Hope went into respiratory failure tonight so we obviously shot to the emergency vets. They admitted him and tried him on oxygen just to see if we could ease it and improve him, but it didn't, so I had to make the call and drove back to the vets to have him PTS.
When I got there they'd got him out of the oxygen chamber and he'd crashed. When I arrived he had hardly a heartbeat, no blink reflex, was breathing very sporadically (that agonal breathing thing) and his eyes were dead. She (the vet) told me he was unconscious and unaware of what was going on around him. I put my hands either side of him and held him, stroked him and spoke to him, and his heart started to beat stronger, he gained back his blink reflex and started to breathe more- his blood pressure even increased. Bonkers.
Unfortunately for my strong chap, he then did have to be PTS because there was no real coming back from that, but, to me, that showed the real importance of that touch and me being there, and he evidently did know what was going on, on some level.
I've known bunnies to calm down and improve drastically when I hold them (even Roger, my wildie), but I've never had anything like that.
I don't know why I felt the need to share that, I just did. Sorry.
Binky Free Schmopey. (Will do his tribute in due course).
When I got there they'd got him out of the oxygen chamber and he'd crashed. When I arrived he had hardly a heartbeat, no blink reflex, was breathing very sporadically (that agonal breathing thing) and his eyes were dead. She (the vet) told me he was unconscious and unaware of what was going on around him. I put my hands either side of him and held him, stroked him and spoke to him, and his heart started to beat stronger, he gained back his blink reflex and started to breathe more- his blood pressure even increased. Bonkers.
Unfortunately for my strong chap, he then did have to be PTS because there was no real coming back from that, but, to me, that showed the real importance of that touch and me being there, and he evidently did know what was going on, on some level.
I've known bunnies to calm down and improve drastically when I hold them (even Roger, my wildie), but I've never had anything like that.
I don't know why I felt the need to share that, I just did. Sorry.
Binky Free Schmopey. (Will do his tribute in due course).