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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum RAINBOW BRIDGE Rest in Peace my bun buns Milo, I’m not sure what exactly took you

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    • Cassie119300
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        [gallery size="medium" ids="1955817,1955818,1955819,1955820,1955821,1955822,1955823,1955824"]

        Hello,  I lost my Milo who we also called (Bun buns) on October 24th 2021. Milo began to fall ill around the beginning of October and showed some unusual signs about the last week of September. I actually had him a scheduled appointment for October 7th (At another vet than my usual one) but I had to bring him back to the prior vet as it’s the only way I could get him quickly seen. Almost a month later and I’m still feeling like a piece of me is missing and it’s such a heartache without him, I’m still in disbelief my Milo is gone. I actually left 4 days after his passing to go and spend some time with my boyfriend before the travel ban lifted in the UK, I couldn’t bear the emptiness of my bedroom.

        So what happened with Milo, Milo had been battling Snuffles Pasteurella for almost a year prior to this. The white mucus in his nose and watery/tear stained crusty eyes never completely went away. When he first developed snuffles he also had what appeared to be a reddish white looking penis. He was treated with a few different things over the course of this year, Enrofloxacin, Azithromycin,  and Penicillin G injected once a week for three weeks under the skin. This seemed to calm down/clear up his eyes a bit and the redness, around his eyes however the white sticky discharge in his nose never fully went away. I would always use q-tips and swab at the side of his nose every night, but his sneezing was never terrible it was just on and off and I kept his immunity up with the use of Echinacea in his drinking water. The vet I had would only check his incisors and general weight, but that was about it. She told me he would require on and off again treatment of antibiotics for his snuffles and most likely he had developed chronic snuffles. She took a nose swab and came back and said it was Pasteurella/snuffles. She had done the swab and came back within a matter of minutes however. I was a bit skeptical of that. I felt responsible for his snuffles as I would clean his litter box every few days and take bits out here and there.

        Fast forward a half a year later, his eye began to get runny/crusty again and I had read up on what look like facial asymmetry, it appeared he had this on the one side of his face. I brought him to the vet she gave me doxycycline which cleared it up a little bit but it ensued still after a little while as well as some sneezing flare ups from time to time, but these would fade with the echinacea. He had developed nystagmus of his eyes he would eat and every once in a while he would just start moving his face from side to side in like a daze and seemingly then snap out of it. The vet gave him dewormer for e cuniculi but ignored his eye that began to look weepy again on the same side of the asymmetric looking cheek and would not offer much about his teeth or looking at them more thoroughly, she said his face looked fine and that if these were the only issues he had it wasn’t the most terrible thing, she mostly was talking to him rather than me.  I read the cheek looking asymmetric could be from a compressed nerve/facial swelling arising from dental issues. I could never seem to feel anything puffy then again I didn’t really know exactly what to look for which is why I relied on the vet to be able to.

        I took him to another vet for another opinion about two months later, he was given enrofloxacin somehow with one of those pill pushers and I was told she was able to see the back of his teeth with a tongue depressor ( no idea how) and there seemed to be no issues. It was here I was told that my rabbit was actually a Himalayan lop eared rabbit, a rare breed but this vet had previous had lops for show rabbits. She informed me I needed to get him advantage for flea control as he had a lot of flea dirt, I was using ovitrol for this on a cotton ball monthly but it was not working. The fleas were because we have two small dogs and have two cats. The advantage seemed to work pretty good except for during the summer months where fleas like to be a bit more rampant. Things were fine for a little while, but I did notice some strange things looking back. Like sometimes he seemed to randomly be clumsy on his feet or have a hard time getting up sometimes, I put this down to the linoleum flooring. Milo had an issue with poopy butt throughout this year and was fed lots of timothy hay, spring mix at night, or romaine, with some dill on top, occasional things like blueberries/a slice of apple and oxbow pellets limited amounts. Despite this though he still appeared to have poopy butt a lot and he was very used to getting butt baths. I would use baby wipes/puppy pads/ water soaked cotton balls/cornstarch and pat him dry as I went. He would actually stick his butt up for me and when he had enough of being groomed/ having his butt bath he would dig at my bed where was the easiest place for me to do all of this. Sometimes I even got sprayed at, he had such a personality about him. He was a bit skittish being albino but allowed me to trim his nails without too much of a fuss and I would moisten cotton swabs and clean his eyes without a fuss.

