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So, Delilah got terrifyingly sick. One day I went to give them their morning veggies and she was just dragging her hindquarters. Got her to the vet, who xray'd her for a spinal injury, spotted signs of an old one but nothing recent, so we put her on panacur for parasites because due, obviously parasites cause paralysis (wtf?!?) and she is slowly getting better. 2 weeks later and she is starting to regain use of her lags and act almost normal Jesus bunnies are confusingly fragile
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Mar 22, 2022 17:32
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You got off lucky, friendo. We had a handful of the buns from the massive rescue go that route. - Onyx was the first. Hind-end paresis started, we did not have the Google-fu we have now or the money to take her to an emergency ($$$) exotic ($$$) vet like 2 hours away. We got her in at a local vet that does livestocky stuff the next day and she passed maybe 10 minutes away from the vet in my arms. - She put us on alert, so when Silvio started exhibiting many of the same symptoms, we got him immediately to the vet. There was never an official diagnosis, just a whole lot of care. He never recovered the use of his back legs, but he got around just fine on his butt and forehocks for a while. Snuggles every night, all the best veggies, for a month or two until a nasty ear mite infestation did him in. Apparently they can infiltrate the brain or some poo poo. We suspect, based on coloration and the source of these rescues, that Silvio (a silver fox) and Onyx (a Havana) were the parents of Nixie, Maya, Angie, Cleo, and Silvie. All five of them were dark like Onyx with the classical black/brown coloration of a Havana, while also displaying the silvering of a silver fox. Both Maya and Cleo went down the same route as Sil and Onyx, only much faster. They both passed within an hour or two of going down in the back. Nixie is happy at her forever home with her husbun, and Angie is slowly being socialized at a local rescue. Silvie has found her forever home with us and is sitting in her cage silently judging my shitposting as I write this. We have never been entirely sure what the gently caress happened. We supect E. cunniculi based on the symptoms and speed. Apparently that little fucker can hit hard and fast. And it makes sense. Onyx was next to Sil before she passed, in a large dog crate - piss could have splashed. Maya and Cleo were next to each other in medium crates - again, piss could have splashed. E. cunniculi is passed in urine, so...it scares us. I'm glad Delilah is okay 
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Mar 23, 2022 14:12
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Vet said 80% of bunnies test positive for it, which is actively terrifying
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Mar 23, 2022 15:51
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RFC2324 posted:Vet said 80% of bunnies test positive for it, which is actively terrifying A lot of them are carriers, but not all of them fall prey to it. It's one of those weird loving things. It is absolutely not surprising that what happened to them happened, because despite the care they were receiving with us, they were rescued from a situation in which they were living in lovely wire cages within pecking range of a dozen rear end in a top hat chickens. The floor grates (ugh) were a quarter inch away from the shitpiss sludge in their trays, they had nothing but lovely alfalfa fatten-me-up pellets in J feeders and dirty algae-y water to drink. Their health was suffering and we had to pose as breeders/meat-rabbit-folks for the lady to sell to us. Every loving penny of the probably thousands we have spent on those 27 rabbits over the 3 1/2 years since rescuing them - in food, hay, bedding, cages, litterboxes, vet bills - has been loving worth it. Of the ones that passed, they all knew love and affection before they died, and the taste of timothy, romaine, kale, spinach, carrots, bananas, all the loving everything we could do for them. ...I didn't mean to rant. The situation has just been on my heart lately for some reason.
