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Benjie le bun bun

I feel I need to apologise particularly to RoxyRoller & Sylar, but think Tonibun cracked your problems!
Sylar & Benjie could have been identical twins before one of Benjies ears grew slightly larger than the other & lopped.

Not at all! I really appreciate all the help that you gave me, especially considering that you were having bunny problems of your own. Getting Sy to where he is now was a group effort but you were a massive part of it. You are an angel. Xx

I love the way that you talk about Benjie, I can really picture him in my head. I can tell that he was one of a kind.

More love to you. Xx
 
I've only just caught up on this. Thumps, I am so so sorry. I know how much you loved benjie and I know how much he loved you. He really was blessed to be cared for so well. I hope he can now binky free at the bridge.

Palliative care is so very exhausting, requiring the type of attention you describe. However, right until the very end, Benjie knew love.

Hector and I send best wishes. He also sends his thanks to Benjie for the forage he shared and for his part in teaching you some of your invaluable knowledge you were then able to share with me.
 
What you say in your last post about the relationship: he wasn't your baby, he was more equal than that. That says more than anything else :) Sorry you had to say goodbye.
 
Oh no I'm so sad to read this Judy. You have helped little Doughnut so much and I loved hearing about your little Benjie. Lots of hugs to you and RIP gorgeous Benjie. xx
 
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Oh no I'm so sad to read this Judy. You have helped little Doughnut so much and I loved hearing about your little Benjie. Lots of hugs to you and RIP gorgeous Benjie. xx

Please will all of you whose rabbits have passed away forgive me. I remember most of them clearly. I would write pages to remember them all. Be comforted that they are remembered. JJ I think you had an inordinate share of ill rabbits. Perhaps less well known was Bobbie. There's Sky-O's Badger, but obviously I was involved mainly with the rabbits with gastrointestinal problems. 1st rabbit I tried to help on here was Donampt's gorgeous Alvin, the rabbit with attitude & stasis!!

cpayne is Doughnut still with us? She would be an old lady by now I think, so I hesitate to ask.
I've never been so clueless "Why on earth does she rub her throat after eating, & make these odd noises?" I was so thrilled when the vet sorted it out & the treatment worked. I was also open mouthed by how well she took her medicines - straight in, no messin'!
 
Thank you for your kind thoughts ripminnie. I am glad that Barney eventually made a good recovery.
 
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Please will all of you whose rabbits have passed away forgive me. I remember most of them clearly. I would write pages to remember them all. Be comforted that they are remembered. JJ I think you had an inordinate share of ill rabbits. Perhaps less well known was Bobbie. There's Sky-O's Badger, but obviously I was involved mainly with the rabbits with gastrointestinal problems. 1st rabbit I tried to help on here was Donampt's gorgeous Alvin, the rabbit with attitude & stasis!!

cpayne is Doughnut still with us? She would be an old lady by now I think, so I hesitate to ask.
I've never been so clueless "Why on earth does she rub her throat after eating, & make these odd noises?" I was so thrilled when the vet sorted it out & the treatment worked. I was also open mouthed by how well she took her medicines - straight in, no messin'!

Yep she is, she's 6 now and on permanent ranitidine for her acid reflux and gut mobility and then I add in metacam, cisapride and metroclopramide if she goes into an episode. She's just on hay and a bit of museli, keeping her diet simple. She's really well at the moment but I know that can change in a minute! Yes she loves her medicine thankfully since she's been on it most of her life. I'm so thankful to Mark who recognised she was ill.
 
Thank you so very much for all your very kind posts everyone. It means so much to me because Benjie was very precious to me & gave me so much as have both my rabbits in their very different ways.

I think many of you have raised some important points.

cpayne reminds me of the particular strain on those of us who care for rabbits with chronic gastrointestinal problems. "she's really well at the moment but I know that can change in a minute". The problem for us is that we've so little time to start treatment before there is irreversable damage, particularly for rabbits who are prone to bloat. It can be so difficult for some of us when there are several factors which cause the "stasis". We find the obvious one, correct it, things improve, but there's something else & may be no sign of it at all.

