Thank you so much, Bam and DanaNM!  I so appreciate your replies.

Thanks for sharing your experience with your dog, Bam.  Yes, we’ll try giving Teddy more meloxicam (he’s already getting quite a lot, but worth a try!).  He didn’t do well on gabapentin when he was first diagnosed, but we’ll keep it in our back pocket.

Teddy seems pretty calm, and has eaten a little more for me since I last wrote — I’m not 100% sure if he’s in pain or if it’s primarily a weakness thing.  It kind of seems like the latter, but of course it’s hard to tell, especially in bunnies.

I’m so sorry to hear Bun Jovi is in a similar boat sometimes, DanaNM!  That’s tough.  It’s really helpful to hear your experience though.  Yeah, Teddy doesn’t necessarily seem that distressed when he struggles to get up either, though it’s hard for me to watch.  We do have the Sheepette but it’s weird, when he has trouble getting up it doesn’t seem to have all that much to do with traction.  He just keeps kicking sideways on the floor. :/  I even tried offering my hand as a foothold so he could kick against it, but that didn’t work.  I just had to lift his hips up to put his feet on the floor.  (Even so, as of today he will tend to fall down again after a minute if he’s not leaning against something on this weak side.)  In the past, he might struggle like that for a few seconds but once he had regained his footing, he was fine.  Not sure what’s going on now.  I will look into Myristol, though.  What kind did you give?  I can only find canine or equine.  Teddy used to eat Sherwood Joint Support tablets, but stopped liking them a handful of months ago.

Until a few weeks ago, Teddy was hopping up and down the plush pet stairs to the second floor of his cardboard castle most days, and I think this was good for exercise.  (He’s free roam in one room; he’s too shy to venture beyond it.)  Then he started slipping and falling more, unfortunately.  I got a different type of stairs to try to help this, but he’s only tried them once.  I figured the time would eventually come when his hopping up and down stairs would be more dangerous than helpful, and maybe he’s decided that time has come?  He still hops around and just a few days ago did some moderate zoomies, but maybe it’s not the same.  Also, funny you mention the “Old Bones” mix, because that was a treat Teddy use to always get when he went up the stairs.  I need to be more consistent about giving it to him daily now that he’s not doing that.

Yeah, I don’t know what level of intervention is right either — let’s keep comparing notes as we go along?  Of course, I have a rare overnight trip planned for tomorrow (to see my dad for the first time in 2 years).  I really hate to leave Teddy if he’s not better by then, but my partner will be here and he’s really good with him.  Wish us luck — and I wish the same to you and Bun Jovi!

Thank you so much, Bam!  This is helpful to know, especially with Vilde being Teddy’s doppleganger. 🙂  These days Teddy is actually getting 3mg of meloxicam every 12 hours (I wasn’t exaggerating when I said it was a lot!).  He’s only 3 lbs, so that would be about 2.2 mg/kg, twice a day?  This is what he’s seemed to need according to trial and error, and I read that a rabbit study failed to show harm even at much bigger doses than that (assuming healthy liver/kidneys of course).  I’m not trying to advocate for it, just wanted to answer your question.  Again, not advocating this for others, but with Teddy my feeling is basically that at age 13, my top priority is trying to make his days comfortable and happy.  (And his liver/kidney function is still looking good, thankfully.)

I’m still pretty fuzzy on what is going on, why, and what will help, but I will experiment and report back.  It’s been over 6 hours now and Teddy still can’t stand unassisted, unfortunately. :/  But he’s eating and displaying his normal amount of sass, so that’s a comfort.  We are getting a bunch of rain storms coming in and though the pressure has not fallen much yet, it’s possible the weather is bothering him (I think that’s happened in the past, if my inferences were correct).

p.s. Thank you so much, DanaNM!  That’s very helpful.  Much appreciated!

Oh that totally seems like what it is!  I did notice today (while giving him a backrub) that his backbone seemed much further to the right, toward his weak hip, than normal. I didn’t know if his leg/hip or his backbone itself originated that.  But it does seem very plausible that his nerve could be pinched, especially the more he lays down on that side.  (He was napping on a memory foam bath mat all morning, but still.)  And the other couple times, when it wasn’t as bad, it did seem like he was acting like when a limb “falls asleep” (for similar reasons, I think – from compressed nerves).  Those times it got better quickly, but not today.  I wonder if there’s anything more I can do to help his nerves get un-pinched?  More massage or anything else?

