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Just rescued 7 rabbits - update 28 Jan p42

As the title says really, just rescued 7 rabbits and have another coming in tomorrow.

I already have 10 house buns of my own so space is very tight with limited opportunities for out time. The weather is so wet here so they can't go outside. My buns are being confined to our bedrooms as we can't mix them with the newbies!

All have been checked by the lovely Jason in Gloucester and 3 are receiving treatment. One poor bun has a nasty eye injury so is receiving anti bs and eye drops, another has eye problems probably related to teeth so has already had her tear ducts flushed and is now on eye drops and a third has a raspy chest and is sneezy although there is no discharge, he's on septrin. A fourth bun, a little girl is underweight but seems to be making up for it already!

I plan to start vaccinating them after Christmas once the holiday season is over and the vets are back to their regular opening times. I want to limit the possibility of out of hours call outs!

Once vaccinated I plan to move on to neutering / speying the ones that can be re-homed first. I'm trying to raise funds like mad. I've had moments of feeling overwhelmed but I am coping :D I have also enlisted the help of some fab people, some who are selling the little cushions I make to raise money for vaccinations/ neutering etc and another brilliant lady who is able to offer a home or three!

This is a mammoth task for me emotionally as I always worry that no one can look after the buns like I do:oops: The lovely Alice at Windwhistle Warren is an excellent source of support too and the voice of reason. From Day 1 when I first took these buns on Alice has been my backup - my plan B. I would prefer to vaccinate / neuter and rehome the buns to suitable homes myself but Alice has made it clear she is on standby to help - what an amazing lady :love:

Positive vibes would be very welcome RU :wave:
 
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Sending loads of vibes! :wave:

What kind of conditions did they come from? Not good. from the sound of it.... :?
 
I hope all goes well for them all :) It's great that you have the support of Alice for advice when needed and that you have some help fund raising too

Good Luck :D
 
Poor buns :cry: Hope they all improve now they're on treatment. Well done for helping them. Hope Thumper is doing well too xx
 
I'm sure with your help and that of Alice's these poor bunnies will now have the care, attention and love that they so deserve.


Well done for making their Christmas a wonderful Christmas.:thumb::love:
 
Just a quick update on the seven buns - they become 8 :shock: No, no babies, I intercepted one who was due to go in to the same rescue and had him brought straight to me instead. He was immediately rehomed to a friend and is due for a vet check up and vaccination in the next few days.

Of the 7 remaining buns, they are remaining :oops: I'm not very good at this - I think I'm a failed fosterer again!

Anyway, the one little girl (now called Halo) who had a puncture to the eye is doing well - no sign of infection and the vet thinks the scar visible at present will shrink down too :D

The little underweight girl has got a fantastic appetite and has put on weight.:D
The little ginger girl who needed the eye flush and eye drops responded to treatment but when the eye drops ran out, 3 days later her eyes became wet again so we are back on eye drops for another 14 days or so. :? I think I have a suitable home for the two girlies but want to make sure that they are 100% happy together first and their spaying sorted.
These three have had their combi vaccination and are all happy and floppy :lol:

The little brown and white boy who was on septrin is still on septrin but there is a definite improvement in his chest - not raspy anymore although he is still sneezing - hence the septrin for another dose. I am also soaking his hay and only providing it for eating and not bedding as there is a possibility of course that he is reacting to the spores. He's happy enough and loves cwtching in a blankie :lol:

Seren, the little girl whose partner was killed by cats whilst I was actually at the rescue is doing well. She is very friendly when handled and has settled in well. We have 5 cats so were very careful to keep them out of her sight however over the last few days the cats have been walking passed her enclosure and she is bouncing over to see them. She doesn't seem fazed at all. She's staying - I promised her the day I took her from the rescue 20 minutes after seeing her partner killed that I would look after her forever. :love: She's due her vaccination next week.

The black otter girl is well too - very settled and chilled out. Eating well and enjoys being fussed over. She too is due her vaccination next week.

