Seeing Emma Keeble - U/D pg4 - She's Home!

I posted a couple of weeks ago in The Infirmary about the problems Rosie has been having recently - mainly uveitis and eye problems, along with chesty noises. Thanks to those who gave advice on my thread.

Just wanted to update to say that we have been through in Edinburgh today and Rosie has had a consultation with Emma Keeble at the Royal D*ck Vet School. I was quite excited - a rabbit expert, at last! (Wanted to quiz her about EC, but didn't really have a chance!)

She is going back in a couple of weeks to have more investigations done. The vet was quite concerned about her chest as she was quite grunty and raspy when examined - although she was a bit stressed due to the journey, etc.

She'll be seeing Brigitte Reusch then and will be having more X-rays (apparently the ones our vet did weren't very good ). She'll also examine her upper respiratory passages with an endoscope, take some fluid from her lung if possible, and have some more tests on her eyes, including measuring pressure and tear production to see if it is excessive. She'll be staying overnight so they can keep an eye on her.

We were in for an hour with her and she was lovely and very thorough. I seem to have forgotten most of what she said; it was a lot to take in.

We nearly fainted when she told us how much all this will cost. But Rosie's worth every penny.

Will keep you updated.

Rosie is such a beautiful beautiful bunny.

I hope the tests shed some light on Rosie's problems and that she can then get the right treatment.

She is a very brave little lady xx

Aw, thank you. She's very, very special to us.

You always wonder if you're doing the right thing, putting them through the stress of investigations, travelling, etc - it's so difficult to know.

Sounds like our Rosie is having a thorough investigation. Am dying to know how much it cost though!

Hope that it all goes well for Rosie and she is back to her normal bouncy self.

Thanks guys

SarahP wrote:Sounds like our Rosie is having a thorough investigation. Am dying to know how much it cost though!

Ha ha, you're as nosey as I am.

Umm, well she said it should be around £550 - £600. That's for all the investigations, plus accommodation for two days (5-star I hope ) and includes the consultation fee today which was £120. That's before any treatment for whatever they might find.

It's a heck of a lot, but what do you do? Do you say you'll have her chest investigated but not her eyes? We obviously want to do our best for her, but where do you draw the line? I'm still not sure how that breaks down - but you just have to trust them I suppose and I guess it will all show on the invoice afterwards! At least she'll be getting top-class treatment (I hope).

We are just telling ourselves how many tens of thousands we've saved by not having kids.

When Hollie was ill with stasis, she notched up £220 in a few days and that was for mainstream stuff. I think it sounds like a good deal considering it is being done in a veterinary hospital and with a specialist. Hope that they don't find anything nasty or expensive.

Yes, it's probably not too bad, considering!

We are lucky in that she has not required much in the way of veterinary treatment over the last few years. The last few months have been a different matter. But she's getting older and it's inevitable that she'll need more financial investment!

Aww bless Rosie, she's worth every penny There is something quite exciting about seeing a specialist, I've started preparing my 'extra corriculem' questions before I have my weekly phone call with Bertie's specialist!

It is a bit of a shock, the price, and I think it's afair question to ask - where do you draw the line, as it's always going to be different for different people. Do you let your bun live with something that isn't necessarily life threatening, but perhaps uncomfortable becuase you can't afford the fee? or worse .. And then there's the question of taking them to a specialist at all. I suspect after the talk of specialists fees we've had on here recently, it would be enough to put people off going and I can see why. If I hadn't been advised to, we wouldn't have thought it about it when we did, Berts would have continued on the debatable treatment of paraffin, had unneccsary barium X rays, and I can't predict what the future would have held for him when those tow things failed to show what we now know is his problem.


Like you Helen, we have not had to spend out a lot on vets fees for Bertie (incorrect diagnosis and treatment for 3 months aside, which came to nearly the same amount we paid the specialist) and aside from his arthritis, he's a pretty healthy bun. Had we not gone to see John, we would have easily paid out far more than we did in vets fees to try and sort this problem which they were convinced was digestive, when it wasn't. The outlay to the specialist (about half of yours) has been in finnancial terms the best option, for Bertie it's obviously the best option, and so for us it is too.

I'm glad she's in such capable hands, and has such caring bunny folks to look after her x

That's fabulous news, Brigitte was the last placement at the Bristol Rabbit Clinic so she really knows her stuff too! My vet did tell me that apparantly if you try to tie Emma down about EC you will often get a different answer everytime as the thinking surrounding the disease is so much influx at the moment, if your head is swimming already don't try it!

Hope everything goes well, either way I am sure it's money very well spent.

Rosie Rabbit wrote:
We are just telling ourselves how many tens of thousands we've saved by not having kids.

That's a very good way of looking at it! I'll have to start saying the same!