Yes, Teddy used to get ranitidine and now gets famotidine, since we’re in the US.

Thank you so much for all of this, Bam! 🙂

Yes, we’re so lucky to have good bunny vets in our area! 🙂

That’s good to know about Effi.  It used to be that way with Teddy but today it seems like a bit of a vicious cycle where his leg doesn’t “wake up” immediately so he has trouble standing, so then he spends a long time lying down on his weak hip, and then it’s asleep more.  And the struggling tires him out, so he does need to rest more, so I don’t want to be bugging him all the time to change positions.  However, whenever he starts to struggle to get up, I wait a few seconds to see if he can do it and then when he can’t, I boost him up in the way you’ve described and then put a plush bunny next to him to lean against.  He’s been able to sit like that for maybe a half hour; then he lies down again.

About an hour ago he was sitting and being pretty sassy, tossing hay around and trying to dig at his blankets.  He also ate a bit, and all that is great.  I was hoping the movement might warm up his leg. I tried more massage till he started to wriggle, in case it meant discomfort. Then I had to pick him up for a butt bath (he’s never had urine scald to my knowledge, but this is his first day of not being fully mobile and I want to prevent it – plus he had poopybutt which he does get periodically) and when we put him back down, he did some somewhat stronger hopping and then seemed to be able to use his weak leg a little more.  Now he’s lying down on it again though.

Yeah, Teddy has never been up for slippery floors, even when he was 3 months old.  His feet are too fluffy!  😉  His late bonded partner, Athena, felt the same way.  So we have well-secured rugs with soft blankets on top in Teddy’s room.

Thank you so much again for all your help!! 🙂

Aw Kate, so great to hear from you!  Thank you so much for sharing this.  I’ll definitely look around for someone with that kind of training.  Totally agree treating at home would be best!  If I can find someone like that to give me advice/instruction, that would be ideal.  Thank you for this idea!

Unfortunately Teddy is still not back to normal, though the good news is he’s eating well and acting pretty normal otherwise.  He does a little bit of movement on his own — he even hopped into his litterbox and stood there unassisted for a minute! — and he’s hopped a few feet a couple of times today.  But mostly, it’s been like yesterday, needing support to sit/stand, and he still can’t get up on his own once he’s down.

I’m visiting my dad and stepmom who are physicians and I think I’m going to just try asking them if they have any ideas, although they treat humans (may as well ask). I’ll be home again in 24 hours, and I’m so glad because it’s hard being away from Teddy at a time like this.  (Meanwhile my partner is taking great care of him and has set up a live bunnycam for me, and so that he can monitor Teddy from other rooms.)

Teddy was kicking pretty hard two days ago when trying to get up, before I got to him. I wonder if he might have strained something?  He doesn’t act like he’s in pain, but of course hard to tell. I’m just wondering if maybe there’s something that is taking extra time to heal?

Thank you so much again!

Ohhh, that’s good to know — thanks, Kate!!

Teddy does seem to be improving!  Yesterday evening he was sitting/standing a lot more and moving around successfully, with his front legs swiveled to the right a bit to compensate for his right back leg.  (He’s done that a bit today too, though has mostly been napping.) He’s still not putting much weight on that leg, but he’s able to sit on his back legs to wash his face without even being braced against something, so that’s progress too.  He also caught himself when he started to fall over.  He’s still eating pretty well, provided we bring food within reach.

My dad said that for a human, you’d try prednisone to bring down the swelling around the nerve. Has anyone heard anything about bunnies and prednisone?  It was mentioned as part of a treatment for something else on MediRabbit, but isn’t on a medication list with dosages or anything there. I also just ordered him a fresh supply of the CBD oil we’d briefly tried a couple years ago, and haven’t decided yet whether to do that (to bring down the inflammation) or to risk a trip to the vet (a big stressor for him) to possibly get prednisone or something similar?

Thanks again!! 🙂

Oh this is so helpful to know — thank you so much, Bam!  Then I will try the CBD route first.  I’m so sorry it’s been illegalized where you are!!  That is just senseless. 🙁

I wrote more about this on https://binkybunny.com/forums/topic/how-to-help-our-sweet-little-elderbun-to-live-his-best-life/ but I had stopped CBD a couple of years ago due to concerns that it *could* increase the risk of potentially dangerous side effects from his cisapride.  Our vet didn’t think that was a big concern, though.  I just didn’t resume because I didn’t feel the need was pressing.  At this point, though, it feels like it would be worth a try.  So I will just start out with very small amounts and see how he does.

