The Mad Menagerie - Getting to know you ...

Early in June 2014 Paws4Life posted a request asking if anyone could foster a bunny and I immediately put my hand up. The wee thing had been found on a busy road and taken into and left at a nearby vet clinic. From there, the groomer at the clinic (who has saved many cats off the Euth table, sending them to be rehomed by Paws4Life) took him home overnight and contacted P4L for help. The groomer runs a small doggy day care so the environment was not suitable for this wee bun in any way BUT she had brought his dilemma to the attention of the right animal welfare group that's for sure! After spending the night in the bathtub safely away from the dogs, he was brought over to me the following morning.

You are safe now, little buddy 

As soon as I opened the carrier and lifted him out he snuggled into my arms my heart just melted and I knew he would be staying with us forever I took him into the house to meet Geri and it was love at first sight for her as well.

At the timeI had a spare hutch - which I knew was too small in the long term, but it did allow me to accomodate him immediately. I set him up outside the back door so that he was close by and we set about the business of getting to know him. We named him Westley - because he was pretty and blond, after a character in out favourite film; The Princess Bride.

Malocclusion

I have never had a long haired bunny before and it was a steep learning curve. We quickly discovered that Westley was covered in matts, that his teeth were in a terrible state and that he had a bad case of fur mites. He was also skin and bones under all of the fur - his teeth would have been preventing him from eating so he was starving.

Slowly as we started grooming him and cutting the mats off his body and from under his feet we found that he had the most amazing temperament. He was so patient with all of the poking and prodding and just LOVED attention and company.

I started researching and decided that Westley was a Cashmere Lop - but very poorly bred, no doubt the result of an irresponsible back yard breeder ... don't get me started on that one ... and that his tooth condition was called Malocclusion - the teeth don't align like they should. In a rabbit this is a serious state of affairs because their teeth never stop growing and need to be worn down by eating high fibre foods. When this doesn't happen the teeth over grow, preventing the rabbit from eating and causing a lot of pain. There are two options to manage this issue. One is to have the teeth ground down/off regularly at the vets and the other is to have them removed.

Yes, the bed is VERY comfortable, thank you!

I booked Westley in to see the shelter's vet to discuss options and have his first vaccination. In the mean time he made himself quite at home. He was proving to be quite a character.

At the appointment the vet ground Westley's teeth off for me,  gave him his jab, we discussed the options going forward and I brought Mr W home so I could have a ponder before making a decision. Part of this process was to see how quickly his teeth regrew because it can be quite variable, with the norm being a retrim every 4-6 weeks. Westley was a very happy bunny though - he could eat and drink comfortably for the first time in a quite a while I suspect.

What kind of Bunny are you? 

By this stage we had worked out that Westley was probably about 6 months old. I suspected that he had been dumped once his tooth issue became apparent - as it often does at around the 4-6 month mark, as the rabbit's head/face matures. Malocclusion is an expensive issue to address and dumping this poor wee man was the coward's way out. It turned out that Mr W's teeth regrew at a pretty fast rate and he started having trouble eating within 2 weeks. If I took option one, it would mean that Westley would need to travel to the vet's and have an unpleasant procedure every 2-3 weeks. Rabbit's are very easily stressed so I felt that this was not a viable option in the long term. Having his teeth extracted was not an easy option either, but I felt that it was a better long term solution albeit massively invasive and stressful for him in the short term. So, I duly booked him in for front teeth removal - luckily the alignment of his molars looked ok, desex and microchipping.

Is it play time yet? 

By now I had ordered Westley a bigger hutch and he had free range time out in the back garden every day which he absolutely LOVED.

Post Op blues, snuggled on his heatpad

The day of Westley's surgery arrived and things were a little complicated as one of his teeth snapped when they did the extractions, so there was a risk that it would need further attention later, if it regrew. When I collected him, the clinic told me he had had pain relief and sent us home with no other information or instructions. Westley was a very sad wee bunny and I was worried. As it was still cold outside overnight I had set him up in the Garage in his original hutch for his post op period, I give him a heatpad - animal rehab 101 ... and we tempted him with his favourite foods and lots of pats and attention. Luckily for us he started to eat by the end of the day. The clinic had assured us he wouldn't need more pain relief and I had trusted them ... I know better now and I am horrified that Westley went through his post op week with no further pain relief. We really dodged a bullet ...

Four days post op and much happier

After 3-4 days, Westley was feeling better and was well enough to spend some time in the garden enjoying the winter sunshine. I was sooooo relieved to see him returning to normal!

Westley settled back into his normal routine after a few weeks and continued to entertain us with his antics. I would have loved to have had him as an inside bunny but my allergies precluded that. He did however spend quite a lot of time inside with us. He like to splat out and sleep on the couch beside Geri and also made himself a special sleeping place on the shelf of Geri's chair side table.

Don't mind me ...

This shelf is nice and cool...

But, summer was upon us and with his long fur, Westley became increasingly uncomfortable inside with us so had to spend more time outside. He did have yet another new hutch, bigger again than Hutch V2.0 and still spent lots of time free ranging in the garden but he became quite glum and we knew that he was lonely ... hmmmm, what to do ....


Around this time the neighbour's Husky - left home alone whilst they were away ... GRRRRR, tunnelled under the back fence and attacked Westley - who thank GOODNESS, was locked in his hutch at the time. I was also home and heard the first thump and growl so was able to intervene immediately. Said dog was dispatched to the pound and we had dodged another bullet. I couldn't risk this happening again so I took two measures. The first was to move Westley into Sonny; the Blind Hedgehog's escape proof garden, out of sight of the dogs over the back. The second measure - after the owner's of said dog did NOTHING to address their dog's escape route, was to ensure that is totally impossible for the dogs to get under the fence or for any animal from this side to get through from my side but that's another blogpost ...

Five months after Westely's tooth extraction I found what looked like a piece of tooth when I was grooming him. I took him to the vet who was very dismissive and said it couldn't possibly be tooth as it had been too long. I thought he was wrong but left it ... Then nine months later, once again during grooming, I felt something as Westley was licking/mutual grooming me. I had a feel around and a piece of tooth about 1cm long came away from the front of his mouth. Armed with the tooth in a baggie I once again took him to the vet. At the appointment I asked "Can you tell me what this is please?" To which he replied "Well it's a tooth." I then asked "And whose mouth do you suspect it might have come from????" Needless to say he was rather surprised (and quite pissed off to be proven wrong I think) and we booked Westley in for another tooth removal (free of charge though, which was one good thing).

Our Toothless Goofball. Gotta love him! 

I had been becoming more and more unhappy with this practice and this whole debacle just reinforced my  misgivings. On collecting Westley after his surgery he was VERY groggy and extremely subdued and once again, no post op instructions or pain relief were in evidence. I knew what to expect this time though and had pain relief ready for him at home.

Once home Westley was in a bad way and we had to nurse him carefully for the next 48hrs before he started to improve a little. This was the final straw for me and I vowed never to return to that clinic.

Later in the summer, the rescue had another wee rabbit handed in and we fostered it for a short period. Westley was soooo excited to have bunny company - however she wasn't a good match for him as she was a very high energy wee girl. When she was adopted and left for her new home 2 weeks later, Westley was bereft, even though they had only had visits through the bars of her cage and run whilst he was free ranging in his garden. With his obvious depression slapping us in the face we decided that our lonely boy needed full time company and the search was on for a WifeBun for Westley....

... and that's also another Blogpost!