A last tip about getting dill seeds into a pellet form. My recipe.
1 teaspoon of dill seeds ground to a fine powder. (Some electrical grinders can't manage small seeds, some do, so I use a pestle & mortar.) We need a binder, so I grind an equal volume of his SS pellets to a fine powder. (critial care pwder is quite gelatinous but I haven't tried it)
Mix the 2 then add water with a syringe because we don't need much until it's the consistency of modelling clay. Leave for 20 mins. The pellets absorb a lot of water so it goes crumbly again. Add more water to modelling clay consistency again. get a small amount & sqeeze it into pellet size, & let dry a few hours until it's "pickable upable". Some rabbits can manage a mush. Benjie can't & it gets in the end of his nostrils.
Benjie has done his usual Spring diet change. Not keen on anything. He always goes off his weeping willow twigs when the 1st leaves start to come out, & sure enough there are always a few bushes of early hawthorn coming into leaf & he scoffs both leaf & twig with gusto. (Much better fibre & what he's used to) This is normal Spring behaviour for Benjie.
He's had a couple of days of lying much more comfortably. You've guessed it. Dill seed laced pellets are uneaten! Maybe he doesn't need them ????
In fact his diet has been "normalising" over the last 2 weeks.
A gradual introduction of a bit of fresh sticky Willy & dandelion. He's sleeping for longer with much less snoring.
So there we are - tentatively "home & dry" from nerves, snuffles back under control,snoring very quiet & able to sleep without waking himself up. eye discharge stopped with new fur growth. Gut reasonable, poops could be better, but I'm sure that back to his normal fibre will improve poops a lot. Hock sores - stage 1 - small bald patch, skin intact & fur cover from surrounding fur, don't need treating apart from trying to get them to lie on soft bedding, & good nail care, just vigilance. This is common if rabbits "cradle alot" because of abdominal pain & can't take the weight off the hocks properly. It is better not to put creams on them at this stage because creams prevent cover by surrounding fur.
Chin now furry again. I'm really impressed with the calendula cream BUT it can only be used on intact skin more to prevent breakdown or where you are absolutely sure there is no infection.
There's a lesson here for us all. Psychological stress can be purely that a rabbit feels more predator prone. Stress of any sort slows down the gut & drops the immune response so a chronic infection like snuffles an reactivate.
Terminal care is understandably a topic which is painful to think about.
It's far from giving up, it's battle royal with attention to every small detail to keep our rabbits as comfortable as possible & lower stress levels. It can involve some difficult decisions for us - how far to go? The normal treatment for a blocked tear duct would be a flush, but given Benjie's temperament IMO it would have been have been worse for him, than seeing if infection control & reduction of inflammation worked.
All credit to David-vet Abx Injections every 3 days were far less stressful than daily oral meds for Benjie. We got away with it despite Benjie's bleeding tendancy.
Different decisions would have been made for rabbits who are more "layed back", which I think applies to most rabbits!!
I strongly recommend Beccimarie's old threads about Casper & Poppy both had osteomyelitis - Casper jaw & Poppy advanced osteomelitis of the face. Abx couldn't work without extensive surgery to remove dead bone as is explained on the tread. It's astounding how long both rabbits lived with good quality of life, just by attention to every detail to relieve their suffereng & minimise stress & thinking "outside the box".
I would like to thank everyone who has contributed, which has been a great support to me.
