I did it
June 28, 2006 l Comments Off
I finally ordered our own meat grinder. A bit of an initial expense, but a money saver in the long run.
holistic health for the whole bunny
June 27, 2006 l Comments Off
I’ve been thinking about pursuing alternative methods of treatment in conjunction with the excellent medical care Peanut is already recieving. I feel I do her a disservice when I see her only in terms of a diagnosis, and I think that no matter what the future holds, she could certainly benefit from better supportive care.
But where should we start? Maybe…bunny massage.
Peanut update
June 26, 2006 l 1 Comment
I had been hoping that this would be the last update for awhile, but it seems today’s vet visit was just another chapter in the saga.
Dr. G doesn’t think Peanut has made any clinical improvement. Which came as quite a blow considering she is visibly better than she was two weeks ago. She’s eating and drinking on her own, her poops are finally up to size (bunny people will understand that one), and she’s hopping around like a normal bunny, albeit leaning just slightly to the right.
She did lose 1/4 pound, which coming off of a 5 pound rabbit is a fairly significant amount of weight. If it was due to her decrease in appetite, and subsequent hand feedings, then she should gain weight back before their next appointment.
The rabbits are both going to see Dr. G again in two weeks, Peanut for a re-check and the standard annual exam for both of them. Depending on how well she is doing, we may very well end up testing Peanut for Pasteurella and E. cuniculi. For what I hope are understandable financial reasons, this is not something I’d consider lightly.
Aside from treating the ear infection, Dr. G doesn’t feel that the antibiotics did anything for her overall condition. She’s adjusted to having the world off-kilter, but it’s adaptation, not improvement. This was evident when he picked her up for a closer look at her face and mouth, and upon placing her back on the exam table she flopped over like a sack of potatoes, her carefully balanced world thrown completely out of whack.
His diagnosis of facial palsy confirmed that there is something different about the right side of her face. Her teeth and jaw are perfectly fine, no sign of misalignment, molar spurs, or abscesses, but I knew that something was “off”. The palsy would also explain why the right side of her face has been a little crusty since she started eating on her own (and since mommy stopped wiping her face). She’s dribbling slightly when she eats and drinks.
I’m reeling, to say the least. This was not what I expected to hear at all.
She’s eating, drinking, pooping, and peeing. Is she happy with me? No.
But I think I’ll take the former over the latter. I keep telling her she’ll thank me for this someday…I don’t think she believes me.
I realize that people probably want an update on Peanut.
It’s been a stressful week here (well, more like a stressful month) and I’m being stretched pretty thin. Adding a sick rabbit only strains things further. By the end of the day I’m more than ready to fall into bed, only I sleep in a loft, and it’s more a climb-up-the-ladder-crawl-towards-the-pillow kind of motion.
As I mentioned on Rabbits Only yesterday, Peanut has hit a recovery plateau. No better, no worse. She is still very shaky and uncoordinated. Her head does not tilt, but she does tend to list, and sometimes roll, towards her right side. Her balance is quite easily thrown off, so all feeding, cleaning, and medicating is done inside their pen. Luckily the poopy butt issues disappeared after we cut out the bananas. But feeding time usually means a messy face, and I wipe the dribbles up to prevent crustiness. She hates having her face wiped. I ask her if she’d rather have a five pound Mini Rex trying to lick the food off her dewlap. She just buries her head in her chest and tries to will the washcloth away.
She is eating hay on a regular basis, which is good, both for her teeth and for her digestive system. The problem is that she’s not eating enough, and so the hand feedings continue. She’s drinking water on her own as well, something I’m thankful for in this hot weather. Peanut did try to eat dinner alongside Rex tonight, consuming less than a handful of pellets. Rex tried to share in her dinner as well, and didn’t understand why mommy kept shooing him away from the lovely bowl full of mushy food.
I understand that recovery takes time, and given how incapacitated she was a week ago, I’m truly amazed at her progress. But I sense that Peanut is frustrated with the current state of things. Every time she attempts to do something that requires a modicum of coordination, something she’s done all her life, and suddenly she can’t – well, you can practically feel the discontented vibes. Tonight I watched her struggle to spread out a pile of hay in the litterbox, in order to have a soft place to rest. She took both front paws and pulled the hay towards her, only to topple over headfirst into the side of the box.
But despite her difficulties, she continues to try. After righting herself, she went back to smoothing out the hay, and then settled down for a nap. Rex is a constant presence, always ready for comfort and kisses. I don’t think Peanut would be doing this well if it wasn’t for his companionship.
