Lagomorphine
Warren Scout
One of our rabbits, Charlie, is really showing signs of age related deteriorating health and we are not sure what to do.
Here's a summary of the situation:
- He is about 8 years old and has been with us for 5 years. He has a large run in the garden, his bonded pair Willow died a few years ago, so he is on his own.
- As a result of cataracts, he is almost completely blind now, at best he can distinguish between daylight and night but we are not even sure of that.
- He has worsening mobility problems in his hind legs, basically he sort of drags them rather than using them as proper bunny legs.
- We suspect he can't properly reach his hind area, so we are not sure how much he is capable of eating his caecotrophs - his living area seems to have quite a few soft, mushy poos and probably as a result of all this, his hind legs are permanently dirty. We try to bathe him but with limited success, we suspect his poo and wee just end up on his hind legs.
- For the last few weeks (since the cold spell a few weeks ago) we brought him in the house, so currently he is living in our utility room, which is far from ideal but at least he can be monitored and cleaned out.
Apart from his pretty bad general condition, he seems reasonably happy, he shuffles around a bit, finding his way using smell and his whiskers, eats hay and pellets. But we are not sure how to go on.
Clearly he can't go outside any more and if he did he would be at risk of flystrike sooner or later, due to his dirty bottom. But living in the utility room is not sustainable in the long run (plus the flystrike would still be a risk).
Any ideas?
Here's a summary of the situation:
- He is about 8 years old and has been with us for 5 years. He has a large run in the garden, his bonded pair Willow died a few years ago, so he is on his own.
- As a result of cataracts, he is almost completely blind now, at best he can distinguish between daylight and night but we are not even sure of that.
- He has worsening mobility problems in his hind legs, basically he sort of drags them rather than using them as proper bunny legs.
- We suspect he can't properly reach his hind area, so we are not sure how much he is capable of eating his caecotrophs - his living area seems to have quite a few soft, mushy poos and probably as a result of all this, his hind legs are permanently dirty. We try to bathe him but with limited success, we suspect his poo and wee just end up on his hind legs.
- For the last few weeks (since the cold spell a few weeks ago) we brought him in the house, so currently he is living in our utility room, which is far from ideal but at least he can be monitored and cleaned out.
Apart from his pretty bad general condition, he seems reasonably happy, he shuffles around a bit, finding his way using smell and his whiskers, eats hay and pellets. But we are not sure how to go on.
Clearly he can't go outside any more and if he did he would be at risk of flystrike sooner or later, due to his dirty bottom. But living in the utility room is not sustainable in the long run (plus the flystrike would still be a risk).
Any ideas?