The black and white boy Pringle was due to go to a home in Bristol but I have thought long and hard about this - he would be a single outdoor bun and I don't think this is right. His prospective home seemed perfect when I thought it was an indoor home, but this bun is very nervous, stops eating when he is moved even slightly away from the other buns and needs more than a hutch! He has been vaccinated already. He is currently in an area next to the black otter girl - I think they have their own plans - they sit tight to each respective cage's / run's bars and touch each other nose to nose. I can't split them now can I :roll: They will been spayed / neutered and bonded I think! I won't have a choice :lol:

So, despite the cost and some additional work (and very little space) - all buns are doing well at present - another two weeks or so and I will start introducing the ones I know are staying to our ten buns, 5 cats, dog,(from a distance only) and hamster - whats 7 more buns amongst friends!

Keep up the positive vibes RU - they are much appreciated xxx :wave:
 
Well done for stepping in and helping these buns, what's the story with them if you don't mind me asking? X
 
It's a horrible story and a long one I'm afraid :cry:

I make and sell little Christmas decorations every year and donate the money to various animal charities previously including PAP, Windwhistle Warren and other national and local animal rescue places. I normally donate to 4 a time - only about £40-60 each but something. A new 'rescue' opened up near me, I saw it on Facebook and a number of my friends has 'liked' it, shared photos etc and around about October time I saw on the page they had some rabbits there so as it was local I chose it as one of my charities for Christmas 2012.

I messaged them telling them I would like to raise some money for them and would also like to visit them but had a very general response and no directions on how to find them. As I was busy in work etc I made and sold some decorations and told people who were buying them which 'rescues' I was donating to but didn't get around to visiting them until the 15th December. They were difficult to find, on a mountain road that was just a rough track really, got there around 2.30pm, met one of their volunteers and I explained why I was visiting and that I would love to see the buns.

Anyway, long story short I was taken to a large barn and went inside through big doors although why we bothered to go through the doors is beyond me as once inside it was more than obvious that there were gaping holes in the walls which meant the barn was open to the weather and everything else including foxes. The volunteer told me they were losing animals all the time to 'the fox'. Inside this muddy, dark barn was various makeshift pens and ducks, geese, chickens, cats and three rather large pigs running around the place! I didn't even see the rabbits at this point.

Whilst I was there, there was a hell of a commotion with the cats and ducks / geese and I thought the cats had caught one of the birds. They hadn't caught a bird, they had caught one of the rabbits although I didn't know this at the time. By the time I got through the mud, passed the pigs and birds and the 10 or so cats, I caught sight of a rabbit being dragged on his back into a dog kennel. I ran to get him, grabbed his back legs and pulled him towards me only to find a cat pulling his fur out of his tummy / chest area. I grabbed the rabbit and as I lifted him the same cat grabbed the rabbit's scruff - I actually lifted the cat off the floor as he was holding on so tightly to the rabbit. I felt the bun's breath on my wrist as I lifted him up in my arms but it was too late, he had gone. The volunteer then told me to 'let the cats have him' - meaning that I should put the bun back down on to the floor for the cats to eat but obviously I couldn't do this. Like an idiot I just stood there shaking with this poor bun in my arms until a further commotion alerted me to the fact that the cats were after something else - it turns out it was the dead bun's partner - I later found out they were called Sooty and Sweep. Sooty a neutered male was the one killed. I put him in to a bucket and hung the bucket up on a bracket on the wall and grabbed Sweep a beautiful little grey girl who was wet, muddy and terrified. The volunteer told me I could have her for £6!! I asked to borrow a cat carrier and put her in there to be safe. I could see other rabbits although they were all in wooden hutches. Sooty and Sweep had been in a flimsy run.

I gave all the buns there food and water, the 'rescue' had food for them and I had taken up a bag of hay. I asked if I could take all the buns - I wasn't sure at this point how many there were but later realised there were 11 plus the little dead boy. She said 4 of them were being looked after for someone else while they moved home. These 4 were in small but well made secure wooden hutches, had clean, dry bedding and looked healthy. I handled them all. The 7 others were not so lucky, they were on wet bedding / sawdust, one was totally covered over with tarpaulin, another had an eye injury, three were in a chicken run together where the boy rabbit had burrowed through the mud to get to the two girls. I had nothing to put them all in and the volunteer said she would have to speak to the owner if I wanted more than one rabbit! She said they also had guinea pigs.

