What is the age of your oldest bun?

[njbunny]

Please share with me the age of your oldest bunnies. I keep seeing 7-10yrs is the lifespan but I know some get into their teens. I ask because my bun has a skin tumor and I am weighing all the options. I worry about putting him under to remove it for biopsy as he is already 7-9yrs old. We don’t know for sure as he was a rescue. I am really scared I will lose him while he is under.

[happymoon]

I’m sorry about your pain. I hope you can come to an option that works for you.

My first rabbit lived until he was 8; possibly a year or so more. I’m not certain I had to give him away.

[Boymom4]

I am sorry you are dealing with these hard choices.
I’ve had many House bunnies over the years. Mine have been:
Thumper, age 2 (pneumonia)
Zach, age 4 (no apparent reason)
Oliver, age 1 (accident )
Willy, age 12
Trouble, age 11
As you can see there are a wide variety of ages and reasons/or not. I think the questions I would be asking myself are about the bunny’s current health. Is his health already low so that the added trauma of surgery will for sure knock him down even further or does he seem pretty healthy in general, aside from the tumors? Would the short term pain of surgery and possible losing of him from it be less traumatic for both of you than watching him fade over a longer period of time?
How big is the tumor? Would the incision be larger than a spray or neutere site?
If you do nothing, will you live with regret for not trying? If you do something and it goes poorly, can you have peace knowing that you tried? They seem like the same question but the answer in your heart may be your answer.
I’ve never dealt with this particular issue with a rabbit before but I did with a dog. His tumor grew so huge is such a short period of time we were certain he was failing rapidly. Even though he was old we opted to have it removed. His recovery was slow but in the end it added four more years to his life. It worked well for us but looking back (even without knowing the outcome) I know that I would have regretted not trying.
This is a very hard and personal decision for you. I pray you can have peace in whatever you decide, and know that no matter what you decide, it’s ok.
Just remember that no matter how long your bunny has lived or will live, it’s quality of life has been so much better because he was loved so much by you! <3

[tobyluv]

One of my past bunnies lived to be 12 years old. I have known other people with rabbits that old or older.

Before any senior rabbit is considered for surgery/anesthesia, it’s always advised that the vet performs blood tests first, to check for liver function or to see any other problems that may cause complications during surgery.

[Mikey]

Definitely do blood tests like Tobyluv mentioned. You can ask your vet for a full test done, although it might cost a lot (I needed a full blood test done on my Bombur and it costed well over 100$ for the test alone). A simple blood test and a fully blood test will both be able to tell you current complications with organs and how likely complications will be presented during/after surgery. A full blood test just goes a little more in depth about everything (example, a regular blood test didnt tell us why my Bombur’s liver and white blood cell count were so high, but the full test was able to give us a clearer answer so we could start proper treatment).

[Miranda]

Hello!  I recently found this forum and am mostly a lurker however I made an account to reply to your post because we are in a fairly similar situation.  Our BunBun is now 11 years old and he also has a skin tumour.  His tumour is on his foot (where a sore hock would develop- we thought at first it was just a sore hock but was not responding to treatment and began to get larger).  The tumour has been growing rapidly in size over the last 3 months or so- it sticks out the back of his foot now.  I estimate we have another month or two with him before it becomes a serious mobility issue or the pain medication we are giving him will not be enough to manage his pain.

At our last vet appointment, the vet discussed ‘debulking’ the tumour with surgery, however because of the location of his tumour, they would not be able to remove it all and it would probably just grow back.  I did not want to put him through a major surgery (and was also concerned with the risk of anesthetic and having him pass away during the procedure) and through weeks of recovery to extend his life a few weeks or months only to have the tumour regrow and cause him issues.  Where is the tumour located on your rabbit?  Are they able to remove the entire thing?  If they would have been confident this was the case in our rabbit, we would have considered the surgery for our BunBun because despite his age he is still pretty active.  However in the end we decided against the surgery because we felt the surgery was too risky for what we would get out of it (and the vet was in agreement with us).  

I know what you are feeling, and do not really have any advice but I wanted to let you know you are not alone during this difficult time. It is hard to say how long they will live, especially if you are unsure of how old your rabbit actually is.  I agree with the other posters that you need to look at his overall health when making your choice and also what the vet says about the chance of a full recovery if you did do the surgery.

Wishing you all the best.

[njbunny]

Thanks everyone. The lump is on his side and is under a inch long at this point. The good thing is it is not really attached, appears to be just in the skin. Overall he is a healthy bunny. He had one vet appointment years ago for a weepy eye. Every so often he still will get a wet eye but the doctor said he looks great. He is a SUPER mellow bunny, has never binkied and just likes to follow us around so we will pet him. He actually is a therapy rabbit and visits the kids in the pediatric unit at the children’s hospital (among other facilities). The vet I saw on Tuesday was excellent. He went through everything with me and really laid out the options, risks and such. He is a cornell grad and seems to know a lot about bunnies. He said the surgery would be very quick but he still has concerns because it is risky and we believe my boy is old. I got him from a shelter and at the time the vet believed him to be 4-5yrs old. I have had him 4 years so he is at least 8-9 years old. Could be more….

I have been thinking it through and for now I have measured the lump and will watch to see if and how fast it is growing. I am checking it every day as well as watching for more lumps. If it does not grow I will most likely leave it be. He is happy and acting normal and can still continue with therapy visits. If it is growing however, then I need to make a decision.

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