Ivan, Adoptions, Accupressure

Ivan must be feeling better. He’s ripping at his litter box, tossing the ball and trying to throw around his food and water dishes! Bratty bunny! I’m glad to see it! Last night I sent out a brief e-mail announcing the opening of his other eye! He was looking at me with both eyes, and his one that has been opened isn’t “scanning” anymore. I got him a doggie litter box and wee-wee pads yesterday. It has made for an easy clean up. He has much better stabilization as well, he hasn’t flipped or rolled in a couple of days! Ok, not meaning to get my hopes up. On Friday, Linda and I will be meeting with Dr. Poster to go over some acupressure points, as she is a licensed animal acupuncturist, and she will be allowing us to video tape it to watch over and over since both Linda and myself seem to be flaking out lately. We are very excited for this opportunity.

Linda picked up two bunnies that we were called on a couple of days ago stating “the landlord found out about the rabbits so they will either be eaten or released.” 2 males, another local rescue is supposed to come and pick one of them up from us, the mini-lop that looks like a young Emmett. There is another that reminds me of Bubble Gum, he has a dutch look to him, reddish/tan with black speckles on his face and back-half. Both are males. Mikey, our Fitchburg bunny, has settled right in. Shannon from HRN is working on something with Sweet Meadow for rescue groups. I’m hoping they can put together “Adoption Packets” of food and hay to give out at adoptions. That would be great. I have a call into the lawyer in NY (my ex-bosses law-firm) that is reviewing the bunny book I wrote, so keep your fingers crossed.

Rosie is going for blood-work and a spay tomorrow, and Simon Peter a neuter. I began working on our note books today to track all the animals, the info pages will be given at the time of adoption with medical history and any other history we know of placed into the pocket pages, a long with a photo. I have been very excited to get this started, I think it will be a benefit (or a pain in the butt!) to have.

Thumpie (last of Alise’s babies to go!) and Spunky (first of Tinkerbell’s babies to go!) both got adopted today. Both will come back in March for their neuters. We have someone looking at both Simon Peter and Rosie as singles or maybe a bonded pair. Jet and Gigi go home with Michele tomorrow, hopefully to stay a happily bonded pair. This was my last day watching the 9 bunnies. In a couple of weeks when these babies are old enough, I will take the two moms back. They will have them spayed and we will go from there. All went very well. I made them a collage of pictures of their animals while they were gone, just thought it would be something nice, and I haven’t pulled out the camera in a while, which I need to start doing! We have someone interested in a bonded pair of rabbits, so I will be taking Tootsie Roll and Tapioca down to the Hollow tomorrow as well… Well, all in all, a good day! I feel like I am leaving something out, but oh well, there is always tomorrow, I hope!
B~

Ivan, Bubba, Meadow Vet Check, Wood Duck

Yesterday, what was yesterday? Oh yeah, Friday… What did I do? Let’s see, I went to my friend Debbie’s, had some scrambled eggs, watched “Little Miss Sunshine” (cute movie) and then had some home made chicken soup for lunch. Jet and Gigi were with us for the morning. Then I went and dropped off a video, attempted to pick up my sisters prescriptions (office closed) then went home. I cleaned, did laundry and changed cages. I had 3 appointments for 5:15. I got a call from Wildlife in Crisis about an injured wood-duck in Stratford. I went out (under-dressed!) searching for it for about 30 minutes, but didn’t come across one that looked injured. I set off for the vet apts. Bubba is still having eye issues so is going on a stronger antibiotic eye drop. Meadow had blood work done for her spay (Dr. P said that her uterus feels “gnarley”, like the beginning of fibroid masses) and Ivan got another steroid shot though less than last time. I had him on a towel on the floor moving around. He is doing a little better, according to my feelings and what Dr. P said in regards to seeing him on Monday. He is eating and drinking (steroids cause a lot of drinking – right?) a ton, and of course what goes in is gonna come out! He’s a doll.

This morning I got up, did meds and then packed the dogs in the car to go up to Union, CT with me to pick up our little Fitchburg bunny “Mikey.” He is a very young NZW (New Zealand White) and is incredibly cute! It was a 3 hour tour there and back, but I had Harry Potter on and was good to go. I stopped to take care of the bunnies and kitties on the way back. I made a picture frame for the 9 bunny lady of pictures I took yesterday of their animals. I dropped off larger water bottles and a larger sized dog crate then what they had. I put a twin comforter on their couch (the bunnies are making a mess) and a few extra towels and throw rugs. I hope they won’t be offended by it. I went back home and cleaned some more (always trying to keep caught up these days!) and tackled some litter boxes, and, OK, I must have short term memory loss, I don’t know what all I did today! I can tell you I am at work (baby-sitting) watching the Simpson’s next to Sheffie (my little dog) and waiting to go home to spend my final moments of the evening taking care of Ivan and giving meds to others. Jet and Gigi are doing GREAT! OK, enough tonight!

