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Did Fly Strike kill her? (Seeking out second opinion)

Barush

New Kit
Hi,

Recently my 8 y.o. bunny, stopped eating and drinking and I was naturally extremely worried.. She never exhibited such behavior.
She has been previously diagnosed with mammary gland tumor and vet said that unless it hardens or gets bigger it's probably not that serious yet.
I kept checking her cautiously every time I was petting her and it even felt like the bumps on her belly actually became smaller!

Anyway, after this happened I took her to vet and she examined her. She was also really surprised and also said it's kinda interesting that her belly-the tumor
doesn't seem to be bad or worsened. She seemed positively surprised even. Then she checked her lymph nodes and said they are also completely normal.
Then she checked her front teeth and they were not overgrown. I was naturally still extremely worried for her but as the vet actually seemed so relieved and
over-positive I calmed down. She told me it looks really good and that it's probably some sharp teeth in the back of her mouth and that it's fairly common problem.
And that I don't need to worry as there's a simple solution to it. They just need to put her to narcosis so they can check it well and she promised to do x-ray to be
sure about the tumor situation.

I waited for her to wake up... and then the news came. She managed to wake-up from the narcosis but then her body was too weak to keep fighting and so she died. :(
You can imagine how devastated I was! The vet was absolutely sure before it it's nothing and now this. But the reason I'm writing this here... when she came to tell me
the news she said in reproachful tone also that she however had worms as well on top of the tumor etc. This came like a total shock, because I thought I would notice
something like that. I have to admit I was quite busy past month but still thought I examined her carefully when petting her so I thought I'd notice if something is wrong.. .
We've had some flies at out house and I just considered it as disgusting and pesky but I would never guess it could be so threatening to rabbits!!

Anyway, the doctor said that she thinks the reason why she wasn't eating was indeed that her back teeth were sharp or there was some problem with it and also that
the tumor has metastasized deeper... plus those worms. She just told me, that the reason of her dying was that she wasn't strong enough and her body gave up.
But since it happened I was really wondering about all and searching for HONEST opinion about this, so here I am... it all seem a bit weird and so I wonder if it wasn't
after all really the Fly Strike which killed her and the vet just didn't want to tell me up straight to make me feel worse at that moment?

I've been wondering that if it in reality wasn't so that if she wouldn't have those worms she would wake up successfully from the narcosis because maybe
THIS was what weakened her body? What do you guys think? I'm starting to be almost sure about it.. :/
Also, do you think it's possible for her to have a Fly Strike and me really not noticing it on her skin while grooming her?


Sorry for the lengthy post and thanks so much for your honesty and possible answers, I would really appreciate an second opinion!


(Also, I'm posting this from mobile so hopefully it displays as it should)
 
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I'm really sorry that you lost your girl :(

I can't really offer any input but I do think that it is unlikely that both you and your vet would have missed flystrike before putting her under.
I hope that someone comes along soon that can give you some more information.
Xx
 
I really think that you should have a further chat with the vet who treated your rabbit and ask specifically about this issue.

For what it's worth, if a vet talked to me about "worms" I would not immediately think she meant anything to do with flystrike. Flies lay their eggs, which become "maggots".

I think it's impossible for anyone here to give you a definitive answer to your question, but your vet should be able to do so.

I am so very sorry that you have lost your doe :cry:
 
So sorry.

As others have said, worms and flystrike are not the same. I wouldn't expect a vet to call the maggots from flystrike 'worms'. Worms would suggest an intestinal burden of a different sort of parasite. Flystrike is caused by the maggots of the green bottle fly. I would expect full blown flystrike to be spotted by the vet.

Please don't beat yourself up. You did the right thing in getting her prompt treatment. Her teeth would have caused her pain if left without appropriate treatment. She died peacefully after a lifetime of love and care.
 
I am very sorry for your tragic loss :cry: I think it may help you to have another chat with the Vet who treated your Rabbit so you can at least have some clarity about what happened.
 
Hi. I think you would know if it was flystike. It's one of the most horrendous things I have ever seen. I can't even write this without feeling sick. One of my Rabbits died of this when I was a kid 35 years ago. I was stroking my Rabbit and i saw something move underneath him. I turned him over and he was covered in maggots. I screamed and cried. We rushed him to the vets, but it was to late to save him. To this day I still have a terrible phobia about maggots
 
I really think that you should have a further chat with the vet who treated your rabbit and ask specifically about this issue.

For what it's worth, if a vet talked to me about "worms" I would not immediately think she meant anything to do with flystrike. Flies lay their eggs, which become "maggots".

