I can't remember when I last was able to post about my big guys, but it's been a big year for them, so now I'm back it's time to catchup.
Freja is, well, Freja - feisty, opinionated, but inwardly quite a little worrier. She's grown up into a beautful big girl but solid muscle, not sure there's an ounce of fat on her!! In the summer it took 7 weeks, not kidding, for her to speak to me again after I dared to pick her up to take her for vaccs - she is an absolute angel at the vets! - but the past few weeks with spending so much time with Odin she has mellowed a lot, and even started climbing on my knee briefly again like she did as a youngster. She spooks easily, but she will let us groom her a bit now. Her only real oddity is nails that double as talons - despite a 50ft run on concrete or sandstone to get to her grazing hill each day, they grow like the clappers.
Odin, my beautiful boy, has had a tough year. He has an old badly healed fracture that we discovered a couple of years ago, so has had arthritis most of the 3 years we've had him. He had a wobble at the start of the year, losing his back end a bit, but recovered well with laser and hydro. Before anyone says anything - we weighed the pros and cons for hydro, I'm an ex-hydro nurse and my best friend is his hydrotherapist so his first swim we were both in the water with him, took it so slowly, hand on his heart the whole time and one monitoring his breathing from the front. But he genuinely loves it, he just floated and floated and stretched and stretched, and the difference was miraculous. He governs the sessions himself, launches straight into the water from the ramp by himself, chooses how long he swims and when he rests, sometimes he just floats around and sometimes he just swims, usually a bit of both. Then when he's had enough for the day he walks up the ramp to come out, then gets lifted down to get a warm shower and blow dry. It's not something either of us would push for most rabbits, but for him it is the very best, and if he could swim every day then I honestly think he would. Sadly we can't replicate it at home, he gets very stressed about being in the bath at home, but he goes every fortnight.
The wobble at the start of the year came from Freja's hormones, she was gripping him and he wasn't strong enough to get away, so we split them at night (they were fine during the day) for a few weeks, just wire between them so they could still snuggle against each other, until spring passed. He was doing fine, but stayed on hydro and metacam.
Then a couple of months ago he started going downhill again, losing his back end, losing his continence, long story but he was either off his left leg because of it's arthritis, or off his right leg with some weird neuro type thing. He's had x-rays, but they don't show any obvious spinal stuff, slight reduce space at LS, but his legs are in a bad way. More detailed scans would mean a big journey and we don't feel it would change anything so it would be a lot of stress for nothing. So we've just been managing him, getting his pain under control, and keeping him happy. We made him some wheels so he could do better physio, once on his wheels he is away at speed, he can still bounce he just doesn't stay upright so the wheels just stabilise him. We got him to the point of being painfree with acupuncture, meds, laser, massage, but he's lost so much muscle mass I'm don't think he'll recover now. He's 4.5yrs, and much as I can't believe it he's apparently an old boy now. He was doing great, then a week ago we found ear mites and a big ear infection. So he's had drops twice a day and jabs, and it's improving but honestly, just now, his QOL is not good enough. Just before his ears kicked off he was great, so happy, so vibrant and cheeky and expressive, just not great at moving by himself. His ears are making him miserable, and though it's improving I'm not sure how long it will take to get better completely, and whether it is fair to wait that time out just to see if we can get him that happy again for just a bit longer.
So my boy is counting time, every day I question myself, but as winter draws in and we have to start trying to keep him warm as well, I know we get closer to helping him go. He's been such an incredible boy, he is singlehandedly responsible for me being here, having rabbits, learning so much, and his character is so strong that it breaks my heart to see him struggle. He has so many appointments every week but he genuinely enjoys them all, he gets in the car and brightens up, waiting to see where we go next. Every time I think we're done, we take him to an appointment and he surprises me by bouncing around the room (old man style!), being nosy, exploring, nudging us out the way. There is no way I could do all of this with Freja, I wouldn't even consider it, but for him it has been the right thing to try. But he's getting tired, and I don't know how i'll survive without him.
I'm not looking for health advice, there's a lot of detail I've missed out but we have covered all the bases that are possible or ethical, this is just where we are right now. I'll get some photos up as soon as I work out how to do it now.
