BunnyBlog

Brinco scares us again

It's been almost a year since Brinco got sick, and even after the last post on his condition, we tried some more treatments. The acupuncture never worked out because the acupuncturist never got back to me, but Brinco got to try some more drugs, all of which he loved. I would think that Brinco is a total druggie, except that his true addiction is to craisins. And since the drugs all come with a craisin coating, as soon as I enter the room to medicate him, he starts acting like a junkie in need of a fix. I'm not complaining -- at least he takes his meds. Some rabbits are not so accommodating.

Throughout this entire ordeal, Brinco was able to maintain his weight, something that is apparently not too common with these types of chronic GI problems. Suddenly, on March 31st, I noticed that Brinco's back felt rather bony to me. He doesn't usually let me touch his back -- not like that total petting whore Cinnamon -- so I didn't notice any possible weight loss. I had noticed that he looked kind of bloated a few days before that, but didn't think anything of it. Of course, hindsight is 20/20, but it's still been tough for me not to beat myself up over being completely blind to his weight loss.

It turned out that I wasn't just being paranoid. We purchased a food scale (don't worry, we haven't cooked the bunnies) and found out that Brinco had gone from his usual weight -- between 5.2-5.5 pounds -- to 4.4 pounds. That's a lot of weight for a little bunny. Not only did he look completely emaciated, now that I really looked at him, but he had been acting kind of lethargic. Even more alarming, his butt had all but stopped twitching whenever he ate something yummy. And as anyone who's met Brinco knows, he's the master of butt-twitching when he eats something he likes.

We drove in blizzard conditions to get Brinco to the vet, not that it really mattered because nothing could be done for him. He was eating normally and our vet found nothing wrong after doing an exam. Brinco was just showing the inevitable decline of most rabbits in his condition. This was devastating news for us, not least because it was so uncertain. Had he just stopped absorbing nutrients from his food? Why all of a sudden after he'd held onto his weight for so long? How much longer would he last? The thought of watching Brinco waste away in front of me made me cry every time I thought about it.

The one solution we had left was to put him on some type of supplement. After consulting with Joanna, the very knowledgeable president of MCRS, we started Brinco on Nutrical and Rabbit Enhancer. After just a week, he had already gained a little bit of weight back. This was great news! Almost two months later, Brinco has topped out at about 2.38-2.4 kg (~5.2 pounds), and has regained his butt-twitching ability. He's also started binkying and head flapping again.

Brinco's future is still uncertain -- there's no way to say how long he'll be able to maintain his weight on the supplements, and he still has his GI issues. But I'm a lot more hopeful, and I'm glad that he's made such a great improvement!

In other news, I got a new camera this week, which has inspired me to take more bunny pictures. Like I mentioned before, the disgusting state of the carpet makes me kind of embarrassed to post photos of the bunnies. Hopefully the blurred out background will help. (Yes, I could fix it in Photoshop, but I'm lazy.)

Here's a few of Mr. Brinco:
Taking his Metcam
Taking his Benebac
Just looking cute

posted by Jeanne @ 6:11 PM