This is a reconstruction of the previous post that was dumped by the computer.
It does indeed seem like there are alot of similarities between Puff and my mom's situation.
I think the thing that most individuals don't think about is the time that goes into both.
Many people don't want to take the time to take care of a normal animal, hence the reason
many animals wind up in animal shelters, no less one that is disabled. Ditto for individuals
with disabilities. Many wind up in nursing homes, or state run homes. Individuals will say
they will get 'better care' or the individuals there' know what they are doing'. I think for
a vast majority it's a way to pass the buck. It's a difficult task to take care of any other
living thing, from a child, a parent, to an animal, add a disability to it, and the level of difficulty
triples.
I was reading your post about you outside gardening and Coco sitting outside sniffing around and it made me
think of the fact that the simple things in life turn out to be the most rewarding and satifying. It reminded
me of one of the times we were able to get my mother out of the house and into the garden to see the flowers.
She loved gardening, and the look on her face while taking in all the sights and smells after being bed bound must
have been close to Coco's expression the other day while she was sitting out in the patio probably lifting her head to
take in the waifing scents. Just sitting outside, taking in everything bring home the simple pleasures being
some of the most important. It sounds highly simple and not too technical or thrilling, but I know with you and Coco
being outside, and the feeling my mother had being outside that time, it was beautiful and reminds me
of this quote:
"Life is beautiful in its simplicity." Thomas Matthiessen
I was thinking of how you have been taking care of Coco and this quote from Ghandi came to mind:
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.
― Mahatma Gandhi.
I belive that is true and I think if he were around and reading Rabbits Online, he would be proud of you.
Concerning my mother I think the philosophical guage she used with me constantly was this verse from the
Bible. No matter what one believes, or faith one adhere's to, I've found many areas of the Bible have valid information that can
be used no matter what the circumstance. This particular verses of the Bible she would use like a weapon.
Eph. 6: 1-3: Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 Honor your father and mother
which is the first commandment with a promise 3 so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
I think I should be ok for a little while longer. I'm sure my mom would disagree!
I've put some of this in the other post, but..I've found that doctors generally only like dealing with
'normal' patients. For example, when an able bodied patient comes in, anything is an option for them.
There doesn't appear to be anything that will be ruled out.
***However, when you come in as a disabled patient and try to discuss areas that could improve the
qualify of your life, those areas are immediately shut down, pooh poohed, and promptly dismissed.
You are basically told to get on with it, deal with it, or resign yourself to the fate and wait for
death.
I have seen this over and over again when trying to discuss viable surgeries that I had discovered online
from various Medical Unversities that either were trying to find individuals for studies in dealing with
disabled patients or experimental therapies that were approved for a 5 year period that could have been
approved under insurance, but both were pooh poohed with your mom is too old for that, or that is for younger
people (when no age limits were mentioned at all), to I don't know anything about that (I had all the information
for the doctor to contact- he didn't want to follow up) to no follow up at all. It's the, resign yourself to your
fate attitude that I had seen time and time again from doctors and honestly I don't get it. You would think that
they would WANT seriously ill patients with spinal medical conditions to improve. Who wouldn't right? It would
look good on your practice wall. But once again we are dealing with it's easier to put something off instead
of try.. if we try and fail you could sue us.. bad publicity, etc.
The situation with the concrete sounds like it could be promising and possibly surgery with a small metal rod in
Coco's back in the thoracic area to stablize it also could be options. Are you going to talk to the other hospitals
about that?
A few other things I wanted to bring up from reading your other posts.. you said she has GI Statis before?
My mother's bowels became impacted and we had to get her to the hospital or else...because paralzed people
cannot stand or get into positions that individuals who can stand can, it causes problems with digestion which
is why they put her on that medicine which caused those problems. For humans sitting upright or standing aids
in digestion. My mother had gallstone surgery after being paralyzed and she did not want to sit upright in her
hospital bed at home. From her laying because she did not feel well after the surgery, she developed the
intestinal problems, her bowels became impacted and ultimately we had to take her to the hospital for it.
We were told it was from her laying and not sitting upright.
To stop problems or to aid with Coco's digestion if she runs into any problems it might help to get her in a bit more upright position after eating, even if it's just holding her and stroking her or petting her or brushing her. The GI tract for rabbits are shorter than human's thank goodness! But after we got mom home we started doing that after eating no matter what. It's the gravity that helps with the digestion.
It appears to me that Coco is really active and in a variety of different positions other than recumbent, prone, etc..
I don't know if the vet talked to you about Coco and if she has the possibility to have a blood clot, but just in case she does, remember to keep her moved every 2-3 or 3-4 hours or so. If she is active and moving around, you don't have to worry about that..but in case she is lazing around and sleeping..
After my mother had surgery, they did NOT move her and left her in one position for DAYS, and she developed a DVT,
Deep Vein Thrombosis or Blood Clot that was three feet or in metric 0.9144 meters long in her left leg, and it was very
close to becoming a pulmonary embolism. I doubt you have her sitting all the time and you mention that you are putting
her in her cart which is great! Just her moving her front paws is going to keep the blood going! Her moving
around her bunny shed with her teddies will also keep her blood circulating. So if she is that active now
she's doing great so far with activity level.
Hopefully you don't have to worry about any bedsores/decubitus ulcers/ pressure sores with Coco. My mother had
two large ones. One on her tailbone which you could see her coccyx from the hospital not moving her after surgery
and one on her heel for the same reason. My mother's were stage 4's.. One of the major reasons for these are
poor nutrition. She was not getting enough to eat in the hospital, her albumin level was LOW and that contributed
to the sores. They heal from having high nutrition and you can stop them from having high nutrition levels. As long as
Coco is eating well and getting good nutrition, you won't have to worry about these. If she does you can use Silver
in the wounds to heal them. I think you have a good amount of homeopathic items as well to treat her with in case of
skin problems that looked good to me when you posted them!
With Coco, the goal should be NOT to get her any pressure sores.. if they mention they can do surgery and
she has one (pressure sore) they typically won't do surgery until those heal because it means her nutrition
level is low and she would not be able to heal quickly after surgery. So stock up on those dandylions!
And the next time someone offers you flippant advise about making Coco 'comforable and her welfare' remember this:
People speak sometimes about the "bestial" cruelty of man, but that is terribly unjust and offensive to beasts,
no animal could ever be so cruel as a man, so artfully, so artistically cruel. ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Sorry to be so long winded wanted to send as PM so as not to bore all but kept saying it was toooo Long!
vanessa
