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August 04, 2008

1648: Bunny trouble.

Dewey is sick.

Update:
Thanks for everybody's concern and well-wishes for my little sidekick. Here's what happened...

Evidently he has some type of gastrointestinal stasis because he stopped eating or drinking last night (Monday, 8/4). Although he appeared to have eaten pellets during the day, when I arrived home and tried to feed him around 8 or 8:30 PM (his normal feeding time) he wasn't interested. Normally, the little guy never turns down food and we weren't able to tempt him into eating anything at all. I became increasingly alarmed when I discovered he wasn't using his litter box and had become lethargic but not totally unresponsive. He wasn't irritable when touched, but he wasn't quite his normal self. Around 10:30 or 11 at night he typically runs around the apartment like a maniac, but last night all he wanted to do was sit on his own and relax. After doing some research online, we decided the only thing to do was to observe him and take him to see a vet in the morning.

I woke up at 5 AM today (Tuesday, 8/5) because I was so distressed about it, and he hadn't moved, eaten, or used his litter box during the night. Normally, he's pretty excitable in the morning but today he was lethargic and couldn't be convinced to eat anything. I freaked out, naturally.

A rabbit's digestive system is a bit fragile. Something fairly minor can set it off, and the rabbit will react by halting its normal eating patterns -- that's where it becomes dangerous. After the vet confirmed it was some type of GI stasis, I tooled around online to find more and the first thing I encountered was "GI STASIS: THE SILENT KILLER" on the House Rabbit Society's site. My freaking out intensified, of course.

Right now Dewey is in the talented hands of the professionals at The Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine. Because he's yet to eat normally, they're keeping him overnight and will update us tomorrow on his condition. The vet indicated that we'd done the right thing and brought him in at the right time, and sounds optimistic about the situation.

Selfishly, perhaps, I'd hoped to be able to bring him home tonight when I left work. As many of you know, being at home is one of my greatest pleasures in life. Like Garbo, I vont to be alone pretty much all the time. For probably the first time in my life, I actually didn't want to come home tonight -- coming home to a rabbit-less apartment was utterly heartbreaking. I'd give up anything I own, even body parts, to have Dewey around.

Pete has been a massive help (as always) in all of this, and I can't thank him enough for everything he's done -- everything from following up with the vet to telling me to stop laying on the floor and bawling like a baby.

As it were, I'm also thankful to be so busy with work -- things have been so hectic that however tearful I'd been on the subway ride to work, I didn't have a moment to be sad during the day. Of course, I soon as I stepped into the elevator to leave tonight, I could feel the distress returning. And walking into an apartment without Dewey hanging out as he's done every day for almost three years now... that sucked. I keep forgetting he's not here, and catch myself looking for him in all of his usual spots. He's not on the bookshelf, he's not under the chair, and he's not peeking in the bedroom door when I change clothes. (Bad bunny!)

Nope, he's recuperating at the vet's office right now. I wish the night nurse staying with the sick animals overnight knew that Dewey likes to be sung to...

Posted by ashley at August 4, 2008 09:18 PM

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