Aboleth's not very well; she didn't make it: UD post 26

Cleaned them out today, and Aboleth wasn't as interested in my putting my hand next to the run as usual. She also seemed to be eating differently. So I tried her with a fibafirst stick: very quick to run off with it but slow to eat it :S Lopsy was elsewhere, oblivious ;P So I tried her with some hay: eating it, hungry for it, but slooooow, and eating on both sides equally. She also felt skinny, like REALLY skinny not just her usual kinda bonyness. Called the vets, got an appointment an hour later and dragged them both in: she wasn't resistant to going in the carrier Lopsy was easily enticed in by holding it up to the hutch, and he just jumped in

She's lost about 1/5 of her bodyweight (2.4kg to 2kg), and relatively quickly because she didn't feel so bad even last night. Equally, she's been eating normally at least until last night: Matt only remarked she stayed in the hutch this morning when he took lavender and rose to them this morning, but that's nothing unusual in isolation, although with hindsight is probably a good sign. She's back in on Tuesday for a dental and blood tests: she's a known 'dental' bun, same as Lopsy, but until now the hooks haven't caused any problems, both have tolerated them with no issues. It's not a definite that the teeth are the problem, but it's the first step, and hopefully the last! The vet couldn't find anything else untoward, and her output is OK. I don't want to say fine because they're too... uniform! She usually has different poo depending on what she's been eating, and these are all the same smallish size and a little squishy, although I'd expect to see them mixed in with her normal poo, just not her only poo.

She flopped out by the tube into the playhouse when we got home, I presume she's hot from the vets where it was a bit toasty, and the vet says to try and mush her pellets, see if that improves her intake. I'm glad it's this way round though: because Lopsy's deaf he'll be none the wiser if we're sneaking Aboleth extras ;P

Mmm, another good point: this can't be too long-lasting because Lopsy's not added any extra weight due to there being more pellets! So the weight loss is concerning but if she can't eat as much, as a lean bun, she'll lose anything pretty quick, I suppose? Her age also came up: we don't know how old she is, and she's not young, she's minimum 5yrs, we've assumed she's about 6, same as Lopsy, but she could be older.

I feel I've (well, we've, Matt's good at reporting issues to me ) done my best so far, let's hope it's good enough She'll have the opportunity to go out on the lawn tomorrow as planned, and once we're back from checking on a friend's cat (who's also been unwell but been fine since we've taken over) we'll check back on her and Lopsy, make sure they're OK. Lopsy was very confused when he didn't get dragged out at the vets, though! :lol:

I do hope it is nothing serious - could it be the very cold weather?

Oh no Aboleth I must say it sounds very 'dental-like', but I'm glad your vet is going to take the opportunity to also run blood tests. Sending her lots of vibes and I hope that the treatment is over and also successful with the dental.

sorry to hear this, really hope that the dental makes a difference, and blood tests are all ok. Lots of vibes for your girl xxx

Sending lots of vibes for Aboleth xx

Sending lots of vibes for Aboleth.x

Sending lots of vibes, and hope the dental sorts it out. Is she still looking as normal? And but sounds? Has get given meds to keep guts moving and any recovery food to maybe help her until she has her dental on Monday?

Sending vibes for Aboleth and hope she improves soon. xx

I hope that a Dental will be 'all' that is needed and that the blood tests wont throw up any more problems x

Awww, poor girlie. I really hope the dental sorts her out & you can keep her comfy & eating til then

Sending lots of vibes xxx

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Aww poor Aboleth. I really hope she does ok over the weekend and that is "just" a dental.

Lots of vibes for Tuesday xx

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Hope your girl is doing better.x

I wrote most of this update last night, but then there was a power cut so I couldn't send it! Wrote it on my laptop which is good XD

Well it's not been great, hence the late update, but she's doing OK. Thankyou so much to everyone for your vibes and best wishes

We left them to themselves as usual after a vet visit, let them settle back in and sort themselves out. We went to see our friend's cat and play a boardgame 'with' him, so he had some company as his owners weren't due home until Saturday late, and had gone Wednesday afternoon. Bonus picture of Pov playing Terraforming Mars with us:



(Google photos doesn't always like me linking photos so here's the URL: https://photos.app.goo.gl/8gDSkf4GX84cYBRA7)

