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Zaika's story

hot knox buns

Young Bun
Monday my sweet Zaika lost her battle with snuffles. She was almost 5 years old, and one of the most amazing buns I have ever known.

I adopted Zaika from Vet Tech school in early 2005. She was young and already very ill. A NZW, she was from a local lab that allowed us to use 6 rabbits every year to learn important handling and procedures with. When my sister's bunny, Pepper, passed on, I decided to adopt two of the bunnies from school, so they did not have to go back to the lab.

At 6 months of age, Zaika's blood work was already terrible. Her lymphocyte/heterophil ratio was inverted, as can happen with chronic illness. The vets from both the lab and school thought she had leukemia.

Unspayed, she and her sister came home with me to live and work out their issues. They had ONE fight in the past 5 years, and have been fantastic, unlike most unspayed females. Because of Zaika's illness, I decided to leave both of them intact and avoid risking an upset in the household or death from anesthesia from the surgery.

Over the years, Zaika had a lot of ups and downs. She went through her first gut stasis before I had any formal training on what it was or how to handle it. Through pure luck and the power of some helpful internet sites, I nursed her back on my own. She must have gone through stasis at least 3 times.

Her breathing was always a problem, and when she was about a year old, I learned about snuffles and figured out that was her problem. Although she did not have the typical copious amounts of snot, she was def a snuffles bun. I was sure of it.

We went through many courses of antibiotics with her. Baytril, sulfa/trim, Ciprofloxacin, Chloramphenicol, Tetracycline... She was on it all!

As she got older, there were many times that I thought it was the end. One time, she was down to 8 pounds, had sores on all her feet, and was crying out in the night from her breathing problems. I took her in to work to culture her, and make sure she was on the right meds. She almost died under anesthesia, and I had to improvise the culture, as a trans-tracheal wash was out of the question. I was sure we were not going to get the culture back. But it came in with more pasteurella than I have ever seen on a culture before!! She bounced back, again!

We moved across country with her twice. Both times, seeing her decline to a point where we thought we were going to lose her, only to find she would bounce back as soon as we settled her in our new home.

Recently, she had been doing wonderful! She was doing so well that we took her off antibiotics for a while to see how she would do. She wasn't coughing, she wasn't sneezing, she was up to 11 pounds, eating well, and dancing around the house like a happy bunny should!!

This past weekend, I went to visit my mom. We talked about how great Zaika had been doing. But when I returned home, I didn't even walk two steps inside before I knew something was terribly wrong.

She seemed to be in terrible pain and was not eating or moving. I felt for a break in her back, thinking that must be what happened. Didn't feel anything abnormal on palpation, so I confined her for the night, gave her some metacam, and took her to work with me the next morning.

As soon as I got to work, I gave her some buprenex, a very strong pain medication. I gave her a very middle-of-the-road dose, and took her in to xray that back and her right rear leg.

The radiographs showed no back injuries, but her leg looked terrible. Not only was her hip in terrible shape, she had a lytic lesion on her long bones. No signs of tumor, but the outer layer (cortex) of the bone was all eaten away. It is possible there was a fracture that was too small and too early to see on film. We figured she had septic arthritis, and were going to put her back on high dose antibiotics and pain meds to treat.

I replaced her in her cage by my desk and went on caring for some of the other hospitalized patients we had in. The next time I turned around, my poor Zaika was gone.

I held her for a while and cried.

I cannot believe she finally left us... She was such a strong bunny! She always managed to pull through, and in the end she died when no one realized how sick she was getting. She had been doing SO WELL lately, it has been so heartbreaking.

I miss her, and I worry for her sister. Snejanka is so bonded with her sister, and I am not in the position to bring another snuffles positive bun into the house to try to be a new companion. I can only hope that the friendships my buns have always had with us and our cats can help carry Snejanka through. That and a few bananas when she is feeling blue.

Please think of my girls... Both Zaika who fought the good fight, and her sister Snejanka, who is left behind to miss her.

Zaika, thank you for teaching me SO MUCH about being an awesome bunny nurse! I have had 13 bunnies grace my life, but you have been the single most important one ever. I have learned more form you than all my other bunnies put together. You have changed me in ways I cannot begin to explain.

I miss my girl.
 
Zaika (left) and Snejanka (right) in October 2009
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So sorry to hear about Zaika. She was a very lucky bunny to be adopted by you and to have received such wonderful care through all her illness.

Run free little Zaika :(

Cerys
 
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