Mike - I'll swap places with you....

Mike - I know how you feel there with your recent ups and downs. But honestly, they're starting to rub off on me now and I'm reaching my limits.
Following on from Lillians hospitalisation 3 weeks ago (and the episode 2 weeks before that) Lillian had another blip last saturday. I didn't post anything cause, well, I was just up to my limits with stress last saturday. Lillian had started to struggle to pee last Friday evening - she was fine in the morning and then that night I watched her shuffle and display all the symptoms of a spasm attack.
Whisked her off to the vet sharpish on saturday morning - and she was fantastic again. She's head of surgery and just brilliant. Anyway, we discussed and went to plan B - Diazipam injection. I had tablets myself from a slipped disc some years ago (let me tell you, there is no comparable pain to a slipped disc), and I was trying to get information on what dosage to give but erred on the side of caution and went for the injection and discussion.
Anyone had a rabbit whose had a diazipam injection? Oh good grief. Not good. Diazipam is also known as wobbly legs and when Lillian got home it was so upsetting. She was just incapable of movement. Her legs were jelly. She banged off stuff, totally uncoordinated and horrible to watch.
We let her get comfy as best she could and had to wait it out. I'd read about the effects on rabbits so I was aware of this behaviour but it still wasn't nice to watch. She picked up after several hours - more comfortable and passed some sludgy pee that night and after about 3 days was/is back on form.
The intervention worked in a very dramatic way but oh boy last weekend I was maxed out with stress. She's had a good week but we're trying to elimiate possibles for this. She's been monching on dhalia leaves in the garden that I wasn't aware we had so had to dig that out as a possible cause of the spasms. Then she's been monching on fallen pears (we'll get round to that in a moment).
When we got back from the vets last saturday morning, the pump impeller in the fish pond packed up and I then spent the afternoon (whilst Lillian was coping with the side effects of diazipam) in the rain trying to wire in a spare pump we'd inheited. As I'm colour blind, electrics aint my strong point but I managed after 2 soaking hours to get the replacement pump in, only to find that also didn't work (same problem). I got a replacement part on monday and what should have been a 5 minute fix turned into another hour as the filter housing then broke and I had to facilitate a heath robinson repair on that until winter when I can then make a carbon fibre repair when the water freezes!
Having got that awful week behind me, I was hoping for a better weekend this weekend. My wife had gone to look after her elderly mother and my son was down in Kent at his girlfriends so I am here all on my lonsome. What could possibly go wrong?.....
I was putting the shopping away yeterday morning when I heard splash, splash, splash from the washing machine. On investigation, the water appeared to be spweing out from the waste pipe.Kitchen flooded! Mopped that up and jiggled about the pipe and all looked good so back to the usual jobs - clean bunnies area, vacuum, wash, iron cook and repeat.
In the act of pulling out the washing machine I appear to have now torn muscles in my shoulder which is killing me with pain. The diazipam tablets are looking very tasty right now:lol: but I'll just chomp on ibruprofen.
Exhausted I sat down last night and woke up today with the sun shining. I thought I'd try another wash so stripped the bedding and let the machine do it's stuff.
Big mistake. Water started spewing out under the machine and all across the floor so I spent an hour with a bucket with the drain pipe in it, emptying it manually every 10 minutes. I'm soaking wet. Figuring there must be some obstruction in the pipe, I decided to pull the pipe apart since plumbing isn't my specialisation either. Getting the u-bend off I then discovered why the water was fountaining out. There, jammed in the u-bend was mr lego man - about the size and width of a sweetex cannister, and a toy car - a BMWz3 of all things.
Now, you can ask me how they got in there as we've been in the house 5 years. They're not mine or from us. The family who lived here before us had small childern so they are theirs. But I'm open to anyone who can tell me how, after 5 years of using the washing machine, mr lego and his BMW now decide to make their way to the U-bend and jam up the outflow.
I'm covered in sludgy goop, wet, smelly and Lillian has just sneaked up the garden and eaten one and a half pears that I hadn't had time to collect as have been busy with the washing machine.
Oh, and someone has spotted a goshawk in the area - about 1 mile from us.
Lillian and Leo are now trying to work out a way of busting into the garage - which isn't going to happen. I'm standing at the kitchen widow typing this out and keeping an eye on them, whilst trying to dry out before I continue with my other jobs.
Roll on monday morning when I can go to work for a break.....

