Belle & Benjamin

Introducing Belle and Benjamin, fostering with a view to adopting depending on how things go.

We collected them yesterday lunch time (bit of a nerve wracking drive - I'd been stressing for a few days in case we got stopped by police for covid restrictions even tho i am sure this comes under animal welfare which is permitted, we didn't anyway thankfully.)

Belle (harlequin) is 5 and has a slight (barely noticable) head tilt due to EC, Benjamin (black) is 8 and is very shy. He's also HUGE (to me), apparently he weighs about 2.3kg but he looks a lot bigger. Belle is a about 2kg which is 'normal' rabbit size to me. When they arrived they went straight into the cardboard box hide and stayed there for about 4hrs until my OH went in and gave them some biscuits. Belle is the more confident of the 2, Benjamin is very shy. Touching of either is not yet permitted although they will eat from your hand and Belle will come over to see what you are up to.

They are set up in the dining room at the moment, Philip didn't come in until later on last night and I don't think he even noticed them. He came in briefly a bit earlier today and stopped to have a look, they were at the other end of their pen tho.

Untitled by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

Lucky you, lucky buns. They will soon settle, things look to be progressing well. Phillip will have had a good whiff of their scent and I guess he is doing a lot of deep thinking about what they are doing in his home. Let's hope they all become friends.

They had a sniff through the bars on sunday morning and there wasn't much of a reaction beyond mild interest on either side so Sunday PM we moved Philips space next door to them. This means Philip is in the same room as us most of the time as well.

So far so good, they're eating quite happily near each other through the bars not paying each other much attention.

Untitled by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

Untitled by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

Untitled by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

Even if you got no further than this it would be great because Phillip has bunny company!

Aww they are beautiful! Welcome Belle and Benjamin

How are things going now?

Not bad, they mostly just ignore each other which is fine.

We're now letting them out a couple of times a day for a run around when Philip is sleeping which they've been loving. Belle tends to just potter about but we've had a few zoomies and binkies from Benjamin, typically he stops the second I try and take a pic of video.

Belle has been sneezing a bit and has a bit of wet fur around her nose (although she's otherwise fine) so we're taking her to the vet shortly for a wee check up.

Welcome home belle and Benjamin.
They are lovely Philip looks tiny compared to them

Belles vet appointment went fine, they didn't see anything that could be causing the sneezing/runny nose (without doing x rays or whatever), it could just be a reaction to the stress of moving to someplace new and a bit warmer but she's been given a course of anti biotics anyway and we've to let the vet know if it doesn't improve.

They also noticed a few small spurs on her teeth tho I am not overly worried about that as she eats hay like its going out of fashion, I believe she was really quite poorly when she arrived at the rescue so could just be from that if she wasn't eating much hay.

Glad the appt went well!
How is she now?

Had her at the vet again on weds as no change (we didn't see the usual vet last time and she had said call in a few days if no change), so she's to stay on the antibiotics for another 10 days (so 2 weeks in total) and see where we are at that point. Very frustrating because I am obviously keen to make introductions but can't in case she is infectious. Although Benjamin is fine so, who knows. Her sneezes sounded a bit wetter last night but she's not sneezed at all so far this morning when I have been around.

Vet again today for Belle, her wee nose just isn't clearing up. She's also started fighting like a bear when I try to give her meds, I normally sit on my knees and put the bunny between my legs. This worked until a few days ago when she figured out if she pushes forward and upwards its really hard to keep a hold and get the drugs in! Its like trying to medicate a bucking bronco!! I may need to burrito her :|

Also hoping its nothing but her left ear has started to lop over :|

She's sussed out what you're up to. Burito was never something I managed to do with any of mine. I always ended up slipping meds in their food. It's surprising how strong they can be when determined to escape. Good luck with it and hope she co-operates and gets better soon.

woodwench wrote:She's sussed out what you're up to. Burito was never something I managed to do with any of mine. I always ended up slipping meds in their food. It's surprising how strong they can be when determined to escape. Good luck with it and hope she co-operates and gets better soon.

I've never managed a burrito before either :\ they always make it look so easy in the instructional videos! I might try and just put the meds in the food, I can't see us coming away from the vet without more meds and I really don't want to be battling with her every day

Not particularly happy with how the vet visit went. We once again saw the new vet at the practice, this is the third time I've seen her (first time was MJ where she told me he needed to go the D!ck vet but did not tell me at all how serious his condition was, I didn't know until the other vet called me later, the second time was Belles first app which was a saturday and she told me to make another app if no improvement by the monday!?). I will be asking for one of the other vets next time.

We've been given a different antibiotic "trimoxazole", and we spoke briefly about a course of panacur as Belle has a history of EC and the ear lopping could be related. She offered me the rabbit panacur paste, I asked about the price and she could only tell me the price for the one tube but not how long it would last or how many tubes I would need just told me 9 days for routine worming or 28days for EC. I asked about the price for the panacur liquid and she's written on a bit of paper £73 odds for 100ml, but last time (which was for Philip less than 2 months ago) they gave me a measured amount (so no where near 100ml). She's also not told me the dose?! A quick google tells me the dose for rabbits is 0.2ml/kg/day so Belle would need 0.32ml per day. So 9ml in total. So why is she telling me the price for 100ml? Sorry I am rambling now but I am VERY frustrated. She also suggested we start her on loxicom as its an anti inflammatory (which I told her we have at home for Philip) but again, has not told me the dose.