        My parents pet sit my Milo while I was visiting my boyfriend in London June this year, and I would regularly video chat with them and check on my bunny, I had a very detailed list of what to do, feed etc.. they did very good with him on a few occasions where they had to pet sit him for me. When I returned home… I was doing his regular cleaning and it appeared that he had greenish/yellowish gunk coming out of his ear. I went back to my regular vet (as the other one was a bit too far out and I wasn’t really sure about her) they used virbac epiotic cleanser on his ear and said it wasn’t a concern and from this point on said it was his nystagmus and gave him more de wormer for e cuniculi and some doxycycline which didn’t really help to clear things up. At some point he was also given 3-5 days worth of tresaderm for his ears. I had noticed for a little while that he was peeing a lot and drinking a lot. He still was acting as normal as ever and still joining me everyday underneath my desk to sleep on his mat, or when I went to bed at night he would sleep under my tv stand on his blanket/near the side of my bed right near me or under my bed. This cleared his ear up for a little while.  This is where my vet and I began to disagree on the treatment and she refused to take a culture or do anything further for his ear, he was scratching at his ear and it seemed he could not hear me anymore. I brought him to another vet which was kind of close ish. This vet did a swab on his ear and said it was cocci bacteria and prescribed me albun/or album? oral which i also found was used to treat coccidia this confused me but I figured well it’s worth a shot. Looking back this makes me feel terrible because of the fear of otoxicity with rabbits, but he was also given tresaderm again this time for two weeks. This did seem to get the swelling down but at the second appointment the vet said it was half way clear and gave me a anti fungal ear wash to put in Milo’s ear, I had also still had virbac from the other vet which I used every other day on Milo’s ears. When I used the anti fungal one… it seemed to be bringing up a lot of ear wax but it never seemed to clear his ear pus fully and it still carried on. I had another appointment for October 7th, unfortunately this was moved up do to my family and I all having a lot of medical appointments, so I had no choice but to move it up a week or so.

        However by the last week of September I had said to heck with my regular vet as I was more or less told ” most people opt to put their rabbits down because of the “disturbing” look of rabbits with e cuniculi and they feel their rabbit is suffering. Milo did not have a head tilt, or anything strange at this point and they were basically telling me there was nothing else they could do for him besides give him a de wormer, me and the vet constantly bickered it felt like through email on what was “appropriate” and she more or less ignored my last email to her at this point. Beginning of October Milo randomly peed underneath my bed one day and this was very unusual for him. I also noticed he was hunching his butt up towards the end of his litter pan as well. I thought well okay just another 3-4 days to go, and I began to give him those oxbow urinary support tablets thinking it was something to do with that and made sure to keep everything very clean. (Bleach never dawned on me at this time, I just used my regular Swiffer jet). He would never drink from a water bottle either so I made sure I was washing his  automatic refill water dish out at least every 4-5 days I admit though I do feel guilty that at times, I cleaned his water dish sometimes after a week and feel terrible about that now, no matter if it was 3-4, 5-7 days it seemed it would get a bit slimy on the inside but I did my best to keep any debris out of it every day.

        For about a month when he ate his greens I noticed it looked like on the one side of his face he would unstable like be rocking his head from side to side whenever he seemed to grab the larger pieces of lettuce leaf’s. I had mentioned this to my regular vet, but nothing. Milo began to go downhill he started to look wobbly and off balanced, and I don’t even recall the day this happened if he had taken a drink from his water dish or not I thought he may have early on in the day. It was at this point I noticed he wasn’t really trying to go after his hay/pellets… a dramatic shift from the night before. I put towels all around his usual area and blankets as he was under the card table I had and padded everything as good as I could and he seemed to be sort of pressing his sides against every surfaced he moved onto. He was still going into his litter box but very unstable like. I believe I had him into my regular vet the next day. He was given doxycycline, Meloxicam, de wormer again, metoclopramide to get his gut moving and some critical care. I began to give him this and was told to try and encourage his hay feeding, which at this point he refused hay and pellets, and his greens, I was given him syringe fed oxbow critical care but was not instructed on how much exactly so I think I was giving him near 30 ml a day with water in between that, which was very hard as for some reason on that same side of his face with the affected ear, cheek, eye…. whatever I would put in while it was going in was also dribbling out of this side of his mouth. I had to put his cheek on my hand and put a paper towel under it as well. Fast forward a day or so… Milo had completely began to lose all balance and him trying to go into his litterbox was becoming a serious hazard (the high back corner litter pan) and I had to put a blanket down near it so he would not trip in/out to try and prevent that as much as I could. He began to circle and started to hide away from me and then the rolling began. He started rolling uncontrollably and it was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed and instinctively I had to reach out my hand and keep him in my arms to stop him from rolling into things and get it to stop. I was trying to figure out what to do to keep him safe. Unfortunately he did fall into the table legs.. and by the next day I had him in a large padded box with lots of little windows surrounded by rolled blankets with a big comfy blanket underneath and a puppy pad under him. Milo could not move anymore except for rolling when he tried. It was heartbreaking. There were many times I broke down throughout this. His eye on the bad side of his face began to look very red swollen and was moving up and down tell tale sign of e cuniculi while the other was still left to right. I had him to the vets where he was given a shot to control the dizziness, subcutaneous fluids, and enrofloxacin FINALLY for his “ear infection” which they had refused all along to recognize all contributing to his dizziness and rolling.

