Craig 1965
Warren Veteran
Apologies I don't post much on here lately. I don't get much spare time these days. But here's a story from 2 days ago about a little bunny called Bertie....
Bertie has been with us since August last year. All has been well at our warren barring a little blip with Flo in October with stasis. But Bertie has been fine. He's always at Flos side. I came home from work last thursday. Jan was at her mums and the bunnies had been in the kitchen all afternoon. Both bunnies were fine. They wanted garden time so I let them out at 5:30pm for a couple of hours. They were happy outside, nomming on the grass. I fetched them in at 7:30pm as I was going to go to bed (I'd had a terrible nights sleep the previous night). I got the snuffle mats ready and put the first one down. Bertie and Flo started tucking in like normal. I went to bed and was more or less in z-land before being woken by Jan at 9:45pm. "Berties not right" she said. I went downstairs and Bertie was lying on the floor - more or less as he usually does at night. But Jan had been home about 45 minutes and she just felt that Bertie wasn't looking right, even though as I was watching him, it all seemed ok. The only subtle shift was that Bertie usually lies next to Flo and he curls his feet round the back of Flo. This time he was on his own and his feet were slightly poking out straight. No other clues. Jan said he didn't want the second snuffle mat - and Bertie is always first to the snuffle mats. Another subtle shift in behaviour. I offered Bertie a chopped blueberry - he never ever refuses a blueberry. He looked at it and turned away. Then moved, lay down again and refused the blueberry again.
2 hours earlier he was happily eating the herbs and pellets from the snuffle mat. Maybe he just wasn't hungry? Something didn't feel right and I could see Jan was concerned. So we rang the vet.
Now, this will sound all wrong but after the tragidy of Alfred and the out of hours vet last June, I was extremely anxious about calling the out of hours vet. Why is it when my rabbits get poorly they always wait until 1 minte past 8 - which is when the OOH vets takes over. But I knew that we mustnt delay so we rang the OOH vets and requested to bring Bertie in. Again, thsi will sound wrong - I do not mean it to be because Bertie (and Flo) are insured. But just taking Bertie to the OOH vet at 10pm was going to cost.....£290. I'm sorry, but this is wrong. There is something fundamentally wrong with the system here.
But our rabbits are insured so I wasn't worried about costs. Berties health was and will be my priority as is Flos. I picked up Bertie and to be fair, he didnt protest and that also told me something was wrong. We got to the vet and the nurse took Bertie for a triage. Alrady something felt different - this was an entirely different care to what we have had previously. We sat down and waited until the nurse returned. She came back minus Bertie and explaine dthat the vet would be out in a moment as she was with another patient. She explained that his vitals all seemed normal. Heart rate was a bit high but he gets very stressed in a carrier - I think that is something from his past. His breathing was ok so the initial triage was all positive.
The vet called us in - it was about 10:30pm by now. No Bertie. I was starting to get worried. But this vet was different and there was something very reassuring about her - as we were about to find out.
She had given Bertie a thorough examination. Top to toe. His temperature was slightly lower than she would like. He was active but she had felt his tummy and not found any concern. On listening to his guts, she said one side was ok but the other side sounded slightly slower. So we have a slight drop in temperature and a slight slowing down of his guts. The vet wasn't totally convinced on stasis but she ruled nothing out as clearly we knew there was something not right. So she offered us options. We could go home with him and see how he went overnight. We could admit him to the hospital and they would monitor him. Or she could do a spot glucose test right now and see how that came back.
Bertie has been with us since August last year. All has been well at our warren barring a little blip with Flo in October with stasis. But Bertie has been fine. He's always at Flos side. I came home from work last thursday. Jan was at her mums and the bunnies had been in the kitchen all afternoon. Both bunnies were fine. They wanted garden time so I let them out at 5:30pm for a couple of hours. They were happy outside, nomming on the grass. I fetched them in at 7:30pm as I was going to go to bed (I'd had a terrible nights sleep the previous night). I got the snuffle mats ready and put the first one down. Bertie and Flo started tucking in like normal. I went to bed and was more or less in z-land before being woken by Jan at 9:45pm. "Berties not right" she said. I went downstairs and Bertie was lying on the floor - more or less as he usually does at night. But Jan had been home about 45 minutes and she just felt that Bertie wasn't looking right, even though as I was watching him, it all seemed ok. The only subtle shift was that Bertie usually lies next to Flo and he curls his feet round the back of Flo. This time he was on his own and his feet were slightly poking out straight. No other clues. Jan said he didn't want the second snuffle mat - and Bertie is always first to the snuffle mats. Another subtle shift in behaviour. I offered Bertie a chopped blueberry - he never ever refuses a blueberry. He looked at it and turned away. Then moved, lay down again and refused the blueberry again.
2 hours earlier he was happily eating the herbs and pellets from the snuffle mat. Maybe he just wasn't hungry? Something didn't feel right and I could see Jan was concerned. So we rang the vet.
Now, this will sound all wrong but after the tragidy of Alfred and the out of hours vet last June, I was extremely anxious about calling the out of hours vet. Why is it when my rabbits get poorly they always wait until 1 minte past 8 - which is when the OOH vets takes over. But I knew that we mustnt delay so we rang the OOH vets and requested to bring Bertie in. Again, thsi will sound wrong - I do not mean it to be because Bertie (and Flo) are insured. But just taking Bertie to the OOH vet at 10pm was going to cost.....£290. I'm sorry, but this is wrong. There is something fundamentally wrong with the system here.
But our rabbits are insured so I wasn't worried about costs. Berties health was and will be my priority as is Flos. I picked up Bertie and to be fair, he didnt protest and that also told me something was wrong. We got to the vet and the nurse took Bertie for a triage. Alrady something felt different - this was an entirely different care to what we have had previously. We sat down and waited until the nurse returned. She came back minus Bertie and explaine dthat the vet would be out in a moment as she was with another patient. She explained that his vitals all seemed normal. Heart rate was a bit high but he gets very stressed in a carrier - I think that is something from his past. His breathing was ok so the initial triage was all positive.
The vet called us in - it was about 10:30pm by now. No Bertie. I was starting to get worried. But this vet was different and there was something very reassuring about her - as we were about to find out.
She had given Bertie a thorough examination. Top to toe. His temperature was slightly lower than she would like. He was active but she had felt his tummy and not found any concern. On listening to his guts, she said one side was ok but the other side sounded slightly slower. So we have a slight drop in temperature and a slight slowing down of his guts. The vet wasn't totally convinced on stasis but she ruled nothing out as clearly we knew there was something not right. So she offered us options. We could go home with him and see how he went overnight. We could admit him to the hospital and they would monitor him. Or she could do a spot glucose test right now and see how that came back.