I think it's impossible for anyone here to give you a definitive answer to your question, but your vet should be able to do so.

I am so very sorry that you have lost your doe :cry:


I agree with Omi, another chat with your vet may help here?

I am so very sorry for your loss, but welcome to the Forum.
I hope you find it supportive x
 
Thank all so much for answering and your support! I'm incredibly grateful for that. <3

Probably you are right about the fly strike vs worms. However, to be absolutely honest what made me to put those two together was the fact
that we've had flies in our house for ages and we simply couldn't get rid of them. (Oh, the joy of living with roommates)
Also, now I even found some worms in her cage, which was absolutely terrible! (the place she was peeing at) Not many at all, it wasn't
infested but still, few. I'm so horrified and ashamed and am really mad on myself as I've been so busy in past month I didn't even have time
to clean her cage.. And so that made me wonder if the "worms" was in fact fly strike.
Hopefully not though...

Also, her poop seemed normal and without changes so I'm wondering if I could have noticed it somehow anyhow?!

I think I will indeed try to contact the vet tomorrow and I hope she will be still willing to discuss this issue as she seemed to be rushing somewhere
else even just right after it happened..
 
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Also, I actually live abroad now and I was totally shocked, because here rabbits are not vaccinated (!) and practically
nothing like annual health checks thus exists... So I wonder if that also then doesn't make it easier for them to get
worms from some contaminated source like hay or something?! Crazy.
 
I'm sorry for your loss and hope you can get some answers. Do you mean her cage hadn't been cleaned for a month?
What country are you in?
 
I agree with the others, it doesnt sound like she had flystrike. I'd want to speak with the vets again and find out exactly what kind of worms she had.

It could possibly be that she got a worm problem due to her immune system response being down, due to the tumor or her age. Parasites tend to have a worse effect on animals with lowered immune systems.

I'm sorry for your loss :(
 
Yeah :( I live in Finland.

Oh dear, not cleaning her housing for a month will certainly not have helped her health because, as I am sure you know, they need to be cleaned out every day, given fresh food and hay every day, and allowed to exercise. Be that as it may, what's done is done. I didn't know that rabbits could not be vaccinated in Finland. I don't recall whether you said she was spayed. Bearing all these facts in mind, it really is up to you whether you approach the vet for more answers.
 
Oh dear, not cleaning her housing for a month will certainly not have helped her health because, as I am sure you know, they need to be cleaned out every day, given fresh food and hay every day, and allowed to exercise. Be that as it may, what's done is done. I didn't know that rabbits could not be vaccinated in Finland. I don't recall whether you said she was spayed. Bearing all these facts in mind, it really is up to you whether you approach the vet for more answers.

Of course I was giving her fresh food every day and unlimited amount of hay too, that goes without saying. Also of course water was changed daily. I definitely agree that that's a must
and I was very meticulous about things like that. She was also all the time free so the cage was more like a eating and peeing place. (and occasionally when she was behaving badly,
I put her there for 10 or so minutes to just show her that she's not allowed to e.g. chew on random paper things etc.) Btw. I'm not saying this to justify my behavior, just explaining about the case.
She wasn't spayed.
 
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I agree with the others, it doesnt sound like she had flystrike. I'd want to speak with the vets again and find out exactly what kind of worms she had.

It could possibly be that she got a worm problem due to her immune system response being down, due to the tumor or her age. Parasites tend to have a worse effect on animals with lowered immune systems.

I'm sorry for your loss :(

Thank you. Yes that's true, hope the vet will explain it further...
 
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Ok, so the vet called today and she said that she actually DIDN'T have any worms! It's kinda crazy, because I remember her saying that when she brought her
and I also saw it written down in the report. (Unfortunately I haven't asked for the copy) She told me that probably she mispronounced some
english word and that's what caused this misunderstanding. -.- Crazy. Not sure what to even say about that, it's kind of weird because other than that her english
was really good and usually people here speak english so fluently, so this really surprised me now. But yeah,... that maybe also probably tells a bit about the
overall level of service at that vet clinic. :/ She now even mentioned that she wasn't even specialized for treating rabbits and that she had to now still consult her colleague
which is specialized for "exotic animals" (!) about the rabbits and worms because she should know the best about that... So strange that in here where hares and
rabbits are so common in the wild they are still considered to be "exotic".. Oh well, maybe it's just this city where everything sucks.

Anyway, so this is the closure of this case. Thanks a lot to all who participated and even though the worms probably weren't the issue after all I still appreciate your advice and
support so much, it really helped me to understand more about this topic and also to deal better with her passing away! I think it would be helpful also for the future when I'm again
ready to adopt another rabbit.
 
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