Really grateful too to know that his behavior sounds consistent with a soft tissue injury.  This evening he’s been on his feet in a compensating pattern like yesterday, standing up and hopping a tiny bit.  He hasn’t been falling over the way he did on Saturday, and that plus getting back some mobility are just such a relief.  Still a ways to go, though!  He seemed to enjoy some massage and then was grinding his teeth with me as I was petting him, and I am so thankful for that.

Teddy turns 13 today — we’re so excited! 🙂 I put a post on the Lounge.

Just to update here, Teddy’s continued to hop around a little with a limp, as I described last time.  Two days ago he got up on his own (!), then yesterday he needed help, and then today he got up on his own again!  He’s been mostly sitting up on his own, and when he does take a nap in the late afternoon my partner and I will take shifts sitting in his room so we can help him up if needed as soon as he tries to get up.  (We want to try to break the cycle in case his kicking during unsuccessful attempts at getting up might disrupt the healing process.)  He doesn’t travel more than a few feet in either direction, so not at all his usual amount of mobility yet, but we understand it could take time if there is an injury.  Happily, he’s still eating well and acting like himself otherwise.  Thank you so much again for your help! 🙂

Thanks so much to you both!  🙂 🙂

Hi there!  So the good news is Teddy’s still been eating quite well (if anything, more robustly than he had been before this issue started).  But unfortunately he’s still having significant challenges with his legs, and we’re going to bring him to the vet soon.  (We have an appointment for Thursday evening, but are going to call and see if there’s an opening sooner.)

He’s still moving around (just a few feet at a time, not more than 6 feet total range) using a limp — or, for longer distances, more like throwing himself forward while trying not to fall over too much.  Today I was really sad to see that his right front leg, which I’d thought he was keeping at a slightly backward angle on purpose for balance — is now actually stuck in that position.  I picked him up to give him a butt bath, and when I held him under his ribs, his leg could not go straight down – it stayed at a splayed, outward angle.  Poor bun!!  🙁  I think this is more recent (maybe the past week or so?), but I feel so bad that I don’t know exactly when it started, and I don’t know what it is about.  (The silver lining of the butt bath was that things are not looking too bad in that area despite the mobility issues.) Today he had a rougher day, falling over more than usual, and sometimes needing help to get up again.  He’s also just started sometimes sort of turning around in slow counterclockwise circles, like one rotation per minute or two (and then staying still for a while in between), because he has so much trouble supporting himself on his right side.

Despite this, it’s not super clear whether he’s in pain.  (He is still on a LOT of meloxicam.)  He still snuggles and even grinds his teeth in the affectionate way with me sometimes.  Today I did some post-bath grooming and found an area that really needed grooming attention on his right cheek, where it was getting dirty/matted since he can’t wash his face with his right front paw now that it is stuck outward.  So that was very sad too and I’ll pay more attention to it going forward.  But at the same time, he seemed so happy once I started working on that area, he licked my hand for the first time ever!!  The first couple times I thought it was just a reflex or something, but then he repeated it enough to convince me it was on purpose.  So today I am over the moon at the same time that I am heartbroken.  He’s been giving his plush bunny friend a lot of kisses today as well.  He is the sweetest little soul I’ve ever met — I can’t get over it!!

So, it’s great that he’s showing so much appetite and affection.  And he’s still quite feisty — when he falls over and realizes he can’t get up, often the first thing he’ll do is emphatically start tossing or chewing on whatever hay might be within reach.  Still, it’s so hard to watch him struggling to move around, get up, and/or keep a comfortable standing position.  He is my world, and I love him more than I could ever possibly express.  I want him to be comfortable, well, and happy more than anything.

I don’t know what the vet will say, but will keep you posted.  I’ve seen wheelchair setups for buns with issues with their hind legs, but don’t know if there are options to help buns that have issues with one side of their bodies?

Thank you so much as always!

Thank you all so much!!  It means so much to hear from you all, and I really appreciate it.

