So last night I noticed Link had major sores all over his feet, including on top. Despite my mother’s “Oh, he’s fine. Just soak his feet in aveeno for a couple minutes and put neosporin on it.” speech, I took him to the vet first thing this morning (I love Blue Ridge Vet – I called at 8 AM, got an apointment for 9:30 – if you’re in Northern VA or the Harper’s Ferry area I totally recommend them).
Fever of 105. Needs his entire backside shaved (but she applauded my efforts at bathing his legs – I was worried it was a bad choice). Serious antibiotics. Bloodwork done to figure out if something’s wrong to cause him to get so lazy about grooming his backside when Navi is in perfect condition. He’s producing cecals – he never does. He’s still at the vet’s – hopefully I’ll be able to take him home at 3.
As someone who’s gone through 3 previous rabbits that only had sudden deaths – no illnesses – I’m kind of freaking out. I feel like an inexperienced bunny mom when I’ve been a bunny mom for 22 years (aka my whole life). I feel like it’s HJ who should have been ignorant of this while he had him, not me. Not to say HJ’s stupid, but he’s a new bunny dad who still has lots to learn.
In other news, we got confirmation that Navi might be blind – something we expected for a while. She has no cataracts though, and her eyes dialate. It could just be that her mane blocks her vision completely, or it could be because she was malnorished as a baby. Other than that, she’s perfectly healthy.
Update: He’s home. His fever is down. I have antibiotics to give him twice a day, sub q fluids to give him every other day (I have to give him a home IV tomorrow – I’m paranoid I’m gonna screw it up) to keep him hydrated, critical care to give him every day to get his weight back up (fortunately he loves the stuff – he’ll eat it right off a plate once I mix it with water), orders to clean his litterbox constantly until I can get a screen to keep him dry. We return in a week to see whether his kidney failure is pernament or temporary. He’s obviously feeling much better now.
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