Monty, my [big] baby bunny 2012

[HolyHandGrenade]

I know, I've been slacking this week! Monty is tolerating her collar, kinda-sorta. She has had some mishaps that required duct tape, but I haven't given up on it because I'm so afraid she'll open herself up again. I will, however, be calling to see if the vet has time to check her out tomorrow morning so we can find out whether it's okay to try going collarless. If they think she needs it longer, I'm going to ask them to wrap her because I'm tired of all of the frustration this dumb thing seems to cause everyone, including poor Monty.

After her return from last Wednesday's vet trip, she didn't seem to be drinking very much water. Her bowl went down a little, but she was apparently only drinking a little just at night, because I didn't see her doing it from my spot just in the other room where I can see her all the time. I heard her slurping away and ran in and took a pic!

Here's what her incision looked like after getting repaired. It has a little squiggle to it. I was happy to see that she flopped

I have all four bun-feet in my lap! This had never happened before, so I took a picture, of course. I was hand-feeding her pellets (bowl was on the top of her crate) and she got excited once she figured out where I was reaching and hopped out into my lap! She doesn't stay once I slack on feeding pellets, though, but it's a start!

I was snuggling with her before leaving for work, and she kept coming out into my lap right when I was trying to get up. It's like she's saying "no, no go to work. Stay and snuggle with me!"

Monty chilling on the kitchen floor, right before she tore her collar landing an over-the-leg jump.

This is her new Small Pet Select timothy hay. It's niiiiiice and loooooong and for once, that's a good thing. It means she can reach it better with the silly collar on, and she really really loves this hay. (Yeah, she eats EVERYTHING, but I'm trying to find a better supplier pricewise without having to store a bale)

And since we can never talk about poop too much, here's Monty's poop now that it's finally back to normal. It was just dark for the longest time after the surgery because she wasn't eating much hay, just her pellets and salads. Yay for hay-ey poop! (See, I toldya it's the size of big blueberries!)

The end.

No really. I took this to show how clean her butt and feet are, despite her inability to groom herself right now. She can get at the tops of her feet and has figured out how to nudge the collar to get her cecals half the time (the other half end up on the crate floor and she turns around to search for them like a mad-bun), but everything else is inaccessible. Poor bun sits around licking her collar because she just really wants to groom herself.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

Oh, and of course I have a new video too

This is smoothie idea #2--since the lettuce-laced one started to smell yucky really fast. I just did fruit for this one. Frozen strawberries (since that's what I have on hand), a BUNana--that I let her trim the end from--and several chunks of fresh pineapple. Whirled that into a frenzy with a splash of water, measured out 2 TBSP again, and mixed her meds in. She takes it all down without hesitation! (and I have the start to a really yummy smoothie for me!)

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ro1gtiYLL8[/ame]


Medicine time is stress-free. I wouldn't do this if she were not eating her pellets, salad, and hay normally because there would be a risk of throwing off all of that gut flora, but this giant is accustomed to getting at most about 3 TBSP of fruit spread out over a day. I just don't give her any other fruit noms during the day, no matter how longingly she gazes at me when I open the fridge and have to move the blueberries. If anyone with a smaller bun wants to try this, you'd probably want to scale back the smoothie amount to 1 TBSP (and the dosages of the meds might be less than Monty's too. She's on .3 mL of Metacam 1x daily, .9 mL of an antibiotic 2x daily, and .25 mL of a probiotic 2x daily. I can go look at the bottles if anyone's wondering which ones) (and I have since stopped the Metacam since it's been a week since her re-stitch, and almost 2 weeks since the spay) (and she was licking that right off the syringe) (here's another set of parentheses since I'm going crazy with them today) . <--a period, finally!

*frowns at adorable face* stop that, I don't want to make your guts all squishy

okay, time to post this.

 

[Troller]

Poor thing, she looks upset by that collar. Glad you and her are keeping spirits high.

 

[Chrisdoc]

Poor little baby, I hope she can that thing off her quite soon. That is big poop, my goodness, I can´t believe it. Good to see she´s drinking water and the fruit smoothie idea is so good to get her to take her meds. She is enjoying that, she justs keeps going back for more and more. Ohh, that scar looks sore, it must be uncomfortable, I bet you´ll be glad when you get back to normality.

 

[agnesthelion]

Awww lil (big) Monty she seems to be doing better even with that collar. Glad to hear! Her poops are huge! I was stunned to see the difference between my two, hehe.
She is a sweetie and love the pics of her cuddling and on your lap. If she's doing that with a collar on she's doing good

 

[whitelop]

Her poops are the size of Ellie's head. haha. I think I have the smallest baby out of the bunch here, and her poops are pretty small. So those poops are out of this world large!
I hope she can get the collar off soon! Poor baby. But it looks as if she'll tolerate just about anything. Her butt and feet do look pretty good after not being able to groom! Her butt cheeks look really fluffy and soft. haha. Her tail is as big as Ellie.