I told her I would go back the following day and collect them. I took Sweep with me and somehow managed to walk back to my waiting husband in the car before having a complete melt down. I was so totally traumatised by what I had seen. I rang the wonderful Alice at Windwhistle and asked for her help and straight away it was offered. I went back on the Sunday and was allowed to take three more buns, a little sneezy boy, the girl with the eye injury and the black otter who had been completely covered over with tarpaulin. They would not let me take the 4 who belonged to someone else or the three buns in the chicken pen - the reason - they thought the girls were pregnant and they could sell the babies to the petshop! I asked to speak to the 'owner' and later that evening managed to persuade her to give me those three. My husband and I checked all over the pens for babies / a nest but there was nothing. They were as stated 2 girls and a boy and fortunately the girls are not pregnant, they have been vet checked twice and there's no sign of babies. One was underweight and another has tooth problems and had runny eyes although with eye cream this has cleared up. The boy bun who is handsome is terrified of everything. I was taken to see the guinea pigs but was told I couldn't have any of them as the adults are used for breeding and belong to 'the owner' and the babies are being sold to the petshop.

So the upshot is I have my ten buns and 7 rescued 'rescue' buns. I have spoken to the RSPCA about my concerns who were unable to help me with any costs and advised I would have been better off leaving them there as it would have helped their investigation! How could I have left them there?

Sweep is now called Seren and is staying, I promised her the minute I got her out of that barn that I would look after her forever. The one with the eye injury is now called Halo and her eye is looking good following anti bs and eye cream and two vet visits - she's staying too. The little snuffly boy bun Dantyllew (Welsh for Dandelion) is still on anti bs and he's staying too.

The two girls who were in the chicken run with the boy are doing well - both are putting on weight, are flopped out cuddly buns and hopefully have a home with someone I know - they have been vaccinated and once speyed can go although I will probably always have a financial commitment to the one bun as her teeth are not that good.

The male bun who had burrowed into the girls was due to be rehomed but I found it was as a single outdoor bun - so right now he's staying too until I can get him and the black otter girl neutered and speyed. I have already got him vaccinated and hers is due this week.

So, I have no money left at present, a houseful of buns who specialise in a Mexican wave of thumping often about the 3am mark and the prospect of spending hundreds to pay for the vaccinations / speying / neutering / etc. Have I done the right thing in taking - yep! You bet! And until they can be guaranteed something better they will stay here, even if hubby and kids keep threatening to move out :lol:
 
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Dear God. The RSPCA are doing something aren't they?

Well done you. How will you manage financially? I'm on a low income so can't help with money really but I will help in any other way if I can. Can you do some fundraising? You are doing an incredible thing. Thank you. Those bunnies could have been Milly and Rupert.:cry:
 
Dear God. The RSPCA are doing something aren't they?

Well done you. How will you manage financially? I'm on a low income so can't help with money really but I will help in any other way if I can. Can you do some fundraising? You are doing an incredible thing. Thank you. Those bunnies could have been Milly and Rupert.:cry:

Aww, thanks for thinking of us. Financially it won't be easy but it isn't for anyone is it? I hope to get all the vaccinations done Monday (some are already done) - 3 left to go plus another one who the vet said isn't well enough yet, then I will get the girls speyed, then the boys neutered. All of our own buns are vaccinated / neutered / speyed although two are due their boosters in the middle of February.

We have had an added complication today anyway - BABIES - 6 or 7 of them we think, :shock: we haven't bothered the Mammy bun to see but I have spoken to the vet for advice, just something else to deal with - 24 house buns now - what a start to 2013!! We'll be living on beans on toast for the year! :lol:

The RSPCA have been told about the 'rescue'. I had a long conversation before Christmas with an inspector but heard nothing since. She was also quick to tell me that the RSPCA would be unable to help with vets fees etc and that the rabbits were my responsibility now!

I hope to do some fundraising so will have to get my thinking cap on. Right now I need additional indoor cages / pens as obviously we have had to split the new Mammy from her sister and will need to separate males / females in a short while once the babies are old enough.

Fingers crossed and positive vibes please RU! :wave:
 
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You've done such a fantastic job, and thank goodness you went there when you did. Is there any way of making a donation, or can you put a wish list up so that people that are able could at least buy some of the things you are needing, even if it is hay, bags of feed, bowls, that kind of thing. Would be great if people on here could at least get the things you need. Just think if everyone bought one item, what a help that would be to you.
 
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