        By day I had him on my bed with rolled up towels far away from the edge on a puppy pad. He had begun to poop normally again ( after he had passed what looked like large wadded up poop with my hair and his fur mixed in” there was some soft poops and then finally larger and larger regular ones. He was beginning to eat some hay for me, some greens, and I was instructed by one of the vet techs to give him around 73 ml critical care a day I did this with water in the syringes as well in-between. I had also been giving him a little pumpkin baby food about 1 ml or some of the mixed pear apple one to give him with his baytril. He was given subcutaneous fluids as he was dehydrated and had lost some weight (despite me giving him almost 40-50 ml of water a day myself. I did hear the fluids going into his gut but my poor bunny had this problem where it came out of the side of his mouth and most of the time he was moving his head away from me so I could not give him the water, he would accept the critical care willingly though. His down eye and face rested on his leg which became bald from the moisture and I did my best to keep clean and dry as well as his bottom/legs/feet from the urine. I constantly changed his puppy pads. I had an ointment for his eye I had to put on 3 times daily. This seemed to be improving it quite a lot but it was very gradual. I felt so bad as when I cleaned  his eye i had to gently remove whatever stuck cotton ball was there as I previously tried cotton balls wet with water and it was a bad idea as it stuck to the sticky discharge matter, the eye was very sore and red looking. I also had to fight daily to keep hay bits from going onto it/food.

        Milo seemed to start to pick his body up for water/critical care and the rolling had started to stop… he even seemed to be able to sort of scooch his back legs and would at times move forward seemingly to get closer to where I was on the bed, he seemed happiest this way. I was also very concerned at this time because his Pasteurella became for the first time virulent, sneezing, and lots of discharge I was wiping it away from his nose almost 8 times a day or more and he would start this sort of wheezing sound in his chest at times which seemed to get better when I wiped his nose or he sneezed. This seemed to get better with more echinacea. I also gave him some probiotic powder onto his greens when he started to eat them again every night. One bad thing though, he still seemed to be having these weird big mushy poops in-between his normal ones I was finding in the morning and no sign of “good cetrophs” and he was forming any for me to be able to give him… and the one time I managed to find some he would not eat them. He was also getting very scrawny looking despite me now feeding him hay, greens, critical care and even at this point he began to accept some pellets. I was of the mind of if I can get him to eat the greens then its more fluids. I wonder if this however contributed to the weird smelling big mushy poops and my mother would take over in the early morning as I was up half the night with him keep him dry clean. She gave him some carrot baby food and some pieces of apple as we were just trying our darndest to get him to eat/get fluids. I feel really bad about this looking back because of the sugars, I was doing my best to keep the sugars down for him but it was in everything all of his medicines just about and the baby food, probably even the critical care.

        Just when it seemed Milo’s eye was getting better and was almost fully healed and whenever I fed him he would snuggle his cheek onto my hand, I don’t know if he was trying to tell me he didn’t want me to keep trying the water or his way of cuddling up to me after the feedings, but it seemed his chest stopped the wheezy sound as much. The vet when I asked if there was anything I could do for the rattling in the chest she just said “no”. It wasn’t all that helpful though I did get some Vicks into a bowl of water and let the vapors in the air from a distance to help him a bit. My milo would sigh every once in a while. I stupidly let the vet talk me into the acupuncture therapy for Milo, which seemed ok at first but then when they put a small needle into his foot area it looked like it hurt and he was still rolling and suddenly rolled onto his side definitely not safe. I then declined the second booking for the electro therapy one not wanting to put my poor Milo through any more.

