Hi everyone,

First of all – apologies if this isn’t how the forum works (creating a new topic). I can move it / repost if necessary.

My head feels like someone has been holding it under water for a week so I’m struggling to concentrate.
My sweet boy had to cross over to the rainbow bridge on Saturday night after battling e. cuniculi since Tuesday. He had a head tilt, he was dizzy and he was falling over, etc. We had him in a box lined with pillows and soft blankets, and he had spent a lot of time snoozing, all bundled up in them. He was eating very small amounts so I syringe fed him with the SS syringe (15ml). I had never heard of aspiration (I’ve had rabbits for ~8 years and I do a lot of reading so I’m really surprised I’d never come across this before), otherwise I would have used a 1ml syringe or found some other way to feed him.

I maybe gave him the whole 15ml once, but other than that it was smaller amounts. I gave him a little bit, then stopped, then a bit more, etc. The SS syringe didn’t get all blocked up (I got hold of this after using a 5ml that blogged and fired food into his mouth ><).

He had been syringe fed at around 4pm on Saturday, then at about 7pm he ate half a stalk of cavolo nero and some pellets on his own, and had shown interest in some hay. We were over the moon, thinking he was starting to feel a little better. It all came crashing down within minutes though, when his breathing got a bit hitched and he was sort of quacking almost. We took him straight to an OOH vet and they said e. cuniculi can affect the lungs and it was either that or aspiration. I feel so guilty – my baby boy may have recovered from e. cuniculi but I potentially did more damage with the syringe feeding that I thought would help him. We had two options (because the only open “exotic vets” closest to us, which was still about an hours drive away aren’t taking exotic emergencies atm due to COVID) which were either let him stay overnight with strangers to see if he recovered, which the night vet assured us looked very slim and he was “struggling” or have him put to sleep there. It’s the hardest choice I’ve ever had to make, but the thought of him not passing on surrounded by strangers, or possibly even completely alone, in a strange environment, swayed us. I’m sure it’s totally natural to feel like we made the wrong choice, then the right choice, etc. but it’s our first experience having to do this, and I just miss him so much.

He was a 3 year old dutch who was incredibly affectionate (he would lick us / let us cuddle him all day every day) and he followed us around the house (completely free-roam). He would wake us up in the morning by scratching on the bedroom door, and come to bed with us at night, jumping up on the bed for cuddles.

Almost every room in the house reminds us of him and it’s awfully hard to stop thinking we did the wrong thing, or I played a hand in actually making him more sick.

I’m hoping if it was aspiration that he would have showed signs immediately after I fed him, just to ease the guilt, but I’m not convinced that’s true.

If anyone knows this to be true, pleaseplease let me know.

My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a bun, at risk of sounding dramatic, I don’t think my life will ever properly return to normal and I don’t think I’ll stop reflexively going into his “room” (always with the door open) to check on him throughout the day. Gut-wrenching every time I realise.

I have two more buns living in the house (one also has free roam, but never leaves the front room and SR, who this post is about, never came into the front room and one who is in a large enclosure in the front room and comes out to play). I’m picking up panacur for them today – going to give them a course each as a preventative measure for the e. cuniculi. Something advised by our vets.

Thanks so much for reading,
M