Stephanie
Well-Known Member
This may be a long post, so please bear with me. Also, I havenât been around much in a while, due to RL and we just bought a house and all that fun stuff. Some of you may remember me though, from way back when.
Ok, so I need some advice on what to do. The time has unfortunately come for us to have our beloved Chompers put to sleep.
As you all can understand, weâre having a difficult time with this and it took some time to get used to the idea before we even set up the appointment. Itâs next Tuesday, August 19 at noon.
Heâs old, close to ten I think and his health is failing rapidly. Heâs blind in one eye now, heâs lost an alarming amount of weight in a short amount of time (heâs skin and bones now) and has stopped grooming himself. The latest is that heâs starting to lose fur on one of his ears. We canât let him suffer anymore and as much as had hoped heâd cross the Bridge naturally himself, he hadnât and we feel itâs time to help him along.
Some history for those who donât know me. Chompers was my first rabbit, a rescue my mom wrangled me into taking. I had had no plans on getting a rabbit at all, but she kept at me for weeks and I relented. At first I was only going to foster him in my heated garageâ¦but when he literally jumped out of that too small cage that was covered in poop with no food, hay or water and into my armsâ¦I was in love. By the time I got home I knew he was mine for good. This was many years ago now, before I even moved up to Canada even. Iâve never known his exact age, we guesstimate heâs between 9-10 though.
As you can see in my avatar, we have two others and all three are deeply bonded. Chompers is the lop, Abby the black and Valuran the gray Mini-Rex. They all share a large cage we built ourselves and weâre very worried about Abby and Valuran when Chompers is gone. What should we expect? What can we do for them? Iâm thinking theyâll go through a grieving/depression stage, seeing they are all so close.
Also, weâve been planning on getting a new hutch for them http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751752 before we move in October to our new house. My friend thinks we should put Abby and Valuran into the new hutch the same day as Chompers is put to sleep, but Iâm not sure thatâs a good plan. She thinks that instead of them going through one stressful event (the loss of their bondmate), getting over that, and then a new hutch followed by a move may be too much for their stress levels. Sheâs pretty much one bird with two stones attitude and get it over all at once.
What do you all think? Weâve been planning on downsizing the cage for a bit, as the one we have is huge (Iâm talking almost 4âx4â in our living room lol). We just donât want to totally stress out Abby and Valuran any more than we need to.
Ok, so I need some advice on what to do. The time has unfortunately come for us to have our beloved Chompers put to sleep.
As you all can understand, weâre having a difficult time with this and it took some time to get used to the idea before we even set up the appointment. Itâs next Tuesday, August 19 at noon. Heâs old, close to ten I think and his health is failing rapidly. Heâs blind in one eye now, heâs lost an alarming amount of weight in a short amount of time (heâs skin and bones now) and has stopped grooming himself. The latest is that heâs starting to lose fur on one of his ears. We canât let him suffer anymore and as much as had hoped heâd cross the Bridge naturally himself, he hadnât and we feel itâs time to help him along.
Some history for those who donât know me. Chompers was my first rabbit, a rescue my mom wrangled me into taking. I had had no plans on getting a rabbit at all, but she kept at me for weeks and I relented. At first I was only going to foster him in my heated garageâ¦but when he literally jumped out of that too small cage that was covered in poop with no food, hay or water and into my armsâ¦I was in love. By the time I got home I knew he was mine for good. This was many years ago now, before I even moved up to Canada even. Iâve never known his exact age, we guesstimate heâs between 9-10 though.
As you can see in my avatar, we have two others and all three are deeply bonded. Chompers is the lop, Abby the black and Valuran the gray Mini-Rex. They all share a large cage we built ourselves and weâre very worried about Abby and Valuran when Chompers is gone. What should we expect? What can we do for them? Iâm thinking theyâll go through a grieving/depression stage, seeing they are all so close.
Also, weâve been planning on getting a new hutch for them http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2751752 before we move in October to our new house. My friend thinks we should put Abby and Valuran into the new hutch the same day as Chompers is put to sleep, but Iâm not sure thatâs a good plan. She thinks that instead of them going through one stressful event (the loss of their bondmate), getting over that, and then a new hutch followed by a move may be too much for their stress levels. Sheâs pretty much one bird with two stones attitude and get it over all at once.
What do you all think? Weâve been planning on downsizing the cage for a bit, as the one we have is huge (Iâm talking almost 4âx4â in our living room lol). We just donât want to totally stress out Abby and Valuran any more than we need to.