I did try to see if I could very very very gently move his leg back into place, but it wouldn’t go easily and I was afraid of hurting him, so I decided to just wait for the vet on that.  It’s very helpful to hear some possible causes for all this — thank you.  I’ll ask our vet. I am pretty overwhelmed at present but wow, disabledrabbits.com has so many great resources — thank you so much.  I’ve started looking through their recommendations for bedding, bathing, massage, etc. and it’s great.  And I was happy to see apparently some wheelchairs do offer front leg support!  It sounds like any wheelchair decisions should be made with our vet, so I’ll see what she has to say.

Thank you so much for your encouraging words, Kate.  I totally agree about these little glimpses of bunnitude.

Yes, Teddy has two pretty dense/firm plush bunnies in the hidey house where he’s been choosing to hang out most of these past few weeks, and he does lean on them sometimes.  Or if he’s having trouble staying up I’ll put one right up next to his right side.  Bolsters all around are also a good idea.  I do feel sad for Teddy that Athena (his bonded partner who passed in 2018) isn’t here to help him out with that and grooming.  She always took such wonderful care of him, and kept his face clean in this authoritative, maternal way that I always found so, so endearing.  The first couple of weeks since this injury/issue, Teddy was actually able to keep his balance somehow to wash his face with both front paws, which I found amazing.  But as of the past week or so, his right one just won’t reach his face anymore.

I so hope the vet will have ideas to help Teddy to get better, although that is not a given.  I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.  I’ll be sure to update once we go in — they turned out to be all booked up today and tomorrow, so we will just have to go on Thursday.  Thank you all so much again, truly.

Hi everyone!  We got to see the vet today and are glad we got to. The good news is there’s nothing acutely wrong — no injury per se, just arthritis/spondylosis and muscle atrophy. She actually said the splayed front leg he has is common in older bunnies and is because after several weeks of holding it out to the side for support, the muscles that pull it in are too weak now (and the muscles holding it out have tightened up). The bad news is there’s not much we can do for this, and it’s progressive.

The vet showed us some exercises we can do to move his joints around every day and help preserve the range of motion that he has for longer, and gave us ear drops to help keep his ears clean (1x-2x a week) since he can’t reach them anymore.  They also did a tear duct flush since he gets gunk in front of his eyes (this has been going on for years). So we’ll introduce daily home spa sessions with him for grooming/hygiene (will also look into the litterbox replacement ideas on disabledrabbits.com) and PT/massage. But basically, all we can do is try to keep him as clean and comfortable as possible.

She did mention there’s a possibility he has an undiagnosed degenerative neurological thing going on, since they’ve seen similar symptoms in bunnies where scans show no arthritis or skeletal issues. She suggested that we might introduce gabapentin in addition to the meloxicam, in case this is happening and he has nerve pain.  But here in the US there’s a controlled-substances law (that applies equally to veterinary contexts, even though the amounts prescribed are too little to affect humans) that means she would have to examine him again in 7 days if we wanted to continue — yet she said it would take at least 14 days for us to be able to tell if it was helping.  (Yet another US law that doesn’t make much sense for patients.)  This is a bummer because he can get stasis after a vet visit and we have to go to a wedding out of town in 2 weeks, so are reluctant to put him through that.  We actually re-read our 2019 forum discussion from when he had tried it before to remind ourselves why we had taken him off gabapentin, and decided not to go for it at this point.  (The side effects were not great for him, and he’s done much better on meloxicam.)

He’s not obviously in pain, so we’ll revisit potentially adding gabapentin or tramadol in the future if that changes.  He is on a ton of meloxicam right now, and she did say we should try to reduce that since it’s over the recommended limit (though from what I read the threshold for harm has not been found in studies), because it could hurt his kidneys and/or stomach. I certainly don’t want to harm him, of course, but I also want to prioritize his being comfortable at this age.  I mentioned that he’s on famotidine and she said we don’t need to increase the dosage, but I didn’t ask specifically to what extent the famotidine will mitigate the concerns she mentioned about potential stomach ulceration.  We can certainly try reducing his dosage, though in the past he’s done worse when we do; but it’s possible that was coincidental/cyclical.  Do you all have any thoughts on this?