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Mar 23, 2022 15:57
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D34THROW posted:A lot of them are carriers, but not all of them fall prey to it. It's one of those weird loving things. It is absolutely not surprising that what happened to them happened, because despite the care they were receiving with us, they were rescued from a situation in which they were living in lovely wire cages within pecking range of a dozen rear end in a top hat chickens. The floor grates (ugh) were a quarter inch away from the shitpiss sludge in their trays, they had nothing but lovely alfalfa fatten-me-up pellets in J feeders and dirty algae-y water to drink. Their health was suffering and we had to pose as breeders/meat-rabbit-folks for the lady to sell to us. I work with the local house rabbit society, and Delilah was rescued from a meat operation. Rant away
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Mar 23, 2022 16:02
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Quick bunny question: my friend has a rescue rabbit, adult fixed female. For some reason (I'm assuming bc never trained?) it just poops/pees wherever it wants, including on her lap when it's just chilling. Is there any way to train that out or is she just stuck with uh oh stinky now? E: It uses the litterbox when it's in the kennel/cage but once she's out freeroaming it's just a free for all fsr. I got lucky, my bun has never even attempted to pee or poop outside his bedding so I don't really know where you'd start with that.
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Mar 24, 2022 14:55
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Does bunbun have more than one litterbox available? I'm assuming the cage is open when she's out, but yes, it sounds like she was never litter trained. I don't think it's too late to start trying to work with her on that; maybe see if your friend has any rescues in the area that might be able to at least offer some training advice. London routinely scatters his box everywhere; most of the pellets stay in the box but the hay goes everywhere and then he starts making a mess of it. Avery, Silvie, Oreo, and Perdita are diggers, so their box contents go everywhere. Zuba is our only bunny that is 100% reliable up to a couple of hours out. After that point she might void on the couch while hopping around, and she also rarely goes on her cage floor.
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Mar 24, 2022 15:20
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As far as poop, i have always been told you just kinda hope they prefer the box, and keep it as clean as possible, but a free roam bunny is gonna leave behind pellets
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Mar 24, 2022 15:47
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I feel so lucky in comparison, never trained mine but he just only goes in the bedding.... He'll even run back when he's roaming to go poop/pee in there. But he's also way younger, like 2 years vs my friend's 6~ year old female bun. Most of the scatter is him sprinting out of his cage (that's never closed, it's more like a safe zone for him I guess). I'll pass along the suggestion of checking in with the rescue. Her bun also pees on anything "soft" like pillows/couch but not the hardwood. And poops just anywhere.
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Mar 24, 2022 15:54
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MagpieConcept posted:Quick bunny question: my friend has a rescue rabbit, adult fixed female. For some reason (I'm assuming bc never trained?) it just poops/pees wherever it wants, including on her lap when it's just chilling. Is there any way to train that out or is she just stuck with uh oh stinky now? if the rabbit’s always voiding on the person’s lap it could also be stress/discomfort with humans and/or being held also pooping/peeing everywhere, including weird spots like onto people/other rabbits, despite well-executed attempts at litter training, can be a sign of incontinence issues and/or loss of muscle control in the hindquarters This can be because of a neurological/spinal/connective tissue injury (extremely common), or disease (less common but not entirely uncommon, look at E. cuniculi prevalence) you can also tell because the rabbit will often show other signs of widely varying severity— it might drag its back end a bit and generally show a relatively mild lack of full mobility and motor control of the hind limbs, the rabbit might become progressively more paralyzed as it ages, or you might not see any appreciable change in mobility ever but the rabbit has issues holding in its pee/etc. this is unfortunately very common with rabbits, even a lot of rabbits that are otherwise young and healthy, especially rescues who might have come from homes with children and/or where they were improperly handled. It is almost always the result of the rabbit injuring itself when panicking/trying to escape a situation it doesn’t like and/or (more commonly) the result of a human attempting to pick up, hold, and restrain a rabbit badly, especially one that is fighting hard not to be picked up or held. you always want to make sure that you are fully supporting a rabbit’s body and hindquarters/legs when picking it up and restraining it. You want to avoid hanging the rabbit’s back end in the air, you definitely want to avoid the rabbit swinging its spine and back legs wildly or kicking hard. And when you’re holding the bun you want to make sure that you aren’t kinking their spine too sharply or resting them directly on a point in their back. A common rookie mistake is to fold/hold the bun in such a way where it’s like they’re sitting on their hips, but then all of that pressure and hyperextension is happening right in their lower back. Oftentimes people will use this hold to bring a skittish rabbit back down onto the floor, basically dropping their body down onto their hyperextended lower spine and causing injury, especially if the rabbit immediately starts to kick and twist and flail in order to right itself. Loooots of low-key spine injuries in rabbits from this
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Mar 24, 2022 17:20
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I sent my friend the post, thank you! We don't think it's necessarily nervousness because the bunny chooses to hop up and get in my friend's lap without any urging, but then pees/poops anyways. She's going to check in with a vet and see if there's any underlying spinal or parasitical/incontinence issues there.
