I Found Her! (Update & some concern)

[Raspberry82]

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry I don't have more pictures of this super sweet girl, but yesterday we decided to bring home the little black bunny from our local Rabbit Advocate's. It turns out she is actually a mix between a black and a silver martin, so she has small white flecks throughout her coat, very pretty girl!!

Were going to try out bonding her and Max for the next few weeks and see how it goes. If not well, we may be trying another bunny at her foster mom's home, but Bebe (her given shelter name) is SUCH A SWEETIE I'm really hoping this works. So far they seem pretty comfortable with one another, no biting or nipping, no mounting yet and no aggressive behavior between them, so I hope it goes well. *crosses her fingers* She's been a little scared, but has calmly let me pet and hold her. She's currently being a little potato sack on out couch, lol .

My Concern:
She is still a bit underweight and on the boney side since she was rescued 2 months ago, but after picking her up and holding her last night, I noticed a round hard lump just under her front leg. I emailed her foster mom about this since she is an experience bunny person and to make sure that Bebe was checked by a vet beforehand, but could this be an abcess??? I did a search for that in past posts on here, but couldn't find a description for abcesses.

Any info is greatly appreciated. If this is in fact what the lump is, I'll gladly search through past abcess posts to familiarize myself with the problem. But this is my first experience finding a lump on a bunny! :nerves1



Athena

 

[Raspberry82]

Ok. Her foster Mom got back to me immediately thank goodness apologizing that she did not discover this lump prior to adopting her out to me. But now she will need to go to my vet and thankfully they've offered to help with the costs since they did not discover this problem before I took her home. My goodness, the poor bun...

I'm setting up an appointment with my rabbit savvy vet for her to get checked out and likely have a surgery done. It sounds like it is an abscess. I hope this isn't going to be too horribly expensive! But of course, all in all, I'm more worried about Bebe's health and it concerns me that she was not thoroughly checked out by a vet in the first place. Don't most shelters check out all new bunnies they take in with a vet check to make sure they don't make all the other buns sick?? It just really irks me that she wasn't checked out properly.

I'll put up an update with what comes up from the vet :?.


Athena

 

[Wabbitdad12]

I am happy to hear about your new bun. Sounds like she's going to be spoiled and rightfully so.

Abscesses can develop quickly, it might not have been there when she was checked, so don't be to hard on them.

I have a Flemish giant buck that I have had two develop rather rapidly, one popped on its own with some help from the bun and the other literally grew overnight. I took him into my rabbit savvy vet who told me how to care for the one that opened. I made an appointment for the vet to lance the other. Very interesting procedure, ask your vet if you can observe. The pus from the abscess is very thick and has the consistency of caulk.

Your lucky to have a bun savvy vet, that really helps with checkups and treatments.

 

[Raspberry82]

That's a relief to know! I did not realize they could appear like that so quickly. So I'll be sure to not be hard on them for it . Caulk-like puss sounds really uncomfortable, yikes. I'll be sure to ask if I can observe, I'm interested in learning more about these things (since I'm planning to finish schooling as a Vet Tech). Thank you for the info!!

And yes, I feel extremely lucky to have a good bunny vet and only 6 blocks from home! I know I can trust him completely with my kiddies .

 

[BlueGiants]

Those abcesses can literally show up overnight. They could have checked her very thoroughly and it wasn't there.... then it was.

I'd keep her seperate from Max for a little while.A lot ofabcesses are Pasturella, and even if Max has been exposed to it before, I'd err on the side of caution and keep them seperate. If the vet put the girl on an antibiotic, she can be introduced afterwards.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Congrats on the new bunny! Hopefully the vet will have this lump business all figured out and it won't be a big deal. Please keep us updated! I know it's kind of tough to bring a new bunny home and be all excited, then be really worried because you think something's wrong. :hug:

 

[Raspberry82]

Thank you everybody. I love this forum . You've been really helpful. I'm trying to figure out how much something like this might run cost wise, but it's hard to say I guess until the vet checks her out.

I'll be sure to keep her and Max separate. They were together two times for a short while before the abcess was discovered, though.

I'm quickly becoming quite attached to her and so is Max it seems! On their last "bonding session" together before discovering the abcess, he was smittenly purring right next to her with his face laid down by her face. Although, I think she is taking things a little slower as far as falling for Max in return, but she does like him. Yay!! A BIG first step for them both on only their 3rd bonding session!!!

 

[Raspberry82]

Hi everybody,

Update on our new black bun Jemma and small vent of frustration :?