The last thing was the RHVD2 vaccine.  He had gotten the first shot a few months ago, so I hoped he could get the second shot now, but they said we had to start over since we’re too far past the 3-week interval (oops – I had not realized it expires).  So he got another shot today but they want him to come back again in 3 weeks (which I’m not super excited about since the trip stresses him out so much). He never goes outdoors, so this would be to protect him from getting the virus from his greens, which we get at the store (and are mostly grown on the west coast).  Apparently there haven’t been studies yet testing the efficacy of the vaccine if the second shot is at a longer interval, so I’m not sure how to weigh whether it’s worth bringing him in for his 3rd/2nd shot.  We’ll see how he does with eating etc. after today’s visit, and whether he needs more care in 3 weeks or how he’s doing.  What do you think?

Thank you so much!!

Oh wow, thank you so much, DanaNM!!  This is awesome and I will check it out for sure.  🙂

I wrote to MedGene last night and they wrote me right back today!  What a pleasant surprise.  Here’s what they said (looks like they shared a slide from this presentation!:
Good morning,
We are including a graph that depicts how the immune system works, in general, for two dose vaccines.
sorry, I tried for a while to add this but kept getting an error saying I am not allowed to add images to this post. I did a Google Lens search and it is the top graph here – they did not include the table, and it’s worth noting all this is in general, not for their vaccine specifically.
As you can see, the initial response from 1st vaccination occurs around 1-2 weeks post-vaccination. This is the timeframe that you do not want to administer the second dose, since the body is still trying to generate the initial response. In general, any time after a minimum of 2 weeks and potentially out to 6-8 weeks is the window for administration of the second dose. If your clients can aim for getting the second dose somewhere between 17-31 days after the initial, there should be no issue. Going on the longer side is better, but keep in mind that immunity is not obtained until about 2 weeks after that second dose.
In this situation, we would recommend a third vaccine in 21 days.
Please let us know if you have any further questions!

Wow, thank you so much, Bam!  You are so kind to come and contribute this very helpful info after renovating your mom’s balcony!! Happy birthday to her 🙂

The vet said exactly what you did about gabapentin: that the effects vary a lot by individual. I’m so glad that it’s worked well for your friend’s dog.

I guess I’m not sure exactly how I’d know if Teddy wasn’t getting the right dose of famotidine, but he’s been doing pretty well for the past couple of years (since ranitidine was taken off the shelves here) on the dosage the vet recommended, which is 0.8mg (Teddy is about 3 pounds).  And yes, she said that more would not be better.

Ellie, thank you so much for your extraordinarily kind words!  You are lovely and I really appreciate it.  My partner and I are in absolute awe of Teddy and we feel so lucky to be his humans. 🙂

Good point about other back leg — it’s OK now but the vet said we should keep an eye on his feet.  He does have a bit of bare skin on his soles now which we brought him in for in February, but she says it’s still a ways away from being actual pododermatitis (sore hocks).  But we will keep watch and add a vet wrap sock if necessary.  (I’ve started collecting some of his shedded fur from grooming in case we need it for this later — it’s fairly creepy of me. ;))

Thank you all so much again!  🙂

Hey everyone!  Thank you so much again for your help.  Teddy’s been mostly pretty stable, and seems to enjoy his daily “spa” sessions (of brushing with a baby brush, cleaning eyes and ears with nontoxic wet wipes, ensuring feet are clean, butt baths or wipes as needed, physical therapy, and massage).  We’ve started doing that twice daily as of today.  He also did get a new 2-shot series of the RHDV vaccine over the past month.

The past two days, though, Teddy’s had much more trouble with mobility.  For most of the past two months he’s been mostly able to stand and often able to get up on his own.  But the past two days he’s had a lot more trouble with those things.  His right back leg was generally the weakest, but lately it seems his left back leg gets pretty weak too.  Rather than limping on it as he had been, he’s been doing more just kind of throwing himself forward a little ways, often falling down at the end of it.  If he’ll let me, I try to massage his leg and/or pull his right knee outward (as it gets pretty inverted sometimes from the arthritis), as we do during his spa sessions up on the bed, and sometimes that helps, but sometimes he gets alarmed by it and tries to run away.  Tonight he propelled himself all the way to the far wall of his play area (3 feet further than he usually goes), and fell down on his back, with all his feet stuck in the air. 🙁  I ran over and righted him immediately, but that was hard to watch. 🙁  I’m hoping this is just two bad days in a row and that he will bounce back, but I don’t know.  If not, should we consider getting him a cart/wheelchair?  Only his left front leg currently has both normal strength and normal mobility/position, while his right front leg is splayed out to the side and backwards quite a bit, so I’m not sure how this would work.

