Calathea
Young Bun
In October my partner and I got two mini lop brothers, Alfie and Thor. They were nine weeks old but about a week after getting them Thor didn't seem right. He was hunched up and uninterested in everything. We took him to the vets and although initially he improved a few days later (while hospitalised) he went rapidly down hill and passed away. 10 weeks. That's all he lived for. It was absolutely heartbreaking.
A few weeks later we got a French lop female that we hoped to bond with Alfie in the future. They got on great, seemed to be love at first sight and although they didn't spend much time together (no babies wanted!!) it seemed that bonding would be a breeze.
Two days ago I went into see Freya, the French lop and she was fine, asking to come out, eating, pooping etc all fine. Four hours later we found her collapsed, unable to stand and weak. I grabbed a towel, my partner rang the vets and 15 minutes later we were with the on call exotics vet. As soon as he picked her up he said she was underweight. She hardly responded to painful stimuli and if he splayed her legs she didn't bother putting them back. Our first thought was that she had somehow injured her spine so he x-rayed her but they came back fine. He put her on a drip and tried to get blood but her veins were collapsing under any kind of pressure. He said he'd keep her in over night, give her fluids, gut stimulants (her gut sounds were slow/quiet) and critical care food and try to get bloods again in the morning. So at 8pm we left her there.
At half 10 the vet rings us to tell us that she had had two 5 second long seizures in the last 10 minutes. While on the phone to him she had two more. She was showing other neurological symptoms as well, a head tilt and her eyes were flicking backwards and forwards (can't remember the proper name for that). The vet said that the prognosis wasn't good and that she would almost certainly die very soon. My partner and I chose to have her put to sleep immediately. We couldn't face going and seeing her. We wanted to remember our confident, happy, big floppy eared binkying girl.
The vet is unsure as to what the actual illness was, it's possible it was the new strain of VHD as by the morning blood had come out of her nose which the vet said meant that there was blood in her lungs when she died. It could also be EC or something else. We chose not to have any tests done as it would have been very expensive and nothing could bring her back.
So now, yet again, my partner and I are heart broken and Alfie is on his own. What are we doing wrong...? I feel like I'm killing our rabbits. Thor was 10 weeks, Freya only 16 weeks. I'm now constantly worried about Alfie, watching his every move, examining every poo. Every time he grinds his teeth or hunches up a bit I think he's in pain and that something is wrong.
The stress of owning rabbits is unbelievable. My vet said that I have just been incredibly unlucky, that I'm caring for them very well and I couldn't have done anything differently.
I don't know when or even if I'll be able to face getting another rabbit to be with Alfie. I don't know how I would cope with another baby rabbit passing away.
I can't help but blame myself for their deaths. So many what-ifs are going through my mind
A few weeks later we got a French lop female that we hoped to bond with Alfie in the future. They got on great, seemed to be love at first sight and although they didn't spend much time together (no babies wanted!!) it seemed that bonding would be a breeze.
Two days ago I went into see Freya, the French lop and she was fine, asking to come out, eating, pooping etc all fine. Four hours later we found her collapsed, unable to stand and weak. I grabbed a towel, my partner rang the vets and 15 minutes later we were with the on call exotics vet. As soon as he picked her up he said she was underweight. She hardly responded to painful stimuli and if he splayed her legs she didn't bother putting them back. Our first thought was that she had somehow injured her spine so he x-rayed her but they came back fine. He put her on a drip and tried to get blood but her veins were collapsing under any kind of pressure. He said he'd keep her in over night, give her fluids, gut stimulants (her gut sounds were slow/quiet) and critical care food and try to get bloods again in the morning. So at 8pm we left her there.
At half 10 the vet rings us to tell us that she had had two 5 second long seizures in the last 10 minutes. While on the phone to him she had two more. She was showing other neurological symptoms as well, a head tilt and her eyes were flicking backwards and forwards (can't remember the proper name for that). The vet said that the prognosis wasn't good and that she would almost certainly die very soon. My partner and I chose to have her put to sleep immediately. We couldn't face going and seeing her. We wanted to remember our confident, happy, big floppy eared binkying girl.
The vet is unsure as to what the actual illness was, it's possible it was the new strain of VHD as by the morning blood had come out of her nose which the vet said meant that there was blood in her lungs when she died. It could also be EC or something else. We chose not to have any tests done as it would have been very expensive and nothing could bring her back.
So now, yet again, my partner and I are heart broken and Alfie is on his own. What are we doing wrong...? I feel like I'm killing our rabbits. Thor was 10 weeks, Freya only 16 weeks. I'm now constantly worried about Alfie, watching his every move, examining every poo. Every time he grinds his teeth or hunches up a bit I think he's in pain and that something is wrong.
The stress of owning rabbits is unbelievable. My vet said that I have just been incredibly unlucky, that I'm caring for them very well and I couldn't have done anything differently.
I don't know when or even if I'll be able to face getting another rabbit to be with Alfie. I don't know how I would cope with another baby rabbit passing away.
I can't help but blame myself for their deaths. So many what-ifs are going through my mind
