Wallace's story

Wallace is the most recent addition to our furry family. He has been my foster-bunny for the past 7 months. Just before he was due to move onto his new home, he became seriously ill with pneumonia. Wallace spent just over two weeks at my vets in intensive care. He will never fully recover, the disease has left him with damaged and scarred lungs. He cannot cope with car journeys and any change of environment would be too stressful for him, even the slightest amount of stress will trigger mouth breathing, so he is staying with us permanently. He can't do the normal things that rabbits do, his lungs can't cope with running or jumping, a gentle hop across the room is about as much as he can manage in one go. He can't just clear a dish of food like a normal rabbit, he can only eat for a short while before he has to stop to catch his breath. Any over-exertion will result in mouth breathing. Despite everything, Wallace is happy and content. He is eating very well, even if it does take him all day to clear his dish.

Wallace is around one year old, but he's not had a lot of luck in his short life so far. He narrowly escaped being 'necked' as he did not meet the grade for a show rabbit. Hard to believe when you look at how stunning he is. He was rescued by Celia at Kirkby Pet Welfare.

He then went in for a routine castration and was butchered by a 'vet' who we later learned had never performed the procedure before. On arrival back at the rescue he was bleeding and in an appalling state, so he was taken straight back to the practice and was kept in overnight. They discharged him the following morning in the same dreadful state with no ongoing medication, not even pain relief despite having open and bleeding wounds. At this point Celia asked me to take him to my vets to try and get him sorted. Wallace had become very infected and ended up having emergency surgery to remove all the infected tissue. He has been with me ever since.

He recovered well from the terrible castration experience and we thought his future was looking bright again with a lovely new home on the horizon, but then he fell ill with this dreadful infection in his lungs. I just hope that all the bad stuff is now behind him and that he can enjoy his stress-free and lazy life. He's still on lots of medication and nebulisation, but he's doing well considering how poorly he has been.

He is my most expensive rabbit, my vet bill for him currently stands at £1100 :shock: but it is worth every penny to still have him alive and happy.

So here is my brave and determined Wallace, or Wally as we tend to call him.

His story reminds me so much of my bridge bun Bluebell. We had very similar issues with scarring on the lungs.

Bless him, he's lovely

He's a lovely lad

What a stunner! Well done you for taking such great care of him. :wave:

WOW beautiful

What a stunning boy who has been through such a lot in a small space of time, aww bless him so please he has you

He's gorgeous, Tracy.
You have done a great job with him. :thumb:

What a beautiful boy!

Aww...he is gorgeous. What a shiny coat

He is beautiful and so very very lucky to have you to look after him xxx

Thank god your paths crossed, that poor, poor bunny. I can't believe he's been through all that an only one year old At least he's now assured of the best future possible.

What a beautiful boy

Thanks everyone :wave:

He is such a lovely lad. It makes me so sad to think that he will never be better, but for now he is coping OK and he seems happy and content.

He lost a lot of weight while he was at his worst, but this morning he was back up to an acceptable weight again, which I am so relieved about as he went very thin and boney.

im so happy that he is now with you. is there any way that those horrible "vets" can be inspected, or shut down or some sort of investigation into them!?!?

sunnibunny said:

im so happy that he is now with you. is there any way that those horrible "vets" can be inspected, or shut down or some sort of investigation into them!?!?

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I took the matter through the RCVS formal complaints process. Two of the rescue's rabbits were involved, Wallace and another little bunny. Both had to have emergency surgery at my vets.

I spent ages putting the case together, we had graphic photos, medical notes from the original vets and from my vets, I didn't think they would get away with it as our case seemed so watertight, but they did. I met with the clinical director of the practice to give them an opportunity to explain themselves. What he told me had no resemblance to what finally appeared on their statement to the RCVS. Lots of lies, a good cover up and getting their stories straight unfortunately went in their favour. The offending vet was a locum, who quite clearly was not experienced and should not have been allowed to do the ops. in her statement she said she would undertake further training and the RCVS were happy with this, although it wasn't set as a condition for her continuing to practice. So she is still out there, whether or not she did undertake the training as promised.......who knows.

I feel let down by the system, Wallace and Bugsy we're let down by the system. Months on, it remains a very sore point.

He's so very handsome! very lucky to have you too, bless his little paws xxx

Tracy said:

I took the matter through the RCVS formal complaints process. Two of the rescue's rabbits were involved, Wallace and another little bunny. Both had to have emergency surgery at my vets.

I spent ages putting the case together, we had graphic photos, medical notes from the original vets and from my vets, I didn't think they would get away with it as our case seemed so watertight, but they did. I met with the clinical director of the practice to give them an opportunity to explain themselves. What he told me had no resemblance to what finally appeared on their statement to the RCVS. Lots of lies, a good cover up and getting their stories straight unfortunately went in their favour. The offending vet was a locum, who quite clearly was not experienced and should not have been allowed to do the ops. in her statement she said she would undertake further training and the RCVS were happy with this, although it wasn't set as a condition for her continuing to practice. So she is still out there, whether or not she did undertake the training as promised.......who knows.

I feel let down by the system, Wallace and Bugsy we're let down by the system. Months on, it remains a very sore point.

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This is so sad!

Tracy said:

I took the matter through the RCVS formal complaints process. Two of the rescue's rabbits were involved, Wallace and another little bunny. Both had to have emergency surgery at my vets.

I spent ages putting the case together, we had graphic photos, medical notes from the original vets and from my vets, I didn't think they would get away with it as our case seemed so watertight, but they did. I met with the clinical director of the practice to give them an opportunity to explain themselves. What he told me had no resemblance to what finally appeared on their statement to the RCVS. Lots of lies, a good cover up and getting their stories straight unfortunately went in their favour. The offending vet was a locum, who quite clearly was not experienced and should not have been allowed to do the ops. in her statement she said she would undertake further training and the RCVS were happy with this, although it wasn't set as a condition for her continuing to practice. So she is still out there, whether or not she did undertake the training as promised.......who knows.

I feel let down by the system, Wallace and Bugsy we're let down by the system. Months on, it remains a very sore point.

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what a shame that nothing constructive came out of this. I guess the only thing you can do is to warm any people you know with animals is to not take them to that vet. that way they lose customers and thus business, and unfortuantely for a lot of people, thats the only laguage they understand to make them change and do things different.

What a beautiful boy and how lucky he is to have found you

It is sickening that we put our trust and beloved pets in the care of vets who we believe to be fully trained and they can do somethinglike you have explained, how they get away with it is beyond me!!