A Whole New Sunny

A lot has happened since "Sunny - Back from the Brink". Sunny actually got a lot worse. He dropped 1.6 lbs (from 3.7 lbs!) and his coordination got even worse. We were surprised how much he lost when we took him to the vet and they weighed him. The prognosis from the vet was not good: "He may not recover. Give him one more month and we'll see how he does."

Sunny must have been listening. Armed with new eye salve (he had scratched his eye when he was rolling) and a new commitment to cramming as much food into him as possible, we went back to work. After about a week, we saw something strange happening. When he was getting ready to flip, he stuck a paw out and steadied himself. He reoriented his twisted head, and slowly came out of a spasm! This had never happened before!

A few days later, he was standing on his back legs (although hunched over in case he fell) cleaning himself. A few days after that, he was scratching his ears with his back paws! This sounds simple for a rabbit to do, but it requires balancing on his other 3 feet and coordinating back to front.

Sunny is now almost one week without rolling. He is back to playing and running. He's also gained a bunch of weight back, and we are thinking about reducing his feeding schedule as he is now eating A LOT! His head is a little twisted, and he still isn't quite back to 100% with his coordination (I'd say 80%), but that is a lot better than the 5-10% low he was probably at.

Now that Sunny is really getting better, I told Holly that I secretly took pictures of Sunny when he was sick. I was hoping to make a post like this, showing before and after.

(BEFORE)

Notice that in the before picture, how skinny he was and how he was leaning (heavily) against a box we had padding his cage. He spent the better part of a month leaning on things.

(AFTER)

Notice in the after pictures him playing, eating, and running right through the middle of the cage.

He still has a little bit further to go, but he has passed the threshold of "sick" and is now firmly in "recovery mode". We are so glad to have our bunny back!