(RIP) Rupert is fighting for his life!

[Ofelia]

My tiny little dwarf sized white is fighting for his life!

He had a very very large tumor on his thigh, the size of a golf ball, almost totally hidden under his flank and attached to the bone and inside tissues so not noticeable either until it erupted! I nearly passed out with grief, its the size of a tennis ball now and he is so small that its almost his whole leg, thigh that is simply not even there anymore!! I can see his bones and muscles and his leg has been ravaged by this evil, horrible unfair tumor.

Rupert is holding on and the best vet in the world (in my opinion) is supporting us 110% with after hours calls etc.

It was ago that I went in to see him every morning and saw his leg, I nearly threw up, I imagined some predator has torn him apart during the night, up until then he was slightly off his food but nothing yet for me to worry about as I had him weighed etc and checked his hydration too. I was about to switch him onto a higher calorie diet adn also bring him inside with me just to monitor any slight changes, instead I find myself so confused by how this could happen under my nose.

The vet said the tumur was well hidden, very internal and only once it got to the surface did it really look so bad.

If it had been a cat or dog, the leg would have been amputated by now but with Ruperts tiny size and will to fight, we will see what the antibiotics do and the regular warm bathing and cleaning and a little physio too once he can bear weight on it.

Anyway I have my appointment in less than an hour and have been up all night by his side, this appointment will assess his will, his treatment, prognosis, his quality of life etc and its possible I could be talking euthanasia. Rupert is 7 years old.

I want to fight, I have the time, the compassion, the will to fight but does Rupert?

Utterly devastated, just was not expecting this.

Rupert needs all the encouragement he can get, please let others know we have a little man who needs support, he may not be able to read but he knows love when his mum tells him all about it.

He is an extremely responsive, thoughtful, queit little bunny with the courage of a tiger.

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh my goodness! Poor guy. Best of luck to Rupert.

Was the tumor a cancerous tumor, infection/abscess or some other growth?

I think you will know by looking at Rupert and spending some time with him if he's still willing to fight. It would be quite difficult for him to adjust to life without the leg, but not impossible, if that is what's required. 7 may be older for a bunny, but the smaller breeds seem to live longer and he may still have a few good years left.

ray:ray:ray:ray:ray:

 

[aurora369]

Was this a cancerous tumour or an abscess?

If it is an abscess, there is very good recovery rate with appropriate treatment. Normally injected antibiotics like penicillin combined with an oral like Zithromax. Or Convenia by injections has been used by some people as well.

Where abouts are you located as well? Different medications are available in different countries.

--Dawn

 

[sbaxter]

thinking of you both and sending you healing love !!

 

[Ofelia]

We just got back and there is definitely hope!!

Thank you for your replies, I am going to put photos up later.
I also have a good understanding of rabbit care as I run a little rescue center for the little furries but this is a first time case of a wound so large!

He is on homeopathic medicine, will get the name soon, its in my bunny first aid box, its to help the body expel dead tissue,

he is on metacam for anti-inflammatory use and his pain and discomfort
He is on antibiotics for the infection which is spreading super fast.

His wound is bathed and sunned according to his needs i.e. if a pocket of tissue has burst then he is bathed, if the wound is stable then he is sunned outside for a few minutes as the healing power of natural light is so so good.

He is forced to walk around without the comfort of his carry cage/infirmary bed so that he can use the leg and expel fluids from the wound and this lessens the chances of amputation.

After a course of the above treatment he will be assessed for surgery, however he is in critical condition for at least the next few days.

He is eating and drinking ( Thank you God) and his excrement is close to normal.

I am praying for him and if anyone else would like to, please do,

disturbing fact: he is a she!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But I cannot , just cannot make that connection right now, I am still certain he is a he!

The vet just cannot be right on that one, surely, he is a boy through and through, my little Rupert, my little white bun bun, I love him so much

 

[Ofelia]

oh and its an infectious abscess not a tumor as I previously assumed , the abscess was attached to the inner muscles and onto the bone itself or at least that is the theory after much discussion with our wonderful vet.

 

[ra7751]

Just wondering what antibiotics he is on? And I highly discourage any holistic treatments. While I don't have a problem with holisitics....they can interfere with conventional drugs, especially antibiotics....and that isn't something that can be chanced at this time. And he really needs additional pain meds.....narcotics. Metacam is much like our Tylenol (NSAID).

Randy

 

[tonyshuman]

I am glad it is not a cancerous tumor. I know he's (she's?) getting very loving care. Please keep us updated--we'll be sending good healing thoughts your way!

 

[Ofelia]

The holistic meds will not interfere with his antibiotics and have been used and trusted by my vet for 30 years, HOWEVER I am going to mention to my vet about your post ra7751 because you have helped me before and I also trust your judgement.

The only antibiotics available to me in my country are Trisel, baytril injections and baytril oral, no additonal narcotics are available, where I live, rabbits are a pest species and vet care for pet rabbits is limited!

However if there are specific suggestions with specific dosages then all I can do is ask my vet if he can somehow access these.
Rupert weighs 1.55kg.

My vet is on standby and I did tell him that I would be consulting ROL for all round possibilities to save Rupert.

I will post up the photos within a couple of hours so that those with expertise and anyone else can make suggestions above what I am doing.

ALL suggestions are appreciated but ultimately it is up to what is available and Ruperts ability to fight.

