Survive or Thrive?

[Fluffykins]

I was just replying to another thread and didn’t want to take it over with talk of my fluffykins but really wanted to get this off my chest!

This past week, fluffykins has suffered a poor reaction to his routine vaccs. He has been incredibly sleepy, eating and drinking albiet very very slowly but it never fully stopped. He also popped but less regularly (due to eating slower) and they were up and down in size. Anyway, if you only looked for the vital signs, eating, drinking, coming up for treats (which he never refused) you could conclude he was ok. He was surviving.

But is surviving enough? The thing that got to my whole family was the fact he wasn’t playing. This normally playful rabbit that would drive me mad as well as put the biggest smile on my face, just got up to eat and drink then sat back down to rest.

He was surviving but was he thriving?!

I gave him all the different types of hay I have: Timothy, meadow, alfalfa, oat and dried grass. I gave him liberal portions of dried herbs and flowers all over his hay (and around his play pen) to get him foreging and moving. I hung up fresh herbs over the play pen to get him to stand to eat. I gave him treats of dried strawberries in his hay to get him interested in that. Thankfully I had recently gone on a bunny toy binge (yet again) so everyday I could give him something new to play with. I didn’t care that he wasn’t really interested, I just cared that he cared for a second, long enough to take one sniff of it. That was good for me at that point.

I let him out to play in the rooms I normally don’t. Lots of treats. He mustured enough energy to do a few hops of a new room, curiously sniffing everything. When it was time to go back home for him – he didn’t want to which was a great sign!

I even went and brought some seed hanging toys / treats to get him to nibble that and move around for it. (Worked great)!

My point to this thread is, whenever I read up on bunny illnesses the focus is always on the signs of surviving. I don’t see much written in the way of thriving. I feel like the mental stimulation we provided to fluffykins was *integral* in giving him just enough energy to want to get up and take that slow mouthful of food. Each meal might have taken 12 hours when it took just 2 when he was well, but I feel like that constant mental stimulation was a key factor in him getting it inside him at all. 12 hours or not.

I sincerely belive if we had left him to it, be wouldn’t have eaten and forget surviving the whole week, he might have been in GI status after the first day.

Mental stimulation is so much more important then we realise

I feel this is the right time for this post as I sit here outside his play pen and watch him zooming around inside it, binkying high into the air and intermetittenty running up to me for love. He might come and try to chew through the metal bars to get to me – which I used to reprimand him for before, now I can only smile! I have the biggest most sincere smile on my face, watching him do this right now.

Edit: I should clarify the foreging and hanging up of the fresh herbs etc were all after we had had an hour or more of proper feeding. That is, letting him eat from the bowl then bugging him with whatever food it was under his nose until he would get annoyed and grab it – and eat it! Mental stimulation can only work if the tummy is nicely full

Plus you must be aware of and understand the extremely important need for a sick rabbit (or sick anyone) to get enough rest to recuperate. Mental stimulation cannot happen at the cost of thjs.

[jerseygirl]

It’s really good to read Fluffykins came through this okay. SUCH a worry when a rabbit has myxo like symptoms!

When reading what you wrote here, I thought it would make a good topic for a House Rabbit Society article. Have you ever thought to write for them?

The deadline for the current journal period has lapsed but there’ll be more. http://rabbit.org/hrjsubmissions/

[Fluffykins]

Wow thank you for informing me of that, sounds especially interesting!

[12345ABCDE]

I think this is why it’s so important to really know your rabbit so that you can spot any behavioural changes. When Buttercup had her last episode of stasis (back in May) she had pooped and eaten albeit the poop was tiny. But in terms of vital signs, she was still pooping and eating a little but I just knew something was off. I couldn’t pin point it exactly but she wasn’t acting herself. I felt a little silly when the vet was asking about her vitals and I was like “well actually she pooped and ate a couple of hours ago…” So although she was surviving, she certainly wasn’t acting her normal self. 

I totally understand your point, it’s so important that we are able to identify what is normal behaviour and what isn’t. Especially because if we can act quickly before troubles with their vitals begin, recovery is far easier and quicker.

So glad Fluffykins is doing okay now 

[Fluffykins]

Thank you! I’ve been thinking about getting everything back to normal routine very soon, so easing off treats and not letting him get away with so much!

He’s regressed on the litter training and back to his usual self, biting on the bars whenever I walk past or sit outside the play area; however so far I can’t bring myself to do the exasperated “fluff!!!” Haha. I also want to start up clicker training again.. we both enjoyed that. To be honest I’m so nervous of stressing him out even the slightest (typical mum complex right) because I don’t want him to fall sick again! I need to be sure he’s completely fully totally back to 110%

So right about knowing your bun, I wish everyone had that bond with their bun, where you just developed that sixth sense when one of your kiddies was unwell. You must be doing a great job

[Author]

Messages