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another frenchie health problem!

purplebumble

Warren Veteran
Baxter came to us from the rescue on march 4th......a bit wet...turned out the dribbled water was down to poss teeth problems....which he had confirmed but they dont want to touch them u til hes being affected by them. ie off his food not eating hay etc. the damp fur sprang a deep respiratory infection which he amazingly recovered from but its damaged his lungs aveoli as they are noisy vet said.
Its been the urine saturating thats the main problem.....we thought it was because he was deliberatly sitting in it and running round lino floor in lounge to tell bluebell he was the boss.
But it got terrible and twice weve bathed hs bottom but a frenchie who hates being handled or checked over and is over 5.9kg struggling and kicking is so dangerous for him and us. i used so e storage boxes i bought from asda...only thing i had to hand big enough for him tomput his front half of his body out of and was just dep enough for a few inches of water...one with special organic natural shampoo...one with warm clean water. he struggled so much but we managed to stop him breaking his back....just. The water turned brown with the wee...both waters and i rung him out before trying to dry hi with a towel. I had t got hi. very dry before he basically thi pd me to the floor and ran.
We also tried 2 inches of soaped water with a towel in the bottom of the box....still hell....the vets tried cleaning him...didnt work either.
our vet thinks he has spondylosis and one hip higher than the other....hence him not cleaning himself.

I am to start the metacam....but in this heat he hides where i cannot get him under the heavy bed settee.....so i wait and its his turn in the dog crate....then pen him in for one night and a day....then he swaps with bluebell.
Bit worried because he was aving a twenty minute nose rub and purr session with me on the floor and when he scrabled up and moved off...there was a puddle of colourless wee and three poops...i dont think hed realised hed done it.

help me please re bathing him....im only used to doing small buns and sponge bathing berties feet where he had arthritis etc. we have no bath tub only a wet room shower....hes too big fir the handbasin where bif used to love bobbing about in thevwarm water when she had to have butt baths......and hes too big for the kitchen sink with lever taps.......

ive butt bathed many buns but not like this. it makes me realise what a chilled old fella bertie was.
 
Did you want one of your baby baths back Debbie? Furby and Faye love the one in their hutch and spend most of their time asleep in it on their hay, but you could have the other one back as nobun has got attached to it yet - was going to use it for the trio when they move from the lounge to an outside hutch and run and put it in their hutch.

As you know I am off one of my jobs at the moment so I could come over and give you a hand with bathing Baxter. I am not used to big bunnies either but used to bathe my Bridge Bun Daisy every day and she was on the bigger side of medium. I've also helped a friend bathe his cat - now that was a nightmare - claws and teeth everywhere!!!!

I had a blind, incontinent dog and had to bathe him every day. He got used to the routine in the end and seemed to almost enjoy it.

I've found that buns are less stressy if they have their front two paws on something solid and just their rear end in the water. They feel more secure then.

Please do ask if you think I can help. I can always wear a bin bag so I don't get too wet:D
 
Thank you all so much for the input.
The vet examined him and put him on his back to check his hips...id have never spotted it.
She said he does go in the litter tray..i said yes.....sometimes hell pee over the edge...sometimes on hay hes kicked on the floor so she doesnt think hes incontinent. His wee is colourless most of the time...and he dinks a lot...but then so did willow and hes heading to her size...but he will not get any bigger so he wont match my bridge monster frenchie.
ive left him 2 dog bowls of water down....one he will drink by himself....the other he dips hs ear in to cool down..drinks a lot of it and the cats share the rest with him......even tho their dog bowl of water is on the landing.
Weve watched him very losely and saw he sometimes drags his back legs a bit...just like bertie used to do....beore the padturella even and he was about 3or4 at the time.
He is meticulous in washing and gets in a litter tray and goes on his side and twists his head round to wash himself.....he was able to get his tail when he first got here. As the onths ave gone on we have seen he cannot do any further than a few inches away from his tail...so he cannot clean underneath it or his knickers.....and not great with soles of his feet.

