Those Caring For Multiple 'On Borrowed Time' Rabbits

Do you ever get to the point when you get yet more bad news and think 'I really cant do this any more' ?

How do you manage the feeling of drowning in it all ?

Just looking for self help tips really.

Do you ever just want to go to sleep and hope it will all be OK when you wake up ?

I have 2 buns like this. Dexter was on borrowed time due to his inner ear infection anyway, then a couple of months ago he was diagnoses with heart disease. I also have Daisy with epilepsy and possible dysautonomia/mega colon/goodness knows. I try to just live a day at a time and make sure they have the best life possible. I often wake up and hope it was a bad dream and decrees head tilt will be gone and Daisy has had normal bowel movements. When Dexters heart was first diagnosed I would wake up and hope he had gone in his sleep. I am dreading having to make the decision when to say goodbye :'( saying that they are both stable at the moment, but know that can change at any time.

It must get so overwhelming for you. I can't offer advice but will send some hugs. xxx

I don't have the situation currently but did last year and I felt so broken by it all. My rex Banjo had several ops to remove large bladder stones that wouldn't stop forming despite low calcium diet, plus had a really bad EC bun, 1 with horrific abcesses and a snufflebun.

I felt like I lived at the vets and everyday i'd wake up and just pray i'd go out and a miracle would have happened It felt like one crushing blow after another and i'd cry myself to sleep.

Not really sure how i got through it apart from knowing I just had to for their sake as no one else would be able to give all the meds and time etc, and the healthy buns gave me a glimmer of hope in a very dark period.

One thing that I found helpful was to compile collages (? is that how you spell it? :? ) of the poorly buns when they were not so unwell and I'd have a giggle about the naughty things they got up to, or how they'd snuggle up and wash each other or come and give me kisses or beg for noms. It just helped me to remember them when they were full of life and happiness as I got to the point where it felt like they'd been sick forever.

I'm sorry Jane, it's so hard dealing with the constant worry

Thank you for replying

I have yet another Rabbit with a suspected cancer now, taking my total of 'on borrowed time' Rabbits to 6

Just feeling really about everything at the moment.

we have two main ones right now -

Thistle (elderly, snuffles very badly, no lung tissue left as all scarred from pasturella), has developed a gut issue we are having tested to try and find the problem, and also wees on herself probable due to her spondylosis. Oh and also has no front teeth. She has had to be split from her group and brought inside while the faecal tests are done and it is unlikely she will go back out due to the wee problem and so is living alone at present in not ideal space.

However she seems quite happy as she is in cage in dining room where we all hang out a lot.

Parsley - well the list gets longer every time we go to the vets -
recent very very extensive bulla op for immense abscess.,
strong possibility of this having to be repeated or abscess popping up elsewhere;
on-going melanoma that he is having vaccines for to try and prevent metastisising;
cancer melanoma removed from eye area;
diagnosed with non-regenerative anaemia due to either the ear infections or the cancer or possibly some other health issue we don't yet know about.
We also have to keep an eye on the pin in his leg that didnt come out when the other 26 pins did (it broke and stayed in place and may start to travel) and of course his face is half paralised due to the ear issues.

As if that wasnt enough . . . when he went to have his stitches out yesterday they discovered that a lymph gland near his neck (sort of under the jaw/neck) is swollen - vet not sure which of his issues is causing this - infection or cancer. She took a sample . . . I sometimes wonder if there is any part of Parsley that has nt been either sampled, pinned, removed, tested or operated on. . .

I (and Steve) worry about him constantly every moment of the day - is he eating enough, does he look slower than yesterday, is his eye weeping, is his eye blinking yet (damaged unavoidable in surgery), have any other bumps come up, is he ok without painkiller? do we go ahead with the next vaccine, when is the next blood test, will the infection come back, what is this new lump, etc etc etc



and just dont ask about the cat (totally senile, huge kidney tumours). We 'review' his life expectancy on a daily basis (particularly when he asks to be let in/out for the three thousandth time in an hour - or yowls the place down at 3am . . . he really IS senile:lol: (and yes we do have a cat flap).


Sorry - seem to have got carried away here . . . .

all of them are however happy at present so (apart from the cat .. . ) we are not in that awful 'is it today' situation 0 which I have been in in the past with buns (Blackberry EC and brain damage and renal failure, Viola Rose renal failure, . . in fact renal failure seems to me the most difficult . . . )

No experience of this. But sending hugs and good wishes to those that do.
The animals are lucky to have such dedicated companions.

Oh Jane, no. Who? ((((((((((Hugs)))))))))

Not just multiple rabbits, but I have five senior pets all told who could need intervention at any time and vet help is so far and extremely dangerous to access in the weather we have now. Plus we need to move 3,000 miles to warmer climate for OH's health next year and I don't know how I'll get them all safely there. I fear they'd be traumatized by the trip and yet cannot rehome them. It's sad but a part of me does hope they may all have passed comfortably and with dignity long before we leave just so they don't have to endure the upheaval.

