Nick Samaras
New Kit
Warning, this story does not have a happy ending, but we are looking for answers ...
About a month ago a co-worker of mine mentioned a her neighbours rabbit was now living on her property. She advised the neighbour and told were she could find her rabbit but the neighbour showed no interest in catching it. Knowing the rabbit was lucky to be alive due to the mild weather so-far, we decided to catch it and find it a new home before she succumbed to the elements or a predator. We very nearly caught her our first attempt, but she was too quick and run under the house. We set a trap and continuously checked on it. Then, on Friday December 23rd, I spotted her and managed to catch her. I brought her home and set her up in a spare cage (we have three rabbits of our own). She seemed hungry and her nails were in need of a good trim. She also had three scabs on her (one on the hind, two in the inner ear) which looked like rabbit teeth. She had a good appetite but preferred pellets and vegetables but not her timothy hay. She seemed to be drinking twice as much as our other rabbits (who were twice her size) and did appear to pee a lot (mainly clear urine). We figured she had not drunk much water in the last month and was a bit dehydrated. Her coat had a healthy sheen and she had no discharge. Over the next few days she seemed to be settling in to her new home and was quite affectionate. She was feisty and would make little grunting noises. She would pee every time she was out of her cage so we limited her outside time while we got her toilet trained. We noticed two of our rabbits over by her cage and they seemed to be bothering her, so we quickly prevented their access to her cage so as not to disturb her. We think that may have been Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday evening we noticed a decreased interest in her food. She would eat, but you had to give her the food. We gave her some critical care and observed her holding her left paw in a "limp". We figured she may have hurt it jumping back into her cage after her exercise time. This past Friday, we noticed the left paw now swollen and what appeared to be a bite wound. She also was not her feisty self and no grunts, so we took her to the vet. They gave us Metacam and Sulfatrimal and noticed she appeared very disinterested. They tried to give her medicine but she would not open her mouth. We took her home believing she would be less stressed their to give her her meds. As we pulled into the driveway she started thrashing in her carrier. We rushed her inside and got her on a bed where she died right away.
We were devastated. She had been doing so well and had survived her negligent owners and being outside for a month, only to die in our home! We are going to have a post mortem, but will be extremely upset if she died because on of our own managed to bite her through her cage.
The vet seems to believe there were underlying issues with her health for having to be outside and lacking proper food. She may have had renal problems resulting in her excessive thirst/peeing. And I struggle to accept how she survived the other wounds in the wild but our rabbit bite was so catastrophic.
She appeared to be 6 months old and weighed 1 kg. We called her Chloe and she was a real sweatheart
http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n534/nicksamaras/rabbits/
About a month ago a co-worker of mine mentioned a her neighbours rabbit was now living on her property. She advised the neighbour and told were she could find her rabbit but the neighbour showed no interest in catching it. Knowing the rabbit was lucky to be alive due to the mild weather so-far, we decided to catch it and find it a new home before she succumbed to the elements or a predator. We very nearly caught her our first attempt, but she was too quick and run under the house. We set a trap and continuously checked on it. Then, on Friday December 23rd, I spotted her and managed to catch her. I brought her home and set her up in a spare cage (we have three rabbits of our own). She seemed hungry and her nails were in need of a good trim. She also had three scabs on her (one on the hind, two in the inner ear) which looked like rabbit teeth. She had a good appetite but preferred pellets and vegetables but not her timothy hay. She seemed to be drinking twice as much as our other rabbits (who were twice her size) and did appear to pee a lot (mainly clear urine). We figured she had not drunk much water in the last month and was a bit dehydrated. Her coat had a healthy sheen and she had no discharge. Over the next few days she seemed to be settling in to her new home and was quite affectionate. She was feisty and would make little grunting noises. She would pee every time she was out of her cage so we limited her outside time while we got her toilet trained. We noticed two of our rabbits over by her cage and they seemed to be bothering her, so we quickly prevented their access to her cage so as not to disturb her. We think that may have been Tuesday or Wednesday. Thursday evening we noticed a decreased interest in her food. She would eat, but you had to give her the food. We gave her some critical care and observed her holding her left paw in a "limp". We figured she may have hurt it jumping back into her cage after her exercise time. This past Friday, we noticed the left paw now swollen and what appeared to be a bite wound. She also was not her feisty self and no grunts, so we took her to the vet. They gave us Metacam and Sulfatrimal and noticed she appeared very disinterested. They tried to give her medicine but she would not open her mouth. We took her home believing she would be less stressed their to give her her meds. As we pulled into the driveway she started thrashing in her carrier. We rushed her inside and got her on a bed where she died right away.
We were devastated. She had been doing so well and had survived her negligent owners and being outside for a month, only to die in our home! We are going to have a post mortem, but will be extremely upset if she died because on of our own managed to bite her through her cage.
The vet seems to believe there were underlying issues with her health for having to be outside and lacking proper food. She may have had renal problems resulting in her excessive thirst/peeing. And I struggle to accept how she survived the other wounds in the wild but our rabbit bite was so catastrophic.
She appeared to be 6 months old and weighed 1 kg. We called her Chloe and she was a real sweatheart
http://s1138.photobucket.com/albums/n534/nicksamaras/rabbits/