i apparently am getting behind on the updates...sorry mo and ko.
Carol · Jan. 2, 2011
i thought i had posted when jelly's pathology came back...but i think i forgot. anyway..it was a highly aggressive cancer but they did get good clean margins. so what does that mean? maybe (probably) her cancer will show up again...it wasn't great news in any case.
on the recent vet checks...
molly2's bloodwok was ok...just a slight indication that she might have parasites so we will treat her just in case.
hilda is cleared for her dental, mammary tumour removal and possible eye repair (possible... because the vet is not sure it will help all that much, she will look closer when hilda is under sedation.)
alf has to go back on for a chest xray..it looks like he has cardiac disease.
jingles is cleared for her massive dental...say good bye honey-bunch to most of your teeth!
and tomorrow tina-fey, mandy, and wilma all go back in...the first 2 for rechecks and wilma for a glucose curve.
and i am to bring daphne along with me and drop her off to spend the day with jenn who is feeling pretty damn sick. i can pick her up again when i get wilma and jenn can have the daft daxi to keep her company and her mind off feeling like crap.
the sad news today is we lost another brown betty...betty boop passed away during the night. i looked right at both of them last night and they were both perfectly fine...i watched them breathe and they were breathing easily..i watched them hop around and eat and then i saw them both settle in together for a nice cuddle. i especially looked closely because i have each night been watching them for any sign of feeling unwell....and i have not seen a single damn thing!
i sent her in for an autopsy. betty rubble's autopsy showed an enlarged heart...but there was also a large encapsulated abcess inside her lung which in retrospect is probably why she always breathed so much faster then the other ones. we should have sent it off for pathology but it was too late by the time i thought of it. maybe they brought some kind of infectious lung abcessing thing with them when they came from the meat rabbitry and betty rubble' abcesss wasn't an isolated thing. anyway...it really worries me...not just for the brown betty's but for all of the rabbits sharing the same air in there. so if betty boop has an abcess too...we will for sure send it off and see what it is. i am hoping as awful as it sounds tho that she only has an enlarged heart as the cause of her death and no abcess hiding in there. walled off abcesses are impossible to treat but i need to know if the originating organism if it is there, is contagious to our other bunnies in there.
we will probably eventually lose betty white also either way but at least if it was just cardiac enlargement our other rabbits are safe.
this so sucks...we rescued them from becoming someone's dinners so they could all die anyway before they were even a year old????
rest in peace betty boop...i am glad you did enjoy these last few months of your life...i just wish you guys would have lived a lot longer.
Rabbits get pasturella from their mom (thru the birth canal).....so pretty much all rabbits will have pasturella....it is just a matter of it they will express symptoms and or illness (abscesses etc.
The *old school* way of thinking is to cull them all or that is can be transmitted thru the air....breeders used to cull if any rabbit exhibited any pasturella and some old farm vets will also say the same thing. On eof my first rabbits I was advised by a vet to euthanize because she sneezed....thank goodness I didn't listen and the rabbit lived to 11 years of age.
Trust me - that is old school info....if it were transmitted thru the air, most of all of our rabbits would be dead by now, especially with regards to he sickly animals we get in.
I have also had many that were fine and had pasturella partners. Our vet says the same and he is the BEST in the small animal world.
Chances are the Betty's got it from their mom and it was expressed more internally (lung abscess) vs a topical type of abscess. Pasturella tends to come out under poor living conditions or stress....and chances are they had a crummy start to life, so did their parents and thus it was passed onto them and their systems were not strong enough to keep it at bay.
So sad to hear :( but at least they were able to live as proper bunnies.