Freja is, well, Freja - feisty, opinionated, but inwardly quite a little worrier. She's grown up into a beautful big girl but solid muscle, not sure there's an ounce of fat on her!! In the summer it took 7 weeks, not kidding, for her to speak to me again after I dared to pick her up to take her for vaccs - she is an absolute angel at the vets! - but the past few weeks with spending so much time with Odin she has mellowed a lot, and even started climbing on my knee briefly again like she did as a youngster. She spooks easily, but she will let us groom her a bit now. Her only real oddity is nails that double as talons - despite a 50ft run on concrete or sandstone to get to her grazing hill each day, they grow like the clappers.
Odin, my beautiful boy, has had a tough year. He has an old badly healed fracture that we discovered a couple of years ago, so has had arthritis most of the 3 years we've had him. He had a wobble at the start of the year, losing his back end a bit, but recovered well with laser and hydro. Before anyone says anything - we weighed the pros and cons for hydro, I'm an ex-hydro nurse and my best friend is his hydrotherapist so his first swim we were both in the water with him, took it so slowly, hand on his heart the whole time and one monitoring his breathing from the front. But he genuinely loves it, he just floated and floated and stretched and stretched, and the difference was miraculous. He governs the sessions himself, launches straight into the water from the ramp by himself, chooses how long he swims and when he rests, sometimes he just floats around and sometimes he just swims, usually a bit of both. Then when he's had enough for the day he walks up the ramp to come out, then gets lifted down to get a warm shower and blow dry. It's not something either of us would push for most rabbits, but for him it is the very best, and if he could swim every day then I honestly think he would. Sadly we can't replicate it at home, he gets very stressed about being in the bath at home, but he goes every fortnight.
The wobble at the start of the year came from Freja's hormones, she was gripping him and he wasn't strong enough to get away, so we split them at night (they were fine during the day) for a few weeks, just wire between them so they could still snuggle against each other, until spring passed. He was doing fine, but stayed on hydro and metacam.
Then a couple of months ago he started going downhill again, losing his back end, losing his continence, long story but he was either off his left leg because of it's arthritis, or off his right leg with some weird neuro type thing. He's had x-rays, but they don't show any obvious spinal stuff, slight reduce space at LS, but his legs are in a bad way. More detailed scans would mean a big journey and we don't feel it would change anything so it would be a lot of stress for nothing. So we've just been managing him, getting his pain under control, and keeping him happy. We made him some wheels so he could do better physio, once on his wheels he is away at speed, he can still bounce he just doesn't stay upright so the wheels just stabilise him. We got him to the point of being painfree with acupuncture, meds, laser, massage, but he's lost so much muscle mass I'm don't think he'll recover now. He's 4.5yrs, and much as I can't believe it he's apparently an old boy now. He was doing great, then a week ago we found ear mites and a big ear infection. So he's had drops twice a day and jabs, and it's improving but honestly, just now, his QOL is not good enough. Just before his ears kicked off he was great, so happy, so vibrant and cheeky and expressive, just not great at moving by himself. His ears are making him miserable, and though it's improving I'm not sure how long it will take to get better completely, and whether it is fair to wait that time out just to see if we can get him that happy again for just a bit longer.
So my boy is counting time, every day I question myself, but as winter draws in and we have to start trying to keep him warm as well, I know we get closer to helping him go. He's been such an incredible boy, he is singlehandedly responsible for me being here, having rabbits, learning so much, and his character is so strong that it breaks my heart to see him struggle. He has so many appointments every week but he genuinely enjoys them all, he gets in the car and brightens up, waiting to see where we go next. Every time I think we're done, we take him to an appointment and he surprises me by bouncing around the room (old man style!), being nosy, exploring, nudging us out the way. There is no way I could do all of this with Freja, I wouldn't even consider it, but for him it has been the right thing to try. But he's getting tired, and I don't know how i'll survive without him.
I'm not looking for health advice, there's a lot of detail I've missed out but we have covered all the bases that are possible or ethical, this is just where we are right now. I'll get some photos up as soon as I work out how to do it now.
