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 MetcamTaking his BenebacJust looking cute
I'll Protect You, Cinnamon!
Brinco has this really weird protective streak when it comes to Cinnamon. This in itself may not sound strange, but in true Brinco fashion, it is. See, he doesn't actually protect her when she needs protecting. Of course, the bunnies are never in situations that are
actually dangerous, but situations that they might consider dangerous would be getting picked up or having their cage vacuumed. At these times, Brinco is more than happy to let Cinnamon fend for herself against the evil vacuum or the evil rabbit
owner slave.
But sometimes Cinnamon is confronted with a situation that Brinco deems very horrible and terrifying, and this is when he leaps to her rescue. One example would be when she's getting petted. Once in a while, Brinco will see this and hop over so he can push my hand away with his mouth. He doesn't bite or nip -- just pushes. And it's not a jealousy thing either, because he doesn't want to be petted at these times. No, he just wants to make sure that Cinnamon isn't getting horribly maimed by that scary hand. Never mind that she's squashed down into her happy position and clicking her teeth. Naturally, I just ignore him because he's a doofus.
There was one other time that Brinco became randomly protective of Cinnamon, and it had to do with the camera. One day I stuck the flash on my camera and took a bunch of pictures of the two bunnies, some of which I posted on here. Neither of them even seemed to notice, let alone get freaked out by the flashing and clicking black thing.
However, the next day I went into the bunny room to take more photos, and Brinco suddenly got spooked, running into the cage and hiding. Since Cinnamon was sprawled out on the air conditioning vent, I proceeded to take pictures of her. Cue her knight in spotted armor Brinco hopping in to save the day. Although Cinnamon continued to lie on the vent, completely unstressed, Brinco took it upon himself to run back and forth between Cinnamon and the camera.
The first time he did this, I was not expecting it and ended up with
this fine photo. That big gray blur on the right side is, naturally, Brinco's ears. Although from a technical standpoint, his neurotic behavior totally ruined the shot, it's still one of my favorite photos.
Another update on Brinco...
As I said in the last post, Brinco has been sick since June. Well, nothing has changed, which is both bad and good. He still has the same problem, which royally sucks, but he's happy and he's retaining his weight, which are both good signs. Our carpet is totally trashed, but we can't really replace it until he gets better, because it would just get messed up again. Poor Brinco.
And it's tough to take pictures of the bunnies when the carpet looks so godawful. So here are a couple of older pictures:
The Lop Queen is looking at you.And here's the poop king. Look at how clean that carpet is! *sigh*
Now that we've exhausted every possible test on Brinco, we're looking into doing some alternative treatments with him, such as acupuncture. Hopefully I'll have some good news soon!
*sigh*
So Brinco is sick again, which is one of the reasons I haven't updated in a while. He's actually been sick for almost two months now, and before that, Cinnamon had an ear infection. There was a period of time where these two issues overlapped and we were doing double rabbit medication duty which is not very fun.
We're not quite sure what Brinco has. It started out with a week of really bad GI stasis, and then became what I can best describe as Irritable Bowel Syndrome for bunnies (IBBS? BIBS?). Without getting too graphic, let's just say that our carpet looks like an earth-toned watercolor painting. The symptoms are bizarre enough that even our awesome vet is stumped. The good news is that he's eating and all the bloodwork, X-rays, and other tests are coming out normal. So it looks like it's probably not anything fatal. The bad news is the aforementioned carpet thing and the fact that Brinco just isn't quite his normal, happy, silly self.
Oh, he's doing the occasional head flap and binky, and some days he won't leave Cinnamon alone, but I haven't seen him do the Bunny 500 for the last couple of months, and when he eats his pellets, I can hear his stomach gurgling from across the room.
Needless to say, it has not been the greatest or least stressful summer.
Right now, Brinco is off everything except a daily dose of Benebac, and we're also removing certain veggies from his diet to see if he might have possibly developed a food sensitivity. He's been off the red lettuce for a few days now, but as his symptoms aren't extremely consistent in their...severity, it's difficult to tell whether it's helping at all. We need to give it at least a week.
And it looks like Cinnamon is prone to ear infections, so we have to give her drops once a week indefinitely. This is not a big deal, as she -- unlike Mr. Drama King Brinco -- is good about getting ear drops.
Just so this post isn't 100% depressing, I bring pictures!
The first is of our current fosters Buster and Betsy during a snuggle session. Buster, the lop on top, has been on a diet and is no longer as...substantial as he looks in this image. Betsy, the bottom lop, is very relieved.
"Move, Buster, I can't breathe!"Now we have some snuggly images of Cinnamon and Brinco.
"I love my lop."The SqueezeEar on backThese guys are disgusting in their snuggly cuteness. Cinnamon is the master of The Squeeze -- illustrated in the second image. She is determined to squeeze between Brinco and whatever he's leaning against -- even if there's plenty of room on the other side! Sometimes she manages to successfully fit her lop bulk into the space. Other times, like in the aforementioned image, she's not quite as lucky.