Brandee

Jet & Gigi, Blogger

Woke up around 7:30 and laid there until 8-ish. Went to take care of the 9 bunnies and 2 cats I am house-sitting for. Went to clean the Hollow from 9-11:30. Got Jet and Gigi (and a check from Michele for $100 to go towards Ivan’s care!) that I am very excited to bond together for Michele (keep your fingers crossed, all is going well so far!) and then went home to clean my bunnies before work at 3. Jim has set up a new Blogger page for the Hollow so I can just type right into our site as soon as my internet is running again. I’m going to have someone come out to do it if I can’t get it to work in the next couple of days. My vacuum decided it was going to be broken. I took it back to Home Depot and had to pay an additional $25 because the previous model I didn’t want to get again because of the fact I didn’t trust it (Rigid “leaf-blower model had a faulty switch that was throwing off sparks!) had gone on sale earlier in the year so they only give you the cheapest price it was sold for in that year if you can’t find the receipt and we have a new CT tax law stating that you don’t get your tax back without a receipt either. Went to work, came home, cleaned cages, watched Smallville and hung out with Ivan, gave lettuce, cleaned cages, hung out with Ivan again while watching Will & Grace with Chris, one episode… He is now in bed, and I am going to join him. YAWN!

Night-Night (And a big Coo-Coo from the Dove I still have not named.)

Off-Line, Ivan, Parsley the Bathroom Bunny

Ok, I give up. I bought a new Linksys and still can’t get online. Ivan is doing well, still just the same, but enjoying all of the attention he’s been getting. He shows no sign of stress from me, the dogs, the kids, whatever, he’s just an easy going bun. I think American Idol might be killing him tonight, however! He is eating and drinking really well, loving to watch me walk around and clean, and I now have him living in the Tupperware bin when I am not home, it has blanket rolls in it to help to stabilize him. He is mostly out, peeing happily on sheets and dog-beds (can’t jump into a litter box now, so not even bothering any longer) but he seems happy and out of pain. I am looking forward to seeing what happens with this bunny. We had an inquiry on Rosie today. The woman sounded very nice and said she’d be happy to see our “less adoptables” which is what happened with Oreo, and her new owners are so very happy with her, and with Buttercup too! Buttercup gets chronic abscesses if she doesn’t get a Penicillin injection twice a week, so we didn’t have high hopes for her being adopted out. She was, to a wonderful family that has a diabetic cat so they are use to the shots! (If I have mentioned this before, please forgive, I just get very excited over it!). Hermione is upstairs thumping around in the spare bedroom and running about. I wish I had more time to spend with her, but once we can get Parsley adopted out (our near PERFECT bathroom bunny!) then we will bring Hermione down here to get use to the rest of the family.

I went with my own bunny Rags to Black Rock Congregational Church to their pre-school today to visit with Jessica and Camille Pittnella (sorry Laura if I murdered the last name) 2 daughters of a friend of mine. He was very well behaved, but not as laid back as Arthur use to be. No one can ever replace that bunny of mine! Arthur was just an amazingly laid back rabbit, no matter where we went, no matter who he met. Well, he was bigger than most dogs he met!

I started my first episode of House last night. Wow. Good show! Well, I don’t know what else to say but I am tired and “Hermione – stop all that racket up there!”

Oh, Linda, I got blue and pink paper for the pocket pages I am going to start working on for each bun – 1,000 all together! Let’s get those bunnies moving, I have some paper to go through! Omigosh, can you imagine, over 1,000 rabbits coming through? We really have been cruising quite a bit lately, so it’s possible, especially with the new BUNNY SUPER SUIT!

Night – Brandee :o)

Ivan's Abcess, a Spay, Seizures and a Bunny Suit

Hey, well, went to see Dr. Pieper with Ivan today, they worked me into an 11:15. Ivan doesn't have an ear infection, he has an ear abscess. For anyone who doesn't know about abscesses in rabbits, they aren't like abscesses in other animals that you can just pop open and drain. The ooze in their abscesses is thick, like cream cheese, and is very hard to drain. Dr. Pieper did the same as I did and just shook his head at the "Baytril' that was given. It is given by vets often who rarely see rabbits as a first option, without research into other possibilities. By the time they have had a course on it, it renders any cultures useless as what started the illness is being somehow masked by an antibiotic. This should have been seen by the vet he first saw sooner. His ear-drum is still intact at the moment, but it is reddening. There are two scenario's now. I can have him on Chloremphenacol (sp?) for a very long time (he has seen one get better with a head tilt this bad after 10-12 months of medication) or it hasn't been caught in time, it will worsen, and he will lose all mobility to stand and it will be irreversible as the inner ear will all have been severely damaged, and would more than likely need to be put down as he would have no quality of life but lying there flopping around being force fed. I, of course, am going for the long term medication, I have high hopes that Ivan and I can make this happen together. The bill today was $147 for the check up, meds, a shot of steroids and a shot of antibiotics to get him started. We will also be treating the eye he hasn't been using with a topical ointment. He will have 1 ½ CC (I believe) of Chloro 2x daily. I'll be in contact with Dr. P this week, as 4 more bunnies have appointments, and we'll see if he needs another steroid shot. He's such a good boy! I'll keep you posted!