        I took him back to the vet on what would have been a Thursday before October 24th when he passed away and he had lost a significant amount of weight. I felt guilty the few days he was eating hay and stuff better for not giving him a lot of critical care but more the water. I was doing everything to get the water in but it was very difficult between the water and critical care as the plunger would get stopped up and spurt out i would have to quickly wipe it away from the area by his nose as it was very hard to prop his head up, he wanted to always take it from the side of his face lying down. Looking back I felt like this was a big mistake but when I would prop him up his head would go all over the place. He went from 4 pounds down to about 3.4 and the vet said he was still looking dehydrated despite everything I was doing. I was so frustrated, I was given more critical care and more eye ointment as the other eye was very runny and a bit irritated as well, but the eye was just about healed. Milo was not rolling anymore and the nystagmus was getting better… but he was back to not wanting to eat as much hay hence why the apple bits came in when my mother and I were trying everything.. I would weigh him on the scale I had and it still seemed he had lost another 2-3 oz and was not gaining anything. I was more or less told good luck over the weekend by the tech I called on Friday. Saturday night… he had not peed for what seemed like hours despite fluids and care fresh. I think since early afternoon, I was more afraid by what seemed to be very mushy smelly poop developing at a fast rate. When I went to clean his eye either this saturday night or the night before he let out a weird sounding gurgle rattle noise for a few seconds which still haunts me to this day. I had to dab his eye slightly with wetted tissue paper as hay bits were getting into it despite my best effort and this is when that noise occurred.

         

        I had not heard his lungs rattle since before he had began to improve. He was very lethargic and seemed to be sleeping a lot. And I was keeping him warm with water bottles, his ears were cold but I was keeping him warm and comfortable. He ate more at night with the meloxicam and stimulant as usual by now we were down to the stimulant being used once a day. I have a feeling his kidneys were no longer functioning well and the whitish reddish looking penis had returned. I had to clean him constantly with the poop coming out at this rate, and keep him dry. His legs were shaking a bit as I did this which they had not done before, the easiest way was to put him on his back which he did not seem to mind. I got him to eat some hay with a lot of persistence and some water and as much critical care as I could. I even put a little extra probiotic powder in the water this Saturday night ( which I feel awful for doing but I was desperate) and was trying to do everything I could to save him. Weeks before I thought i saw a slight bluish tint to his lips which the vet didn’t seem to notice but even the tech seemed a little weirded out about. Despite this though he was not mouth breathing but his breaths did seem to be more deeper at times with the stuffy nose and without. His nose wasn’t discharging as much anymore. It was more like a sucked in looking breath when he did it, then it would return back to normal. I was told by the tech that rabbits would hold some water in their mouth and then swallow as I expressed concerns about his aspirating. There were times I would syringe the water in and it didn’t appear that he was swallowing id put in a little more then he would but this last night, it seemed like after two squirts he still wasn’t and then he would a little. This is also causing me such horrible feelings of guilt that i somehow made him aspirate but if he did I didn’t know it, I only saw at one point what seemed like a cough coming from his chest as it was moving as if he was coughing twice. There was no audible cough though.

         

        Warning: These details might be a bit unsettling and it describes what happened when Milo passed.

        I put Milo down for bed with a blanket over his sides but away from his face/feet…. not sure what to hope/expect for. I stayed up until 4 am with him… and my mother awoke me around 9 am October  24th, 2021 on a Sunday and said she thought he was gone. I looked in the box and milo appeared to be still sleeping on his side but with his eye slightly closed as it was before I put him down for sleep and it appeared his teeth looked a little clenched, and his lips were slightly blue. He still felt warm to the touch and his eyes were still very watery looking. I could not understand what actually happened. The last two days… he wasn’t putting his head into my hand after the feedings as well.. he didn’t appear to be reacting to my touch. I also cleaned his ears still every two days and he still was shaking/flicking his ears afterwards as usual. The big change was him not moving at all anymore and he had lost his balance again, and his one leg seemed to be more splayed. He had matted/stained bluish green fur under his mouth which i did everything to keep clean and the matted fur had some bald spots and some brownish crusts which I had corn starched and cleaned also.

        I was in shock. I layed Milo on my bed just to be sure he wasn’t in a state of shock. I kept Milo on my bed for several hours just to be sure and even cleaned his bottom and body one final time, I didn’t want him to have anything on him. Instinct and routine I guess, this was my way of comforting myself and going through the shock. Hours later his ears were ice cold but his body still warm. I didn’t know if this was down to my room temperature or what, but his body was not still at all, even hours later. The only part that appeared to be was his mouth/jaw area. His gums looked pale white. His eyes still just as glossy looking as if he was alive. For some reason I kept thinking he was still alive somehow and was afraid to move him. However the first time I had moved him to put him on my bed and then a while later… it seemed the pee he never peed the night before leaked out of his body. Lots of it was leaking out and I changed puppy pads a few more times. I had my parents both look at him to be sure. I felt awful, I never heard a sound, never heard a thing, and how badly I wished I would have been awake to keep him safe and feeling loved. I petted him twice before I went to sleep and checked on him and just like that in the wee hours of the morning he was gone. I feel comforted that I gave him Meloxicam before he went to sleep the final night though.

