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Please Remember to Advocate for your rabbit

Sky-O

Wise Old Thumper
Please Remember to Advocate for your rabbit- UD pg 7, pst 64

Let me tell you a story (it may be familiar :lol: and a bit long, sorry).

In June 2010 I took on a foster litter. You may remember them. ;) http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=231881

One of those babies was the lovely little Wish.

Wish arrived with a host of problems. She had very sparse fur, dandruff, her anus popped out of place and got swollen, she was half the size of the other littermates, she had a swollen stomach from the goats milk, she had 'abscences', she couldn't hold her body weight and two days after she arrived, when she went to the vet, my vet identified that she likely had a metabolic disorder. His suspicion (although we will only ever be able to find out by a PM when she dies) is that her liver is not joined up as it should be.

Quite simply, we expected her to die.

Oh. Not Wish.

She went from strength to strength, grew (but always remained smaller), lost her dandruff, grew lush fur and we worked out ways to help her with her bodyweight and her eating.

We decided not to vaccinate her. We also decided that it would be unlikely we would be able to spay her either.

She thrived much longer than we thought.

Then mid August last year she went exceptionally boney overnight, started drooling and her eye was running.

Dose of Metacam and off to the vets we went.

My vet was horrified by the state of the teeth in her mouth. She didn't have spurs, as such, but she had too many teeth for her mouth and they were all higgledy piggley. Likely, due to the fact she was stunted and hadn't grown, her mouth had not grown enough to accommodation all her teeth. A person with those problems might have teeth removed and then a Brace. For Wish, we could do very little.

Knowing what a weakling Wish was, what she was fighting with in life and seeing the horrendous sight in her mouth, but that she didn't have spurs, his only suggestion was to let her go. She had survived far longer than any of us thought she would, but the horrendous state that she was in due to her teeth was not something that he felt he could do much of anything about.

The only option on the table was to have her put to sleep.

Instinctively I knew what was going to come out of my mouth before it did (and I suspect maybe my vet did too). I told him no. I told him that I didn't believe that was in the best interests of Wish and that Wish would tell us when she was ready to go.

I knew, in everything that I had, that this plucky rabbit wanted to fight. She had more fight in her than most of the bunnies I have met (with the possible exception of Rosie- who also found herself in a very similar situation) and, knowing Wish, I knew it was not fair and not right to at least not try.

So I asked my vet what the other options were. He said he could look to flush her tear ducts, looked to burr her teeth somehow, and I asked about x-rays and he said that would be sensible. We discussed pain relief.

The conclusion that we both arrived to was that we would do the dental, the pain relief, the x-rays the tear duct flush. If and when Wish was ready to be PTS then we would follow her lead. My vet was comfortable with this, and so was I. All I wanted was her to have the chance she deserved.

The dental came and it was done. The tear ducts were flushed and the x-ray taken. The x-ray showed a messy skull and too many teeth, but my vet said whilst it was very nasty, it was not as very nasty as he thought it might be.

Wish bounced back super quick and gained weight.

Within three days Wish was back to being emaciated and drooling. Still very lively and bright. Still not ready.

So then came the Metacam. As discussed with my vet, we put her on daily Metacam. We messed about with the dose until we found what was right for her.

By mid September, she was stable, although split from her brother/sister :)lol:)

Mid October, she started drooling and needed another dental. 10 week mark. Not bad. So she had her dental and came home.

End of October she was bonded with Autumn.

Mid November the pair of them were bonded with Flame.

24th December, she had her next dental- bang on ten weeks.

In January, we felt she was well enough to try a vaccination, so she had a VHD vacc. She did fine.

She turned 1 at the end of April.

She went a whopping nearly 4 and a half months between dentals and needed one at the start of May. When the dental was done, my vet was amazed with how her teeth had spread as her skull grew. At the same time she had her dental, she was also spayed. The spay was the toughest thing she had been through and due to her lack of absroption and dodgy metabolism, she came back emaciated and she also temporarily lost the use of her back end. But, as Wish does, she recovered.

In July, given how well she had done with her VHD vacc, the fact she was spayed and now thriving, we gave her her myxi vacc.

Now, one year one, she is three months free from a dental, she is a healthy weight, she has been vaccinated, she has been spayed. She has daily pain relief, but it helps her keep happy. She binkies, she Bunny 500s. She is bonded to two luscious bunnies who look after her. She is happy.

She got her chance.

She has a future.

What is the moral of the story?

To advocate.

These bunnies rely on us to state what we feel is best for them (note, for them, not for us) and we have to do that.