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Mar 25, 2022 13:13
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Female buns can also be very territorial and buns piss and poo poo to mark territory. A backhanded compliment of sorts, perhaps 
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Mar 25, 2022 14:52
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I've had both experiences--Ludo had a spinal disease, probably from the kind of injury OKC described. Bernie, on the other hand, are trained to use the extra litter box I put out when they're in the living room or the den.
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Mar 25, 2022 15:18
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D34THROW posted:Female buns can also be very territorial and buns piss and poo poo to mark territory. A backhanded compliment of sorts, perhaps This honestly wouldn't surprise me, her bunny is SUPER headstrong and likes to be in charge lol. Like literally growls if she's not being pet or given treats when she wants them. I've never met a rabbit like them before. My dude is just very shy and skittish and hers is like, grabbing people's hands and tossing everything to the side. Still seems to really like people - sits by your feet, climbs into laps for cuddles etc but just....aggro about it haha.
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Mar 25, 2022 17:24
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completely off topic but I can't not read this as "OKCupid" which gives people talking about the poster a whole lot weirder
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Mar 25, 2022 22:57
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RFC2324 posted:completely off topic but I can't not read this as "OKCupid" which gives people talking about the poster a whole lot weirder 
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Mar 25, 2022 23:08
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 Every time I bring the hay over he stands directly under it so I have to pet it off him. 
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Apr 7, 2022 16:34
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My kids won't let me carry the manger back to their boxes til they get a bite for quality control
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Apr 7, 2022 16:40
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MagpieConcept posted:
they all do that and I always get super worried about getting hay debris in their eyes Gotta put down my hand to cover their heads and poo poo Them all dodging it to get at the tasty hay
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Apr 7, 2022 16:44
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Thanks. Thanks, Zuba. You had Mommy to pet you, I had simply fallen asleep on the couch. You did not need to hop on my chest and piss on my loving neck. Hell of a loving way to wake up.
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Apr 16, 2022 18:59
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D34THROW posted:Thanks. Thanks, Zuba. You had Mommy to pet you, I had simply fallen asleep on the couch. lol you ppl keep telling me to free-range my buns and I’m like “yeah ok”
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Apr 16, 2022 19:02
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Happy Easter! Which is every rabbit's birthday probably. Happy birthday every rabbit. https://i.imgur.com/ng1VvT7.mp4
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Apr 17, 2022 18:53
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Hey, I thought this thread might give me some advice. So I agreed to help the rabbit shelter out by taking some wooden blocks, dyeing them, and sanding them. Most of them are round blocks, maybe 2.5" diameter and .75" thick. The sanding turned out to be way more time-intensive than I thought, but whatever. The problem is that dyeing them is nearly impossible. We're talking about enough wooden blocks to fill a couple of 27-gallon storage bins. I started trying to dye them with beets, then turmeric. I soon realized that a few pounds of beets doesn't produce much liquid. Turmeric is more expensive than other spices, and it doesn't dissolve, so wiping off the grit was very time-consuming. Then I realized that I don't need special food safe dye; standard food colouring is safe for rabbits and birds. But even a large bottle of food colouring doesn't do the job when it's watered down enough to soak a crate full of wooden blocks. Did I just gently caress myself over here? I don't know if there's any cost-effective way to finish the project.