        We wrapped him up in his favorite blanket since the day I had received him and with his sheep next to him (his favorite stuffed animal) into a lunch type cooler bag. I couldn’t bear to place him in the freezer so I kept him on our porch where it was cool over night. The next day we took him to our local vet so he could be cremated. I was given his ashes in a heart shaped box and two heart shaped paw prints from him. When I had last taken him to his regular vet I demanded a swab be done on his ear and the results turned up a week after he passed away (yes a week) as they did not do cultures at their office and had it sent away.

        His ear culture was positive for pseudomonas argenosia. It was resistant to every single antibiotic he was given. The vet was clearly p.oed I never got him, his second “acupuncture therapy” appointment and made sure she charged me the same amount for his ear culture and even taunted me it was cost a lot. Before that she tried to force me into a second acupuncture booking by saying ” I would hate to see him go down hill” and I was so angry and upset words couldn’t describe. Had this vet done the ear culture like I had asked her to so many times the year before, all I could think is… this never would have happened to my Milo. He never would have became so ill that he got e cuniculi or the severe symptoms. I just hope my poor bunny did not suffer… I feel terrible I did not “end his decline” as the vet later put it to me, as she was upset I told her off on many points, she stated I was not receptive to end his decline which was false. Instead she kept taking my appointments and refused to refer me to somewhere that may have done cultures/bloodwork and everything else he probably needed long ago.

        I did some research and it appears pseudomonas argenosia can even be a bacteria that causes Pasteurella. Which then caused his ear infection and deafness. He couldn’t hear me at all the last few months even though his other ear only seemed to have wax in it, not so much pus as the other which became more virulent near the end as well. The vet even had the gall to tell me that his ears were not infected after he had passed on. How are they not infected seriously, if just a week before that this same vet was telling me they wanted to put him under to flush out his ears, what good was that going to do at this stage in the game? I more or less told her I lost him due to their negligence and ignoring me a year earlier. I even stated they could have given me more fluids or a referral to which they stated it was my responsibility as well to ask for a referral and Cornell was “booked” up full so much that they referred a few of their exotics to this vet. I found that hard to believe when they had never done blood work on my bunny. He would have been 7 years old March 2022. He was about 6.5 when he passed. He could have had quite a few years left. He was a Holland lop and was a lone rabbit that just lived with me. Which is why I was even more confused as to how he developed all of these things.

        I feel guilty because of his water dishes and his litter box that I didn’t get to sometimes for a few days longer. For maybe not putting him down when I really thought he was trying so hard to survive and he really was until the last week, for being terrified I might have aspirated him. I was also horrified after he passed on to discover his hay satchel which I hung above his litter box I had made a makeshift hanger on his vet kennel as we were doing some room work ( we found mold on the outside of my room) his satchel had what appeared to be some fuzzy mold on the bottom which went unnoticed as it must have come into contact with his urine. I felt beyond horrible and have. I had been nursing Milo for probably well over a year between his poopy butt then these terrible illnesses. I think because his urine had not come out until I moved him after he had passed away there must have been some kidney involvement and since the vet told me to continue giving him the meloxicam until it was gone, maybe it had compromised his kidneys further which probably had damage from the e cuniculi as well as his nervous system/brain.

        What I don’t understand is how his rolling stopped/and he appeared to gain some movement back and then he just went completely downhill. I feel awful there was no where I could take him to get seen that final night, when I had found him when he passed on there was even more of the liquid puddle like big mushy poop and it smelt bad. The vet office just kept saying give him more hay. It was so hard to get him to eat enough. He probably was very imbalanced from not being able to eat cecals and the sugars made it worse. I had never had to give so many medications or do syringe feeding before. I don’t understand what that weird wheeze/groan sound was towards the last night or leading upto and if that meant he was in pain it saddens and horrifies me. I keep looking back and wondering what else I could have possibly done. At one point I even felt like I was probably starving my poor rabbit despite him getting the nutrients. I was more afraid after he passed though that he was still alive in there somewhere due to the fact that all of the sudden his pee came out when I moved him when I did not find him in his box where he passed on with any urine whatsoever and due to his eyes looking so clear, i also read if their gums were pale they could be in shock. But no matter how hard i tried to find it… I could not see him breathing. He never got cold.

        The next day I went onto the porch where i placed him in the cooler type bag to say my final goodbye before bringing him to the local vet office for his cremation, and he still was not stiff which I did not understand. What else made me so sad and scared was when I had put him in the cooler bag, the day he passed, his eye that had remained slightly opened seemed to shut when I put him in, that may have been because his body was a little curled though. He still looked the same the next day though.

