Caring for senior bunny as his body gives up

[RoryBean]

Hi everyone! This is SnowyShiloh. For some reason I can't log in under my regular account. I once made a sort of joke account for my bunny and that's the one I can log into. Note that I don't really expect anyone to recognize my name because it's been years since I posted here. I still love bunnies as much as ever, just drifted away from the forum.

Anyway, to the matter at hand...

This is incredibly hard to write. My precious Rory is now 10 1/2 years old. In 2 1/2 weeks it will be 10 years since I adopted him from the local animal shelter. He has been a wonderful bunny for those 10 years. I love him so very much. He has always been my favorite. We had planned to throw him a little 10 year adoption anniversary party, but I don't think he will make it that long :cry1: I am here just looking for tips to make his end of life as comfortable and happy as possible, and how to get him to eat and drink more.

Rory is pretty healthy, all things considered. Good weight, nice soft belly, pretty good fur. He has cataracts in both eyes and can't see very well. He also has arthritis. He has slowed down a LOT since April. Stopped using his litter box in late July. The past week has slowly stopped eating as much, and stopped drinking as much yesterday. He has also slowed down even more. I have given him a bowl of water to encourage more water consumption (he has a bottle normally), a big piece of cucumber, oats, unlimited pellets (which he hardly touches), hay of course. Yesterday he got a grape (which he ate right away) and 3 leaves of collard greens- he ate one during the day, one during the night, and I threw away the third this morning. Usually he would snarf down his pellets and greens immediately. I can also just tell. I know this bunny. He's getting tired and will pass away soon. Normally I do not hesitate to bring my pets to the vet and he has gone many times during his life, but I don't want to bring him in for this. He hates going to the vet and finds it incredibly stressful, I want this time to be as calm and stress free for him as possible. I have euthanized rabbits in the past when their suffering was great but don't feel like he is in a state currently where that's needed.

So, does anyone have any tips for me?

 

[RoryBean]

I have decided to take him to the vet after all. He will hate it and I feel really guilty about it but it occurred to me that he could be in pain from the arthritis and maybe he needs some pain medication. I'll try to schedule it so my husband can drive me and I can just hold him instead of needing to put him in a carrier. Vet office is closed at the moment but I called earlier and our vet will be in on Friday, fingers crossed he can see Rory then.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We just had to do the same for Hutch--he's been with us for almost 13 years, but yesterday was his last as he really was in a bad way and we put it off longer than we really should have.

 

[RoryBean]

Hi Nancy. I'm so sorry about Hutch I thought it may be easier dealing with a bunny death when the rabbit had a good, long, happy life, but the answer is... not really. It's been incredibly hard watching him get old and decline. I would give anything for him to be young and feisty again.

We have an appointment for Tuesday. That was the soonest the vet is available. We have the opportunity to go in on Friday morning as a walk in, but I will only do that if he seems to get worse tomorrow. Walk ins always mean we end up sitting there for a while and Rory hates going to the vet so I don't want to prolong how long we're sitting there waiting.

 

[JBun]

If he has been to the vet before in the past, you might try calling and explaining about his arthritis and his old age, and just see if the vet will go ahead and prescribe some meloxicam that you could just go pick up without having to bring your bun in at all. Some vets will work with you in these situations, so it might be worth a try. You might find once you get him on a good maintenance dose of the meloxicam, that he perks up. I know that it really helped out my old bun that had arthritis.

When my bun got old, she started losing weight so I started giving her some black oil sunflower seeds to help keep the weight on. I tried oats but they gave her soft poop. I also would give her some alfalfa hay as she didn't have any kidney or bladder issues that the high calcium would aggravate. You could also try either making a pellet mush by soaking in warm water, or try feeding Oxbow critical care. If his mouth is sore at all and it hurts for him to eat hard food, he might be more inclined to eat the soft food. You could see if he'll eat it from a dish or a spoon, or you could try syringe feeding it.

It's hard when they come to this point and so many things start going wrong. Sometimes with a little adjustment though, you can manage things so that they are still comfortable and happy, and have a good quality of life.