Oh, and I have an actual video to post! It's ~5MB, in .mp4 format (so it should play in Quicktime or iTunes). And it stars Cinnamon the spicy, playful lop attacking her fleece blanket! Just ignore my stupid commentary -- it's better for everyone that way. Download it
here.
Last but not least, I've been trying my hand at the art of photo painting. Here's the preview of my first attempt:
The bigger (and better) version of the actual image is
here.
Enjoy -- and please send Brinco your good thoughts!
Fight or Flight
As promised, the tale of bunny capture. It's been so long since my last post, I don't remember the specifics of that particular rabbit wrangling. Seeing as how they always follow the same basic pattern, however, I can still share with you the basic details.
A little background information -- as you might remember, Cinnamon and Brinco have a multi-level NIC cage. Each level has a door for easy access -- unfortunately, the second shelf door is against the wall. The cage can be rolled away from the wall to access the door in an emergency, but most of the time, I'd rather not futz with that because the rabbits would find some way to make my efforts unnecessary.
Naturally, the bunnies -- particularly Cinnamon -- have learned that the back corner of the second shelf is not as easily accessible as the rest of the cage, so that's where they go to hide from the big mean monster (me). Never mind that I can just as easily get Cinnamon to move off the shelf by poking her butt through the cage bars. Still, I'd rather not have to chase them around the cage, opening every door in the process -- and it's a given that I
will have to open every door. So the first step in bunny catching is to close the cage when the bunnies are out in the room.
The bunnies know what this means now too, and the closing of the cage door signals panic followed by an immediate dash to the cottage. Which I pick up every single time -- for some reason, they never remember this.
Anyway, this is where the difference in behavior comes in. Brinco tries to elude capture for as long as it takes. He will run until the bitter end, searching for every possible hiding place, no matter how many times I chase him out. Cinnamon...well, she has a unique approach to the situation. As soon as she realizes that I mean business, she just gives up. She hunkers down to the floor -- or under the litterbox rim -- becoming as round and flat as possible. I would describe her shape as a partially deflated basketball. It's especially amusing when she gets a couple of quick digs in before hunkering down in the litterbox -- like she's making a last ditch attempt at creating a quick getaway burrow.
If you look at this in terms of wild rabbits trying to avoid predators, it's obvious that Brinco fits the image quite well. He would lead the predator on a merry chase before getting eaten or escaping to his burrow.
On the other hand, I'm not quite sure where Cinnamon would fit in. Is there some sort of "Crap, I'm screwed, I might as well not waste my energy" instinct that I don't know about? Or can rabbits actually avoid being eaten by becoming flat and round? I'm admittedly not an expert on wild rabbit behavior. It's possible that this has nothing to do with primal instincts, and that Cinnamon has invented her own neurotic behaviors. Knowing Cinnamon, this would not surprise me.
Speaking of neurotic behavior, next time, I'll write about the saga of the soft pink bed, and how this relates to more rabbity weirdness I just don't understand.
Rabbit Routines
Cinnamon and Brinco have a daily routine. This routine has changed somewhat over the years, and even varies daily depending on what time one of us gets up in the morning to feed them. The overall routine goes something like this:
~7-9AM : see John come into the room, chew frantically on the cage door (Brinco), burst out of the cage doing binky runs (Brinco) or being a lop rocket (Cinnamon), freak out over the prospect of getting pellets, stick head in bowl before pellets get there, eat pellets
Until 1PM : alternate between eating, activities (playing, chewing on things, binky running, grooming), and resting
1-8PM : sleepy time
8-10PM : see "Until 1PM" section above, with additional begging and lobbying for veggies
10PM : eat veggies in the cage
10PM-1AM : depending on whether or not Jeanne remembers to open the cage door after veggies are eaten, either: a) lie around inside the cage like lazy lumps, or: b) lie around outside the cage like lazy lumps, with periodic bursts of activity and silliness
1AM : bedtime and craisins!!!!!!
The long period of sleepy time in the afternoon and evening has lengthened over the years -- it used to go from about noon to 4PM. I'm fairly sure I haven't done anything to contribute to this excessive laziness -- they have plenty of opportunities to exercise and play. It's just one of those bunny mysteries.
Within the sleepy time, there are subroutines. These go in phases. My favorite one is where Cinnamon will start out sleeping in the cage while Brinco plants himself in the cottage. Around 4PM or so, Cinnamon will wake up, exit the cage, kick Brinco out of the cottage, and then use the cottage herself for the rest of sleepy time. Brinco, after being rudely ousted from his cottage, will relocate himself to behind the cottage for the rest of sleepy time, looking just a bit wretched.