I am so mad right now

Urgh. What a nightmare. I don’t think I’d be keen to see her again either. There’s one vet at my practice I dodge like the plague.
I’d be tempted to phone tomorrow and get them to clarify everything. You’re paying for a service and that was a pretty poor service you were given!
Hope she’s ok.

The bunny burritos only look easy because the bun makes it easy, blitzwing will sit in a bunny burrito no problem. But not a chance would I have ever got soundwave in one

I would be asking for another vet, I refuse to see one of the locums at my vets because she said Jetfire issue was her teeth and it was e.cunculi and she missed thundercrackers ears.
Blitzwing only sees the one vet, thundercrackers vet has left the practice so not sure who he will see now.

Xxx

Belles ear has returned to normal!

After a couple of accidental meetings recently (never underestimate the squeeziness, sneakiness and determination of a bunny) we decided to formally introduce them yesterday morning. I laid out hay stations and a couple of hidey spots in the spare room and brought them up. It was completely drama free which I expected... not love at first sight but plenty of disinterest from B&B which I understand typical of normal bondings and a positive sign.

Philip is so desperate to even have a cuddle with on of them and anytime they went near him he immediately would try to cuddle on but generally they would hop off (almost like they are a bit nervous of him). I'm not going to lie, its a bit hard to watch. Philips mobility isn't great and as per my other post he's started circling so he's not keen on moving about, and when he does he struggles to get to where he wants to go so he's not really managing to approach them, even tho he wants to.

I decided that as the morning went well, rather than stress them out by transporting them upstairs to the spare room (Philips circling is much worse when he is stressed) I would just open up a space between B&B pen and Philips area when we are around so they can come and go as they please. So they had a few hours of that yesterday evening and again now. B&B are spending lots of time in Philips pen, hopefully Philip will get a cuddle soon.

Progress, great. I expect B&B are very aware of Philips problems and that could make them wary. Animals can take a long time to accept health problems in another, especially when it's one of their own kind. The more time they have with him the sooner they will accept.
Good to hear things are looking up.

and the moment we've all been waiting for!

In one morning Belle has done a better job of cleaning up his eye than I have in weeks. Bens still wary and has lunged at Philip a few times when he has fallen over but he's a very nervous chap, and when Philip is just hopping around Ben doesn't mind at all. They're still just having supervised dates, but I am just so glad that Philip is getting some bunny affection.

Philip getting groomed by Gayle E. Anderson, on Flickr

(excuse the wet ear, he had dipped it in something tasty and Belle kept trying to have a nibble!)

What a beautiful sight

iiisecondcreep wrote:Not particularly happy with how the vet visit went...

...I am so mad right now

So after all of this ^^
I called the vet earlier to get more Trimoxazole for Belle because we ran out (one of the good vets recommended staying on antibiotics for 3 weeks, its been 2 weeks) and my OH went to collect it after work. Turns out that other vet mislabeled the bottle (not sure exactly what was wrong on it), over charged us AND gave the wrong dose. So she's been getting 0.2ml per day she should've been getting 1ml per day so basically the 2 weeks worth of antibiotics have been a complete waste of time.

In other news, Belle has started doing little binkies today

iiisecondcreep wrote:

iiisecondcreep wrote:Not particularly happy with how the vet visit went...

...I am so mad right now

So after all of this ^^
I called the vet earlier to get more Trimoxazole for Belle because we ran out (one of the good vets recommended staying on antibiotics for 3 weeks, its been 2 weeks) and my OH went to collect it after work. Turns out that other vet mislabeled the bottle (not sure exactly what was wrong on it), over charged us AND gave the wrong dose. So she's been getting 0.2ml per day she should've been getting 1ml per day so basically the 2 weeks worth of antibiotics have been a complete waste of time.

What an idiot. I hope you got a refund, at the very least!

iiisecondcreep wrote:In other news, Belle has started doing little binkies today

Yaaay

So over the last wee while Benjamin seemed to be getting a lot more tolerant with Philip and hadn't bothered with him at all. Then over the last few days he has went for him 3 times, he just went for him again there and it was quite nasty. He doesn't seem to be biting him or even pulling far but he lunges at him and knocks him over. Benjamin is 2.5 times the size of Philip and Philip is very fragile and can not even run to get away. Benjamins food aggression with Belle is also not improving and its causing her quite a lot of stress.

Ben has been 'ok' with Philip recently. He's still being very food aggressive with Belle.

Belles sneezing has not improved at all after her last course of anti biotics. I also think she is at least partially incontinent and she does seem to drink rather a lot.

My vet has spoken to the D!ck vet and discussed various things, for the sneezing we have a couple of options which are have her referred to the D!ck vet for a deep nasal swab, this would require her to be sedated and theres a risk of the sample being contaminated.
I half tuned out at this point because it went from 'big bucks' for this to mega bucks rapidly. But the other option was have her referred for a full investigation which would probably involve a biopsy and CT scan.

The other option is to try nebulising her a couple of times a few with an F10 solution and also give her bisolvon. I've decided to go with this option! My vet agrees this is a reasonable step at this point.

Re the possible incontinence my vet is suggesting a blood panel to test for organ function and blood cell counts, a urine panel and potentially also testing for EC.