 

[Aki]

I'm so sorry for you both. My favorite rabbit is also getting old and has cataract in both eyes - I dread the moment when the situation you're in will occur. I know it's the deal you make when you take an animal in but it's still always so incredibly hard to watch them go. If your rabbit has arthritis and isn't taking pain medications, that could explain a lot. I hope it will do the trick and give you some more time with him.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:bigtears:

 

[RoryBean]

Rory is the same today. I will look into getting him sunflower seeds. The oats haven't caused any problems for him so I will stick with them, but keep my eyes open for issues. I will also look into getting him some black oil sunflower seeds and ordered him some Oxbow joint health supplements on Amazon that will hopefully get here speedy. If he changes any before the vet appointment, I will update.

 

[RavenousDragon]

I'm sending my good thoughts your way. I wish I could do more.

 

[squidpop]

I have a bunny that has bad balance (I have seen a vet and gotten meds for him). Since his balance is bad so I was worried he might have a hard time drinking out of his bowl with bad balance so I made some weak electrolyte solution so that it is just barely sweet- ...and he loves drinking it out of a syringe.

So if your elder bun isn't drinking enough water maybe you could try syringe feeding weak electrolyte solution- he might like it- mine acts like it is a treat. And extra hydration is always good I think.

 

[RoryBean]

I'm happy to say that my precious boy is still with us a month later and is doing better The vet confirmed the arthritis and prescribed a few days of Metacam, plus another pain med longer term. He gets it every day and likes it enough that he hops over to willingly take it directly from the syringe. It has helped him a lot! He's still definitely an old bunny, but his mobility has improved and he doesn't shake as much when picked up. He's also been eating fairly well and drinking well. I've put water in a bowl to encourage him to drink more (vs the water bottle) and give him lots of fresh produce every day.

 

[RoryBean]

I forgot to say that the vet is not sure what the lumps under his ears are. He said bunnies have lymph nodes there. He thinks it could be cancer or tumors but Rory is so old and fragile that he didn't want to give him any medicine for it or biopsy them. The lumps do not seem to be causing him any pain and have not gotten bigger, though they are about marble sized so certainly not small. He warned me that they could rupture. I'm glad he warned me of that because I would have panicked if it happened unexpectedly.

The plan is to keep up with the pain meds and just love Rory and support him for whatever time he still has.

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

Glad to hear the pain meds are helping Rory live a more enjoyable life. Thank you for posting these experiences as our bun will be considered old in another 2 years and it is nice to know in advance what to expect. So thank you again for sharing. Best of luck to Rory! I hope you can enjoy more time together.

 

[Aki]

I forgot to say that the vet is not sure what the lumps under his ears are. He said bunnies have lymph nodes there. He thinks it could be cancer or tumors but Rory is so old and fragile that he didn't want to give him any medicine for it or biopsy them. The lumps do not seem to be causing him any pain and have not gotten bigger, though they are about marble sized so certainly not small. He warned me that they could rupture. I'm glad he warned me of that because I would have panicked if it happened unexpectedly.

The plan is to keep up with the pain meds and just love Rory and support him for whatever time he still has.

Sounds like a good plan to me
It's possible to deal with arthritis for a pretty long time with pain meds nowadays, so hopefully Rory still has some time with you.

 

[RoryBean]

An update for everyone. He's still acting so much better than he was and I'm really glad we took him to the vet and got him the medicine.

I am waiting to hear back from the vet about a new problem, though. A few times a day, he does this squeak-wheeze-sneeze sound. Seriously, the first few times he did it I thought it was his food bowl squeaking. His food bowl is a metal bowl set into a metal ring attached to his cage bars because he was peeing in bowls on the cage floor. The sound sounds like it could be the bowl moving. I determined it is indeed him though. He does it once and then again a couple of hours later.

I've heard bunnies sneeze hundreds of times and it does not sound like a normal sneeze. His nose is totally clean. Scary to say but it sounds more like an obstruction or something than mucus. The vet thinks he may have cancer anyway so of course I'm pretty worried. Good thing though is he's still acting well. Like I said, the meds have really made a huge difference in him. Yesterday he shoved his food bowl out of the ring, then threw the bowl around, then chewed the ring, then put his head through the ring from the bottom. Pretty funny and it's really nice to see him acting like a normal bun bun.