Thank you everyone for your thoughts and wishes. They are very much appreciated. I'll update you on what happened.
It's 6:30am Friday now. The emergency vet last night said she would update me before handover to our normal vets between 7:30am and 8am this morning, notwithstanding any issues during the night. Of course things can happen once you hand your rabbit over to the care of the professionals. Everything can happen and we all hope above everything else that nothing does happen. I would be lying if I didn't say that it hasn't been a long and lonely night, not just for me but importantly Alfred and Flo. I've had maybe an hour or possibly 2 hours sleep max. Sitting downstairs willing the phone not to go, my mind runnning wild with all sorts of things.
Last night was to put it mildly, surreal. We let Flo and Alfred out every evening when we get home from work - around 5:30. Both bunnies zoom out to the garden, Alfred usually leading the way. We keep a close eye on them and then at about 8pm, Alfred comes back in to pester us for the snuffle mat & treats. Having scoffed that, he then goes back outside to join Flo. He has quite the cheeky side. Then about 9:15-9:30 we 'encourage them' back inside and there's usually a bit of shenannigans but they know it's time to come in and all is well.
Last night, Alfred was lying on the patio - which to be fair he would usually do. But when it came to try to get him up to move, he just lay there almost as if he was glued to the bricks. He eventually moved but went behind the old guinea pig hutch and my wife had to physically pick him up at which point I thought "this is odd". Alfred is not a cuddle bunny and is not really a picky-uppy sort of bun. My wife gave him to me and he just looked all wrong. He was listless, limp and not protesting. My gut was telling me this was wrong but my head was telling me "it can't be wrong because there was no indication of it to be wrong".
I gently checked him for any injuries, wounds etc. He didn't protest or move. As I held him, it just felt all wrong, and awful memories came flooding back of previous bunnies I've held like this and the outcome from them. In absence of any obvious injuries, we knew we had to rush him to the vet even though this was very much out of hours. The odd thing was, Alfred had scoffed a small chunk of my banana at tea time - he can smell a banana from a mile away. So I was, at that point, in my mind, ruling out stasis.
I have to admit I did not for one minute expect to even get to the vet. I thought Alf would pass in the carrier. It was just gone 10pm.
We got to the vet and we handed Alfred over to the triage vet and took our place in the waiting room. My mind was going to all sorts of bad places.
After what seemed an eternity, we were called in to see the vet and to be fair, her demeanour was quite positive.
We went through the events and she said that Alfreds tummy was quite slow and felt bloated which, at that stage, based on those pieces of evidence, suggested stasis as the primary without any other indications of anything else possibly at play. The vet explained stasis can be brought on very quickly because I was still struggling with how Alfred had scoffed the banana only a few hours earlier. The vet found no injuries and as no bloods were taken nor any x-rays performed, they couldn't rule out anything else but were led to believe this was stasis. Alfred is moulting and it is suspected that this could be a partial cause - if it is stasis.
They put Alfred on fluids and meds and said he would be spending the night there - which I was expecting and was also grateful for, but also very sad because Alfred would be feeling alone, scared and wondering what was happening in his world. We were quoted some truly jaw dropping costs for things like x-rays etc if these were needed at night but Alfred is insured and our understanding is that this would cover these things. And the out of hours vet service do direct claim fromthe insurance company so fingers crossed. And with that, we thanked the vet and said our goodbyes and drove back here. It all felt like one big awful nightmare. I said to my wife I thought this was a bad dream and couldn't believe this was happening.
Flo of course was extremely confused. She had snuggled up to the snuggle bun but she was looking actively for Alfred and we didn't feel it was right to take Flo with Alfred. So I made the decision to sleep downstairs with Flo so that she at least had the psychological support that someone else was with her. Of course, when I needed to get up to go to the loo, Flo was somewhat startled so both she and I have had a very unsleep night.
So, it's now just gone 7am. No phone call and I must get ready to go to work and find some red bull or something to stay awake. I will get a phone call in the next hour so I will update you all when I get to work - an update I hope which is positive. What I can say is that so far I haven't heard anything so this is a sort of positive in a weird sort of way.
Thank you again for reading and for being there to listen to my thoughts and for sending your wishes, love and support.
Craig xx
I'm sorry he's feeling ill, Craig. Sending tonnes of healing vibes for him. xxxxx