        To me Milo was more than just my bunny, but my baby and he was there for me after I almost lost my life too to a horrible pancreatitis attack that was severe and necrotizing that caused pneumonia and a blood clot to my lungs. I was very lucky and Milo was there for me through some dark times. He had such a personality about him too. He slept under my desk near me all of the time would grunt and come up to me first thing in the morning it was hard to walk without him weaving between my legs. He loved his stuffed sheep and was married to it if you know what I mean. And he would even go up to my curtains and twirl them around. I read somewhere that a rabbit that sleeps next to you with their stomach exposed trusts you very much and that is what he did with me all of the time. Losing him has been very hard and came as such a shock when I thought for sure, just like all of the other times he would get better. The first few nights I swear it was me holding him in my arms and keeping him warm that saved him nearly then. He had knocked water over and I had to do everything i could to keep him warm and dry.

        I’m not sure what everyone else’s experiences are or have been with these awful diseases, I even messaged Cornell to ask what might have gone wrong, what exactly could have happened and its still hard for me to grasp. Why he had continued losing weight and peeing so much out before his decline despite every effort. I especially didn’t understand what happened with the side of his face where everything seemed to get affected. I did notice that near his ears/underneath it smelt like a beer smell which was very unusual. Despite me cleaning the area this smell did not dissapear. The only thing I did seem to notice is that.. the side of his mouth that the water/food seemed to come out of his cheek on this side seemed a little bigger than the other, but my mom was not certain of this when I showed her too. The vet disregarded me as usual. Unfortunately in my area good vets are hard to come by, but I did find another ( too late) that was near another area that even has dealt with zoo animals so who knows. When I was away my sister happened upon a rabbit someone was giving up due to relocating, that had already been through another owner. She is a large white/brown spotted rabbit and I’m taking everything I’ve learned her and ensuring this never happens again. The entire area has been cleaned with bleach before she arrived. I felt it was a little too soon but when I heard how she was basically just being given up my heart couldn’t let it happen, couldn’t bear to think that this rabbit could be rehomed again and again.

        So here’s to a new journey…. Rest in peace my Milo boy ( my bun buns and also snoogle floogins, snarfle flarfles, mun muns, funny bunny) he had many nick names, I will see you when we meet again. <3

        P.s. Has anyone experienced any weird occurrences after their bunny’s passed on? Before I left on my trip.. I went to sleep and I swear I felt warmth even though my whole bedroom was cold right next to me on the bed as well as underneath my bed where he used to sleep. My mother also swore she heard what sounded like him running towards my bedroom door as he used to try and do to escape to the other room ( we would close the door fast as we have two dogs out there) which occurred three days after he was cremated.

         


      • Wick & Fable
        Moderator
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          I’m so sorry to read about Milo’s passing– it is so clear how much you cared for and loved Milo and I cannot think of a bun being more supported on their way across the rainbow bridge.

          Writing such detail may have been really difficult, and Milo joins the many loved buns in the BB rainbow bridge– I think you intended photos to be attached. We are having some difficulties with our image attachment, so please feel free to try again in a reply to this topic. I’m sure many people would love to see whatever photos you’d like to share of Milo.

          I cannot speak to what was going on medically for Milo, but you were there each step of the way and no rabbit could ask for a better owner in that regard.

          Binky free Milo.

          The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.


        • Cassie119300
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          • Cassie119300
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              Thank you  for your kind words, Milo was my baby for sure. Writing in detail was with some difficulty but I think was also of some therapy for me, his passing came as a massive shock, I wasn’t sure what to hope for or expect I just tried to stay optimistic everyday and just hope. I have attached some images of Milo that are some of my favorites. Especially the one where he’s near my desk and you can see his little chin as he sleeps. He had such a character and personality about him, in his tunnel photo he had flopped over with his leg sticking out haha. That face was my favorite face I became so accustomed and used to knowing. It was only right and it was my duty I gave him the utmost care when he was ill and I refused to give up on him because he showed he wanted to fight it for weeks that’s what made it so much sadder for me. Unfortunately I was dealt with a vet that was after the money and that who liked to guilt trip people into believing there would be a different outcome with a different therapy, its very unfortunate, but I know most are not that way. It’s only been a month but I miss him every single day, I still find myself looking for him at times. The rescued rabbit has helped a lot with the loneliness and emptiness of my room, as strange as it sounds its nice to see little poops everywhere again, but it will all take time.

              When i first brought Milo to the vets when everything began I remember the song playing at the time on the radio was ” I’m going to love you like I’m going to lose you” and god did it rip at my heart, with every passing appointment I thought for sure they were going to tell me it’s time to put him down, but they did not. Later on after he passed for some reason the song landslide kept playing in my head too, and I thought of his little face, and would you know? that same song started playing when I was in the mall one day, needless to say I was bawling. It’s crazy the way things happen and turn out.


            • DanaNM
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                I’m so sorry for your loss, you really went through so much with Milo. 🙁

                Of course I have no way of knowing was exactly happened, but Milo was dealing with a couple very serious illnesses, and my overall suspicion is that his immune system was quite weakened (possibly by the snuffles at first, or maybe even genetic causes) and that led to a cascade of factors (such as the EC flair ups). I also know exactly what kind of rattle you describe, I heard it from my Moose when he passed, and I also was worried it was my fault from syringe feeding carelessly. But reading more about it I found that it is common when a rabbit starts to die. When a bun starts to “crash”, it can seem like something we can treat at first, and then everything just starts to shut down.

                Milo was definitely a fighter, and you did amazing with him. I’m happy to hear about the new rescued rabbit, it really does help with the loneliness, even though of course we can never replace the ones we lose.

                Funny coincidence, Milo has similar markings to my Myra. When she was found (in a parking lot) and brought to the rescue, they mis-sexxed her as a male and named her Milo! And then the next day she gave birth, so they obviously realized their mistake and changed her name to Myra.

                . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  


              • Cassie119300
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                  Thank you, I sure did 🙁  Yes unfortunately there was a lot going on and matters were made worse was the food and especially water that would roll out of his one side of his lip and end up all over his fur/below him. I’m still not sure what was going on but it seemed one cheek was slightly bigger than the other, he appeared to be able to eat pellets still ok when he started to get a bit better, spring greens, and even the critical care, but water was very hard and he could not drink out of a shallow bowl or water bottle, I tried various methods and the only one was the syringe that seemed to work. I think when he was on the tresaderm again but for two weeks it had lowered his immunity a great deal and the ear that was affected seemed to start clearing up and went back to a lot of discharge. I was giving him Echinacea afterwards as I knew his immunity could be weakened, he seemed to be ok, I stopped the echnacea for a little while thinking he was good and this is around when everything seemed to start happening. The period in his recovery when he started to improve and eat more things and be lifting his head up and gaining his balance back was when I started reintroducing the echnicea again, I had continued this… but despite every effort down he went, it was really sad though because his nystgmus, flared up eye, and rolling had all stopped. Even his nose began to get a bit better but his lungs, I really have no clue. It seemed the rattling inside of his lungs had stopped but when I heard that noise I thought it was because his nose had blocked up again, but it sounded very strange like from the lungs and like in a bit of discomfort mixed with a sigh. It just did not sound right, I had heard the lung sounds that sounded gurgly earlier on in his sickness but something about this seemed different and made me feel horrible. If this was that rattle… that means he may have held on even with that another extra day or two.

                  Wow, is your Myra a himalayan lop as well?  I actually had reached out to the pet store where my parents bought Milo for me 6.5 years ago to see if they had any idea who he descended from/ the breeder to see if he might have any relatives. I have not yet heard back but what are the odds? I thought it wouldn’t hurt to find out. So sad she was found in a parking lot I’m glad to hear she found a loving home though. That is quite a coincidence! I had never seen a bunny like him before though. When he was bought there was no others like him and he was sitting by himself. Of course I could never replace him, he was very special, he even used to like to smell my shoes! I use to love watching his flops too when he settled down for his naps. The best ones though were in the morning when I woke up and I could not walk without him weaving between my legs and grunting, he would settle down after he got some of his pellets then he would find his sheep stuffy and well… He was quite the character. He would only go to the sheep though whenever anyone came in to see him and or talk. He would also put his head upto my ankles whenever he wanted more pets, sleep near me wherever I went, and would love to drop his metal food dish into his water dish, he especially did this with his food dish one time when I brought him to the vet. I swear he looked right at me through the kennel and picked it up and kept dropping it. I got his message loud and clear. The over the vet I had been seeing at the time even remarked ” Is this bunny even real?” because he was so well behaved and let the vet get on with whatever he needed to do. He would also start going into my clean up piles when I would sweep up his knocked over hay/poops and get right onto it and start eating the hay. I guess he was telling me not to waste it, that’s what I always joked.

                  I remember when I would look down at Milo he would look at me, I didn’t even say anything and he would come running over. Before his hearing had gone, if I would say “salad” he would come literally running up and start looking everywhere for it like there was sugar on the floor. I even sang “salad claus” to him haha. A lot of fun memories with him. He actually had started to get used to car rides and would eat for me on them, I was greatful for that. For being unspayed as well I managed to get him litter trained, he would still poop around but he always peed in his litter box.


