yaretzi
Wise Old Thumper
After 3 years and 3 months of fighting a dental abscess, I finally made the decision to put Nena to sleep yesterday 2nd August. She was just under 7 years old.
I got Nena and her sister Tapla when they were very young. I was looking on Preloved as I was interested in getting a house bunny at some point, and I came across an advert where a family had gotten 2 baby rabbits from Pets at Home a week earlier and no longer wanted them. They were intending to let the bunnies loose in the park unless anyone collected them. I messaged them asking them to take them back to Pets at Home but the family refused, so I felt I had no choice...
I brought them home when I was living in halls. I'd only been living away from home at college for a few weeks before I got them. They lived in halls with me for a few months before I was inevitably found out when there was an emergency with the shower in the apartment above. My rabbits were confiscated by the college staff (I was doing an HND in Animal Management and the college had a large animal department) before I begged my brother to look after them until I could move. I then moved into a house a while away from the college with an awful roommate, and then moved again to live by myself. After finishing my course I moved back in with my mom and step-dad to study for a BSc in Animal Biology, which meant that the bunnies had to move outside but also got much better accommodation. I got them a 6 x 4 shed and a 6 x 4 run, which I upgraded a year ago or so for an 8 x 4 x 3 run. I can't wait to move out so that I could provide them with a large shed and aviary setup, but sadly Nena will never see that happen.
Nena lost a lot of weight and had a wet mouth, so I took her to several vets near to me who were less than useless. I then came on here to ask for rabbit savvy vets, and found a good vets a little while away who looked after Nena for about a year. She then had a bit of time where she was fairly okay, but then it came back so I moved vets as my old vet was no longer working there. That's when I first saw Marie Kubiak who has been fantastic and instrumental in their treatment of Nena. After some more time and a lot of effort, heartache and money we realised that Nena's jaw abscess was going to come back for the rest of her life and eventually we would be out of options. We decided that while Nena's abscess was under control at the moment due to ceporex injections once a day, I would give Nena some time to be a normal bunny without the frequent vets visits and frequent care of wounds.
Nena surprised us all and had a very long time where all she needed was a dental every 4 months and occasionally some teeth out at the same time. However, Nena recently developed pus in the ear (either from the jaw abscess tracking up to her ear, or from dirt getting into her ear) and after some consideration I decided not to have ear ablation surgery as it could entail up to 4 operations depending on if both ears were affected and I had no way of knowing when her jaw abscess might recur. By this time we had also used all antibiotics that would be effective on the jaw abscess so if it was tracking up from the jaw we had no antibiotics to combat it. The lump on her ear grew quickly and moved downwards until it was affecting the side of her face.
Nena was binkying, begging for food and generally looking for love and affection up until her final vets visit. After everything Nena has been through I was keen to ensure that she did not linger on, progressively suffering more and more until her life became unbearable.
Nena went to sleep forever at about 3.30pm on Tuesday 2nd August 2016. She was brave and incredible, and the best bunny anyone could ever wish for. The sedative was supposed to take around 5-10 minutes to take affect, but she was gone in less than 2 minutes.
Nena was deaf, and I was used to seeing her seemingly unresponsive in a dead bunny flop so often (and then waking up and running around in circles stomping when she finally realised I was there) that it was very weird and surreal to have her not respond. I just can't believe that my sparky little bunny is gone forever. I will miss you forever, Nena.
Nena was always the brave one...:
Being held by my mom:
I got Nena and her sister Tapla when they were very young. I was looking on Preloved as I was interested in getting a house bunny at some point, and I came across an advert where a family had gotten 2 baby rabbits from Pets at Home a week earlier and no longer wanted them. They were intending to let the bunnies loose in the park unless anyone collected them. I messaged them asking them to take them back to Pets at Home but the family refused, so I felt I had no choice...
I brought them home when I was living in halls. I'd only been living away from home at college for a few weeks before I got them. They lived in halls with me for a few months before I was inevitably found out when there was an emergency with the shower in the apartment above. My rabbits were confiscated by the college staff (I was doing an HND in Animal Management and the college had a large animal department) before I begged my brother to look after them until I could move. I then moved into a house a while away from the college with an awful roommate, and then moved again to live by myself. After finishing my course I moved back in with my mom and step-dad to study for a BSc in Animal Biology, which meant that the bunnies had to move outside but also got much better accommodation. I got them a 6 x 4 shed and a 6 x 4 run, which I upgraded a year ago or so for an 8 x 4 x 3 run. I can't wait to move out so that I could provide them with a large shed and aviary setup, but sadly Nena will never see that happen.
Nena lost a lot of weight and had a wet mouth, so I took her to several vets near to me who were less than useless. I then came on here to ask for rabbit savvy vets, and found a good vets a little while away who looked after Nena for about a year. She then had a bit of time where she was fairly okay, but then it came back so I moved vets as my old vet was no longer working there. That's when I first saw Marie Kubiak who has been fantastic and instrumental in their treatment of Nena. After some more time and a lot of effort, heartache and money we realised that Nena's jaw abscess was going to come back for the rest of her life and eventually we would be out of options. We decided that while Nena's abscess was under control at the moment due to ceporex injections once a day, I would give Nena some time to be a normal bunny without the frequent vets visits and frequent care of wounds.
Nena surprised us all and had a very long time where all she needed was a dental every 4 months and occasionally some teeth out at the same time. However, Nena recently developed pus in the ear (either from the jaw abscess tracking up to her ear, or from dirt getting into her ear) and after some consideration I decided not to have ear ablation surgery as it could entail up to 4 operations depending on if both ears were affected and I had no way of knowing when her jaw abscess might recur. By this time we had also used all antibiotics that would be effective on the jaw abscess so if it was tracking up from the jaw we had no antibiotics to combat it. The lump on her ear grew quickly and moved downwards until it was affecting the side of her face.
Nena was binkying, begging for food and generally looking for love and affection up until her final vets visit. After everything Nena has been through I was keen to ensure that she did not linger on, progressively suffering more and more until her life became unbearable.
Nena went to sleep forever at about 3.30pm on Tuesday 2nd August 2016. She was brave and incredible, and the best bunny anyone could ever wish for. The sedative was supposed to take around 5-10 minutes to take affect, but she was gone in less than 2 minutes.
Nena was deaf, and I was used to seeing her seemingly unresponsive in a dead bunny flop so often (and then waking up and running around in circles stomping when she finally realised I was there) that it was very weird and surreal to have her not respond. I just can't believe that my sparky little bunny is gone forever. I will miss you forever, Nena.
Nena was always the brave one...:
Being held by my mom:
Rip, Nena. She looks like she had a very happy life with you, love the photo of her in the garden all flopped x
so sorry, she had the best care with you, Binky free Nena xxx