Thank you

 

[Wabbitdad12]

Get well soon Rupert, you can beat this!

 

[tonyshuman]

I didn't want to be negative, but Randy is right that some holistic medicines can interfere with traditional ones. A good example is in humans, St. Johns Wort is taken for a variety of reasons including antidepressant effects. It can interfere with how the body metabolizes all sorts of other drugs and cause potentially fatal overdoses of some medicines for this reason. However, if your vet has experience with this particular medicine, he probably knows what types of interactions it has.

You're in Australia, right? It can be difficult to get vet care there for sure.

Here is an additional resource for dosing drugs: http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rx/drugcalc.html

Trisul is trimethoprim and sulphamethoxazole. It's a sulfa drug, one of the oldest classes of antibiotics, and many bacteria are resistant to them.

Might penicillin be available in livestock stores or formulations for livestock? The drug most commonly used for abscesses here in the US is a livestock drug that we can buy at farm supply stores, a combination of penicillin G benzathine and penicillin G procaine.

 

[JimD]

Trusting in you!!:hug:

I know you'll do the very best you can with the limited resources available.

 

[PepnFluff]

Ofelias in New Zealand too If he gets to the point of needing syringe feeding I have some critical care that I got when I was in the UK if you need it? Also some probiotic powder :?If any of its needed I can post it up to you.

 

[Ofelia]

Thank you very much for the suggestions, the name of the homepathic stuff is pyrogen.

The antibiotic we are using is Baytril, not trisul. Trisul is very old but in some rare cases, I have seen it excel where Baytril has failed, odd but true.

Sometimes a combination of baytril and Trisul is effective too but right now is just the baytril that we have.

Sorry have not got time to read everything else posted right now, Rupert needs a wound bath as a fresh mini abscess has broken open. The vet warned that the abscess could be many smaller ones that each broke open , allowing for a bit of septic rot to set in before the the main big one came to the surface. This would explain the blackening of the skin in some places as an abscess was not noticed before that.. I mean who wouldn't notice a huge abscess on their bunnies flank?

Its funny, I don't recall seeing him limp or reduce weight bearing on the leg or anything really except for a tiny bit of lethargy but nothing out of character for Rupert. Also he was eating slightly less but its puzzling how something so life threatening can just appear one morning.

I think you should all have a good feel around your bunnies underarms, inner thighs, flanks, bottom area , under the jaw (especially if they have a dewlap), soft tummy bits etc because even though I groom Rupert, weigh him and give him lots of cuddles, I missed this.

Also Rupert does not liked to be picked up so our contact was mostly on the ground, another reason to check your bunnies that do not like to be handled much.

 

[Ofelia]

scrolling for sensitive content (photo of abscess)
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
here are some photos of Rupert, he is very camera shy and not very happy about it all and passes on his disdain!

The photo of his abscess is very unclear an does not give a good idea of it really, but Rupert thought it was horribly unfair, the whole ordeal of photography in his state, but I told him it could help , he is by the way eating and drinking had to have a abscess flush before as the smell and leaking were quite bad, but he is now dry, warm, comfortable on clean bedding, towel, hot water bottle for comfort and some fresh dandelion too.

our latest rescue bun Wing:
he is very old and had had a very bad case of neglect!

this last one is the day I got Rupert, a long time ago now it seems...

okay one, more, this is Rupert back when he was being introduced to his new wife, he took to her now problems as Rupert has his own unique way of dealing with conflict, he somersaults over the other bunny and gives them a nip on the nose mid air!!!!!!!!!!! This confuses even the most territorial bunnies and Rupert is always the winner of any dispute.

 

[Pipp]

Aw, poor Rupert. Hope he's better soon!

Do you have a photo that shows where the abscess is on his body so people can get a better idea of where they can form?

I think that would be helpful in addition to the close-up shot already posted.

Pets for Rupert (and Wing), tell them they're in good hands.


sas et:

 

[pumpkinandwhiskersmom]

Sending prayers and good wishes your way. How's Rupert?

 

[JimD]

Hi Lisa,

I hope all is going as well as possible.

Sending good karma and prayers.


What are you using to irrigate the site?

 

[Maureen Las]

You may be able to fight this more effectively if you can get any type of injectable penicillin. It is sold here in the US for farm use and is easy to get as it is sold over the counter.I don't know the circumstances there, however we could give you the dosing protocol for your vet to look at .
if it is not easy to obtainI cannot imagine that your vet doesn"t have access to some kind of injectable penicillin


http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jwmoore/bicillin/bicillin.htm


even if you could not get bicillin you could give the short acting procaine penicillin on a daily basis or the the longer acting benzathine penciillin every few days

 

[JimD]

angieluv wrote:

You may be able to fight this more effectively if you can get any type of injectable penicillin. It is sold here in the US for farm use and is easy to get as it is sold over the counter.I don't know the circumstances there, however we could give you the dosing protocol for your vet to look at .
if it is not easy to obtainI cannot imagine that your vet doesn"t have access to some kind of injectable penicillin


http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~jwmoore/bicillin/bicillin.htm


even if you could not get bicillin you could give the short acting procaine penicillin on a daily basis or the the longer acting benzathine penciillin every few days

She's located in New Zealand

There'slimited resources because ALL rabbits are regarded as pests.