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Apr 25, 2022 19:33
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Halloween Jack posted:Hey, I thought this thread might give me some advice. volunteering for the rabbit shelter is an asston of work and the only reward is getting to pet the bunnies I can't wait for my local shelter to get back into full swing
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Apr 26, 2022 01:57
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What are people's favorite solutions for flooring? My rabbit loves to dig/shred carpet. I don't care about the damage/cost, but I do worry a lot about her ingesting some of the material. I currently have her on a sacrificial rug on top of hardwood. The rug has a pretty tight weave but she managed to get to it anyway. I've read some people like jute/sissal/seagrass rugs but she loves to chew that stuff too so I'm afraid that would get obliterated and leave her sliding around on the hardwood.
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May 8, 2022 19:53
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JerikTelorian posted:What are people's favorite solutions for flooring? My rabbit loves to dig/shred carpet. I don't care about the damage/cost, but I do worry a lot about her ingesting some of the material. I currently have her on a sacrificial rug on top of hardwood. The rug has a pretty tight weave but she managed to get to it anyway. I've read some people like jute/sissal/seagrass rugs but she loves to chew that stuff too so I'm afraid that would get obliterated and leave her sliding around on the hardwood. We use those foam puzzle pieces, understanding they will be destoryed and need to be replaced
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May 8, 2022 19:57
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JerikTelorian posted:What are people's favorite solutions for flooring? My rabbit loves to dig/shred carpet. I don't care about the damage/cost, but I do worry a lot about her ingesting some of the material. I currently have her on a sacrificial rug on top of hardwood. The rug has a pretty tight weave but she managed to get to it anyway. I've read some people like jute/sissal/seagrass rugs but she loves to chew that stuff too so I'm afraid that would get obliterated and leave her sliding around on the hardwood. We use the shittiest possible low-pile rugs from Walmart, they're maybe $30 for a 5x7 and they're so thin that Lillian can't really get ahold of it to chew. I'm sure if she were more determined she could rip it up but she hasn't so far.
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May 9, 2022 16:02
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Oof, we've been through the ringer with Ernie lately. It turns out that what I thought was purring was congestion from a sinus infection; I feel pretty stupid. So now I'm giving him eye drops, antibiotics, and meloxicam twice daily. Poor little guy.
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May 27, 2022 15:33
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Ernie is fine. Pissed, but fine. Here is his futile attempt to hide behind Bert at the vet's.
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Jun 16, 2022 18:22
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Halloween Jack posted:Ernie is fine. Pissed, but fine. Here is his futile attempt to hide behind Bert at the vet's. I’m afraid it’s too late Ernie, they’ve already taken your balls
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Jun 17, 2022 17:43
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Bert has head tilt. We're still waiting on the lab work to know if it's an ear infection or cuniculi. At least I caught it early--there were no signs until the night before last and I rushed him to the vet yesterday morning. Now I'm feeding him Critical Care, an antibiotic, meloxicam, and meclizine. Looking up stuff about head tilt online wasn't very helpful at first, because his symptoms started out mild. I noticed his head slooowly rolling to one side before he'd snap it back, then he'd repeat the process. Since I got him home from the vet yesterday he most wants to sit with his head lying on one side. The vet says his prognosis is very good. I'm confident that if I keep giving him his medicine he'll recover, but the thing I worry about constantly is the feeding. The instructions for Critical Care say 1 tbsp. per kg of body weight, so for a 3-4lb. rabbit that's 1-2 tbsp. But a tablespoon of this stuff mixed with water makes a lot! I know it says to break it down into multiple feedings, but it still seems like a lot. He seems to like the taste okay, but after I fed him 3-4 teaspoons of slurry this morning, he was done. I've never had to do this before, so I'm paranoid about making him eat enough to keep him out of stasis. Can someone with more experience with this give me some advice? Keeping two bonded bunnies is way less stress than a single bunny, but one downside is that I can't tell if Bert is pooping or eating any solid food when I'm not looking. He must be drinking when he's thirsty, since he pissed all over me twice and his urine didn't look dark. The vet asks you to fill out a detailed form about their care and feeding routine. I asked how they can both be getting infections when I'm cleaning up after them regularly and they don't go outside. She said that lop-eared rabbits are prone to ear infections, and that if it's cuniculi, they can get that as infants and it can live in their body for years before presenting symptoms. This is just too much. In six months I've lost my chickens and my first parrot, and Ernie had a sinus infection just three months ago. I adopted Bert and Ernie right before the pandemic lockdown, to keep me company in my little house in the woods while the world goes to hell. I just can't take it. Halloween Jack fucked around with this message at 16:00 on Jul 15, 2022 |
