Tough decisions - what would you do? u/d she's had the op

At Rabbit Residence we have a sweet old girl named Fariyah who has recently arrived with several other bunnies. All seniors (around 7 years old), all spent their entire lives in 3ft hutches. A relative of hers, Thimble, has just had a major op to have have 3 tumours removed, and spayed, and is recovering well. Now we need to make a decision on what to do with Fariyah.

When she came in, Caroline could feel a mass in her gut. An ultrasound has confirmed she has a large mass attached to her kidney. She is also unspayed and this likely a uterine tumour that's spread. She is seeming bright in herself, bouncing around and eating but visibly slower than other bunnies, hiding her pain as best she can.

A fortnight ago, our vets did a successful kidney removal on another of our bunnies, Zaina, it cost £700.

We basically have two options, and leaving her as is is not an option, this will kill her. We either get our vets to operate and remove the kidney, spay her, and this will cost us around £700-800 to have done, money the charity is struggling to find at the moment (had so many big operations recently!) but we will do our best to scrape together the pennies, or we put her to sleep.

Really tough decisions.

Fariyah is on the right, her friend Soldier, left, came from the same property as her.

Hm. Personally..I would not go through with the operation. I know you said leaving her in not an option but I would provide care for her up until she is ready to leave for the bridge. If it is uterine cancer that has spread, I'd be thinking that it's probably spread elsewhere. If it's spread to other places there really is nothing much you could do. Also you have to think of her age and if it is fair to put her through two massive operations, especially when she has obviously come from someone who has not looked after her properly and she likely has other problems.

Poor girl.

Very sad I have to agree with Vegan Bunny, I would treat her like a princess and give her the life she should have had until it's her time, and then PTS.

Vegan_Bunny said:

Hm. Personally..I would not go through with the operation. I know you said leaving her in not an option but I would provide care for her up until she is ready to leave for the bridge. If it is uterine cancer that has spread, I'd be thinking that it's probably spread elsewhere. If it's spread to other places there really is nothing much you could do. Also you have to think of her age and if it is fair to put her through two massive operations, especially when she has obviously come from someone who has not looked after her properly and she likely has other problems.

Poor girl.

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Agree with this.

Such a sad story, and she's not had a great life. I'd give her the best life possible for however long is left.

Make her last days pleasant, then let her go. I'm so sorry.

I agree with the others, just let her enjoy life as pain free as possible, then help her to the bridge when the time is right.

I am a firm believer in quality of life over quantity. If it is uterine adenocarcinoma then I very much doubt that it is 'only' the kidney that it has spread to. A nephrectomy and a ovariohysterectomy would be a major procedure for a young Doe, I very much doubt I would put a 7 year old Doe through it. Just because a surgical procedure may be technically possible it is not always in the Rabbit's best interests to do it.

So I too am of the 'palliative care and tlc' opinion.

The final decision is not mine, but Caroline's, and our vets at Cambridge Vet Group relish a challenge so operating isn't out the question at the moment.

This is Thimble recovering, she is also 7 years old.

Have they done an xray to look for signs it's spread? I think that would be the main issue. You don't want to put a bun through a big op and then find there is something else wrong that renders it pointless. I guess the xray would be an opportunity to look for other signs such as arthritis that might indicate age related health problems too which might give you some idea of life expectancy post op if it went well.

They've done a few ultrasounds, Caroline knows the details better than I do.

Awww. Bless her. What a life Hope she can be as pain free as possible for the time that she has left x

Tamsin said:

Have they done an xray to look for signs it's spread? I think that would be the main issue. You don't want to put a bun through a big op and then find there is something else wrong that renders it pointless. I guess the xray would be an opportunity to look for other signs such as arthritis that might indicate age related health problems too which might give you some idea of life expectancy post op if it went well.

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This would be my question - I had a 9 year old that we had a kidney removed on (not cancer but kidney totally ossified and very painful) he had a fabulous new lease of life for 6 months - it was worth every penny to see him enjoy that time. Given that she has been in a 3ft hutch all the rest of her life then personally I would go for it to try and give her some months of freedom and enjoyment. For the plain kidney op (actuallly a difficult one as it was the tricky kidney) Damson recovered from the op in just 2 days !!!

What's the difference between her situation and Thimble's? Is it because kidneys are involved? Sorry if it's clear on the thread and I'm missing it.

esupi said:

What's the difference between her situation and Thimble's? Is it because kidneys are involved? Sorry if it's clear on the thread and I'm missing it.

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So far as I know it's large mass connected to her kidney whereas Thimble was tumours in her uterus, I THINK that's the deal.

My bun had a kidney removed because one of the tumours was attached to it. She is fine, just means any meds relief has to be a lower dosage.

CatXX - can you pass my comment (on post above) to Caroline (along with the others of course) . Although obviously everyones opinions are very valid and very important in helping to come to a decision she may be interested in my experience as she has the same vets as me

An update:

We had an exotic expert vet, Jo, had a look at Fariyah yesterday. She was quite shocked at how large the mass inside was. She was keen to operate and see the extent of the damage inside, as it's likely to be squashing organs. If it's benign and removable, that would be the best case scenario. But even a benign tumour of this size will cause problems with internal organs.

We're now looking at putting as much cash together as possible to get the operation done. If it's too extensive inside when they go in, there's the very sad option of letting her go then and there.

She had the operation yesterday! She stayed at the vets overnight with her husbun Soldier to snuggle with. She's had the tumour, her uterus, a kidney and an abscess removed. The vet had to tie off a lot of blood vessels so they were keeping a close eye on her overnight to make sure she didn't hemorrhage. Waiting for today's update from Caroline.

ooh keeping everything crossed for her - that sounds major! I hope she recovers quickly and is more comfortable now.

Goodness, she has gone through a lot

Millions of vibes being sent that she can recover xx