RIP: A better life for Brigitte

[superchar42]

Backstory:
I adopted Brigitte this summer as a partner for Nuge, my first bun, who was lonely, oh, so lonely, from Midwest Rabbit Rescue. She's a champagne d'argent and has an absolutely lovely personality. Swift bond, everything going super.


So in the fall, she started sitting funny and developed sore hocks.
She slowly lost the ability to hop around, and vets were clueless. I went to one specialist that suggested to either get an animal MRI done or have her put down if it gets much worse. I didn't know what to do.

I ended up talking to Jill at Midwest and she had me come down and we started treatment for e.cuninculi and she let Brigitte test out Charlie's wheelchair. Nuge had a lot of fun there, too. I think he misses the futons that I used to have.

So currently I'm trying to just get through the treatment with Brigitte and see if anything improves after a month, and working with the wheelchair to get her moving better. She currently can't stand and spends all of her time on her "bad side," where she is blind in that eye. I'm hoping she improves!

 

[pla725]

Email me or Pm if you want to talk. I went through this with one of my rabbits.The prognosis unfortunately isn't always good with this disease.

 

[cheryl]

I'm sorry to hear about Brigitte poor little girl

I lost my boy Pippi because of EC....he died 26th Dec 07....i went through an emotional roller coaster for eight months before EC finally took him away from me

Cheryl

 

[superchar42]

Since starting treatment, Brigitte's attitude seems to have picked up. She seems more anxious to get in the wheelchair since I tested it with her. I just really need to figure out how to make a better harness for her with it.

 

[naturestee]

I pm'd Treasured Friend about your other thread yesterday. Hopefully she'll get to posting there soon. Anyway, she has two disabled buns, one of whom has the exact same problem as Brigitte. You two can probably chat about bedding, care, etc.

Just thought I'd let you know since she doesn't spend a whole lot of time on the computer. But you're welcome to harass her, LOL!

 

[Haley]

Oh wow I didnt know about Brigitte. Bless you for taking such good care of her.

Jill actually joined RO a while back so she'll be thrilled to see/hear about Brigitte's progress.

How are your other buns doing? We've missed you around here!

 

[superchar42]

Lulu (one of yours) has been really happy with Martin (after initially being bonded with Nuge) -- though it's kind of like I invited the set of Days of Our Lives in bun form into my apartment. She humped him, he humped her, he's humping everyone, there's never enough! And the grooming... Though Martin and Nuge have been known to groom every once in a while.

It's just hard to hope for the best with Brigitte when she seems to be wanting to get better but just not able to. I know that if she passes on I won't be able to let Nuge be alone (the other two buns seem to prefer monogamy, I'm setting out to change that). It's really hard to think about that because she's so sweet.

 

[Haley]

Aww Im glad to hear the others are doing well. And its good Brigitte has Nuge there to be her buddy right now. I know that really helped my boy Max when he was very sick- having a bunny friend to lean on helps things.

Do you have any pics of your bunnies? Id love to see some!

 

[superchar42]

Well I just got in more saline for her, which is good because yesterday I used up all but probably 50cc of my last bag. And her new bedding came in, too. I'm happy about that, and I'm sure she is too.

I just keep thinking that there's no hope. I ventured over to the Rainbow Bridge to see what has been posted recently, and I started crying again. I just want her to be happy.

And I'm thinking to myself: do I want to put her through all this? What is best for her?

 

[superchar42]

 

[naturestee]

*gasp* Is she a Champagne D'Argent? She's beautiful! Is that how she lays all the time or is she rolling?

I see Treasured Friend hasn't posted yet, I highly recommend pm'ing both her and ra7751, who has a lot of experience with EC and disabled rabbits in general. He has a rabbit rescue that primarily takes in very sick rabbits. Treasured Friend's EC bunny actually looks a lot like Brigitte because she has chinchilla-colored fur.

I've never been through anything like this so I can't even imagine what you're going through. But I would say that if you are worried about putting her through too much, look at her. Is she interested in stuff? Other rabbits, things happening around her, food? It's hard to tell if a disabled rabbit is happy, but you can tell if they're interested and IMO as long as they're still interested in things then they still want to live.

 

[superchar42]

Yes, she is. She's only five pounds right now, too, which is almost half of her normal weight (about nine lbs).

She's still interested in stuff, that's for sure. She seems really down about stuff too though. Nuge does, as well. I can tell he's depressed. He's been doing a little better recently (ripping up phone books, destroying his cage, begging for raisins) but he's still not himself.

She's really comfortable in her new bedding and she's back in the cage with Nuge now (on a trial basis) so we're going to see if he pees on her again...she's in a litter box but there's not enough room for both of them really.

 

[juliew19673]

Oh - your poor little girl (and she is a beauty).. How great of you to keep trying and I know what you mean by do you keep throwing everything at the situation. I have found with 2 of my cats that had serious health problems that when it came time to let them go - I just knew it was. I hope the best outcome for you and will keep you in my prayers.

 

[Haley]

Shes such a beautiful girl.

Have you considered getting her a kiddie pool? A lot of people with disabled bunnies do this since its easy to clean up and they can lean against the rubber siding. I bet you could get a large one and put NIC panels around it and it would work great.

 

[superchar42]

How hard would it be for a bun to poke through a kiddie pool by digging or anything? If she had that large of a space then she'd have to share with Nuge. I've just got a small 1br apartment.

 

[Haley]

I know you can buy the ones without the inflatable sides- some just have plastic sides. Even that might be a nice enclosure..

 

[superchar42]

I've got some more pictures! Here she is "getting her water" and some pictures with her new bedding.

I've been thinking of diapering her while she's in there. Any suggestions on what size I should get? She's a pretty big rabbit, but she's down to just 5.5lbs. I'm trying to put some weight on her by giving her basically pureed pellets with pumpkin but she's got squishy poos now and it's just making a mess! Urine output has been good, with no calcium deposits on top (probably thanks to the water) she had calcium visible in her bladder when the xray was done a couple of months ago so I'm glad this problem has subsided.

 

[superchar42]

I've got a whole album of her here: http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v477/superchar42/brigitte/

 

[naturestee]

Does she move her back legs much? If not, you could just put a small pad there. That way there's less area to rub on her skin.

 

[superchar42]

There's more pictures in the album I linked above, and some movies.
While bathing her, I really noticed how skinny she's gotten. She's really wasting away. I've been force feeding her as much as I can get down her throat but she won't gain any weight.

She's losing fur on her nose now, and a little here and there on her sides. They look like the spots I use to give her fluids at (I can't use the nape of her neck because of how her head tilts)...

I'm hoping to hear from the vet soon so I can just discuss options.