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Jul 15, 2022 15:52
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Halloween Jack posted:The vet says his prognosis is very good. I'm confident that if I keep giving him his medicine he'll recover, but the thing I worry about constantly is the feeding. The instructions for Critical Care say 1 tbsp. per kg of body weight, so for a 3-4lb. rabbit that's 1-2 tbsp. But a tablespoon of this stuff mixed with water makes a lot! I know it says to break it down into multiple feedings, but it still seems like a lot. He seems to like the taste okay, but after I fed him 3-4 teaspoons of slurry this morning, he was done. I've never had to do this before, so I'm paranoid about making him eat enough to keep him out of stasis. Can someone with more experience with this give me some advice? Is he taking the critical care willingly? When we've had to give it to our bun occasionally we have sometimes just left a plate of it in her pen and would come back and find it gone.
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Jul 15, 2022 20:43
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Halloween Jack posted:Critical Care Sorry about the tilt  we’ve had to do critical care on buns a few times and ours have been ~5-15 lbs—flems take a stupid amount of that stuff and it’s always hard. Our last CC experience was with a smaller bun and the vet mentioned off handedly that it’s not designed to pass through quickly, so regardless of the instructions the goal is not to feed the bun — it’s to keep the gut flora alive til the bun is eating again, which means they need way less. Talk to your vet ofc but you might do well with less CC and add some applesauce, baby food, fruit juice in his water, etc that can get some calories in him that isn’t just going to sit like a rock in his gut. Good luck!!!
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Jul 18, 2022 01:15
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RichterIX posted:Is he taking the critical care willingly? When we've had to give it to our bun occasionally we have sometimes just left a plate of it in her pen and would come back and find it gone. boberteatskitten posted:Sorry about the tilt Bert doesn't like being held, but he takes the CC pretty well. But I can never get him to eat a whole 20ml syringe at once. (I tried leaving a little dish of CC with some chopped up strawberries and bananas last night, but they didn't touch it.) I know that he's eating some food, because I've seen him nibble lettuce and bits of carrot and banana. I just don't know how much, so I'm feeding him Critical Care two or three times a day. Housing bunnies together is way less stress than keeping a lone bunny, IME, but one problem is that you can't monitor how much one sick bunny is eating and pooping. I know that he's pooping, because he poops on the floor. I know he's peeing because he pees on me about half the times I feed him. (I'm getting tired of constantly vacuuming, laundering my old shorts and t-shirts, and showering the rabbit piss off my junk.) I figure that between the CC and what he eats on his own, he must be eating at least the bare minimum or he'd already be in stasis. He has energy. He's able to sit, stand, walk around, and run away from me after I'm done feeding him. Also, the syringes they give you with Critical Care are terrible! No matter how much you water it down, there's seeds and bits in there that won't go through the tiny bore. I had to go to Tractor Supply and get a big-rear end syringe for nursing goats or something, and I'm still going to have to open up the end some more with a power drill. (Multiple people have suggested a turkey baster/cake froster.) Whenever I try to feed him, it goes okay for a bit, gets clogged, and I either have to clear it out with a fork tine or squeeze harder and squirt a bunch on his face. I've put more CC on the carpet, walls, and ceiling than I've put into Bert. This is annoying because I'm trying to minimize how often I pick him up to force food and medicine down his throat. Currently I'm giving him meloxicam, Baytril, and meclizine. The meclizine is a pill I have to crush up (good thing I have a small mortar and pestle). So to minimize the number of syringes, I'm crushing up the pill and mixing it with the other two medicates and about a teaspoon of water, and sucking it all up into a bigger syringe. And I worry about making sure he gets the full dose of meclizine so he'll feel better and hopefully eat more. I know that head tilt takes a long time to recover, and I'm okay with that. But I really need the medicine and feeding to become a predictable routine, instead of a science experiment I have to redo twice every day while I constantly tweak things and worry that he's gonna die because I hosed it up.