He growls at us more when he’s having bad days, if we come over to offer him food or help him up when he’s down.  Have you seen that before?  I figure it’s a self-defense instinct when he’s feeling vulnerable, but I’m not sure what to make of it.

The other concern that I’m keeping an eye on is his intermittent mushy poops.  It’s puzzling — in the past week he’s had 4 days of real doozies, needing a butt bath in the sink, randomly interspersed with 3 days of basically none, just some dry but normal-looking poops lightly stuck to his fur.  I thought it was a sugar issue, and have restricted sugar/starch, that doesn’t seem to correlate.  It could also be that he’s not getting enough fiber, but I don’t know why it would be so dramatically on-and-off from one day to the next.

Thank you so much.  We love him sooo much, and it’s really hard to see him dealing with any suffering.

Thank you so much, Bam!  I really appreciate your advice.  Did you ever find anything else for Effi to help with standing and/or moving around?  Teddy’s been spending more time lying down (head/shoulders up, back legs down and to the side), I think largely because he gets tired out from the arthritis and sustaining the difficult positions his legs are now in.  I wish I could at least find a better way of supporting him to stand/sit comfortably so he could do more grooming and eating.  I’ve tried rolled towel bumpers and using his plush bunny friends as supports, and that helps some, but it’s not as effective as I’d like.

I just requested to join the Disabled Rabbits FB group — thanks so much for that!

I think you’re right about why he growls.  He only does it when we’re coming close while he’s stuck lying down.  During painful stasis a few years ago he did some teeth chattering for pain, but thankfully that hasn’t returned. (You’re right about the high dose of meloxicam – he’s still on that.)

It’s good to know that his mushy poops might be a part of advanced age.  He’s already on daily cisapride so I worry adding Reglan might be too hard on his tummy (I understand that they can be used together in severe stasis contexts, but I think a vet mentioned that it’s a little bit rough on them?), but I can ask our vet about that.

I actually don’t mind the butt baths too much, and Teddy seems to be getting more used to them as well.  We set it up so the water is already slightly warm before we get him, and the enzymatic shampoo Zymox (in tiny quantities) seems to be beneficial.  We try our best to wet only the parts that really need cleaning, and then we use little microfiber towels to dry him off.  He hates being picked up of course, but he seems to recognize that when he needs a butt bath it helps him feel better.  And I don’t have human kids, but Teddy helps me understand the feeling of “I wouldn’t normally seek this activity out, but for you, anything.”  The joy of helping our beloved bun overrides the gross-out factor.  (Sometimes barely! XD )

Thank you so much!

Oh, I’m so sorry, Bam!!  That sounds really hard.  I totally get you about thinking they’ll snap out of it, though.  And to be fair, all the times in the past, you would have been right.  I’ve been thinking the same for Teddy, who really has snapped out of funks over and over in the past (after I’ve gotten all worked up about it being THE END).  It sounds like you truly did your best.

Thank you for telling me about the blow dryer!  We tried that today and I hope it will help Teddy relax too as he gets used to it.  🙂

Teddy can’t stand on his own very securely, so I have to hold/support him, but I do put a grippy towel on the counter for him to “stand” on — putting some of his weight on his feet while I hold him under the ribcage with one hand — while I lather him up or dry him off.  I agree — the more control/autonomy, the better.

Good to know about Reglan as well — thanks!  That makes sense.

I totally feel you about what you’d happily do for the beings you love.  And the backup stores of energy.  I get ridiculously sleepy/nonfunctional when I get too tired, but then if Teddy needs something, my backup energy kicks in and I can do it no problem.  I’ll think of your words and they’ll encourage me.  Thank you!

Thank you so much!

Yes, you absolutely couldn’t have known.  I do understand your feelings, though.  Bunnies are so wonderful and perfect, it really feels like they deserve *perfect* care, like the kind that an omniscient, omnipotent caregiver could provide.  And while I understand on an abstract level that I’m only human, honestly that doesn’t fully feel OK when I think about how my limitations and shortcomings can affect Teddy.  It really feels like if I can’t have a magic wand that could instantly fix whatever ails him, the least I could do would be to be omniscient and always know what the right thing is for him…

Anyway, all your bunnies have been lucky to have such an earnest and caring human in their lives!

