Blonde Team Go: Bun's Story

In August, I was finally clear headed enough to make Bun’s appointment for her spay and in early August, she went in for her procedure. Luckily, everything went as planned and the nurse said that Bun was so cute she shared the cilantro from her lunch with her. Bun came home and recovered like a champ. But on August 28^th, 2014, I noticed a spot of blood pooling in Bun’s right eye, like a blood vessel had broken. I took her to the vet and they didn’t seem concerned about it and said it would probably go away with time. On October 26^th, 2014 rolled around, Bun’s right eye was so cloudy and filled with blood that I’m not fully certain she could see so I took her to a different vet. This vet drew blood on Bun and she tested positive for E. cuniculi. [Parasite found in bunnies]. She gave Bun a month’s worth of medicine to take. Now, you’re probably wondering, how do you feed a rabbit medicine? At first, she was really good at taking it if we mixed it with a tiny bit of fruit flavored baby food. In her later years, we learned the burrito method where you wrap up the bunny in a towel and basically force the syringe into their mouth and slowly push the plunger.

After the month of medication, her eye didn’t look any better so we got a referral to an animal ophthalmologist in Seattle. Once every 2-3 weeks I would take her up there to have various eye tests done and bring home eye drops to administer at least twice a day. This went on until February 4^th, 2015. I got home from work and the first thing I did was take Bun out of her day cage to hop freely. I noticed she was standing still and her head was tilted ever so slightly. When she finally did hop, it seemed like her equilibrium was off because she kind of stumbled. Jeremy and I rushed her to the after-hours emergency vet in Tacoma where they gave us a small pharmacy of medications. They thought it could either be the E. cuniculi again, ear mites or a brain tumor. We opted not to have the scan done of her head as they would have had to sedate her and I was worried she wouldn’t wake back up. So I started giving her oral medications 3 times a day for about a week. Then she stopped eating and drinking. I read about this while doing my research and knew it could be life threatening for a bunny to go 1 day without food. I was able to get into the vet [ #2 if you’re keeping track at home] and they administered IV fluids and sent me home with critical care (which is basically ground up bunny food that you mix with water and syringe feed them, but it has all the nutrients they need). So me, 6 months pregnant, was syringe feeding my bunny medicine and food for about two weeks straight. Every other day for those two weeks, I took her to the vet for another round of subcutaneous fluids.

By March she was done with the medicine and eating again on her own. I was taking my dog in to the vet for his yearly shots when my vet asked how Bun was doing. I told her that she made a full recovery. It was then she told me that when I brought Bun in the last time, she didn’t expect her to make it through the week. She called her a “miracle bunny”. Bun’s eye never did get better, so she gave me a referral to an exotic vet up in Bothell. I took her in for an initial exam and they recommended the eye be removed. I had reservations about it because I was still scared something would happen under anesthesia, so we opted not to do surgery right away. Eventually, her eye started bulging out in a cone shape and was completely whited over. I started getting the impression she was in pain, so I scheduled the appointment for surgery. January 2016, Bun got her eye removed and after two days of rest, she was almost like a completely new bunny. She seemed happier and more energetic.