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Arthur's Journey For All To Read

*Warning possibly distressing content*

I hope in writing this impossibly difficult post that it helps others learn, and that it adds to the wonderful information out there on the internet regarding various rabbit health problems and peoples journey's. I have been on a journey I will never forget, my partner and I are totally broken and beyond devastated from the battle we have had. Arthur has now gone. I would like to share a brief history of his journey.

*Arthur had always been an incredibly healthy happy Netherland Dwarf Cross house rabbit weighing 1.2 kg, aside from a couple of cases of "snuffles" 2 years ago for which he was treated with Baytril and one bout of GI Stasis, he hasn't needed treating for anything else until recently.

*April 2015: Arthur seemed to lose most of his litter training habits that up to that point had been so good. There seemed no catalyst for this and when I say my partner and I literally tried every different trick in the book to restore it, I mean it. Somewhere in the region of 20 different tests/solutions to fix this problem and after a great deal of frustration, In the end we just had to accept that there was nothing going to solve this problem.

*November 2016: Arthur was now 4 and a half years old. We noticed Arthur was holding his front left leg a little tentatively, he kept tapping it on the floor and then lifting it, my partner was worried it seemed neurological the odd way he was repeatedly lifting it. Arthur was still running perfectly darting back and forth as he always did but possibly seemed slightly less active and a little quieter, you could only notice it when he was sitting still, as he would lift it or keep tapping it on the floor. We left it a little to see if he had just sprained it as it seemed intermittent and then we took Arthur to the vets. The vet said he thought it was arthritis. Arthur was prescribed a very low dose of Metacam on which there was no improvement.

*December 15th 2016: My partner and I still weren't convinced the cause of his leg/foot issue was arthritis so we went back to the vets and we asked to have an x-ray. Arthur was put under general anaesthetic for this (to our surprise). Arthur's x-ray did show some arthritis but nothing severe. They also did X Rays of his bladder to check for anything obvious like stones or sludge but it all looked fine. The advice was to increase the Metacam. Once again, there was no improvement in Arthur's condition.

*January 7th 2017: Arthur was fine in the morning and we returned home to find Arthur unable to walk properly like he had a stroke, his head was dipping, his eyes were scanning and he was rolling over when he tried to walk. Terrified we went straight to the out of hours vet in Guildford we had never been to before. It was a horrendous experience, the vet looked as if she had never seen a rabbit before and initially told us Arthur was "fine". We demanded he needed medication like Panacur or Baytril as we thought he had E Cuniculi or an ear infection. The vets went to look for the medication and said they didn't have any there. We essentially paid £160 to be told to go to our vets in the morning. Arthur had to spend the night in that state where we padded a small dog crate with vet bed to make sure he didn't hurt himself until the morning.

*January 8th 2017: We took Arthur first thing to our vets and they too thought it was EC or an ear infection. Arthur was prescribed Baytril and Panacur and told us to increase the dose of Metacam. We also treated our other rabbit for 28 days. It was a long haul to get Arthur to a point where he was even remotely stable on his feet. After a solid week of critical care, Panacur, Baytril and Metacam Arthur was much more stable and after nearly two weeks we thought he was going to be just fine. However during this period Arthur's "wellness" just seemed to drop, he seemed in pain, more uncomfortable and like he was not right.

*Janurary 20th 2017: We took him back to our vets expressing our concerns he was not progressing and seemed to have plateaued, the vet seemed pleased with his progress and said to just carry on what we were doing. Soon after this Arthur's stomach became upset and we were speaking to the vets every two days with updates. Arthur was prescribed ranitidine to try and get his stomach back in order and eventually it did start to clear up.

*February 4th 2017: Arthur went back to the vets once again as we were concerned his coordination seemed bad, his stomach was still very temperamental, when he hopped he sounded like someone shaking a hot water bottle, the vets said to continue what we were doing and that it should clear up. We were worried about having to stop the Panacur as the EC symptoms seemed very present still.

*February 9th 2017: Arthur had basically been back to his old self. Just as we got Arthur's stomach sorted and having been off Panacur for 5 days after completing a 28 day course, we took Arthur back to the vet as he was drinking a lot of water, had suddenly developed a wet tail and was dribbling urine. We had some blood tests done and the kidney levels were very high one was 28 and one was 271 (beyond my understanding I think one was urea and one was creatinine). We were advised that he had renal failure and that he wouldn't live long, we were told by the vet that they would "understand if we didn't want to carry on and if we wanted to end things".