Hey everyone!  I just wanted to add a quick update.  (And on an extra happy note, it’s our bunniversary — 13 years since Teddy came home from the shelter! 🙂

So we did try a cart from dogstogo(dot)net, but unfortunately Teddy never progressed from panicking and trying desperately to squirm out of it, even after a week of practice.  I do highly recommend them if you’re interested, though — they’re made by a super nice couple who wrote me many long, kind emails in our correspondence about how to try to help Teddy, and then offered to refund the cart after it didn’t work out for Teddy, even though there was nothing wrong with the cart.

Then I tried making a bunny “skateboard” with tiny swivel dollies and a rolled-towel cushion, but that too just scared him more than anything else.  :/  So now we are just focusing on trying to find what does work for him: using rolled-towel bumpers more, trying to create supportive bunny “furniture” (again mostly rolled cloths) to help him to sit comfortably, etc.  If anyone has experience with this I’d be grateful to hear it!

We’re also now doing 3x-daily “spa times” (hygiene, PT, and massage) and sometimes just hanging out with him on the bed a bit.  We’re amazed he’s so comfortable with this now (he always hated being up on the bed before) and we are loving the chance to cuddle him more.  He does a ton of licking and tooth purring and seems quite happy and relaxed during these sessions, and it’s just the best.

I’m sad we couldn’t find a good mobility solution, because it’s really hard watching him struggle to travel a couple of feet.  But he seems happy otherwise, and I guess as long as he can sit comfortably and rest OK, that’s enough.  (He used to take full naps, fast asleep on his side with his eyes closed and face twitching softly, but hasn’t done that since his mobility issues began in May — not sure if it’s because he’s not comfortable enough, doesn’t feel safe enough, or if he’s just not that tired since he doesn’t move around much anymore?)

But anyway, as much as I hate to see him struggle at all, this is honestly such a lovely time.  We loooove getting to spend more time with him, help him out, cuddle him more, and have these new ways of connecting with him.  It feels like a true privilege to get to travel this new road with our most beloved bun boy.  It’s hard to watch in some moments, but the bigger feeling is our gratitude at getting to just be together.

Thank you all so much for your support!  🙂

Thank you so much!!  And I totally agree, LBJ – I tried the blow drying on low after a suggestion here and he really does like it!  It also seems to help to try to have his grooming sessions feel as close to bunny grooming as possible.  A baby brush helps, and cleaning crust around his eyes with the wadded up end of a nontoxic wet wipe (we use the Good Wipes rosewater kind) so it feels kind of like a bunny tongue… these kinds of things seem to help him experience the hygiene sessions as grooming, and feel cared for.

Just today though I realized he’s starting to get early signs of urine scald on one side of his undercarriage, and on one leg. 🙁 It’s not red/raw yet, but he is missing fur.  I feel so bad I didn’t notice it earlier!!  I’m pretty sure it’s from his often not being able to get in the right position to pee safely, so we will try helping him adjust position more often.  I gave him a butt bath and was able to clip away some matted fur down there, and his skin is looking better now 8 hours later.  We also started a lanolin cream called Corona ointment that someone had recommended when he had sore hocks (which are now all better, thankfully, though our vet had us not use creams for that) and he seems to appreciate that so far, but we’ll see how it goes.

The main challenge at this point seems to be finding supportive “furniture” for him that can help him to sit comfortably and hopefully absorb pee safely too.  We’re trying different configurations with rolled towels around him and a rolled microfiber cloth between his back legs, but would love any ideas.  Does anyone have experience with that?

Kate!!  Thank you SO much for all your advice and encouragement, and especially for this fantastic article!!  I had not seen it and I’m so grateful to have it.  Thank you!!

I’m so glad you mentioned the upper body thing.  Teddy’s done this sometimes and he does seem content in that position, but I haven’t been letting him stay there long because I didn’t know if it was OK, if he was stuck, if it would place too much pressure on his hindquarters, etc.  So it’s so good to know that’s something we can do going forward.  And we will order a donut pillow too!  🙂

I was looking at Teddy’s leg more and I actually wonder if that part might be not urine scald but having the fur rub off.  The missing fur is on the inside/top of his leg, going from just above the heel and then up a few inches, but stopping well below the top of his thigh, and I don’t see signs of urine on it.  But he often ends up sitting/lying with his back legs out to the side and that leg downhill, and when he struggles to get up he usually kicks his other leg out over this weaker leg a lot, so it might be from that friction?  Either way, I will try the lanolin cream there too.  It does make his fur more oily which is a little bit of an attractor for hay, but it’s not too bad so far.

