Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for the vibes!
It's taken me no less that five hours to get this post written and proofread, so please bear with me for being long-winded. I simply couldn't do this much work and not send it.
Well, this exhausting and very scary day is finally over! And I am so relieved to say that both Jenna and Mimzy did brilliantly!
First off, I got Mimzy checked in and his vet agreed to do some bloods on him. She passed on the xrays so I took that to mean he didn't need them. I was all weepy dropping him off, I told myself I was going to be cool about it but I lost it. My vet is amazing though, she always makes me feel better about leaving the pets for surgery. I told him I expected him to come back to me, bid him good luck and then took Jenna to see her vet in another room in the same office.
She was shaking like crazy. The last time she was here, she had to stay for four days while they irrigated her and tried to get her vasculitis under control. That was two months ago. She was the most miserable of all dogs when I picked her up and it wound up taking a month to get her recovered with awful stuff being shoved in her mouth six times a day. (I flashed back to Yellow Submarine every time I picked up the syringe, "Here Your Blueness, have some nasty medicine...")
But her vet thought she looked fantastic. Much improved from the last time he saw her. He is very worried about her teeth though and wants them cleaned post haste. Next Thursday as a matter of fact...(oh no...not again!) He is not able to say if she will lose any of them, but it looks like her molars are in the worst shape. He also wants to pre-medicate her with an antibiotic injection before the surgery to keep her from getting a new infection once the teeth are cleaned; he explained the bacteria coming off the teeth are very dangerous. Just like with people...my OH has to do the same thing due to his heart condition.
She's been itching a lot too, he examined her skin and says she still has this yeast infection that she's battled on and off for years. I thought that would clear up when we got her on a good dog food, but apparently not. I'm to use a vinegar/water solution on her after baths to control it which I haven't done in about a year now thinking it wasn't working. We can't give her things like metronidazole because it hurts her stomach. My suspicion is that the well water is causing this, as all our animals and my family have varying degrees of dry/flaky skin and the water is rusty and hard. So bathing her in this water is going to repeat the cycle.
I also got some answers when it comes to her microchip. My Yorkie forum members said I need to register her, whether there is a previous owner to her or not, because it's the right thing to do. However I feared that if previous owners showed up I'd lose my dog. My vet is willing to justify my claim to her as he's treated her for the last three years and can attest that we've formed a bond and I am a taking good care of her. So now I feel I can register her without fear of her being taken from me and truth be told, if anyone does turn up looking for her they're going to have to take me to court.
So yeah...all in all a good visit for her, but for that she has to go back and have this cleaning, which we knew was coming. That means driving her in at about 7 AM (way early for me, will have to beg the OH's help again), dropping her off and going home, then returning when she is done. I have to take my son to the doctor the same day in the afternoon so we'll pick her up on our way out of town. Another long, fun driving day....oi!
After finishing Jenna's appointment, Mimz was just about halfway through surgery, so we went to grocery shop and then came back for him when we finished. Mimzy was one groggy boy when I called for him. I've not seen him lay this flat since before he got sick last year. My vet was on an emergency when they handed him to me, he looked like he'd been on a binge, poor bub. (For that matter, at 8 PM he was still snoozing, really wiped him out, he is up now at 9-10 PM and might be finally feeling a bit of pain.
Just gave him .25 mls of dog metacam, an hour earlier than I usually do for his night dose.) While picking him up my vet had just finished with the ER patient and she was able to tell me that his tests were good but for his seeming to be somewhat anemic. She wants to redo this blood test in a few weeks because she felt that, with his tiny veins, the blood may have clotted by the time they ran the tests, so she doesn't want to jump to a conclusion. She says anemia in bunnies is very rare, but I know I've seen people talk about it here. He actually has an appointment to go back and see the ophthalmologist at the end of the month because he has a cataract in his upward eye and that's when we'll run the test again.
Which leads me to a question: is it advisable to have a cataract removed from the eye of a 6 year old bunny who's had head tilt? It seems to me that all I've read says that if a bunny has a bad eye it must be enucleated to avoid abscesses or other dangerous infections. I'd like to go back with some knowledge of what this doctor may recommend because we've never seen him/her before.
I just realized he was supposed to have his ears cleaned while under and I think we both forgot about it...crud.
We took him home still out of it as the clinic was swamped and his vet had discharged him. She knows I've dealt with drugged bunnies before so I am not too worried about getting him through the net 24 hours. He was actually trying to nibble on the way home (although I think he was nibbling litter and didn't realize it wasn't hay) and once we got him into his run he wobbled about like a drunkard and found his hay and began chewing it. He's also had some carrot tops and was holding his head up well a little bit ago looking for me. So I'd say all in all he must feel much better without that spur. It doesn't take much to set Mimzy off his food, so he has to get his dentals on time. I think if there is any deficiency in his bloods, it's because he's barely been eating pellets and greens and minimal hay for almost a month. He has some catching up to do and I think he was very interested in doing so as soon as we got him home. Once the drugs fully wear off we'll have to see how he is, but knowing his kidneys and liver are still okay after a year of much higher doses of metacam makes me feel much better about keeping his pain relief options at maximum. I should've asked the vet before I left though if she thought he should have higher doses than just .25 mls twice a day.
Poor little guy though...having to deal with my OH's driving. He's really a mad hatter behind the wheel and the first turn we took, poor bun slid across his carrier and mushed his face up against the door.
Boy was I cross with the chauffeur! Mimzy just doesn't have the spatial recall he had before his tilt so riding in a car is very disorientating for him. I would've been a lot more pokey behind the wheel, but Mimzy wouldn't have felt one bump or swerve the whole way and back. Ah well...such is the price we have to pay for being too scared to drive ourselves!
The sweetest thing today was that Jenna didn't want to sit in my lap on the way home. She sniffed at Mimzy's carrier door and decided he needed her to sit on the seat next to him. I've seen her have empathy for us as human beings in distress, but never seen her exhibit it towards another animal quite like this before. I was so touched by her gesture, I just let her sit there with him.
I have recovery food here to tempt Mimzy with, but mostly I think he'll just want his veggies for a few days. I was so glad to see him eat his hay though, and so soon after surgery.
As of 9 PM he was sitting up more and had a few pellets, but doesn't seem to want anymore. So hopefully I won't have to syringe feed him.
So to wrap up my gushy and wordy post...my thanks to everyone who kept Jenna and Mimzy in their thoughts and prayers for this day. I can't tell you how it helps to come in and see that there are so many thinking of us and wishing us well.
I hope everyone has a lovely day/evening...whatever time it is there now.
ETA: Oh...and just a weird moment...there was a car in the parking lot with a 'vanity plate' license on it that read Dr Who...I had to smile to myself when I saw that because I truly don't know whose car it was, but I don't think it was one of the vets'. I'm rather jealous though...I want a Dr Who license plate now! :lol: