Goodbye little bun.

[RetroSquid]

Sorry about the length of this post… Just need to vent a little :'(

Our first bun, Zelda (Turned out to be a boy, my wife named him before we knew) fell a little under the weather about a month ago, he suddenly wasn’t overly interested in food, or his favorite treats, so, naturally, we took him straight to the vets that evening, he had a TINY lump on his lower right mandible and the vet prescribed Baytril and regular visits to monitor he health.

He picked up within a day or two and was his happy, binky self again, but we noticed a large swelling on his cheek within days, so back to the vets, this time to put the little chap under and have a proper poke around, we then came to the conclusion that we needed to drain the abcess that had formed, the vet was shocked at the type of puss that was drained out, it wasn’t your typical toothpaste like puss, but instead was thinner and had dark bits in it, also, the vet said that it smelled so much worse than anything he’s drained before. So, with this news, we concluded it wasn’t just your average bunny abscess, but, we had also noticed a couple of foreign objects in the hey we were using… namely a Seagul feather or two… We concluded that maybe Zelda had tried to eat the feather and had stabbed the inside of his cheeck, which has caused and infection, and thus the abscess…

A week after the draining of the abscess, Zelda was doing well, he was eating fine, binkying substantially and curling up with one of our cats as normal, but we noticed another swelling, this time a little lower, on his neck, so back to the vets, this time, the puss was the typical toothpaste bunny infection, so after having it drained, away we went, to administer more Baytril at home, but also a couple of gut stimulants as putting the little boy under a couple of times had caused him a bit of a tummy problem.

Now, after two/three weeks of treatment (somewhat intensive treatment, I might add) our little boy was seeming more and more himself with each day, and this was all during the build up to my wedding and honeymoon, so you can imagine my relief that he was feeling better.

We decided to hospitalise our bun over the wedding weekend, just so we knew he was getting the care he needed and because I’m sure some of you will know how long and chaotic a wedding day/weekend can be. It just offered us some piece of mind while we committed ourselves to eachother.

After the wedding weekend, on Monday the 1st of July, we picked our bun up, he seemed great, almost better than he was before he fell ill. We took him home and had a splendid couple of days with him before we left on our honeymoon. (We were on the verge of cancelling the trip, but because of his improvements and that it was our honeymoon, we went ahead with it.) 
We left Zelda in the care of the vets and vet nursing staff, a fantastic team, they’be been great with our buns.
We also insisted on regular e-mail contact for updates as we wern’t able to call or be called from where we were and everything was fine…

Until Yesterday… We recieved an e-mail from our vet stating that Zelda had taken a turn for the worst and he had clearly developed another abscess, only this time behind his little eye, we immediatly got in touch with them to let them know that we’ll be on the first flight back, which happened to be this morning and could they at least keep him as comfortable as possible until we get there, knowing full well that we were heading home from our honeymoon to say goodbye to our bun.

We called the vet from the airport as soon as they were open at 9am this morning only to hear that Zelda had passed in the night.

We’re going to arrange his cremation later on this evening.

He was only about 12-18 months old when we got him and we only had him for around five months, but he was one of the family and will be very sorely missed.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=552171014821947&l=79be88a423

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=552173801488335&l=c7513ac4d8

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=534725283233187&l=16f3e74dfd

[Sarita]

I’m so sorry for your loss – I am going to move this to our Rainbow Bridge Section for you.

[RetroSquid]

Just back from speaking to the vet about Zelda.

It turns out the abscesses he had were all on the mend, all of them were looking good, but the swelling in his eye was from an eye infection rather than another abscess, but still, the eye infection caused too much swelling in his tiny head for him to cope with.

But, I have another bun, three cats and three ferrets than still need love, so trying not to dwell, however difficult…

Zelda was very loved and the short time we had him, he was a very happy, bouncy bun.

[MoJingly]

Awww. Sorry to hear about Zelda. But it sounds like he lived a very happy life

[Sarita]

It hurts worse when you cannot be there I think to say good-bye. He sounds like he was in very good hands though. Luckily you do have much fur babies to love and that need you too – many times knowing I had other rabbits to care for when one passed helped me not dwell on the sadness.