They’re snuggling, I’m exhausted, I think it’s time for bed. G’night!
le sigh
June 17, 2006 l Comments Off
I’ll admit, I was more than a little frustrated with Peanut yesterday. For starters, neither of us were feeling well, and Peanut was expressing her unhappiness with the situation by refusing to eat. She’s eating hay and some pellets on her own, yes, but not enough to sustain a healthy digestive system.
So here she is, suddenly incapacitated, probably very frustrated, and taking control of the one thing she has control over: whether or not she’d eat the food I gave her. And I’m getting more and more frustrated because she needs to eat and I don’t feel like dealing with a petulant bunny (did I mention neither of us were feeling well?)
I vented all of this to the bunny e-mail list, and a sage bunny owner reminded me that I need to remember to spend more time with Peanut not doing care taking stuff, but just being with her. The past couple days had been strictly business, which is not entirely fair to her.
Last night I sat in their pen and just relaxed with the bunnies for awhile, one hand per rabbit, stroking nose to tail. They loved it. And while Peanut still wasn’t thrilled to be hand-fed, she did a lot better with extra praise and nose rubs.
I really do love this bunny.
life with rabbits
June 16, 2006 l 1 Comment
I woke up this morning to see Peanut sitting in the litterbox – a very welcome sign of the return to normality.
Of course moments later I was fending off two five pound furmonsters intent on stealing my rice cake and peanut butter. Peanut leapt from the litterbox, landed in the food dish (a large platter, to accomodate her coordination issues), and did a kind of half-slide with her back end. I asked her if she had been watching Risky Business again. She grunted, and proceeded to lick my fingers until I caved in and gave them each a piece.
While Peanut does struggle with balance and coordination, she hasn’t lost any of her attitude.
She even managed to play a little keep away from Rex, who finished his piece and went after hers. I finally gave him another bit of rice cake just so he’d give the poor girl a chance to chew her food. Silly bunnies.
I didn’t need this today!
June 15, 2006 l 1 Comment
*argh*
I’ve been ordering whole ground chicken from Hare Today since February, no problems yet, and I always leave plenty of time for a delivery to make it here.
Well, I ordered 20 more pounds of ground chicken Thursday, June 1st, a full two weeks before I needed it. I got a shipping confirmation saying that the food would be sent out Monday, June 12th . Okay, that’s cutting it a little close, but no big deal (my fault anyway for ordering past the cut-off date). Shipping takes three days at most because it’s frozen meat and perishable. So it would still be here in time for me to make up some more food.
It was supposed to be delivered today. It’s not here!
Better yet, FedEx’s tracking site said they delivered it. Well…where is it?!
I called the customer support line and they said they’d “address the issue”. Gee, thanks. My cats aren’t going to starve, but they aren’t going to be happy with the plain chicken and hearts for dinner either.
Best part is, if that food doesn’t get here soon it’s going to be bad, and then we’re really in trouble.
*grrrrrrrrrr* This is so maddening.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Well, it definitely won’t be here tonight. Apparently they can’t get hold of the driver until tomorrow morning, so I’ll be getting a call between seven and eight a.m. that will hopefully tell me just how in the world they managed to lose twenty pounds of raw ground chicken. Oy…
Oh, and as soon as I get the fundage I’m ordering my own meat grinder. Buying pre-ground is great if you have no other option, but by grinding my own meat I can be sure to avoid these last minute quandaries that seem to be plaguing me lately.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
The food arrived just after 8 am, Friday morning. No reason as to why it wasn’t delivered yesterday, just that we were at the “end of the route”. So I guess that means they can decide not to deliver the package and yet lie and say they did? Whatever.
At any rate, I mixed up a bunch of food and the cats are very happy that mommy finally got her act together.
Peanut was really resisting me at breakfast time today. She’d just sit there and hold mouthfuls of food without eating them or spitting them out. I figured she was just being stubborn, but then I heard her tummy gurgle.
She had gas.
So I gave her a few drops of Infants’ Mylicon, which contains simethicone to effectively relieve gas. Peanut felt much better after that, and expressed her gratitude by thumping at me as soon as I put her down. That’s my Diva.
and there was great rejoicing
June 14, 2006 l 2 Comments
Peanut ate on her own!
She wobbled all the way over to the litterbox, grabbed a couple pieces of hay, and wobbled all the way back to her corner of the pen, where she proceeded to eat the hay! Okay, so it was only one piece, and she flopped down afterwards, but it’s huge progress for her.
