biancajb
Member
Hi everyone. As in the topic, i have a special needs tripod bunny, Sherlock. She is a small, sooty, long haired angora, 7 yo, lop eared find and rescue bunny. Found with a badly broken leg and really underweight - the leg needed to be amputated as the vet couldn't fix it. So we found ourselves caring for a disabled bunny, but it has been very much worth it. I found her when she was approximately 2 years old. We absolutely love this rabbit, there is no words to describe.
She's since had quite a few problems, the most recent being gastric stasis and an emergency spay (she had a bulging diseased lookinguterus, which the vet thought must be cancer). The vet believed the gastric stasis was caused by the uterus (due to her diet being so good, we've always been worried about her being overweight and a tripod bunny) which was pretty bad when he took it out. I only recently found out that they had all these contingency plans in place when they were spaying her, because they thought at her age, and having just recovered from gastric stasis (and 5 days in the vet) that she wouldn't make it through the surgery (this being the second major surgery she'd had in 5 years) but she sailed through, against all odds. They love her up at the vet too - because she is such awell behaved, gentlelittle bunny. I spent my mornings and nights after work with her so that she wouldnt be locked in a cage the whole time up at the vet.
Anyway, what has happened now though is that one front leg is spayed, the vet says caused by arthritisher having only oneback leg and the pressure put on her front leg. I am pretty devastated because the vet has told me she needs to be confined to a small area so she doesn't run around on the leg a lot - usually she lives in our court yard which is a big area, plus she's able to run down the side of the house. She has a double story hutch and lots of rugs to play on. Now her area is confined to the hutch andmaybe 1 x 2 metres of play area which is filled with her boxes and litter tray and what not - she's not allowed to go up to the second story because of the ramp.
I'm worried about her mental health being affected from her being locked up, she lives with my family - i've moved into a unit so i can't have her with me - and my partner and i are going to go home twice a week to take her out of herarea (we were worried taking her to the unit and confining her to the balcony would be just as bad) my fiance is concerned that locking her up and prolonging her life will be worse than having her live a shorter amount of time outside but happy - my parents think she should stay locked in the area because its what the vet thinks, but mum has been taking her out in the mornings for some social time. They don't want to get her a companion because she's in all honesty probably old woman for a bun that's been so sick all her life. The vet said they think she might be older than what we estimate at 6-7years. The vet will be putting her on arthritis/pain medication after speaking to the specialist - she wants to put sherlock on a small dose for a long period of time (to be put on her food - although she's pretty cluey about food spikeing so maybe straight into her mouth) also being an long haired angora rabbit - grooming is a bit hard so i usually hack at her fur once a month to keep it managable.
Has anyone else had any luck with an arthritic front splayed leg bunny? I can't find much info on it, and i'd like to know if there's anything else i can do for her, if we're currently doing the right thing? the vet said if this leg gets really bad or if the other one goes we'll have to put her down. She doesn't think splinting is a good idea in her case. She can lay down and walk fine - sometimes goes in circles tho, and cant sit up for too long because the leg slides out and its uncomfortable so she usually lays down or flops. She can still run around tho (hence why the vet wanted us to confine her).
Thanks, sorry its such a long post...
B
She's since had quite a few problems, the most recent being gastric stasis and an emergency spay (she had a bulging diseased lookinguterus, which the vet thought must be cancer). The vet believed the gastric stasis was caused by the uterus (due to her diet being so good, we've always been worried about her being overweight and a tripod bunny) which was pretty bad when he took it out. I only recently found out that they had all these contingency plans in place when they were spaying her, because they thought at her age, and having just recovered from gastric stasis (and 5 days in the vet) that she wouldn't make it through the surgery (this being the second major surgery she'd had in 5 years) but she sailed through, against all odds. They love her up at the vet too - because she is such awell behaved, gentlelittle bunny. I spent my mornings and nights after work with her so that she wouldnt be locked in a cage the whole time up at the vet.
Anyway, what has happened now though is that one front leg is spayed, the vet says caused by arthritisher having only oneback leg and the pressure put on her front leg. I am pretty devastated because the vet has told me she needs to be confined to a small area so she doesn't run around on the leg a lot - usually she lives in our court yard which is a big area, plus she's able to run down the side of the house. She has a double story hutch and lots of rugs to play on. Now her area is confined to the hutch andmaybe 1 x 2 metres of play area which is filled with her boxes and litter tray and what not - she's not allowed to go up to the second story because of the ramp.
I'm worried about her mental health being affected from her being locked up, she lives with my family - i've moved into a unit so i can't have her with me - and my partner and i are going to go home twice a week to take her out of herarea (we were worried taking her to the unit and confining her to the balcony would be just as bad) my fiance is concerned that locking her up and prolonging her life will be worse than having her live a shorter amount of time outside but happy - my parents think she should stay locked in the area because its what the vet thinks, but mum has been taking her out in the mornings for some social time. They don't want to get her a companion because she's in all honesty probably old woman for a bun that's been so sick all her life. The vet said they think she might be older than what we estimate at 6-7years. The vet will be putting her on arthritis/pain medication after speaking to the specialist - she wants to put sherlock on a small dose for a long period of time (to be put on her food - although she's pretty cluey about food spikeing so maybe straight into her mouth) also being an long haired angora rabbit - grooming is a bit hard so i usually hack at her fur once a month to keep it managable.
Has anyone else had any luck with an arthritic front splayed leg bunny? I can't find much info on it, and i'd like to know if there's anything else i can do for her, if we're currently doing the right thing? the vet said if this leg gets really bad or if the other one goes we'll have to put her down. She doesn't think splinting is a good idea in her case. She can lay down and walk fine - sometimes goes in circles tho, and cant sit up for too long because the leg slides out and its uncomfortable so she usually lays down or flops. She can still run around tho (hence why the vet wanted us to confine her).
Thanks, sorry its such a long post...
B
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