Well, I'm feeling pretty torn at the moment and a little upset. I took our new bun Jemma in to see a very good local bunny savvy Vet this morning. After she was taken out of the room to be checked over, the doctor came in and asked immediately what her history was and if I knew how she had been cared for (he didn't look happy!) and I explained I had just adopted her from RA which he is very familiar with and that she was from a hoarder. He seemed annoyed that the shelter would hand me a bunny in this shape. From what he told me, he believes the lump she has has been there for a while because it is fairly large in size, at least 3 inches long & 2 1/2 inches wide along her front side area.. large than a golf ball (And this is my 1st experience with an abcess of any kind and my 1st experience with adopting a bun from our well-respected local bunny shelter!). She would need a 30 min surgery because of its size followed by three weeks of antibiotics. This surgery he estimates will be $450 + the cost of antibiotic shots for three weeks or more!!!

I'm very torn. I'm becoming pretty attached to this bunny, but the fact is, I've only had her for 2-3 days and already running into large Vet bills and we haven't even figured out for sure whether we can keep her permanently due to the bonding issue with Max. Since the Vet thinks she's had this lump for a while, I'm feeling frustrated and annoyed with our local shelter because they adopted her out to me with the impression that she was in perfect health, no warning of possible problems immediately after adopting her, when obviously she wasn't fully healthy while still in their care. I notciced this huge lump the first time I picked her up after we go home, but her foster mom didn't even notice while holding her earlier that day. Though the Vet did say the abcess was her only problem and he felt it did not have Pasturella issues.

Right now, I'm not positive how much the shelter will agree to pay towards this surgery, I've been told they will "help with the costs" by her foster mom, but what does that mean? It was agreed between myself and her foster mom that the bunny would be with us for three weeks to first see if she and Max could/would bond, if not, she would have to go back to her foster mom :?.

Isn't it the shelter's responsibility to inform would be adopters of all the state of health a bunny is in prior to the adoption??

If the shelter does agree to pay for the surgery (which I'm really really hoping for) I'd happily care for her during her recovery which I guess will be another 2-3 weeks, and then once she is healed we can try the bonding process again which will be another few weeks afte that. I don't know what kind of affects her surgery and recovery may have on their now post-poned bonding if Jemma recovers while here with us. Especially if bunnies are known to reject a mate due to smelling different from just a Vet visit?

Above all, I'm concerned and really feeling for Jemma and I really want to keep her. She is the sweetest bunny I've ever met (especially considering her very abused recent past) and the last thing she needs is a big surgery to go through in a brand new place with new people or worse, having to go back and forth again to her foster mom's. We do care for her a lot and I would love for her to be ours, but now I really don't know if that's possible until this new problem is figured out . There's no way I can afford a $500+ Vet bill. On top of not even being sure this will work out between her and Max.

I'm emailing her foster mom with the Vet news and estimated costs in a bit, I really hope this can be resolved with a happy ending for everyone, especially Jemma! :sigh: Sorry if I'm running on and on, this is just really stressing me out right now.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

I'm really sorry you and Jemma are going through this What a tough situation! I hope it all gets worked out and the surgery cost will be split so it won't be too expensive for you, and she recovers well and bonds to Max... Good luck!!!!!!

 

[Haley]

First thing, do you have any other vets in your area who you could call and tell them the problem and get a quote/estimate over the phone?

So it is an abscess for sure?

As others mentioned, these develop rather quickly and as I know from fostering you dont always have time to properly check the bunnies over every day. I like to think they would notice one that big but honestly Max and Basil both developed a marble sized abscess overnight and it was just sheer luck I noticed it. If it had been a foster bunny (which I dont always have time to snuggle and hold) I might not notice.

ok, so Basil had one on his cheek that was marble sized and I want to say it cost about 160 or so. I dont see why yours would be so much more. Thats why I say ask around. You might also want to find out if the rescue has a vet they use who would charge less if they took her in themselves, then you could split the cost with them or something.

As for the antibiotics, they are very cheap if you have a local farm/feed store who sells drugs for livestock. PenG/Bicillin is usually what the Dr. will prescribe for injections after the surgery and you can buya bottle (which would be more than enough for 3weeks worth)for about 10.00 at most farm/feed stores.

As for the vet care, remember that most rescues are running on no profit and they themselves are usually in a lot of debt. Yes, if this was an issue that was there before you adopted they really should pay most of the bill, but just remember their resources are probably very limited.

I really hope this works out and you can get her treatment soon and keep her. She sounds like a very sweet little girl.

 

[Raspberry82]

Yes, it is for sure an abcess. I've allocated at least $100 for emergency Vet bills for the bunny we adopt, but what's frustrating me is basically two things: 1) Due to the size of the abcess, he felt it had been growing for a while and I feel like I brought Bebe home without knowing her true state of health and after only 3 days have this large Vet bill. And 2) Even though I already like her a lot and want to keep her, I agreed to adopt her only if she and Max were able to bond (we're giving it about 3 weeks to see what happens in that time). If they couldn't bond we were going to try another one of the bunnies at her foster mom's home.