We obviously said we would carry on as he still had quality of life. We were given Baytril in case there was also a UTI. We got Arthur home and we were obviously distraught that we were going to lose him. Then the unimaginable happened, that evening after returning from the vets having just been told he had renal failure the EC symptoms came back in full force and he was falling over again. At this point we honestly could not imagine how he would make it through this again, when we had just spent over a month getting him back to this stage only to have the symptoms all come back once more.

* February 10th: I called the vets and was advised that it was probably an EC flare up and that we should NOT give him panacur as it should of worked by now and see how he was in 48 hours.

Continued in part 2 below
 
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*February 11th: I called vets again as Arthur seemed really wobbly they told us to restart the panacur and I also asked about Fortekor for his kidneys (I heard about online) which we started that day.

*February 15th: Arthur was still really uncomfortable and was grinding his teeth loudly in pain. He had also developed a weird spasm in his head and chest most likened to a tick reflex. His front legs were causing him problems his right leg was now displaying the same symptoms to that the left leg issue that back in November. The vets decided to redo the blood results, another X Ray (which we made sure he wouldn't be put under for) to see if anything was going on in his tummy, kidneys and to give him a tiny bit of gas to look in the back of his mouth to check his back teeth. His blood results showed that the kidney levels had come down and were considerably better than 1 week previously. One level was now 12 and one was 225. Still high but a lot lower. The X rays did not show any cause for the pain and his teeth were fine. We were advised to up the Metacam for 48 hours and to give him some Fibreplex. His Baytril was also extended to 14 days to ensure the infection had gone. We felt that this was positive as the kidney levels had nearly gone back to normal and we thought perhaps it was an infection that had caused the really high levels and maybe he would be ok. My partner and I showed videos of Arthur's tick/twitching and this hiccup type mini convulsion he seemed to be having occasionally to the vets, which had seemed to develop after the second EC attack. They didn't really have an answer to it and just said to keep an eye on it.

*February 20th: Arthur seemed better in himself for the last week he had not had a wet tail, he wasn't eating hay though. However we then noticed his tail was wet again which was a shock. I called the vets and they asked to drop in a urine sample. The urine sample showed no infection, some protein and that it was very "dilute" which is probably due to the kidneys. This was heart breaking as we had started feeling quite positive that we might have a couple more years with Arthur. We are however still mystified as to why we were offered to put Arthur to sleep when his Kidney values went down so much by the following week. Never the less, Arthur's suffering was literally minimal through nearly all of the above, it sounds awful when you read it but he was doing fine and just had moments of discomfort. By this point he was basically completely back to normal. However after the second EC attack it's like it took something from him and his chewing etc was slower and more laboured.

*February 25th: We drove Arthur to a rabbit specialist over an hour away despite our vets being very good and seemingly rabbit savvy, as we were concerned that the twitching in his legs was getting worse. He had also developed a slight hiccup tick, possibly you may call it a mini convulsion that just happened every so often. The vet's opinion is that we should continue the Panacur for at least another month and that she'd seen far worse and that sometimes these things do get worse before they get better. She also advised us that she had seen symptoms disappear right up to the last minute of Panacur treatment so just to keep going and hope it would stop. My partner and I weren't convinced it would go but persisted. During all of this time Arthur was in great spirits, food obsessed (possibly way more than was healthy), active, energetic and full of life.

March 22rd: While having a very good month or so, Arthur's hiccup / convulsion issue started looking a little more pronounced and he made a noise almost like a cough.

March 23rd: While he started the day well, by the end of it after another cough noise which at this point seemed like a mini seizure, Arthur was much less active, disinterested in food and looking uncomfortable. Again the twitching was very present and was concerning. We phoned the vets as we were regularly doing, we got some tramadol in the hope this would make him more comfortable. By the end of this day and after making another coughing noise Arthur was not partaking in any aspects of life.

March 24th: We knew things were coming to and end and we were going to get him put down if there was not improvement. We wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and one full extra day to see if things would turn around. Arthur was not suffering and didn't appear to be in pain, he was just "absent" and almost as if the lights were on but no one was home. We kept him warm, stroked him always, sat with him told him we loved him and encouraged him to eat. By the time we went to bed he was not good and we knew it was the end.

We slept next to them and awoke to find he had moved out of his litter box and made it across the floor a little. We turned the lights on and noticed his head was twisted slightly and he looked as if he was getting ready to die. My partner and I kept stroking him and telling him we loved him and that everything was ok, he tried to move and it was clear he had some kind of stroke none of his motor functions were working properly and he stumbled forward and fell over. I picked him up placed him on the vet bed next to me and after about a minute he began fitting uncontrollably and violently. I held him, my partner and I telling him we loved him, he made a screeching sound as his legs kicked out, took his final breath and he passed away.

