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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.
- This topic has 6sd replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 11 months ago by
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I am sadden to share that my beautiful boy Harvey passed away suddenly on 1st January 2016 aged 6 years and 2 months (24/10/09-1/1/16). While Harvey had been sick on and off for the past 2 years, I am still absolutely shocked that he has passed away as I personally did not feel he was that sick. I apologise in advance for the length but I would like to share Harvey’s story for two reasons; typing this has helped me a lot with my grief and Harvey’s story may help others.
Harvey was always a very shy rabbit and depended on his sister Totoro. When Totoro passed away in May 2013, Harvey changed and was never exactly the same after that. However he did come more out of his shell by relying more on the other 2 does in his group Zebra Lulu and Crinkle. He formed a very strong partnership with Zebra Lulu and they did everything together.
We moved house in October 2013 and Harvey first started sneezing in December 2013/January 2014. At this time he had no discharge but I knew the sneezing wasn’t normal and took Harvey to the vet. Harvey was on Baytril for a while and the sneezing disappeared.
The sneezing reappeared but this time with clear discharge. He was put on Baytril and again the sneezing disappeared for a while. He then had an ear infection in one ear and a short course of Baytril cleared this up. With the sneezing returning with a white discharge, Harvey had x rays of his teeth and lungs and his sinuses were drained through his tear ducts. The xrays of his lungs were clear but the vet was a bit concerned that the outline of one of Harvey’s teeth wasn’t as clear as it should be but wanted to seek advice from other vets. He sent the xrays to one or two vets overseas and they also said that the outline wasn’t as clear as it should be but most likely wasn’t the cause of the sneezing.
After sneezing multiple times in a row, Harvey then started gagging/dry-retching and I absolutely knew this was not normal as rabbits cannot vomit. Harvey was then referred to another vet who ordered a blood test and a culture of Harvey’s nasal discharge. The blood results came back normal and the vet said that Harvey was a healthy rabbit. The culture test showed no bacteria. The vet suggested that even though it is rare in rabbits, Harvey could possibly have allergies. Harvey was prescribed Chlorpheniramine (an antihistamine).
After the two weeks Harvey sneezing seemed better but as he was still sneezing at all the vet said it most likely wasn’t allergies. As Harvey was still acting normal and all results showed he was healthy, the vet said the next resort would be a CT scan to see if Harvey had facial abscesses. If he did have facial abscesses the surgery would be invasive and I said that I didn’t want to put Harvey through that and also decided not to put Harvey under more stress with the CT scan as my focus was his quality of life. Instead the vet said we would try syringing Maropitant (a dog travel sickness medication) into his nose as a nasal rinse but we could only do it for 5 days in row. This definitely seemed to help as Harvey stopped sneezing and gagging for a while.
When he started sneezing again, I was really focused on finding a “trigger”. Was it the soil he liked to dig in? Was it hay? etc. I did start noticing that Harvey would often have a sneezing fit and gag while eating so I thought maybe it was that tooth after all. Even though the vet again suggested a CT scan, I still didn’t go ahead. Looking back I truly regret this decision.
Slightly less than one month later on the evening of 31/12/15, Harvey was not interested in eating his pellets and I was concerned. He would also not even eat his favourite food banana. As one of his ears felt slightly cool, I took his temperature and it was slightly low. Even though he was not interested in his food, he was still running around the house, did not seem lethargic, he was also pooing and he ate a big breakfast that morning so I personally felt that it wasn’t GI stasis but I was still concerned. I am saddened to admit that I still went out that night only to receive a call from my dad at 8:50am on New Year’s Day saying that Harvey had passed away. My dad said that he last checked on Harvey at about 1am that morning and at that time he was struggling to sit up.
When I saw Harvey after he passed, he looked very peaceful and was lying on his side and there were no visible signs of what lead to this. I do take some comfort that Harvey looked peaceful but I feel terrible that I did not help him more. Why did I not go ahead with the CT scan? I will never know what caused Harvey’s sneezing and his passing and I will always feel guilty for this. Even now I am constantly trying to work out what happened but I am trying to counteract these thoughts by focusing on so many great memories I shared with Harvey.
Harvey enjoyed food but his most favourite thing in the world was taking care of his girls. He always groomed them, separated and told them off if they were having a disagreement and he even made sure they had enough food as most of the time he would only eat when they were close to finishing. I always felt that Harvey was the submissive rabbit in his group but secretly I think he was the boss and he let the girls think they were the boss.
He was very OCD. After I cleaned their hutch, Harvey would always be there in a flash moving everything around until it was perfect. He would even gather the shredded paper in his mouth like he was building a nest when he moved his bedding. I was told this wasn’t “normal” and that boys shouldn’t build nests. He was also very OCD about his morning routine. When I opened the door to their hutch he would always be the last to run down the ramp for breakfast. Forget about eating, he had to go to the toilet. I would always try and pat him as he ran passed to go to his litter tray but he was only interested in doing his business. He also loved his privacy during this time and did not like me looking at him when he was using his litter tray.
He loved being inside and outside; he loved running around the house exploring and loved digging extremely long burrows. He also had the nickname ‘Spider Harvey’ as he loved climbing the lid of his first ever hutch.
I used to hide some of their food in tissue boxes and one day Harvey got his head stuck. He didn’t let the tissue box stuck on his head get in the way, he still wanted to explore and walked backwards down the ramp. I quickly took a photo, removed the tissue box from his head and learnt to cut the holes even bigger.
Harvey was such a gentle rabbit and loved laying on his back in my arms. People always thought he was a toy but he just felt so comfortable and relaxed. When I rubbed his chest he would put his two front paws together like his was praying, like he was even ready to swing a golf club or even look like he was making the “no deal” sign. Over the past year, Harvey would sometimes pretend to be asleep when I approached him so that I wouldn’t pat him. I would still pat him and sure enough when I stopped patting him he would straight away sit up and groom himself to remove my scent. While this hurt my feelings I would not change any of Harvey’s behaviour. I absolutely loved him for it and it made him Harvey.
The house is so quite without him. I miss him thumping to let us know there was “danger” (a possum on the roof or even just someone getting home late). I even miss the sound of him sneezing.
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I am absolutely so sorry for your loss.
I think it really hits hard because he sounds like my Moxie. Moxie is 2 years 5 months old, and sneezes a lot with the dry retching/cough you described. We brought her to the vet multiple times, she was on baytril for 8 weeks, got a tracheal wash/cytology, wormed, teeth checked ect. and the only thing they can find on her is there is an inflammation on her nasal passages which is caused by either worms or allergies, and since she had been wormed it was definitely allergies. Other than that they say she’s healthy. But everytime I get back from the vets Moxie doesn’t do well and normally goes through a round of GI stasis, so for now I’ve decided to give up on testing her. I thought I was the only one who’s ever gone through this with her.
But I just wanted to let you know how deeply sorry I am for your loss. {{{Hugs}}}
{{{{{Binky Free Harvey}}}}}
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