Vets are human and they see only the clinical presentation. They don't know the rabbit behind the symptoms. What your rabbit can and can't take, would and wouldn't want, only we can know that from knowing the bunny. They also make misjudgements because they are human and my vet would likely admit he was wrong to suggest having her PTS, but only hindsight would tell him that. Had he done it, he would have been comfortable with his decision.

When you're in that vets room don't just stand there. Ask questions.

What's this?

What's that?

What are you giving her?

Why are you giving her that?

Why are you prescribing that?

What other options are there?

What do you think the future holds?

What do we try next?

X is my gut feeling, what can we do about that?

Tell the vet what you feel is best for your bunny and work with the vet to find an outcome you are both happy with. Get all the information that you most possibly can about whatever is going on for your rabbit. Even if you don't have as much knowledge as you would like, you can still ask questions to learn and understand.

I would also like to make it clear I'm not suggesting going against vet advice. That would be wrong and irresponsible of me. Only an owner can make that choice.

What I am saying is
Remember to speak up and be the voice of your rabbit. No one else will be.

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She's watching! :lol:




Also, I hope none of this offends or upsets or anything. I just think it is important.
 
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Thank you, what a wonderful story. Nice message. I think most (certainly not all, but most) good vets welcome an owner with a bit of knowledge and/questions :)
 
Fantastic post! Absolutely right, and that's why I love my vet. She speaks to me as an equal, tells me I know my rabbits better than anyone, and that anything we do is my decision.
It's hard, and others may have let Squidgy go long before we did, but we knew he wasn't ready to go. He told us when he was.
Wish is amazing :love:
 
great advice :D

over the years there have been several animals offered PTS..to which we have said " no, can we try this a b or c ? " and they gone on to live healthy lives
 
Wish is beautiful!:love:

Awesome post! And what a fab bunny mummy you are to help her through all her problems and for her still to be enjoying life. She really landed on her paws with you. Most people would have given up.
 
Totally, 100% agree! :thumb:

Also, if you forget to ask something during the original consultation don't be afraid to ring back and ask. I have a terrible memory (thanks to thyroid issues) and can easily be led off on a different train of thought, but it is never to late to go back and ask a question, especially when your buns quality of life depends on it!
 
What an amazing story :love: Wish is such a fighter :love: and your an amazing bunny mum for fighting along side her through all that and not letting her go :love:

Wish is beautiful :love::love:
 
What a lovely story.

I agree. When I took Molly to the vets when she was refusing food, the vet said, you can't tell that she is ill just because she didn't feel like eating one time :roll:

I said, yes I can, she's my rabbit, I insisted on treatment and she is still here today :love:
 
Oh SwishWish:love:

I'm feeling a bit like this with Benji at the moment. He has improved so much, poos are the best they've ever been, eating more hay than ever etc, but he's not gaining much weight. But, I'm prepared to speak for him until the day I *know* that it's his time.
 
My vet doesn't really do that and I wished he would. When we're explaining the problem he looks at my mum then at me when I start talking. Then he talks over me and when I wanna say somat when he's talking he talks over me. I don't likee him :censored:

But wish Is Goergeous :love: :love: :love:
 
Well done to all of you who have advocated :D

It works all ways,

If you have a rabbit who has an illness/injury and you think they can't take anymore or couldn't cope with the palliative care, then you can advocate for them.

If you have an ill rabbit and are scared the vet may suggest being PTS and you know that's not right, then arm yourself with the knowledge you can advocate to calm that fear.

If you think a specific treatment will make the difference, then advocate and discuss it with your vet.

If you think your rabbit is in pain then advocate about pain relief.

This is a brilliant example as well

FudgeTort said:
I agree. When I took Molly to the vets when she was refusing food, the vet said, you can't tell that she is ill just because she didn't feel like eating one time

I said, yes I can, she's my rabbit, I insisted on treatment and she is still here today

If you know something is not right then tell the vet and advocate. You don't need to know what the problem is, just that there is a problem. It's the vets job to find it (unless you do know, obviously, and even then the vet should be doing a thorough check).

The other thing to remember is, never be afraid to seek a second opinion.
 
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Thanks very much for this :wave:
I will think of you and of Wish the next time we're in the Vets and I'm noy entirely sure about what the Vet says.
I remember reading about Wish and her siblings a while ago, I'm so glad she's doing well :)
 
Wonderful advice from everyone. I know that Ian will fight for my babies as hard as I will.He is open to any suggestions I can come up with and I am so lucky to have him.
Both you and Wish are an inspiration to anyone with a poorly bun :love:
 
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