Omi reminds me of the rabbit viewpoint of illness. They have so many similarities to us but are so very different. I know that they have phenomenally good memmories, but unlike me, they live in the present & don't worry what the next day will bring. "it's OK now, I'm managing, life is good", they don't worry whether life will be less good tomorrow. How very sensible. One day I'll learn the good lesson they taught me.
I agree so much that above all rabbits need love. I can't ask them but suspect that one of their main ways of showing it is by allogrooming - we can mimick it by stroking them the same way that they groom each other - nose rubs, but when ever possible this is best given by another rabbit.
I openly admit that I bottled out with Benjie. It was immediately obvious that he had a good immune system which kept the pasteurella under control but it plummeted with stress (often not immediately obvious) & which always caused the flare ups.

We live in the same environment but use totally different sense to percieve it. Rabbits mainly use hearing & smell which are so sensitive it is difficult for us to comprehend at a superficial level. With 23 different taste buds in comparisonto our 4 I can only imagine that food much be an explosion of flavour. Their eyesight so different - they can see almost behind them & a lot above but not with our precision - it's more like what we see from the "corner of our eyes" & there's almost no sense of depth.
Benjie was inordinately "worried" about predation in comparison to most rabbits. His compromised smell from snuffles was a huge factor. His other smaller handicap was an upright ear & a lop ear. There is a very slight muffling of sound with a lop ear. I often wondered whether he could compenate for it or whether he had a slight handicap in localising the source of sound (potential predator). It was very obvious why he needed special help to feel safe & relax.

So I have shared on here what my 2 very different rabbits have taught me. They each have unique temperaments, as do humans. I just want to say that in my posts, this is what my own rabbits have taught me. Yours will have totally different temperaments & not have these issues. It may give you a few ideas about what is bothering your rabbit - it may not. It took me literally years to begin to "think rabbit". I've just been trying to save you all a bit of time. At the end of the day we each have to understand our own individual rabbits. It opens a wonderful door, & perhaps helps us humans to be more aware of different viewpoints in other people.

Re, forage for which I am probably most well known on here. I do NOT recommend a forage only diet. I have good access to the coutryside, but even with this the food source can vanish overnight with council verge mowing or a farmer puts his cattle in the field & they like forage too! A healthy rabbit will eat a wide variety of plants. I'd say that if you have access, AND confidence in identification (I recommend a small range of easily identified plants very difficult to confuse with poisonous ones) they are a helpful replacement for human veg if you're getting problems. I'm a great believer that if all is well - don't change! My personal move away from hay was purely because of the specific health needs of my own rabbits. Even with good access to a wide area of potential forage, I find that we are losing plant diversity very fast, & it is affecting the whole food chain of all wild life adversely. My own observation in this area is that fertilser drift is the main problem.
I am NOT a herbalist. My rabbits have been the "herbalists" I have just found that they have tended to eat certain things during their different illnesses. They change their preferred food (medicine) both seasonally & as their illnesses have changed / advanced. I've no idea why.

For myself. My body is aging & creaking in places. I cannot reasonably guarantee to be able to care for a furry friend throughout their natural life span. So Benjie is my last. Of course we all feel pain when our loved ones leave us & miss them sorely. For me there is also an immense sense of gratitude, almost wonder, for how they have enriched my life in so many ways. So yes, I have loss & emptiness as do we all, but I also have a great sense of what I have been given, & nothing but nothing can take that away from me.

RIP my darling one & thank you from the bottom of my heart.
 
I don't know what to say, my heart fills with heartbreak reading about your loss of your special Benji. Times like this hurt, too much, so much. Xxxxx
 
Oh Thumps I'm so sorry to hear this .. you gave him a great life and maintained his life quality as best you could towards the end - he was so lucky to have met you as was Thumper. They were both such characters :)

I hope you're doing okay - you were his 'wingbun' and that bond can only have become closer with his greater need for support latterly... i admire so much how you advocated for him with the greatest of respect for his needs and boundaries.

Binky free Benjie ..
 
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