One Foot High

Liberty

Imagine you are doing the meds round. You enter one special needs shed and find Liberty, a rabbit with chronic digestive issues. She needs gut medicines to keep her stable and pain-free. You handle her, feeling how boney she is and yet how big her tummy is in comparison. She accepts her medicines well, if slightly reluctantly. You gently release her so she can stomp away but find that she does not- she turns around, follows you to the thresh-hold, puts her paws on the door frame and waits patiently and expectantly. You need to hurry up and deliver her after-med treat.

The Rescue looks after rabbits as long as they have quality of life and Liberty, despite her many troubles, was allowed a severely revised diet and all the medicines she needed for as long as it was ethically right to give them. We knew she was happy enough and comfortable enough. For a long time she even lived in Caroline's house, becoming a firm favourite.

It had become obvious in the last couple of months that Liberty was losing condition and there was nothing further the vets could do for her, as she was on all the drugs it was possible to give. On the 31st May Liberty stopped eating and despite her gut medicines, rehydrating injections from the vet and attempts at syringe feeding there was nothing more to be done and on 2nd June we set her free. 

She leaves behind her beloved other half, Google.

This Episode Directed By Fonzie

"Back a bit, back a bit...THAT'S the spot!"

Chomped Again

So it turns out, Dean usually has his medicines given to him *in* his aviary. He tried to explain this to me quite enthusiastically, through the medium of chomping, while I was carrying him out. Quite frankly, I would have much preferred if he had waited until I put him down and explained it through the medium of dance. He was so grumpy, I got this look and a rejection of his post-medicine consolation snack.

Sorry Dean, I'll know for next time!

Not Gonna Stop

Most of our special needs rabbits at the Rescue right now involve dental problems such as lack of teeth, digestive issues, being EC Positive, or various other little chronic ailments that can be cared for with medicines. Only a few rabbits currently are physically disabled, notibly Hoppy's wild legs and Honour's contorted head and neurological damage.

Our newest rabbit to the world of the physically challenged is Aoura, who was on the cusp of being rehomed when she was suddenly found in her accommodation paralysed in her back legs. Amazingly, she didn't seem bothered by this, racing around on two legs at speed and, once confined for her own good, ate readily, rattled the bars and had a fight with the vet bed. An emergency trip to the vets showed not a spinal injury as we had suspected, but the onset of spondylosis, an incurable condition of the vertebrae that was probably aggravated by a fall or bad landing.

This now means that she's been moved to her own special needs house with her son Mr Tickles, put on hefty painkillers and prevented from doing anything daft. Unfortunately, being daft includes ending her ramble around in the grass area by running headfirst into a 6cm gap between buildings with such enthusiasm that it took some careful extraction to pull her back out. The biggest problem appears to be that Aoura doesn't care and thinks she can simply do what she's always done which is not a bad mindset for a rabbit to have but is certainly not doing her any good!

So, Aoura, are you going to be sensible and take it easy for a while?

"Mmmph?"

This Quiet Corner

It's quiet down the rescue most of the time, especially now my mp3 player has given up the ghost and gone to meet its maker. Unfortunately this means that my strange mind (you don't have to be mad to work here but it helps!) has to find ways to entertain itself. Pandoren FM tunes into such classics as...


"Because I'm Hoppy (clap along if you feel like a room without a roof)..."

No? OK, maybe not then...

How about... 

"Sprocket man! (Burnin' out this fuse up here alone)..."

What? No good either?

OK, one last try...

Wait for it...

"Mallow! Is it me you're looking for?"

"I'd stop right now if I were you..."

Tough crowd...

Noticed At Last

Occasionally when writing up posts one finds a rabbit that has been at the Rescue for years and yet inexplicably has not appeared on the blog. One such rabbit is little Sprocket, husbun of Indiana, who was always a rabbit that I never interacted with much until he caught a lung infection and had to be medicated. Now I've been able to see what a sweet and delicate little boy he really is.

"You keep picking me up... sticking nasty plastic sticks in my mouth and then shutting me in a stinky box for twenty minutes. You think I'm sweet and innocent... I'm just biding my time, human."