Good News! Buster tested negative for EC! Bad news, now what? Dr. Pieper will think about how we can attack this from a different angle now and we'll go from there. Cinnie had a seizure this morning, the first I have seen in over a month. Four of Tinks babies (the boys) were moved down to the Hollow yesterday, and Alise made it through her spay today beautifully. Anne Salmone and her daughter Isabel came by yesterday and brought the binders and clear pages I was looking to get for our records on each rabbit! THANK YOU! Isabel played with all the animals she could, and Anne helped out with cages. Bryne came by last night too for her 2nd Sunday at this location cleaning. Thank you all so much, every bit really helps! Well, I don't know what else to say today, so I'm going to go hang with Ivan (he's at work with me) and snuggle him up. I have to pull him through this, I just have too!

OH! ONE MORE THING!!! Guess what Linda surprised me with yesterday? A FULL BODY RABBIT COSTUME COMPLETE WITH HEAD!!!!!!! It's Brown with a little white belly and little hand-mits, it's PERFECT! YEAH!!! It's going to put the FUN in FUNDRAISING, for me any ways, I can act like an idiot and get away with it!

Brandee :o)

Pet Press Article, Adoptions and Ivan

I'm sitting here with Ivan and am wondering why things work out the way they do. He has white gunk coming out of his left eye that is pretty useless right now as with the wry-neck issue this eye just stays closed. I have been opening it and trying to make him get some use out of it by following my finger around. I'm getting little to no response, but hey, I just started yesterday! As gently rock him, I hear some gas bubbles! We just got done with nibbling on some lettuce! Stormy's eye is great, Bubba's butt is better (eye still watery) all the remaining babies are doing great, Bay is great, Shaylah's fur all grew back in on her head, Juliet and Cleo have both stopped sneezing, Parsley has found Hermione in the upstairs bedroom, so now the baby gate! As far as I know, things are well at Linda's location, except Pumpkin seemed to backtrack a little in his healing (EC & upper respiratory). I have a write up in Pet Press this month (I don't remember what I sent, as I sent in a few articles) that I am told is the one on spaying/neutering. I am having a problem finding a copy (I need a few if anyone sees it this month's issue is apparently all about rabbits!). Next week I will be taking in one of the Fitchburg bunnies from Mass through the HRN. We are happy to help, even though it's only one rabbit! I am house sitting for the 9 bunny people. Things are quite well, they rearranged things so that the bunnies are separated from each other, and there are appointments coming up for the other females to be spayed. The 4 remaining babies (I'm pretty positive) are all girls, about 6-7 weeks old. I actually felt at peace when I went there today, really. I'm glad I thought about things and have decided to respond to them differently.

OK, it's about 9:30 p.m., I can't connect to the internet, yet again! I need to replace my Linksys.
I just finished up another ½ hour play/therapy session with Ivan. It's hard to see him struggle, but I have high hopes for him. His one eye that is open just keeps scanning everything, sideways and upside down. I wonder if he is nauseated by the whole thing, I know I would be. Say a prayer for him. I am betting on this being EC and Dr. Pieper and I spoke about him the other day and also about getting our hands on the Marquee. He goes in on Tuesday, blood work and a check-up. It's funny how with everything going on, how I am trying to find myself, that he should come into my life. I find him to be a blessing. Please say a little prayer for him that together we can get him better.

One of Alise's boys got adopted out today, which leaves one more from her litter. I'm very excited for him! Let's just hope these adoptions keep on coming, we need the room, and they need the homes!

Good Night!

Stargate, Ivan's Eating, and Cash in the Mail

I'm sitting here watching one of my favorite Stargate Episodes called "Wormhole X-Treme."

I got my new bunny today, mine forever, Ivan. He has extreme head tilt, but is eating everything I give him such as broccoli, carrots (I want to fatten him up, he is so thin!) and lettuce. I have been working with his neck today and gave him some Metacam (pain killer) since our head movement sessions to try and work on the severe muscle atrophy that comes with wry-neck are very sore to him and I want him to be in less pain. I'll keep him on it for a few days until he gets use to the muscle soreness that he will have. Ali was paid by Julie Durante in cash today. Julie said she forgot to send it out. Cash? In the Mail? I'm just glad that Ali got reimbursed for her help to us!

My Life here is not an accident, it has all been pre-destined.