Have you had an elderbun?

tabithakat64 said:

I have an 11 year old nethie cross doe, a 10 year old himilayan cross lionhead, a 9 year old crossbreed. Most of mine seem to reach 11/12 despite being rescues. I think the key is space and varied enrichment and super healthy diet and as much or as little human interaction as they wish and lots of daily observations being done.

We're getting rabbits to live longer in the rescue too with many reaching 10/11 years and even a couple of 12 year olds which I also think is due to the above as when I first started most long term residents were only getting to 8/9.

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Do you still have Rose? I love her

Charlie is 11 in April. He's probably a dwarf lop x lionhead. Weighs about 2kg so he's a fairly small bun.

steph182 said:

Charlie is 11 in April. He's probably a dwarf lop x lionhead. Weighs about 2kg so he's a fairly small bun.

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Awww Hello beautiful Charlie. How is he in himself? Spritely?

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tabithakat64 said:

I have an 11 year old nethie cross doe, a 10 year old himilayan cross lionhead, a 9 year old crossbreed. Most of mine seem to reach 11/12 despite being rescues. I think the key is space and varied enrichment and super healthy diet and as much or as little human interaction as they wish and lots of daily observations being done.

We're getting rabbits to live longer in the rescue too with many reaching 10/11 years and even a couple of 12 year olds which I also think is due to the above as when I first started most long term residents were only getting to 8/9.

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They are great ages, thank you. How do they behave in the elder years?

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I've never had much luck with bunnies, only 1 of mine lived to aged 8, all the others were 5 or under when they passed

loobers25 said:

Awww Hello beautiful Charlie. How is he in himself? Spritely?

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He's acted old since he was a baby really :lol: He has mild arthritis so he doesn't jump about as much as he did when he was younger but that's all that's changed in his behaviour. He's still a total pain

The secret is a good vet.
It's easy to take for granted when you have a good vet, but then when they aren't available and you have to see someone random, you remember how little some vets know about rabbits

I've only had one, Beano, reach 8. And by that point she had spondylosis and couldn't use her back legs at all. Gordon before her passed at 6 from congestive heart failure. Then Boris was an unknown age but passed due to kidney failure.

eeek, loving little Charlie. what a cutie pie

Mylo turned 7 last month. Even though she's the same grumpy little fluff she always was, the sudden realization that she's getting older is pretty hard to accept. Theo is only about a year or so younger, but she's still our first bun and the only one to reach this age so far *knock on wood*

Yes, I still have Rose, still gorgeous, amazing, she always cheers me up

They may be a little less agile, some may need pain medication and there's always physio and lazer for those that don't mind being handled

My oldest (known) age is/was Elphie, who lived to 8 years, 8 months, and 8 days old. (I think she did it on purpose.) I had her for all bar 8 weeks too. :lol:

My current rabbits? Helios and Selene (standard rexes) are meant to be around 3.5 to 4 years, but are suspected as being quite a bit older. Selene is especially presenting as a little old lady. Helios acts like a gruff old gent too. River and Morning are meant to be around 6 years old, but were adult adoptions, so who knows? All 4 are uppy eared so fingers crossed they'll stay a while yet. Everybun else is between 3 and 5, I think, but being rescues you can never be sure.

I have Smudge, an uppy-eared English self who turned 10 last September and Sora, who looks like a Havana (except a lop, so must be a cross) who is estimated to have turned 12 in December. We rescued them both in 2009 and Sora was already fully grown so I believe she is as old as they say, possibly older.

There is no secret, other than good care the only thing you can rely on is luck. Luck that they don’t get growths and cancer. Luck that any stasis episodes can be overcome. Luck that nothing else happens, and if it does, that it isn’t the end. Sora is missing part of her liver as she had a serious liver lobe torsion in 2010. Both have had multiple episodes of stasis and Smudge has also broken his toe in his lifetime.

Smudge looks and acts like a 1 year old rabbit, he has no currently known health issues. Sora is not currently in good health, her eyes are bad (completely blind) with cataracts and bulging eye tissue which has been bad for about 1.5 years but no other issues. We have an agreement with our vet that as she is not in any obvious amount of pain then we just keep plodding along and as soon as she begins to deteriorate or anything else happens (more statis etc) we are to spare her any invasive treatment and let her go. But until then she plods on, blind but still with a reasonable quality of life until she either slips away when her time comes or we intervene if anything happens. I suppose neither us or our vet realistically expected her to still be going now but she certainly is.

I've noticed adopted wildies and half wildies often live relatively long lives

Some good news. Dennis ate his Glucosamine tablet

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loobers25 said:

Some good news. Dennis ate his Glucosamine tablet

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Good boy Dennis The test will be whether he will eat the next one, now that he knows what they taste like :lol:

Omi said:

Good boy Dennis The test will be whether he will eat the next one, now that he knows what they taste like [emoji38]

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I crumbled it up into eight pieces and mixed it with fresh coriander. I gave it to him first thing when is ravenous

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Mysty is about ten, resuce thought she was about one when I got her.

She is just as nosy and squeezing into every gap she can find and still runs around the garden and up and down stairs without slowing down.

She was health checked at vet yesterday and they were very happy with her condition.

Thinks its best care you can give, following good advice found here and bit of luck.

Fudge is 11 1/2 and still going relatively strong