We got back about 10:30 and Lopsy was totally fine, but Aboleth was too quiet, and when she wanted to eat a piece of apple core we'd set aside for them (de-pipped Bramley middle from my breakfast that morning) but didn't, that was the killer. We separated her off, upstairs in the back bedroom in the folding dog crate next door gave us, radiator off and windows open. Her ear 'infection' seemed to be back too. She took a few hawthorn leaves and ate them VERY slowly, like one chew every 30s. I mushed up some pellets for her but she wasn't keen, so I watered them down and tried syringing them: she took that full-frontal until she got too tired, and even licked some less watery mush off a spoon. She was VERY tired, and just sleeping until prompted She did some tooth grinding as well. I rang the emergency vet who said as long as there was some input and output, if it was dental there wasn't much else they could do beyond pain relief and gut stimulants. She was definitely more tired than in pain too, her tooth grinding had stopped by the time I gave her another feed at 4:30am. She did have some small poos outcoming, and she was taking some feed from the syringe, so I rang my own vets when they opened at 9am (I am lucky!). Between 4:30 and 7:30 when I saw he next, she'd had one of those horrible mucus-y poos with some well-formed poos contained within. She also wouldn't take any more food, but did take a hawthorn leaf, but didn't chew it :S She also felt MORE bony :S But she was still, well, OK, apart from VERY tired, she still had an explore of her area, hopping in and out of the underbed storage box no problem (but her back legs were SO thin )

We got to the vets for our 9:20am appointment and waited a while to be seen, which I guess is normal for a Saturday. There were a couple of cats in before us. We went to the second consultation room while the vet (the rabbit-savvy one, rather than his cat-expert wife) was seeing the second cat and Aboleth got weighed: lost another 100g :S The vet came in and took her temperature: 2C cooler than she should be, and she still had her loppy, warm ear when she got out this time (unlike Friday when she refused to show anyone it was loppy again :lol. Abdomen was still OK, some poo, and the vet wasn't happy with her mucusy poo but she'd done some semi-formed non-mucusy poo too, which I also took in, which wasn't so bad. The vet looked in her mouth, and she was holding food, and that was when he shook his head and said he was going to take bloods because, as I said, rabbits aren't hamsters! He also said he'd admit her because she was really VERY skinny, only 1.9kg rather than 2.4, and with her temperature down she really needed IV fluids and constant watch. I was very happy with that: I'd rather pay for her to be looked after by someone who has experience than have to muddle through myself, as neither of us are very confident with handling them! There was talk of possible kidney issues.

He came back with her after a few minutes, and showed me something ominous but that makes sense given the fast decline she'd shown: three lumps on her neck, really hard to palpate without kinds grabbing hold of them first (as you would do taking blood) :S One was a good inch diameter, the other two much smaller. He couldn't get any blood out of her and reckoned she was probably also anaemic, and all this pointed to the possibility of cancer.

I'm not hugely sentimental and I was sort of relieved at this possibility, as it gave a good answer to why she'd declined so quickly. We don't know her history before she came to us 4.5yrs ago (apart from her eye history!), we don't know how old she is, and we of course have no idea of her genetics. Even if the lumps aren't cancerous, they make sense as to why she isn't eating, and even point to some of the other things (ear drop and inflammation, Matt's report that she seemed to be having a little trouble getting up one of the tube slopes on Thursday morning that I put down to possible claw issues, her quick-onset slow chewing and subsequent lightning decline, even the tiredness).

So, the vet's first concern was to get her more normal again, then to proceed with investigating the lumps. She went home with him yesterday afternoon and I've had two phonecalls with good news: she's happy taking syringe feeds (good girl!), she seems to be doing OK on the drip, and she's generally improving slightly. He remarked that she's an easy patient, quiet and compliant without being too submissive, but she also "doesn't give anything away" in his words, so he doesn't know if she's really improving in how she feels (normal for Aboleth, she's pretty chilled and keeps herself to herself unless it's Lopsy who's annoyed her :lol. But she's in the best place and doing OK, so I'm happy

Here she is looking sorry for herself on Saturday morning (look how skinny she is!): she was still interested in what I was doing though


(https://photos.app.goo.gl/F5TU2bBsbEte2NEg8)

Bonus Lopsy picture: we're telling everyone he hasn't noticed she's gone because he's still running off with food, but we think he has noticed something's amiss at least XD Poor not-very-smart Lopsy :lol:


(https://photos.app.goo.gl/WJsSfVo6tD3WPFU9A)

UPDATE post phonecall with vets:

She's doing OK. She's not interested in food but will eat if it's shoved in her face, not sure if that's syringe only or other things too. They're going to do a better blood test today (they got some Saturday but not much and the machine's set up for cats and dogs so not great) and send it off to the external lab, and do an aspiration biopsy of the lumps: they follow the lymph line (as I expected) so are likely to be cancerous. I'm going to go and see her at 5pm

Oh Aboleth I'm reading through your update about her and thinking, please don't let it be something serious. She's a very special girlie and I'm really hoping that all will turn out OK. Sending her lots of vibes and also sending you lots of gentle hugs.

Thanks for the pics - I can see them

Oh no I really hope it isn’t anything serious. She’s having the best of care though sending lots more vibes xx

I am sorry that the update is not great. I hope that Aboleth can remain as comfortable as possible xx

Sending millions of vibes. Xxxxx

Thinking of you and Aboleth xx

Sending loads of vibes for you and Aboleth,