I know you live in the Chicago area and you work at a craft store, but is it a Michael's? My SIL lives in Chicago, I'm not sure what suburb, but she just started working in a Michael's. I was wondering if you guys worked together, that would be really weird. They live near a Garrett's popcorn shop, if that helps. haha. I've never been up there, so I couldn't tell you anything else about where they are or where the store is. But then again you could not work in a Michael's, you could work at a posh privately owned craft store. Yeah, this post just took a weird turn. It almost got weirder but I stopped myself from sharing something. hahahaha.
And I'm done now.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

No, I work in a Joann outside of Chicago. Michael's doesn't have fabric, so it's a little out of my realm as far as how useful the employee discount would be Okay, time for me to knit!

And yes, her butt cheeks are so soft! I like to cop a feel when she's relaxing I like big buns, and I cannot lie!

 

[Chrisdoc]

haha just been back to look at the pic again and her tail is massive and her thumpers are the size of Snowy and all that fur, she looks so soft. I do love the big bunnies, good job I don´t have the room or I´d be tempted. And I´m still open mouthed at those poops, they are some size, mine only do very little ones in comparison. I wonder what they way, is that a really weird question :expressionless

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

They seem to hardly weigh anything. They seem really light for their size, maybe because it's a lot of hay. I'll be gross and go weigh a couple.

It took adding 5 to the scale to get it to register as 1 gram. I tared out a plastic lid to set them on first so I wouldn't be putting poop right on the plate of the scale, haha.

Ew, Monty.

 

[Chrisdoc]

I can´t believe you weighed them for me Missy, that´s so funny. Yeah, thinking about it they do hardly weigh anything but I´m still open mouthed at how massive they are, you have one large bunny there.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

Well, once you asked, I became curious myself, so hey why not?

*patiently awaits 4:00's arrival so I can take Monty to the vet*

 

[whitelop]

Hahaha. That is so funny! I can't believe you weighed them now, but I feel like I learned something. So if anyone ever asked me the random trivia question, "how much do 5 flemmie poop pellets weigh, by the gram?" I can say 1 gram! That could win me a million dollars one day.
Okay, sorry. My brain hurts and it makes me a little loopy.

I LOVE Joann's! We have one of them here and my friend just got a good deal on some fabric to make flowers for her wedding. HEY! I need to ask you a question about fabric fraying! Is there a spray to keep the fray at bay? She got this satin-type fabric and we're cutting them in the shape of flower petals and hot gluing a pearl in the middle to make a flower for the tables. They won't be handled or anything, but we don't want them to be all fraying and weird looking. I think a spray would be good as long as it didn't discolor the the fabric. They have the stick ones too right? Like a glue stick, but for frays. She saw it I think, but was unsure because she didn't want it to discolor the fabric. Thanks for your help! haha.

PS. It looks like Monty's fur is even growing back! From the picture where she's flopped, the top part of her tummy looks like its growing back. Thats good, she'll have new fur in no time. I wonder if it will be super soft too!

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

Hahaha. That is so funny! I can't believe you weighed them now, but I feel like I learned something. So if anyone ever asked me the random trivia question, "how much do 5 flemmie poop pellets weigh, by the gram?" I can say 1 gram! That could win me a million dollars one day.
Okay, sorry. My brain hurts and it makes me a little loopy.

HEY! Is there a spray to keep the fray at bay?

PS. It looks like Monty's fur is even growing back! From the picture where she's flopped, the top part of her tummy looks like its growing back. Thats good, she'll have new fur in no time. I wonder if it will be super soft too!

Nice rhyming I don't know of a spray, but good ol' Fray-Check is an old standby, and they even sell it in a pack that includes a tip to screw onto the bottle that makes it easier to squeeze it just onto the very edge of a fabric. I haven't tried it out yet, but I've heard that's always been the best thing. Of course as with anything else, you'd want to test it on a scrap to see how it looks when it dries, but I think it just makes the edge look sliiiiiightly dark like it's wet, but doesn't yellow or anything.

Clear nail polish can be used also, but that's even more tedious to apply to the edge and then let dry, and looks wetter than Fray-Check

If your satin is all polyester, you can melt the edges. Hold the edge of a piece over a lit candle, starting far away and slowly getting closer to see where it just starts to heat it without starting on fire. It will curl ever so slightly and after you let it cool, there will be a hard edge all the way around that will not fray. At a distance, you don't be able to see it at all, same with Fray-Check

Some actual internet info to back me up: http://www.ehow.com/how_8627990_stop-satin-fraying.html
haha


And the gray part where it looks like her fur is growing back was always like that. I think they just didn't shave that part as close.

Oh, and they won't wrap her. I got back from the vet a little bit ago, and they blah blah blah cone blah blah. Blah. stab stab collar stab.

