lady bits, her spine is slightly curved and her two back legs/feet are really skinny and deformed.

When kay took her in at bunnyhops, she was so badly urine scalded up her back that they thought she has been burned with chemicals.

At first she used to be really bad wetting all over herself, but a few courses of abx seemed to help. I also got her shaved where she would wet the most, as it was easier to keep her dry then. Since getting her shaved, her fur actually has not grown back in!

She seemed to be getting better for a while, no scalding :) But then she got EC, which gave her hind leg paralysis. We initially thought it was not EC, just her deformity, so she had an x-ray. Turned out she had some back problem with her discs, but she also had EC.

She was in a terrible state, she could stand ok, and get about to a certain extent, but when she lay down she couldnt get back up.

She had a long course of steroids & abx, which later changed to Metacam. She also went back to having bad scalding :(

I cleaned her twice a day with dilute iodine (i did use hibitane first, but it just made her really inflamed) and i apply fusciderm cream. This cleared up the area of scalding through time.

She still has problems with her back end / legs, but i manage to keep it under control by cleaning her lady bits and cleaning her feet with dilute iodine when she pees on them (she does soak them now and again :()

Sorry for the long post, and i know that Inca doesnt have the exact same symptoms, but many are there. I think that if your bunny is a happy bunny and you feel she should be home then bring her home. I would get her daily metacam, or even long acting steroid injections & abx.
Click to expand...

Thankyou so much for your post about Inca.

This sounds very similar to Ava. Would i be able to purchase the iodine and fuciderm cream from vetuk or somewhere similar?

How did you go about getting metacam prescribed- as it is not licensed for bunnies and vets seem to be really reluctant to give it at all :( I'd love to just give her pain relief and steroids to bring down the inflammation.

My other bunny the vets say has EC. she was paralyzed in her back legs- does this return once the bunny has been treated?

Hope she is okay now xx
 
Tuckerbunnies said:
We decided to try and help her after such a horrendous start to her life and we agreed if at all she was suffering we would have her pts straight away. We sat and talked with our vet about everything and what we could do and we make sure she has regular check up's to see how she is going on.
I don't understand why they don't prescribe metacam as it has made a big difference to Baby Saint our disabled bun, but then Ava sounds as if she could be worse than our girl.
Click to expand...

I'll ask again about it. Baby Saint sound very brave. I know some buns are unhappy at the slightest ailment,but ava is so bright even with all her problems.

I think painrelief is neccesary for urine scalds surely?
 
When we discovered Stew had curvature of the spine at a very early age,we went against the vets decision to pts after all the advice i got from here.She saw a specialist in Harrogate who agreed she was happy as she was.
We only had her 18 months and had to help her to the bridge recently but i am so glad we had that time with her,she was such a character.She had regular botty baths,regular meds and still got about just fine and i believe she was happy.
Trust your gut instinct.People told me i would know when it was time for Stew to leave,i didn't think i would but in the end i knew and helped her when it was time.
Good luck xx
 
I had more or less the same problem as you. penny could not use her back legs, had lost weight, was covered in urine and poo, she also had an ear and eye infection. she had been to the vets about her weight, incontinence and the infections but wasnt getting better and it wasnt untill she lost the use of her legs that we realised that it could be E.C. well i did by looking it up on the net. my vet want to put her to sleep. i changed vets got her the right meds and she is now a hell of a lot better. she's walking, has gained weight and her eye has cleared up. she cant seem to kick the ear infection and is still having problems directing her wee away but noway near as bad as it was. good luck with your bun. i hope she gets better soon.
 
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