im going to see how he goes tomorrow and give him metacam but somethings niggling me holding off giving it to him. I know hes had no bloods or wee samples tested butnhevwas in such a mess and so stressed they didnt want to stress him further until hed had a few days weeks of metacam to see if it helps. I guess if it doesnt then its something else but watching him with his draggy back end hes just like bertie was..except bertie was only that bad from age 6 onwards! poor baxter.
vet did say maybe he was kept in cramped conditions...but the owner said he was only crated overnight.
We have one of the biggest crates you can buy..for a rottweiler! and it is too small for a frenchie to spend too much time time in.
But seeing his legs today we let bluebell out for six hours then she put herself in the crate as if she knew...hes in too much pain...too stiff to not have more space and freedom.

monday i will ring our bunvet....she told me she wants to specialise in buns....attends every lecture she can get to etc...shes so bun savvy its a relief....and bluebell loves her..behaves for her etc.....and shes admitted shes got a soft spot for her now.

She told me to keep her updated and take it from there.....so i might leave the metacam till ive spoken to her about poss kidney problems etc.

he never has done a bunny chalky wee....only ever dobe four wees that were proper yellow and a bit cloudy but not chalky when it dried.....odd i have never had a bun wee like that.

karen hun i gave you the other litter trays and kept one r sentimental sake more than anything as it had been used by all our buns since oscar who died in august 2006. Baxters better off with tt litter tray but now i see he has the same robem as bertie had,,,,his feet get caught on it and the crate doorway.
im so glad your buns love the tray and yes a group of buns sharing this tray is great....
pity they dont have them anymore. they arent a baby bath....they were made by the ferp,ast ompany and called a trio because they could be used as a bath....a bed with the cushion you could buy or a littertray.....think it was just aimed at cats if i recall but an online bun shop tht we all used to use years back sold them. nowhere sells them now...so hold on tight to them!

i may take you up on the help...im terrified hell break his bak he struggles and jumps so much.
He rests his front laws on the edge of the box i bathed him in.......a washing up bowl wouldnt have the height for his front paws and chest.

in this heat too....hes done nothing but hide from me....till tonight when i was allowed to rub his nose but he took ages to purr bless him. he keeps running away from me...nikki thinks maybe he thinks im going to shut him in the crate....i think its cos he knows i want to bath his butt.

im thinking maybe wet his fur with a wash cloth...use another wadh cloth or bath sponge and lather it up with small animal shampoo....gently rub it on his feet and knickers and bits......then rinse it off with wash cloth or just in the plain water....?
 
I think EC needs to be considered as possibly being involved. The excessive water consumption and excessive urination as well as the hind leg issues are all possible symptoms of EC.

Do the cats walk through urine contaminated areas (Baxter's Urine) ? If EC is an issue the cats will be potential vectors of the EC spores, spreading them wherever they go.

Have all your Rabbits had a course of Fenbendazole and is there any way at all that you could keep the Cats and the Rabbits apart, at least until you know if EC is an issue.

Also, are you taking extra precautions re flystrike ? As Baxter is obviously going to be at very high risk at the moment.
 
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Thank you jane...yes i must admit its crossed my mind with the urinary output but didnt realise the other things were too? the buns are all due a course of panacur....i will give him the 28day dose. must admit hes pretty clumsy as he gets spooked.
The cats usually drag a bit of hay or kitchen roll and put it on the wee with their mouths. its weird but they used to do it fr bertie too.

instead of spot cleaning....i need to steam clean the floor when its cooler though!

no its impossible with the layout of the house..to keep bunsband cats seperate.

yes im worrying about that too hence the butt baths but have some beaphar fly strike spray...but isnt it pointless if hes drenched with wee?

i do not have windows open apart from the upstairs bathroom one which has a curtain across it.....I open 2bedroom windiws overnight with cat meshing frame at windows.

i was looking ata fine platic meshing for plants..like net curtain but tighly meshed....

no point testing blood for EC as it can only confirm contact has been made with the disease...and the titre can be very low and affect some buns anyway. sigh....

will ring vet this afternoon less buy then i hope!
 
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