Mimzy...the other morning he began making sounds and motions that had me up like a shot thinking he was choking to death. To my obvious relief...and also some consternation, I discovered he was dreaming and vocalizing in his sleep. For six months I've nursed him intensely and each time I look in on him I fear both death has come or illness has returned...and yet the stress sometimes of seeing he's still plugging away can be just as hard because I know that quality of life could become compromised and then hard decisions need to be made. Continue as I promised...or give over and accept defeat?

I dread his last day on this earth. But God help me sometimes I wish he could just sleep his way to the bridge one night...mostly because I know if I have to intervene it will be hell for him. He deserves the peace of Paradise without the cacaphony of the trip to the vet and subsequent drastic measures it will take to ensure his comfort.

And I'm so, so, so tired....
My only coping mechanism is to pray. Keep up on my meds and try to get as much sleep/nourishment as possible to keep my strength up.

I've also got a portable gaming system to get my mind into logical thinking if all else fails. But sometimes nothing beats having a live person to talk to. Even if they are sick of hearing about my bunnies.

Thank God for places like RU and people like you.
Bless xx

I'm on my phone so I can't make a proper reply but I think most the time when things are stable I just see it as normal and get on with what nds to be done (long list of meds). It's when something new goes wrong it really knocks me back. I generally have a good cry and think about what happens if this is 'it' then once I'm all cried out I can get on with it again.

The hardest part for me as I work full time is doing all the meds which take time and making sure that when I go to see them it's not just for meds, which was happening. Now I make sure we have cuddle time too and it makes things a bit better.

I really want a break from rabbits after these but at the same time I don't want one of them to be on their own if the other goes, so that's another hard decision.

No advice Jane, just wanted to send a hug x

Usually the rabbits I take in to Silent Tears Animal Rescue are ''on borrowed time'' buns, Jane; and yes, I too sometimes wake up wishing that all the horrible things were just a dream, yet knowing they are not. I can sometimes gain a little comfort in the knowledge that even though I can not always give them an extended life, I can, and have given them a new life, a million miles away from the one they had before. It's not easy, it's often heartbreaking, but for those rabbits, it's everything; everything most wonderful.
That's why we put ourselves through it though, isn't it For those rabbits xx

I don't have any rabbits on borrowed time that I know of, but I do have a number of poorly and terminal animal-
Pudding- cat in renal failure, hyperthyroid and spondylosis.
Daisy- as above
Fluffy- cat with uncontrollable hyperthyroidism and heart failure.
Helga- cat with hyperthyroidism
Buttons- 17 year old cat with heart arrhythmia
Corrie- border collie with epilepsy and spondylosis.
Bruno- collie/ lab with severe arthritis in all 4 legs and spondylosis
Lady- smooth coat collie with bronchitis and mast cell tumour ( inoperable)
Nookie- guinea pig with bladder crystals and unexplained weight loss
Issac teenage arthritis sheep
April- teenage severely arthritic sheep with a tumour on her chest ( therefore lying around can cause the tumour to ulcerated.
Primrose- arthritic goat
Pippin- pony with severe bone rotation in his pedal bones

Added to which we have many aged animals who may develop issues at any time.

Hope do we cope- well I usually cry for a day after finding out something is serious or terminal, I then frantically research, hassle vets, as other rescues for experiences of said problems ( although with hyperthyroidism and renal failure in cats I have quite a lot if experience.)
I then quiz my vets with my finding and plan a course of action. I can then shut off and just work at keeping them comfortable for as long as possible. When the time finally comes, I cry as soon as the diagnosis has been made and we know we can do no more. I usually try to have them home for the night and have the vet out to the house the next day to PTS. Assuming it isn't an acute emergency and the animal is in no pain. If it is desperate the animal is PTS at the vet straight away. I cry a lot on the day.

I often wish it wasn't happening, but in our case we take in animals knowing this will be the outcome, I usually struggle more with things like thinking the Aberdeen rescue buns had myxo, or when the hens had a fungal infection that picked off all my cockerels. The stress of treating all of then daily and still finding then dead or in distress was horrendous.

I live in constant state of denial and then panic. When Darcy is okay I live in denial that he will live forever and then when gets sick I start panicing and all those fears that I stuff deep inside and avoid come up to the surface

Darcy has spondylosis in his spine, osteo-arthritis in his hips, seizures, blind now with cataracts and a tilted head from head tilt/ec a few years ago. He has meds twice daily of metacam, epiphen and arthri aid. He is 8yr 5 months old Frenchie. He was just diagnosed this week with snuffles. He has never had that before and to say I'm scared is an understatement. I'm trying so hard to hide it as I know they pick up on us worrying. Buts its so hard as I love him so much. He is my soul bunny, my world. I wish all the time that he was okay.

Its even harder as last week was the first anniversary of my bridge bun Frasiey being helped to the bridge. He had quick onset pneumonia