Oddly, his sticky poop situation seems to have all but vanished in the past few days, knock on wood!  For the past month or more he’s had a ton of fairly normal-looking but just slightly adhesive poops stuck to his fur all over his back legs etc, which need to be picked/combed out at least twice a day.  They’re not usually mushy, they just stick a little like burrs for some reason.  I don’t know if it’s the different supportive cushioning we’ve been trying or if somehow the lanolin cream makes a difference, but it’s suddenly much better!  (I had to check to make sure he is still pooping, haha, but yes he is!)

Thank you so much again!!  It made me happy to see your name on here 🙂

Hey there!  I just wanted to give a quick update.  Teddy’s doing well, all things considered!  😀  His skin/fur is much better after some adjustments.  We did the Corona ointment for a while and his skin did stay intact, but the oily-ness of it got all into his fur and led to more matting and, relatedly or not, his bald patches just kept growing.  So a few weeks ago we took him to the vet who shaved off the mats and gave him a prescription spray to use instead: Vetericyn Plus.

Now he’s growing back fur all over his hindquarters — no more bald patches there!! 😀  We’ve actually stopped needing to spray there (I just brush the new fur with a baby brush to prevent mats, and give him a wet wipe around the area twice daily).  Maybe he’s getting better at peeing away from himself (e.g., on me 😆 ) — he has no signs of urine scald now and he hasn’t needed a butt bath in weeks!  Woohoo!!  😀

He still has a bald patch on his ankle, which I do think is from friction, and the vet didn’t have a suggestion other than the spray.  (She said bunnies tend to hate socks, which is true of Teddy at least.)  But the fur is growing back slowly on his leg (just not the ankle itself).

We’ve been having better luck with bunny furniture too!  Teddy loves his donut pillow (with microfiber towels and Sheepette to line it, which we have to change twice daily) and spends most of the day in that.  We put his feet in the bottom and he seems more comfortable with that slight propping up (and he leans against a plush friend on his weak side). Then he has a little bed in his hidey house that he likes to lay just the top half of his body on at night (it’s true what Kate said about liking his upper body raised).  We also try to pick him up every 6-8 hours if we can for some snuggles and/or spa times, to help him change positions and stay clean.

He’s such a love, and we feel so lucky!  He does teeth-purring often, his appetite is better than it has been for a couple of years, and he gives us lots of licks during spa times. I wouldn’t have predicted he’d be so happy at this stage, but I’m so, soooo grateful that he is.  <3

Thank you so much, Bam!  🙂  Yeah, it’s been so great for his issues.  (For others: it’s an antimicrobial saline spray that gels on contact, so it creates a protective barrier, if I understand correctly.  It’s totally nontoxic, so not a problem if they lick it, the vet said.)

In Teddy’s case of sore hocks where there was quite a bit of fur loss and some dark pink spots, but no open sores, FWIW our vet told us not to use any topicals but instead focus on his environment, and that did work for us.  Sheepette (which you all told me about on here) really made the difference there, and his feet are all better now!  🙂

Sheepette (and generic equivalents) is also really helpful to us now for keeping him dry, since it hardly absorbs any moisture, but instead lets it fall through like a sieve.  So with towels below and Sheepette on top, he has the best bet of getting a dry, fluffy surface to hang out on (though we still have to change it out in his one main hangout spot about twice a day as I mentioned, and then in his larger hidey house area once or twice a week).  I’m so grateful for all your kind and generous advice!  🙂

Thanks, Dana!  Yeah, I’m not sure — our vet did discourage us from using anything topical (creams, ointments, sprays) for the skin in a situation with mild/early issues on hocks where there aren’t open sores, for what it’s worth, but to focus on making the environment softer (e.g., Sheepette).  That approach worked for Teddy (although he also does spend a lot less time standing on his feet these days).  But no reason not to ask your great new vet about this for Myra!  🙂

Cool, I hope it works out!  🙂