Otherwise, my bunny is perfect and she has gained weight since the 30th. She's now 10.08 lbs! So she has gained about 8 oz since her initial exam two weeks ago. Go, Monty, go!

arty:

 

[PaGal]

I have been spending wayt too much time in the past two weeks slowly but surely reading through several of the blogs. I really enjoy yours! Of course, I am a little biased. :blushan:

I was wondering if you by any chance know how long Monty is. I measured Thumper nose to butt yesterday while he was stretched out on his side and was just wondering how they compare. I know Monty is big but it's hard to really get her actual size just through pics, if that makes any sense.

Thumpers dad was huge. His mom was on the small side. He was the smallest of his brothers and sisters. He seems kinda small but it hard to say for sure. You know when you are around a large bunny you just get so used to it that you don't realize how big it is until you get around a smaller bun. I'm the same way with my dog, he doesn't seem all that large to us till we are around a friends dog.

Sorry I rambled.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

I don't mind rambling at all! i'll try measuring her length soon when she's out. If it helps any, a full tile in my kitchen (this is probably that stick-on linoleum stuff) is 12". So then the lines in the design are every 6". She's long!


Small update: Monty got to try endive for the first time today! And it should come as no surprise that I recorded it

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=365yciPh2c8[/ame]

 

[whitelop]

Haha two ears up is right! I love when they eat things like that, like eating it without dropping it. Ellie does that with whole romaine leaves and its awesome, since they are bigger than she is.
It looks like she really likes it! She isn't very picky though, right?

I just realized how much I love how wide her nose is. I just love her nose. haha.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

I love how it looks like her nose forms a cream bowtie shape underneath it. And yes, she's not very picky at all. She eventually eats every new thing I give her. Some things, like small pieces of orange or red bell pepper, I've never witnessed her eat. She sniffs at them when I offer them to her, but won't bite into them. If I set it on her crate floor, it's gone when I come back a while later. Maybe it doesn't smell appetizing refrigerated, but better when it's room temperature.

The first time we brought a whole pineapple home, it was sitting on the floor in a grocery bag with the rest of the groceries and she started eating and yanking on the leaves. I had to run and google whether that was okay for bunnies, and the internet kinda said no, so I had to take it away. She looked so disappointed. The first time I offered her a floret of broccoli, she almost bit it, but backed off, so again I just left it on her floor. It disappeared later, and now she takes it immediately when I offer it. Funny baby.

She's such a good baby about eating her veggies She hasn't met a leafy green she doesn't like--though I'm going to have to man up and offer her chard again, because it didn't go well the first time. It was just the rib of a leaf that my boyfriend had pulled most of the green stuff from. She started to eat it from the skinny end, but once the rib got bigger she stopped and focused on nibbling just the green bits off the rest. Maybe it was too bitter for her.

 

[Chrisdoc]

She is just so lovely, she has got a cute wide mouth and nose. That´s weird, I feed mine endives but they don´t look anything like that, maybe you call them chicory ??

Mine are like that too, sometimes, they refuse things the first time but then wolf it down when you leave it. I bought some fennel the other day and I´ve been feeding them the greens. Sniffed the first day and weren´t keen but ate a plateful this morning.

They´re not fussy though most of the time and will eat anything I put down, especially Bandy although I´ve just caught Snowy going into Houdini´s cage to finish off the veggies he left this morning lol.

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

Yes, the sign at the store also said chicory is an alternate name for it. I never saw the stuff in a recipe before. I'm buying so many new things now that I have Monty! The cashier at the grocery store was like "what is this? I don't even know what this is" and I had forgotten for a second what I had picked. I told her I went through so many things deciding which greens to give my giant bunny this week and she looked at me like I was a Martian. "Is your bunny going to eat ALL OF THIS?" she asked as she rang up the watercress, endive, kale (actually mostly for me), and red leaf lettuce. Yes. Yes she is. Probably better than YOU'VE eaten all year, cow.

Sorry, that was unnecessary, but she wasn't really "with it" for a middle-aged cashier. I had to repack the bags I brought because she made them topple over and crushed my greens. Duh.

Okay, I've had a rough day at work and it's evident that I'm taking it out on some stranger I interacted with briefly yesterday. I'm gonna eat some gfree oreo-type cookies and chill out now <3 you guys!

 

[PaGal]

Thanks for the offer to measure Monty. I just thought you might have already. It's not something I would have thought of with a smaller breed.

Thumper will eat hay and veggies he is used to from my hand but
anything new has to be placed in his bowl or he won't try it. He's so goofy!

I have the same problem at the store buying bok choy for Thumper. First
I have to tell the cashier what it is, then they have to find someone that
knows the code and finally I am told how they don't sell it much. Each and
every time. It might not be going through it all but he really enjoys it.