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m so very sorry. I”m all tears reading Zelda’s story. He was clearly a very well-loved little bun. May he be with you always in your memories….

(((((Binky Free Zelda))))))

[RetroSquid]

Gah, sitting and clearing out little Zelda’s cage has been possibly one of the most painful events imaginable…
Just readying the home for Link’s (Our other bun) return. He was in boarding while we were away and couldn’t face picking him up yesterday.

It really is a shame, Link and Zelda were incredibly close, but Link was very young, he had just hit sexual maturity as Zelda started falling ill, so the last couple of interactions they had were a little unpleasant.
But, on the other hand, from Link’s perspective, that might be a good thing, if the bond between them had been broken a little before we lost Zelda, it might not be as confusing for him to come home to a single bun house…

Just hope the little fella’ will be okay on his own until we can face getting him some company… </3

[Valkyrie]

My heart is with you completely. I lost Merlin yesterday and I couldn’t touch his cage yesterday.  My other half was at work until 11 pm and I just couldn’t face it alone so I am doing it tonight.

Going to give it a deep clean and then move my 5 month old bun, Bromley, into it because it is easier to clean then the temporary cage he is in now. It is temporary because I am working on a designing and building a bunny castle that he and Mer were supposed to go into once they were bonded. I had stopped the bonding process when Mer’s health starting declining because I knew he would leave me soon and I didn’t want Bromley to lose his companion right after learning to love him. My dog and cats are devastated though.

[RetroSquid]

Poor little Merlin, my condolences. <3

I don’t think two of my cats have noticed a difference in the house, but Bubblegum, he was a true friend to Zelda from day one, I think when the house gets back to normal after us being away, he’ll notice.

That’s us just back from collecting Link, he seems like a totally different bun, not the little cheeky chap we left, but instead, almost like we’ve missed him growing up, but he still seems to have retained one unusual trait he seemed to pick up from Zelda.
Zelda was a lop, Link was not, in no manner of the word, the was no lop in him at all, but in the few weeks they spent together, Link seemed to slowly and intentionally lower his ears into the “lop position”
Upon getting Link home, he’s still sporting the lop ears, although he seems to alternate between left and right as to which one he wants down.
It feels like he still has a little of Zelda in him from their short time together.

It really is horrible… I’m anticipating the odd person from my extended social circle coming out with the whole “It’s just a rabbit”, but this loss, without deminishing it, is just like any other I’ve felt, from cats and rats when I was young, to my parants… It’s all grief, something it turns out I don’t seem to cope with very well. My wife is a rock though, I wouldn’t cope if it wasn’t for her.

[NuggetBuns]

I’m so sorry for your loss! I was tearing up after reading everything you had to go through and you didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye! I think most people who own pets or have own pets would understand that it’s not just a rabbit. Zelda was your friend and family member, he lived a good life and hopefully is binkying around up there.

[RetroSquid]

Well, today is sort of the first day the house is back to normal.
The wife is at work, and I’m on my ‘summer holidays’ from University.

Link is at the vets being castrated.

He isn’t the same little bun he was, now he’s all “mature”, he really doesn’t like me (but I think that’s just because I’m male, he’s almost fine with my wife) but I’m not sure if it’s making Zelda’s passing easier or harder, there is a little piece of me that resents the little guy for how he was towards Zelda in his last few weeks, they were so close before everything started going wrong.

I feel utterly horrible for it, but I don’t know how close of a bond I will be able to have with Link now, which I know just really isn’t fair on the little fella.
I’m hoping his demeanour will improve and he’ll be more like he used to now that he’s getting his *cough-nuts off-cough*, which in turn will improve my relationship with him. And also, he needs a companion.
He is a house bun, so he’s never alone, but he just doesn’t look right running around our living room alone.
The cats don’t like Link, one of them seemed to truly love Zelda, but he just won’t abide Link’s company at all.

Link and Zelda
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=533762639996118&l=ca287893eb

Little Link
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=531068503598865&l=804c9ae81b

[RetroSquid]

My wife is collecting Zelda’s ashes on her way home from work this afternoon…

It all feels very final, but at least he’s coming home…

[Author]

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