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Jul 18, 2022 18:52
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Yeah dude, it sucks rear end. We’ve had a few rounds of “different medicines every 3 hours for 2 weeks with a terrified bun” and all you can do is your best, which is so hard when there’s massively conflicting guidance that all makes everything sound easy…but there you are at 4 am with a very mad doofus that you love very much and can’t explain anything to. If he’s eating some on his own that is great — the mistake we made last time was not realizing that we could overfeed the CC, and letting them get a little hungry is way better than having them so full on critical care that they don’t try to eat on their own, just for the sake of having each day’s calories add up. At the end of the day all you can do is try — I have had to remind myself a few times that I’m not a vet, and just because I’m not doing the most perfect medical intervention at every point doesn’t mean I’m not helping. Sending good vibes to you all and hopefully he figures out how to help you routinize this soon.
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Jul 18, 2022 19:27
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How do I convince members of my family to not constantly feed my rabbit fruit and sweets? Kind of a low key vent too, but I live with family and they don't seem to take it seriously when I tell them a slice of dried apple to him is like 2 or 3 apples to us and can make him sick. "But he likes it!" "It's the only treat he takes out of my hand" are the responses I get. For now he's doing okay but I'm concerned about this becoming a longterm issue. Would it be a dick move to just hide those treats so I can monitor his intake better? Or at least try and get some dried veggies instead of pure sugar. For the record my lil dude is a 4 pound dutch who's not gonna get any bigger according to the vet, so an extra 3 or 4 pieces of fruit feels like a big deal to me. :/ Also best wishes for Bert, I hope he's feeling better soon.
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Jul 19, 2022 00:26
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MagpieConcept posted:How do I convince members of my family to not constantly feed my rabbit fruit and sweets? Kind of a low key vent too, but I live with family and they don't seem to take it seriously when I tell them a slice of dried apple to him is like 2 or 3 apples to us and can make him sick. "But he likes it!" "It's the only treat he takes out of my hand" are the responses I get. For now he's doing okay but I'm concerned about this becoming a longterm issue. Would it be a dick move to just hide those treats so I can monitor his intake better? Or at least try and get some dried veggies instead of pure sugar. what are his poops like? does he look like his sugar intake is unhealthy? maybe go down on pellets a bit and up on hay
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Jul 19, 2022 01:04
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Vet says everything looks good right now last time I was there (about a month ago). He's very young so that probably helps, only about a year and a half old. His poops look okay as well. I guess I'm more annoyed with potential longterm harm than current / bad habits >_< But he's alright for now at least.
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Jul 19, 2022 01:29
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Bunny tax now that I think the issue is resolved for now. After talking to my family a bit more about it, they've agreed to stop feeding just fruit and mix it up with clover, greens etc so it's not just that. https://i.imgur.com/26H7ag3.mp4
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Jul 19, 2022 17:01
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Dajour just died. I missed the signs of a bacterial infection until it was too late because I have been so busy nursing Delilah through multiple things. This is the worst feeling
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Jul 19, 2022 17:58
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