The Cottage Thief routine will last quite a few days, and then they'll switch to something else. Currently, they have a less structured sleepy time routine, where they both stick close to the cottage. Sometimes they'll both be behind it, sometimes both in it, or one behind and one in the cottage. There is no discernible pattern. When one or both of the bunnies lay behind the cottage, however, they often use the weights as a pillow. (The weights are there to keep them from digging the carpet along the wall.)
Here are three shots taken during sleepy time to illustrate the weight-as-pillow phenomenon. Brinco is doing it here, but Cinnamon is just as likely to engage in this strange behavior (she also does this while laying over on the vent in the summer). I'd like to also point out the lop pudge and paws sneaking out underneath the cottage, which has somehow ended up propped on the corner of the phone book. Don't ask me, I'm just the photographer.
Lazy Rabbits 1Lazy Rabbits 2You guessed it -- Lazy Rabbits 3With all that said, the rabbits have a special sleepy time routine that they do whenever I mess with them. "Messing with them" means either taking them to the vet or, like yesterday, sticking them in their carrier so that I can clean their cage without "help." When I put them back in their room after one of these horribly traumatic sessions, they will spend the entire sleepy time in the cage. On the second and/or third shelves. I assume they feel safe from their mean and evil owner/slave there, in spite of knowing full well that there is a door on every level of the cage and I can scoop them right out of there if I so choose.
I am going to put a reminder note here to tell about yesterday's capture and release for the aforementioned cage cleaning. A.K.A: How to Get on a Bunny's Shit List. Stay tuned!
Bunny Drama
After over two years of no bunny health issues whatsoever (unless you count Brinco's...unfortunate wound and his minor eye infection), we had a sudden explosion of bunny sickness in our house this fall. Not only our bunnies, but the fosters as well. And all of them were unrelated and within a month of each other. It was spooky. I think we must have built our house over an ancient bunny burial ground or something.
The first issue happened with Paris, one of a trio of foster bunnies at our house. Her inappropriate peeing was so incessant that we had to move the foster area into the bathroom with the tile floor. The light-colored tile allowed us to see that Paris had blood in her pee, and it turned out she had a massive bladder stone the size of her bladder.
Right after she got that removed (a week later), another member of the trio, Sandy, came down with a severe case of head tilt. We ended up taking the trio to the medical foster home, and it turns out that was the right decision, since Sandy's recovery took a lot more expertise than I currently have. His inner ear infection is finally cleared up, but poor Sandy has a 90-degree head tilt. His foster owners are currently working on straightening him out with different kinds of therapy. We're hoping he can make a full recovery.
Within a week or so of that incident, I noticed that Brinco had a horribly inflamed ear. When I took him and Cinnamon into the vet, it turned out that both of them had ear infections -- Brinco in one ear and Cinnamon in both ears. However, Cinnamon's ears were less infected, even though she is a lop. This is not very common, apparently.
They were given topical antibiotics, and after they finished those, they went in for another checkup and got a clean bill of health. However, Cinnamon was snortier than usual and Brinco had started peeing outside the litterbox. I took them to another vet for a second opinion, and it turns out that Cinnamon still had an ear infection that had spread to her respiratory system (since she hadn't been given any oral antibiotics). Brinco, while infection-free, still had some nasty looking inflammation in his ear, which was probably why he was acting out of sorts.
So Cinnamon got oral antibiotics and Brinco got some pain meds. When those were finished, it was time for another follow-up. Now Cinnamon was totally cleared up, but Brinco had ear mites. The vet hypothesized that ear mites may have been the root cause from the beginning. Luckily, ear mites only require a couple of shots, given two weeks apart.
Nearly two weeks after Brinco (and Cinnamon, for good measure) got the shots, Brinco stopped eating almost completely. And any bunny owner knows that that's not a good sign. He stopped eating Monday night and he was due for his next shot on Wednesday morning, so I just watched to make sure he ate at least a little bit for the next day and a half.
Wednesday was my birthday, December 20th, and this was two months after I first noticed that Brinco's ear looked bad. The vet thought that Brinco's GI stasis was a reaction to the pain of the ear mites, since the first shot hadn't quite done the job. While at the vet's office, Brinco got the whole treatment -- huge syringe full of subcutaneous fluids, several syringe feedings of Critical Care, shots of Reglan and the ear mite stuff, and some pain meds. We had to cancel our out of town Christmas plans to stay home with our sick bunny.
The good news is that Brinco did really well on his treatment. We had to syringe feed him a whole host of crap every day for a while, but he didn't have any relapses, and he started eating normally again after several days. At the beginning of January, he and Cinnamon got their first clean bill of health from the new vet. Success!
It's now a month later, and they're still very happy and healthy. Cinnamon has been a very active rabbit who likes to come out and hop all over the place upstairs -- not to mention she's still a major petting whore and a flopper. Brinco is also a big flopper, but he regularly lets loose with joyful binky runs all around his room. They are much happier than they've been in a long time.
I'm still not sure what caused all their problems, but here's hoping they'll stay healthy for a long time!