My world ended in that moment. We left his body with his partner for 4 hours so she could come to terms with the loss and we then removed him from her. There are no words on this earth that could possibly explain the pain, shock and heart ache we feel. We fought round the clock day in day out every single day for 3 months to nurse him back to health and it didn't save him. Ultimately it seems as if the mini twitches and convulsions were little seizures and he had a huge one and died. This wasn't supposed to happen, not to my rabbit, I've lost my son, my beautiful boy and I am struggling to get through each day at the moment. It seems now the EC caused irreparable damage or there was an underlying small brain tumour that possibly started showing it's face mid 2015 when he lost his litter habits.

Thank you for reading this journey, I feel better for telling it as I'm still trying to accept this is all real.

Sandra & Dave
 
I am so very sorry to hear of your tragic loss. EC can indeed cause all of the symptoms you describe, I have seen it myself first hand :cry: You both gave your all to try to help Arthur and I am 100% certain that he always felt safe and loved.

I realise that there are no words that will ease your pain, if there were I'd post them here. Time may not heal, as such, but it can allow us to find ways of coping with living with the pain. There is no 'right' or 'wrong' way to grieve. We all have to find our own way through it, somehow.

RIP Arthur, your family will hold you within their hearts forever. A part of you will live on because of that xx
 
I'm so sorry that you lost Arthur. He was clearly a very special rabbit who was well loved. I'm sorry that you did not have longer with him :cry:

Binky free Arthur. Thinking of you xx
 
I'm so sorry. You clearly did all you could for him. Some vets seem quick to jump to PTS because i think they think that the majority of rabbit owners aren't prepared to nurse a rabbit back to health. I've had that in the past with Mischa when he was one and he then went on to live to six years of age. But you're clearly an owner who is willing to go above and beyond and who loved Arthur very much.

I'm so sorry for your loss. RIP Arthur. Xx
 
Thank You for sharing your heart breaking story about your much loved bunny. I'm so sorry Arthur has gone. Sleep tight little one xx
 
Thank you for sharing your story, I'm so sorry for your loss.
Nobody could have done more than you did for Arthur, he was lucky to have you, and I'm sure he knew how much you both loved him.
Blinky free little one xx
 
Having lived the dismay and sadness that is a bunny stricken with EC and head tilt, I feel for you. :( You did your utmost and no bunny could have asked for a more devoted family than what Arthur had in you.

I am so sorry that this was his path. This is such a horrible disease and tragically most rabbits carry it from their mothers. Some are lucky enough to not show symptoms, others less so. My Mimzy is almost 5 years post tilt and 10 years old now, but his illness was not as bad as some bunnies I have heard tell of. Nursing him was round the clock care for months and he continues to be 'special needs.'

He sounds to have been a cherished little guy and that is of most import to a rabbit. To know he is loved. You have done that for him.
I have lost a rabbit at home with no time to get to the vet so I understand how distressing that was for you. Try not to focus on this, but on the good times Arthur had with you, as it is those he is remembering also as he crossed the Bridge.

Thinking of you and sending ((((((((((Huge hugs)))))))) to you, hoping that your good memories of Arthur can help comfort you at this very sad time.

Sleep well, Arthur, and sweet dreams. xxxx
 
I too have been through this... the fitting was the worst, my boy would roll constantly until he was too worn out to move. Heart breaking, it's the cancer of rabbit worlds, I truly am sorry for your loss (((Hugs to you all))) . I pray that they will come up with a cure :cry:

Binky free beautiful Arthur, never forgotten. xxx
 
I am so sorry you lost your wonderful boy Arthur. It sounds like he was handling his situation well. He got the best care you could possibly have given him and he knew he was loved, right up to the end.
As a person who has had several bunnies die in my arms-at home, on the way to the emergency clinic, and on the way home from the emergency clinic; I know how traumatic it can be for you and your family.
Arthur showed signs of improvement several times over the course of his treatment, and there is no way of knowing for sure he would not improve this last time.

May time help you to forget the sad ending and to remember Arthur on his better days.
 
Thank you so much for all of your replies and your kind words. They have comforted us in a very difficult time. I know it sounds ridiculous but I never thought it would be me writing a post about my rabbit passing away, I thought he would live forever but all of your messages have really helped.
 
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