Bunny

29 September 2008

Beginning of August 2008, a myxomatosis outbreak started here, between our and the next village. It's left me feeling so incredibly sad. I saw one myxi rabbit and tried to catch it but it was still fit and ran into a field. The next day I saw it dead on the road (I recognised it because it had scars). Then on Friday 8th August I found another rabbit while I was out cycling. I put it on the verge and told it to stay there and I would get the car and fetch it. So I raced home and got the car and Bunny still sat where I left her. Took her home, she had problems breathing and was so thin. I put her in a box with some Vicks vapo rub (as I read on a web site), wrapped her in a cloth, and put in some dandelions. I thought if she's not dead by Saturday then I'll take her to be put to sleep. Saturday morning she'd jumped out of her box and was sitting in the hall (where I had kept her, quiet and away from other animals) and I saw she'd eaten all her greens so I did some more research into helping myxi rabbits and decided to try and help her.

I'd come across a really good web site, the "Myxomatosis Helpline", and had read about myxomatosis survivors. It appears the web site has now closed down which is a shame. I was also in touch with Sue and Mick from Sue's Rabbit Rescue and they were a great help, I even talked to Mick on the phone. They had had 2 rabbits with myxomatosis and had a lot of tips. I started cleaning Bunny's eyes and nose and genitals 4 times a day with chamomile tea and used colloidal silver, too. I also took her to see the vets and Michaela prescribed her injectable Baytril, she said the puss in the eyes is not from the myxi but from some bacteria that almost all rabbits carry. The Baytril worked wonders although there still remained some puss for about 6 weeks. She stayed on the Baytril for 5 1/2 weeks. Since it is injected, it doesn't affect the intestines and good bacteria. So no diarrhoea problems.

Bunny had some fleas, at least I saw one on her. I have Frontline for the ferrets but checked online whether it was safe for rabbits and found it was not. Luckily I also had Stronghold which I used and I also used it on all the ferrets, skunks, dogs and cats.

I soon only cleaned the eyes twice a day. The scabs kept coming off when I bathed the eyes and nose(especially the last 2 weeks of the illness) and the tissue underneath was so sore and infected with puss (especially the nose). I stopped cleaning the nose for a week or two at the end of August/ beginning of September to let it heal but the scabs just got worse and one day I carefully picked at a scab and it came off very easily and had lots of puss underneath. So then I picked off all scabs that came off easily and the scabs came off every 1 or 2 days and then the skin quickly healed. But that was towards the end of the illness.

Bunny had also a scab around her genitals, it was dark and I thought it was from diarrhoea so I washed it well a few times a day to wash the pooh off and one day the scab started coming off and I noticed it was a scab and not pooh. That was the first scab to come off and heal.

But throughout the illness, Bunny never developed bad breathing problems, the worst episode was the first night she was here and after that she was okay. Her appetite remained very healthy throughout, she loves the Excel rabbit food pellets and I either picked dandelions for her or gave her slithers of carrot, sweet potato or swede. I read a few cases of myxi survivors and somebody mentioned doing slithers of carrot with a peeler and that worked very well with her. I have now done some more research into feeding rabbits and read that dandelions are high in calcium and should be fed sparingly and sweet potato seems a no-no. And Bunny loves dandelions and sweet potatoes...

Bunny is very young and I think that played a big role in her survival so far, I'm surprised a wild rabbit is okay with being handled and injected etc. She loves cuddles and in the beginning she always wanted to cuddle after her eye cleaning, I would try to put her on the floor and she would try to stay in my hands and cuddle into them.

Bunny soon started to put on weight, her tummy filled out and the spine wasn't prominent anymore. When she was weighed at the vets on 14th August, she weighed 610 g so she probably weighed even less when I first had her. On 26th September she weighed 840 g. :-) At first I kept her in a carrier, then when I realised that she was going to be a long term resident, I bought rabbit supplies and put her in a cage and now she has a lovely cage with a hidey place and all. She loves it and looks very relaxed and happy.

I did find another myxi rabbit and brought it home but by the time I had a cage prepared for that one, it had died. It was older so I guess the stress got to it. And now, 1 1/2 - 2 months after the start of the outbreak, no rabbits are left. I look every time I walk but nothing. It makes me so sad. All gone. :-(

Bunny's eyes and nose and face are almost completely healed now but her left eye is getting smaller and smaller because of scar tissue build-up. Michaela said Bunny may need to have the eye opened up surgically. Also, the right eye is cloudy/ milky and Michaela said the cornea is inflamed. It should heal by itself, if not, steroid eye drops will hopefully help. I am also now worming her with Panacur rabbit wormer as Michaela advised me to do so. Again I'm surprised that she takes the wormer without problems.

Update 15/11/08

Bunny is very well and happy- and we're keeping her. I can't release her, her eyes are not 100% normal and she is so tame. And to be honest I haven't saved her life so she gets eaten by a fox. For a while I was thinking of taking her to a wildlife rescue but there are no proper wildlife rescues here. I even mentioned wildlife rescue to Michaela and she just shook her head. So Bunny stays put. She is doing okay, she had her little eye operation to open up both eye lids, the left eye lids especially had almost closed up because of scar tissue. It's not perfect but better now. In a few weeks I will book her in for a spay, rabbits should be spayed at 5-6 months old, if not spayed, 80% of females will get uterine cancer by the time they are 5-6 years old. When spayed they can live 10-12 years! I didn't know that, can you tell I'm on rabbit email lists, too, now??? If Bunny survives (I'm petrified...), I will get her a friend, a male who will be castrated, too.

Bunny used to be really scared and would barely run around when I let her out. She would just go to the nearest corner and just sit there. I was thinking it wasn't fair to keep her but who wants a myxi survivor, and it's not like there is a lack of unwanted rabbits... But then she suddenly became brave and loves the ferret play room now. Pete came to me one evening and said: "I don't know what you have done to Bunny but she thinks she's a ferret." Bunny was playing like mad on the giant hammock and jumping and running all over the cat scratchers and floor. Pete and I filmed Bunny playing on the hammock, and it is on YouTube:

Bunny playing on hammock

For now a few more pictures of Bunny in the play room:

There's lots of pictures of her on Picasa again:

Bunny in play room

Update 02/01/09

Bunny was spayed on the 16th of December. We hadn't had any heating for months and I didn't want her to be spayed without having central heating. We did have an open fire that we used and also some electric fan heaters but I wanted proper heating so she would be warm after her spay. The heating was installed the day Bunny was spayed and was running by the time she came home. :-) The spay went extremely well, Michaela was a bit worried that it would be too stressful for a wild rabbit but Bunny surprised them all. She was on Buprenorphine for 2 days and didn't need any further pain relief. She didn't eat much in the 2 days after her spay but did eat grass and bramble leaves that I picked for her. I was very surprised how quickly she recovered. I kept her caged for 5 days which she didn't like at all and she jumped on her houses in the cage and did binkies, I was supposed to keep her caged for 10 days but on day 5 I briefly let her out and again on day 7 and from then on she was out as usual.