Our bunny of nearly 13 years took a turn for the worse recently. She is a spayed rex. She had a sore on each front foot that they had to open up and drain and she made it through that quite well. They did one at a time and the bandages would trip her up quite a bit but she powered on like a trooper. The first day with the bandage we left her at home but I setup a bunny cam and it caught her on her side unable to get back up so I raced home and got her and brought her to work. She did remarkably well with all of it.
The antibiotics made her droppings a bit mushier and wetter but she kept eating pretty well and once off of them she seemed to be getting more back to normal.
Around this time she stopped eating her timothy pellets but would keep eating lots of hay and the veggies we'd give her.
Then one evening she was laying on me while we were watching TV and after a couple hours when she got up she was having trouble walking with her back legs. At first I thought she was just a bit stiff as after she stays in one place too long she'd have to loosen up a bit before she moved normally. But this time her one back leg just didn't seem to want to work. After trying to go a few steps she just gave up and laid down. We massaged her back legs a bit and held her to calm her down as she looked up at us with those big eyes asking 'why can't I walk'. And she seemed to walk a bit more normally after that.
But then the next day she had a similar problem. And also really lost interest in eating. She'd move towards whatever we'd offer her but then just nibble a bit and stop. So we made an appointment with her regular vet but they weren't going to be in for several days so we took her to an another local vet that she'd seen once before. They said it looked like arthritis and gave her metacam for it and said nothing looked broken.
Her eating fell off even more and she wasn't drinking any water either. She'd go over to her water dish and start to lean down to drink and then just move away. We went to giving her water with a syringe and trying different veggies to get her to eat. And took her into see her regular vet. They xrayed her and did a blood workup and found her white cells are high but no breaks and no signs of any cancer. They gave us some antibiotic pills (different from when she had the work on her front paws) and some pain only medication (I don't have the names here). They have us giving her a bit of yogurt to help her deal with the antibiotics.
The pain only stuff is really strong so they preloaded syringes with it. On the first day it made her quite groggy at first but by the evening she was much more active and alert. The second day it didn't have as great of an effect. She was groggy but never got to the really alert.
She is eating better, cleans her veggies up and will eat hay if hand fed but has a lot of trouble moving her back end. She will mostly stay in one area and drag her front to point different directions and only occasionally get up and move. When she does move her back legs tend to drag rather than spring back up.
As she's aged she's lost muscle tone but in just the last few weeks it has gone to feeling like next to nothing when we massage her.
We have a lot of confidence in the vet and she is very good with her, but I just can't get my head around how Spot could be doing pretty well one minute and then a couple hours later after just laying there be doing so poorly for so long. We are at about a week and a half of this right now. The vet did say she thought she could hear bone on bone in her hip so maybe just the last bit of cushion she had in the joint wore away. We can't stand seeing her in pain but the groggy state on the pain meds isn't really a life for her either. I know we aren't the first ones to ever have to make the decision that it looks like we will have to make but it is so hard since so recently she was doing so well and it just about broke my heart last night when I laid down on the bed next to her but at an angle and she drug her front end over so that she was right next to me.
I know she's quite old and it is likely just the effects of old age but we can't get past the fact that literally one minute she was okay and a couple hours later after just laying there she wasn't.
Anything we or the vet hasn't thought of?
The antibiotics made her droppings a bit mushier and wetter but she kept eating pretty well and once off of them she seemed to be getting more back to normal.
Around this time she stopped eating her timothy pellets but would keep eating lots of hay and the veggies we'd give her.
Then one evening she was laying on me while we were watching TV and after a couple hours when she got up she was having trouble walking with her back legs. At first I thought she was just a bit stiff as after she stays in one place too long she'd have to loosen up a bit before she moved normally. But this time her one back leg just didn't seem to want to work. After trying to go a few steps she just gave up and laid down. We massaged her back legs a bit and held her to calm her down as she looked up at us with those big eyes asking 'why can't I walk'. And she seemed to walk a bit more normally after that.
But then the next day she had a similar problem. And also really lost interest in eating. She'd move towards whatever we'd offer her but then just nibble a bit and stop. So we made an appointment with her regular vet but they weren't going to be in for several days so we took her to an another local vet that she'd seen once before. They said it looked like arthritis and gave her metacam for it and said nothing looked broken.
Her eating fell off even more and she wasn't drinking any water either. She'd go over to her water dish and start to lean down to drink and then just move away. We went to giving her water with a syringe and trying different veggies to get her to eat. And took her into see her regular vet. They xrayed her and did a blood workup and found her white cells are high but no breaks and no signs of any cancer. They gave us some antibiotic pills (different from when she had the work on her front paws) and some pain only medication (I don't have the names here). They have us giving her a bit of yogurt to help her deal with the antibiotics.
The pain only stuff is really strong so they preloaded syringes with it. On the first day it made her quite groggy at first but by the evening she was much more active and alert. The second day it didn't have as great of an effect. She was groggy but never got to the really alert.
She is eating better, cleans her veggies up and will eat hay if hand fed but has a lot of trouble moving her back end. She will mostly stay in one area and drag her front to point different directions and only occasionally get up and move. When she does move her back legs tend to drag rather than spring back up.
As she's aged she's lost muscle tone but in just the last few weeks it has gone to feeling like next to nothing when we massage her.
We have a lot of confidence in the vet and she is very good with her, but I just can't get my head around how Spot could be doing pretty well one minute and then a couple hours later after just laying there be doing so poorly for so long. We are at about a week and a half of this right now. The vet did say she thought she could hear bone on bone in her hip so maybe just the last bit of cushion she had in the joint wore away. We can't stand seeing her in pain but the groggy state on the pain meds isn't really a life for her either. I know we aren't the first ones to ever have to make the decision that it looks like we will have to make but it is so hard since so recently she was doing so well and it just about broke my heart last night when I laid down on the bed next to her but at an angle and she drug her front end over so that she was right next to me.
I know she's quite old and it is likely just the effects of old age but we can't get past the fact that literally one minute she was okay and a couple hours later after just laying there she wasn't.
Anything we or the vet hasn't thought of?