Oh goodness! I’m exhausted just reading that, so heaven knows how you are feeling! Really, really hoping that things improve from herein and that Lillian keeps well from now on.

Oh Craig, bless you what a weekend, big hugs xxx

I'm sorry you have had so many stressful things this week

Just to say about fallen fruit. We get a lot of fallen apples here, so have to be very alert. The bunnies can't access them, but the chickens can. Fallen fruit is likely to be over-ripe, so obviously likely to cause a tummy upset. But possibly more serious is the fact that, here at least, fallen fruit gets pecked a lot by wild birds. Wild birds can carry some quite nasty viruses and so could be quite serious if consumed.

I hope that Lillian remains well now.

Oh wow [emoji33] that is way too chaotic, you need a weekend to recover from your weekend! :s
I can only imagine that Mr Lego took the wrong pipe with his BMW and ended up in your ubend [emoji2960]
Hope your Sunday afternoon is less stressed and that Lillian keeps improving

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Craig, what a weekend you've had but the main thing is Lillian I hope she improves but to have all the other things on top of your worries with her is not good. life can be so stressful at times, make sure you have a nice quiet time at work tomorrow and please give my best wishes to Lillian - and Pepper says he hopes the vet doesn't have cold hands if he/she takes her temperature.

Wow, I'm so sorry about all that stress and misfortune happening all together, and very sorry, especially, about poor Lillian not feeling well and then having to deal with the disstressing side effects of the medication on top of that... I'm glad she's feeling better now, and I hope you can find some time to recover from all of this as well.

I hope things will go better for you from now on!

Sending vibes for Lillian. I am glad she improved and hope pares do not cause her to need medical intervention.
Your perils are evidence things can always get worse. Do you recall the tale of king Midas who was granted his wish so everything he touched turned to gold-the Midas touch? My parents used to say they had the poop touch-you get the idea. You have it too.
It is curious that leggos and a toy car got in u pipe. I doubt it went through pump of former tenants washer.
Sending vibes you will have a better week ahead.

Oh wow. That really does sound exhausting and tiring.
Hoping things begin to go a bit better.

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how is Lillian today, Craig?

mikek said:

how is Lillian today, Craig?

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Thanks for asking mike - and everybun. Well, I had quite a sleepless night last night and when I did grab some sleep, because I was worried about her, I had dreams of rabbits. But I can’t remember specifics. When I checked her last night I was worried she might have been damp underneath - and I’m so paranoid of that now which is why I had a sleepless night.
What didn’t add up was that (a) she was eating and (3) she was sitting completely comfortable with no apparent discomfort.
Her underneath looked a bit red so I slapped some flamzene on just to make sure and I think it was the flamzene that was making parts of her underneath appear ‘damp’. I cleaned the toilet area out again this morning as I’m so paranoid now, and even tho she and Leo spent most of Saturday outside and some of yesterday outside, it was still pretty damp newspaper down I’m confident she is weeing (along with Leo). She’s taken to having a sneaky pee in the living room but there’s plenty of towling down and that’s wet so I know she’s passing wee. So as of 8:30pm, she appears to be ok. She’s not had much run outside today due to the rain and neither were keen to go outside at 6:30am this morning in the cold and dark when I was outside cleaning the toilet area (I took it outside). Her tummy feels ok- can’t feel any tension as such and I’m hoping the twice a day metacam has some impact. The fact she’d scoffed one and a half pears yesterday really worried me and I thought that the pears might be the trigger for these spasm episodes since we’d cleared up the pears all last week. But the washing machine saga got me on the back foot yesterday so I was totally at fault for not checking the area for fallen pears.
But I’m just taking each day one at a time right now. It’s not ideal but it’s the only coping mechanism strategy I have right now.
Thank you for your kind wishes mike - and everyone else.
Craig x

sounds good

my 2 are eating quite a few pears that have fallen off the tree right now. it was apples but they are all gone now.
Pepper has the occasional episode with his tummy where he seems to have a blockage - once last year & twice this year, but it doesn't coincide with pear time. i'm not sure at all what causes it.