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Introducing Arce and Iris ud-vets, not happy

tlcwrites

Mama Doe
I've been holding out on you guys a bit. :lol: These two girls arrived home a week ago and they are a right box of tricks between them.

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Iris is the blue butterfly. Arce (pronounced R-Say) is the agouti butterfly. As with my typical theme, they are the Greek goddesses of rainbows and the fainter double rainbow, respectively.

These girls came to me already spayed. Apparently, their previous owner was moving house and that's why they had to go. They are both around 4 and a half, so definitely older girlies. I was smitten at first sight, both of them seemed to enjoy cuddles and were very sweet. Not quite such the case when I got them home.

Both girls are quite territorial. Iris has issues with dominance - she's often caught humping Arce, often for no given reason. She honks like a goose when she does so too. Arce usually runs, but also occasionally tries to hump Iris, too. :roll: Neither girl likes being picked up. Neither girl particularly likes being stroked. Arce is headshy and has a huge dewlap. Iris is snuffly, occasionally bites/nips if things aren't going her way, likes to eat cardboard, and seems to have issues with uneaten cecatrophs. Both girls have sore hocks. Both need vaccinating. Both are working on the litter training - Arce seems to mostly have got it, Iris less so. Both are huge. The biggest lops I've ever come across. Not sure if they are large dwarf lops (though they dwarf Elphie and her deceased sister, Galinda) or German lops, or dwarf/German crosses. Not sure if they've been bred from - Arce has issues with fur loss on her back, allegedly from Iris's continual mounting. Iris has a smaller bald patch. They both seem thrilled with the space they have (lots of binkies!) despite it not being very large at all (due to litter training). I've seen lots of DBFs as well, especially from Arce.

They seem happy enough to be home. We'll work on them "liking" me in the future. We'll work on their health, or as much as we can. We're definitely working on diet as I have no idea what they are used to but they've been taken back to ground zero because of the uneaten cecatrophs. But hey, they're pretty and they're cheeky and they're fun to watch. They act as if they're doing the naughtiest thing ever when they climb on the bed. Iris already purrs loudly if I give her nose and ear rubs. Arce is learning to let me stroke her body. We'll get there in the end. :)

Arce

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Iris

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(I had a second one of Iris but it's turned out blurry. :( )

Together

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They're gorgeous :love: And moulting, is that right? I'm sure they'll settle in just fine in your menagerie: you have 'the touch', definitely :D
 
This will keep you busy! :lol::lol: It's just a case of bad bunny keeping but they have made it to 4.5 all the same. Eyes look good - I wonder if they've been used for breeding? They are very pretty and are you sure they have been neutered?
 
They're lovely. They look like French Lops. We had one years ago, Duchess, she was huge. I think you might have to change the spelling of Arce! ! Ha, ha, Just in case!.....Good luck with them.
 
Bless them, they are very cute, even if they are keeping your hands full ;) It sounds suspiciously like they're not used to having such a nice lifestyle. Hopefully they will settle down when they're used to having the space.
 
They are gorgeous! Weight is probably the best way to guess at breed, although if their diet hasn't been great you might have to wait til they're a bit fitter until you get an accurate one. Its sounds like have attitude, which I personally love in a bunny - they'll keep you on your toes :lol:
 
Thank you everyone. These two are settling in slowly. It's lovely having house bunnies again and I really want to make it work with these two (Athena, the quad, and Persephone were all evicted by my mother :roll: ) - I think having them upstairs instead a downstairs helps!

As for the questions/comments - and just more about them:

- I think Arce has been through a really rough moult lately, but the regrowth is not helped by Iris. Some of the scruffiness in the photos is definitely from grooming though. These two love grooming each other. :)

- Iris's gut is definitely getting better. Seeing much less cecatrophs. Being on hay/readigrass solely is helping. When it's stayed settled, gonna start by introducing Fibafirst first. Good/bad idea?

- Iris's litter training is also almost there. Though to spite me today, after keeping the floor clear, she left a nice pile of poop by the gate just after I came to my room for the night. :roll:

- Breed: I definitely don't think they're big enough for Frenchies! They are about the same size as our Queen cats - a bit shorter, but a bit heavier. I'm going to try get some baby scales to weigh all the buns, because prior to these 2, I just used kitchen scales and the others make using them to weigh them hard enough.

- Weight: if anything, they feel a touch skinny to me. Definitely not overweight though!

- Spayed: obviously I can only go by what I've been told. I do think they've been spayed, however, is there any way to tell without putting them under?

-Twigs!: These two LOVE tossing twigs around. They'll actively play with you with the twigs - will take them from your hand and toss them aside. Yesterday, Arce decided she was going to take them from me and put them all away in the litter tray.

-finally, rowan.godfrey- not so sure if they are wise or just endlessly stubborn and Norty! They are big characters as almost all my does are! I almost expect it of a 'tlc's wayward doe' to be a big character! All 3 of my bucks are wet blankets in comparison. ;) (Also 8 does to 3 bucks in the household now. I attract does.)
 
Aw they are lovely, very cute markings :love:

We have one bun inside (soon to be two when she gets spayed / bonded), which is fun. She's in my daughters room, which now resembles a big rabbit 'hutch', not that my dd minds at all. I've been lucky so far, that apart from the odd stray poo, she's using her litter trays.

Good luck with them x
 
Litter trays - they are getting pretty good now, so I'm pleased.

Things I'm not so pleased with-

*Arce has an old/awkwardly rehealed broken toe. One of her back claws literally points 180 degrees upwards.
*Arce and Iris both have pretty bad sore hocks which pre-date me.
*Iris is underweight.
*Iris also doesn't eat her cecatrophs.
*Iris's sneezes.
*Dominance is still an issue but they both clearly adore each other too.

All bar the last were missed at the vet check during their intake to P@H Support Adoption... grrr! I partially blame myself because I really wasn't looking for new rabbits and fell hard. Equally regardless of that, those issues should have been picked up and treatment started.

Arce received her Nobivac myx/rhd1 vaccine today. Because of Iris's sneezes, hers has been delayed. However, the voucher is now noted as being valid until May 2017. Iris's sneezing has been blamed on potential allergens in her environment. Her nose is always a little damper than I'm used to in a rabbit, but I also worry this isn't the case. I also haven't had to pay for Iris's metacam or the girls' cream for the hocks. The vet has also said the solution for Iris's cecal issue is to forcefeed them - is there any validity to that?

So yeah. Not 100% happy, but we'll see where we go next.
 
Do you have a rabbit savvy vet you normally use? If not maybe someone local can recommend one so you can get a second opinion on Iris.
 
Feeding readigrass can lead to uneaten cecatrophs (I have this issue with 2 of my own 10 rabbits) plus we avoid feeding it too many of the rabbits at the rescue for this reason, opting for green oat hay or American timothy hay instead
 
I do have a local exotics I trust. :) I'll also avoid giving readigrass to these 2 from now on and see if that helps. Thank you.
 
They are beautiful and sound wonderful characters.

I hope all the health issues resolve - I had problems with excessive/uneaten caecals when I fed Burgess and then SS foods. But this goes back many years now. It stopped when I switched to Bunny Basics - I always put it down to the Burgess and SS being alfalfa based whereas Bunny Basics (adult) is timothy hay based. I may have been way off the mark there though - it could have been something else entirely.
 
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