                • Cassie119300
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                    I found some more great pictures of Milo I am just not sure how to attach, I tried to attach them in a similiar fashion as I did previously but it said could not be attached to this post.


                  • DanaNM
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                      Myra is a California mix of some sort, so not a lop but she has the same coloration. 🙂

                      There have been some issues with adding images to posts since the site update. If you add them to your profile (as though you are going to change your profile pic) they should stay in your media library and then you can add them to a reply.

                      . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  


                    • LBJ10
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                        I know Milo had a lot going on. He was a fighter for sure, but sometimes the problems just keep piling up and it becomes too much for them. The food falling out of his mouth was probably the facial paralysis. I believe we talked about that in one of your threads. One side looked bigger than the other because of the paralysis.

                        Don’t beat yourself up too much. You did your best to take care of him. That’s all any of us can do. Sometimes bunnies just have a lot of problems and there isn’t much that can be done except for supportive care. Milo sounds like he was a sweet bunny. He was lucky to have an owner that cares so much.


                      • Cassie119300
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                          Oh cool! 🙂 Yeah I will have to try that, when I reply to here I press add media and try to upload them but keep running into the “Sorry, you are not allowed to attach files to this post.”  when I try the actual upload into the media manager. Thank you

                          He had a lot going on for sure and yes he put up a strong fight, I agree I think it was all just too much all at once. I find comfort in the fact that I was able to give him meloxicam before I put him down for bed and put his little blanket on his body ( not near the face or his butt) to keep him warm and prior was using hot water bottles to keep his cold ears warm.. I stroked his fur twice before I myself had gone to bed that night, so my feeling is he went in his sleep. Yes I think we did talk about that before, and I agreed 100% the vet on the other hand, wouldn’t listen sadly.  He was definitely a sweet bunny, and I did everything to be the best bunny mom I could, Milo filled my life and world with joy each and everyday, and still continues to. Thank you that means a lot


                        • Cassie119300
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                            I also wanted to mention, the vet had put Milo on two different antibiotics 1 being Doxycycline and the other being Baytril….. I wonder if Milo was also suffering with cecal dysbiosis or possibly even mega colon, near the end was producing smallish but in large quantity poops… with also these huge poops that I would find in the morning that were like mush but quite large for their size…. and the last night it was watery (as in soaked through in small puddles) on the puppy pad mush looking poops that were quite large that were coming out at a very fast rate hours before I put him to bed. I read somewhere that rabbits that cannot eat their own cecals will have malnutrition or eventually succumb to it. I’m not sure what could really be done in the case where he wasn’t able to form/make his own  let alone eat cecals, he drank from water dishes so… the only way I could give him fluids as well was via syringe. He was 3lbs 1 0z the day/night before he passed on. I gave him lots of critical care he began eating pellets, but kind of stopped eating hay. He would begin to eat it for me and let it sit in his mouth a lot like he was in a daze that last night, but had done this on and off before, I even with encouragement managed to get him to eat some of his salad the last night too and probiotic mixed in his water, but to no avail…. I was only told by the vet to correct the oversized mushy stool to increase fiber, but I’m pretty sure cecal dysbiosis or megacolon was at play here and he most likely was still going through some gi stasis as his poops were not back to normal yet. I also had given him meloxicam and metoclopramide the last night as well.

                            It’s crazy though, everywhere I have read that the most common treatments for otitis media/Pasteurella are baytril….. and yet this never worked for my Milo. It makes sense now in the case of his ear as the pseudomonas bacteria was resistant to baytril and only gentamicin and amikacin would have worked but the snuffles… even early on neither doxycycline or baytril seemed to help, then again he was only ever on either for a max of 2 weeks, i wonder if that caused the resistance.

                            I’m still having days where I just break down and cry, my mind still can’t put to concept… that he really is no more. Although I know he is here in my heart and spirit, I just think of how preventable it all really was from the beginning, and can’t help but think if his infection in his ear wouldn’t have been allowed to go on and the vet had listened and done the culture early on.. In June, I might still have him here. It’s heartbreaking and especially when you had a vet who basically shoved all the blame back and put it on you and never gave you any of the answers you asked. They even tried to tell me there was no infection on a culture that was actually done in October 2020, they mistakenly believed that is what I meant by ear one, when it was a nose swab before his ear condition even occurred. Damn Pasteurella probably consisted of two different strains.

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                        Forum RAINBOW BRIDGE Rest in Peace my bun buns Milo, I’m not sure what exactly took you