Sunny has been showing slow, but steady, improvement consistently over the last 5 days or so. Every morning after we feed him, we've been placing him on a towel on the floor (outside the protective confines of his box) just to see how he would do without something to rest against. At first, he could sit for about a minute before falling over... then he started sitting comfortably, but not daring to move. On Friday, he started balancing on 3 feet and licking and cleaning his paw.
This morning, I sat Sunny on his towel, and as soon as his feet were on the ground, he was taking a couple of short steps. Surprising both of us, he stopped, looked at me, and then took off across the living room! Granted, he was weaving and moving slow and unbalanced, but he managed to thump the floor once he made it across the room.
He thumped three times, and looked at us, almost as if to say "stop feeding me that food and get me out of that box!". Well... he is no longer in the box, but he'll be getting fed twice a day for the next week or so until he starts eating on his own a little better, and he will be taking his medicine for probably the rest of his life.
We wanted to put a few pictures up now that he is a little bit better, so you can see how he is doing. He has a long way to go (he is still pretty tilted), but he has clearly turned the tide.
Thanks for all of your well wishes--Sunny is firmly in recovery!
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
A Sick Bunny
Sunny the Funny Bunny is not having such a good time of things... last Monday (the 14th) we noticed his head tilted slightly to the left. We got him out of his pen to see how he hopped around, and his coordination was clearly starting to go.
E. Cunniculi had struck again... but we were prepared.
First thing the next morning, we called the vet in Columbus and had Sunny's records faxed to a vet here in Westminster. That afternoon, the vet saw Sunny and verified our suspicions--the parasite was back. Armed with a handful of medication--antibiotics and his favorite Benzadole medicine--Holly headed home with our sick rabbit.
Things went downhill fast. By the end of the evening, Sunny could no longer control himself, and when he wasn't flipping, he was laying flat on his back. We cleared out his pen, got him into a box lined with towels, and settled in for the long hall. The box keeps him from hurting himself, gives him four easy walls to lean against, and also gives him absolutely nothing to do but lay around and sleep.
Besides laying in his box, Sunny has been routinely getting 3 feedings a day of "Critical Care"--an "add water" food/paste that he absolutely hates. We've been keeping up on this and monitoring his weight closely (we inadvertently were underfeeding him last time). Unfortunately, his condition continued to get worse.
Last time it took Sunny a full month to recover, but with us reacting quickly, it seemed that his decline started to slow down over the weekend. This was good, because he couldn't get much worse.
Around Tuesday, I was thinking that perhaps Sunny wouldn't make it this time... then the amazing started to happen. He started getting a little more active, started to stand up a little straighter, and started to perk up a little bit. He's starting to eat again a little bit too (if we hand-feed him so he doesn't have t search for it). He's also standing unassisted in his box... although if we take him out of it he is unsure of himself and rolls into a ball.
The poor guy has been through a lot again, and he is nowhere out of the woods yet, but he is showing that he wants to fight, and is even playing around in his box a little bit to pass the time. I think between us catching it early and knowing exactly how to take care of him, we just might be able to save our little rabbit one more time!
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes... especially the cards from Mom and Jenn! We show them to Sunny, and he actually is looking at them now (probably wondering how they would taste).
We don't like posting pictures of Sunny when he is sick, but with a little bit of luck, we hope to post pictures of a happy and recovering rabbit in a couple more weeks!
E. Cunniculi had struck again... but we were prepared.
First thing the next morning, we called the vet in Columbus and had Sunny's records faxed to a vet here in Westminster. That afternoon, the vet saw Sunny and verified our suspicions--the parasite was back. Armed with a handful of medication--antibiotics and his favorite Benzadole medicine--Holly headed home with our sick rabbit.
Things went downhill fast. By the end of the evening, Sunny could no longer control himself, and when he wasn't flipping, he was laying flat on his back. We cleared out his pen, got him into a box lined with towels, and settled in for the long hall. The box keeps him from hurting himself, gives him four easy walls to lean against, and also gives him absolutely nothing to do but lay around and sleep.
Besides laying in his box, Sunny has been routinely getting 3 feedings a day of "Critical Care"--an "add water" food/paste that he absolutely hates. We've been keeping up on this and monitoring his weight closely (we inadvertently were underfeeding him last time). Unfortunately, his condition continued to get worse.
Last time it took Sunny a full month to recover, but with us reacting quickly, it seemed that his decline started to slow down over the weekend. This was good, because he couldn't get much worse.
Around Tuesday, I was thinking that perhaps Sunny wouldn't make it this time... then the amazing started to happen. He started getting a little more active, started to stand up a little straighter, and started to perk up a little bit. He's starting to eat again a little bit too (if we hand-feed him so he doesn't have t search for it). He's also standing unassisted in his box... although if we take him out of it he is unsure of himself and rolls into a ball.
The poor guy has been through a lot again, and he is nowhere out of the woods yet, but he is showing that he wants to fight, and is even playing around in his box a little bit to pass the time. I think between us catching it early and knowing exactly how to take care of him, we just might be able to save our little rabbit one more time!
Thanks to everyone for the well wishes... especially the cards from Mom and Jenn! We show them to Sunny, and he actually is looking at them now (probably wondering how they would taste).
We don't like posting pictures of Sunny when he is sick, but with a little bit of luck, we hope to post pictures of a happy and recovering rabbit in a couple more weeks!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)