Seriously, I can definitely understand your concerns over the finances. With my two buns I was spending loads a month on medications etc, so I didn't notice it so much (ie I just didn't add it up!) I think it's when you get a massive bill like that that it really shocks you. Whoever said rabbits were cheap pets, eh?

Thanks guys.

Sooz - that's really funny about Emma giving different info about EC. I did mention that we'd Panacured and bleached, etc, but she didn't really take me up on it.

I hope it didn't seem that we were reluctant to spend the money on further investigations. Not that at all - it was just a bit of a surprise hearing the total amount quoted! When you're paying out a bit at a time it doesn't seem so bad.

Anyway, to update, Rosie is off tomorrow back to Edinburgh for the investigations, and will have to stay overnight. I'm not looking forward to it to be honest - don't like the thought of her being without her mum and dad for a night. (). She's been extra cuddly today - I think she knows. I'm sure it will be worth it though - it's what we need to do if we're to know if there's anything which will help her and improve her quality of life. As you said Jay - seeing a specialist has absolutely been worth it in Bertie's case - goodness knows where you'd be if you hadn't.

She won't actually be seeing Brigitte Reusch - apparently she is off for a few weeks doing a dissertation - so I think it will be Emma Keeble again.

Will update once there's any news.

hope every thing is ok and Rosie gets back to her old self very soon xx

Good luck with Rosie, I hope tomorrow goes well for you all, and you get some answers. xx

Thank you Jan and Lynne

Loads of good luck and best wishes coming Rosie's way.

And loads of hugs to you xx

Thank you Vanessa. Am just off for a huggy session with Rosie before bed.

Good luck, I hope all goes well. VIBES for Rosie and for you of course.

Good luck Rosie xxxxxx

Good luck vibes for lovely Rosie

Give Rosie a snuggle from me. Best of luck - hope you get some answers. x

Sooz wrote:My vet did tell me that apparantly if you try to tie Emma down about EC you will often get a different answer everytime as the thinking surrounding the disease is so much influx at the moment, if your head is swimming already don't try it!

Ooh I'd love to do that! I like to have up to the minute confusing news!

Well, Rosie had her investigations yesterday. We'd hoped to get her home today, but she's not well enough - she is breathing quite quickly and they want to keep her in till tomorrow.

They have done more x-rays and the main problem seems to be with her lungs. Emma Keeble spoke to Rob yesterday and said that her right lung has "effectively collapsed". But there is increased opacity in the lung which is abnormal. They did a scan over and above the x-ray and said it's not a mass, but they can't exclude neoplasia (a tumour, I presume?) So they don't know if it's an infection, inflammation or a tumour in the lung. She said they could have done a fine needle aspiration, but it risked spreading the infection/tumour and it was risky as it was too near the heart.

They tried to have a look with an endoscope at her upper respiratory passages but they were too swollen. I think she said it was because there was not enough anaesthetic given and next time they would give her more, but that seems a bit odd - I'm not sure.

The pressure in her right eye (the one with uveitis) is greater than it should be, and they said she might need to see an ophthalmologist for that. The tear production is normal, although they think the tears are streaming out of her eyes because of dental disease - presumably the incisor roots are interfering with the drainage.

So, she's on 2 types of antibiotics, getting nebulisation and oxygen, drugs for her GI tract and painkillers (presumably Metaclop and Metacam). We'll hopefully bring her home tomorrow and they want to see her in 2 weeks and repeat the chest x-rays in 4-6 weeks to see if there are any changes.

I have to admit though, I'm wondering if all the procedures and the stress of being away from home has made her worse. I'm feeling bad about it at the moment and just hope she can come home tomorrow. Neither of us is keen to submit her to repeat visits (which are a long car journey away), or repeat GAs, and add to her stress unnecessarily. I think it will be a waiting game; we'll just have to see how she is over the next couple of weeks and go from there.

Please send any spare vibes you can muster for our special girl.

oh poor Rosie I can't imagine how worrying it is for you both Helen. I hope you can bring her home tomorrow. Please try no to to feel bad, you are giving Rosie a chance to see if she can be helped, that's the best that you can do for her right now, and she'll be so happy to be home again I'm sure.

What happens after that is another day and different decisions, as you say, a waiting game really. I sympathise with your feelings about not wanting to subject her to more visits, treatments etc. See how she is and what they can confirm and take it from there. Rosie's your bun and I'm sure you know what's best for her. Big Vibes for you all and from me and Berts xx

I am so sorry you have not had better news. You must be so worried, my heart goes out to you both. I do hope you can bring Rosie home tomorrow.

Lynda has a bunny that was diagnosed with high intraocular pressures, sadly this can be linked with uveitis, I am sure she can advise on the treatment her bunny was prescribed with.

I can understand how you feel about maybe not wanting to subject Rosie to more tests and visits, sometimes it is so hard to know what to do for the best.

Please give the beautiful and extremely brave Rosie a snuggle from me. Sending loads of hugs to you all and loads of vibes to Rosie xx