Buck Jones
Well-Known Member
We lost one of our most favorite buns this week, Maxwell. As best as wecan tell he succumbed to an urinary infection, which developed into anabscess, and may have resulted in a fatal pulmonary infection.
Like most of us pet owners who lose a rabbit, there is a tendency tobeat ourselves up with a lot of, "could've, would've, should've's" and20/20 hindsight, and I'm really not going to do that. Events enfoldedthe way they did, when they did, and for whatever reason(s), but nowthat I've had a couple of days to consider what happened, I thought I'djust post some conclusions I have drawn in order to prevent someoneelse from missing the signals that I may have misread and/or ignored.
We had two neutered, heterosexual pairs of outside rabbits, each pairof which alternatively free ranged daily in our fenced-in back yard.Maxie, a pure bred black Dutch buck, was bonded with Mitzie, aHimalayan Netherland Dwarf doe. Maxie and Mizie were alternately freeranged with the other remaining pair in order to preclude anyterritorial fights and/or injuries.
It is part of my regimen to monthly weigh, manicure, groom, inspect,and record health data on each of our buns. Customarily, this processtakes place out in the back yard on a picnic table because of the messmanicuring and grooming can entail, but due to thelongextraordinary length of inclement weather thiswinter, the interval between sessions was extended. When I went to workon Maxie this recent Wednesday, it had been six weeks since I had lastinspected him, and I noticed major swelling in his genital area for thefirst time.
For how long did this condition exist, I do not know. Had I beenadhering to my established monthly routine, I might have caught theproblem two weeks earlier. Maybe, maybe not, for the problem might nothave existed then.
I have tended to view these sessions as more of a nail cuttingsituation, and not focusing equally as much, perhaps, on the otherhealth aspects as I should have. That may not have been such a goodpractice to slip into for it permitted me to procrastinate just thatmuch longer, as my rationale was that their nails could wait a bitlonger until the weather warmed up some.
With keeping rabbits in multiples, there is less of a tendency on ourpart to pick them up individually to love, caress them, and,coincidentally,identify potential health problems before they becomemore serious. Maxie and Mitzie were so enamored of one another, andthey were so heart warming to watch interacting, that we did not liketo insert ourselves too much in their relationship. With only onerabbit as a pet, there is a higher probability one will interactphysically more closely and frequently.
Due to the inclement weather this winter, the outside buns were keptinside our basement in a two-storied rabbit "condo" I had configuredfrom a 4'L x 3'W x 3'H dog crate. Each pair's "floor" was equipped withits own newspaper lined tray, raised 1/2" x 1/2" hardwarecloth(wire)floor, and large corner litter box. Both pairs were litterbox trained, although, the occasional and incidental poops were likelyto be found to have gone through the wire to rest on the tray.
Of late, I noticed that Maxie's and Mitzie's tray evidenced more urinestains around these poop deposits, which confused me a trifle, but Ishrugged it off as "wet" poop soaking the surrounding newspaper liningand/or the buns just getting sloppy with their potty training afteralmost four months of confined basement living.
In retrospect, these "changes" may have been symptomatic of Maxiehaving an urinary infection, and I may have missed that, especiallywith the two rabbits in the same cage. One doesn't easily know to whomto attribute which symptom under these conditions.
Of late, Maxie's and Mitzie's water consumption had increased. Iattributed it to winter, when consumption can go up, but they were niceand warm at optimum temperatures in the basement, so that assumptionreally did not compute if I had thought it through properly. Inretrospect it, also, may have been a warning sign and anotherindication of an incipient urinary infection.
In truth, I thought Mitzie was the thirsty one, and it occurred to methat she might have some kind of diabetic condition, for I saw herdrink more often than I would see Maxie. Now, with Maxie gone, itappears I might have mistakenly applied that symptom to the wrongrabbit, too.
I guess my lessons learned here are: (1)establish a scheduled healthregimen and stick to it, because it is not only the obvious things thatwill get your bunny; (2)inspect your bunny visually and physicallyfrequently; (3)ANY change(s)in behavior from the norm are reason forcircumspection; (4)keeping pet multiple bunnies tends to reduce theneed for personal attention; and(5) keeping multiple bunnies leaves onesusceptible to making incorrect assumptions and judgments connectingadverse medical symptoms with the inappropriate patient.
Thank you for being so patient, those of you who have bother to staywith me for this rather long diatribe, but in addition to potentiallyhelping someone else avoid some of the mistakes and pitfalls I may havemade, I needed to systematically analyze and process in my own mindexactly what it was that happened to Maxie and us, in what seemed likesuch a short amount of time.
Some, or all of this, may not necessarily be new information to you,but if I only bring it home more clearly to you, or have preventedanother bun from departing from its owner and this earth a single dayearlier than its appointed time, I will have considered my efforts hereimminently successful.
God bless and God speed, you and your wonderful bun(s).
Maxwell Goodbunny RIP 4/8/04
Buck