This really complicates things because the bonding will have to be post-poned for a couple of weeks and I'm wondering what affect this might have on their bonding. If she heals from her surgery while staying with us (in a pen near Max's pen), it seems possible Max could become jealous of her receiving so much attention while I cared for her and then dislike her for it. Yeesh. Talk about complicated!

I know shelters are often really struggling to make ends meet and I'm happy to contribute what I can to her surgery because I do care about her a lot (probably $100-$175) but $500 seems really steep to me also and he said it's mainly due to being large.

 

[Nelson_is_mine]

I'm so sorry to hear about you and Jemma's problem! I hope the operation can be underway quickly so she'll feel a lot better.

I doubt whether the shelter is even obligated to help you pay, however, since you can't prove that they knowingly allowed you to adopt a sick bun. While I do agree that the bun could have been more thoroughly checked over, it's not a sign of neglect on the rescues' or foster mom's part, as others have said, these things grow quickly. Maybe even more quickly due to her weakened condition from her former owner. I do pity your situation, but I don't think that it's any reason to be angry at anyone, it's not like it was anyone's fault. Though anger at the situation is perfectly acceptable. You can cry and kick and scream as much as you would like, just don't scare the buns.

And I would talk to the vet about paying in small parts. They should be open to it if they are as nice and honest a practice as you say they are. A veterinarian is a profession much like a teacher: you do it because you love it, not because you're after money. Their first concern is for the animal's wellness and safety, they should be able to make the surgery affordable for you or recommend a vet that they know and trust who will preform the surgery for less. Remember, they're there to help you. You are their client and they would like you to continue to be and they will bend over backwards to make sure that you will.

Best of Luck!

 

[maherwoman]

I don't have much wisdom to add, unfortunately...but know that there's one more person out here praying for you, Max, and Jemma...

ray:

I really hope to see that things worked out somehow...it sounds like Jemma would be such a wonderful, sweet addition to your guys' home...:hug:

 

[Raspberry82]

Thank you maherwoman . I'm praying for that also!

I'll look into estimates from other Vets and/or paying in installments or monthly amounts if the Vet will let me. I didn't know Vet's would allow that, that would make this a lot easier. I'm sure we'll find some way to work this all out. I didn't mean to make it out to be anyones fault, of course it isn't. Things just come up, that's the nature of being a pet owner. I needed a little venting simply because it isn't an easy spot to find yourself in all of a sudden, especially when we were still testing the waters so to speak. I'm not angry, I'm just worried, women get like that when they worry and I've got me some good reasons .

On the upside, Jemma is such a trooper, I know bunnies tend to hide any pain or discomfort, but even so, she's spent the whole evening snuggled up on our couch being a purrfect angel bun and even did a binky! Her first one so far! she is very timid, so this is a wonderful thing to see from her. She's starting to feel at home which warms my heart so much! I'm very happy to see that she is happy. Even with this awful thing in her side, she's a happy purring honeybun.

:inlove:

 

[Raspberry82]

Oh yes, I forgot to add: she got to have her very first banana chip of her life tonight and she's as bad as a kid in a candy shop with them.. lol. I don't think she's ever tasted anything so yummy! So precious!

 

[maherwoman]

Aww...Trixie says, "YES!! Banana chips are WONDERFUL!!!"

Hehe...

And, yeah, you're certainly right...women do tend to get angry when they're worried...we're quite noted for it, aren't we? :hug:

 

[Raspberry82]

Hehe, yes we surely are :angel:. My hon knows all too well about that:big wink:. I'm a sweetie most of the time, though.. honest!!:biggrin2:

 

[maherwoman]

Hehe...I think with all the malarky our hormones put us through all the time, we've a right to be upset sometimes! LOL!

 

[Pipp]

Doesn't the shelter have a vet they use all the time and get discounted rates from? Most do. (I think the rescues here pay half price and are allowed to run a tab). If they don't, I'd wonder why not. It concerns me the vet doesn't like the rescue.It could mean the rescue uses a rival vet and this one's nose is out of joint, who knows, people have all sorts of reasons forprejudices.

Also concerning isthat the bunny is still thin after two months, that may indicate the abscess has been bothering her.

Maybe Ivory, Randy or Pam have more info, but it seems to me a golf-size lump under the arm would be a lot harder to deal with than a marble-sized lump on the cheek, so that might be the extra cost. If they charge by how long it takes, I imagine dealing with the extra size and length take more time, not to mentionthe chances of the under-arm variety having 'tentacles' would be greater?

You have every right to hand the bunny back to the rescue, but best to hang in there to make sure they're going to help her.

If they aren't in a position to pay the majority and just take the $100 you've set aside, and another vet can't offer a substantially lower price, I'd suggest a compromise where all three entities make an equalcontribution --you, the rescue andthe vet. (The vet absorbs33.3%, although if you go to another vet, don't suggest thisuntil AFTER you get the estimate).

Does that sound fair?

sas :clover:

 

[Pipp]

PS: Moving this to the Infirmary.