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10:11 a.m. - 2003-03-13
Rabbit Vet Day
Sambadelic wants MORE!! Well, never let it be said that we didn't give the people what they wanted:

Sigh. So dang cute.

Yesterday was an exhausting bunny day of ferrying the little critters from one end of the Metro Birmingham area to the other. First they saw a very nice veterinary opthalmologist (henceforth known as the "eye vet" or "Dr. V.", because I'm tired of not being able to spell "opthalmologist" and no, I don't have a dictionary. Or I do, somewhere. Well, it isn't next to me, that's for sure.) who was trying to be reassuring even thought I'm convinced she secretly thinks their eyeballs are about to fall out. Loki has a superficial ulcer that just isn't healing fast enough, so he had a Q-tip rubbed across his eye to stimulate new cell growth.

I can feel you all cringing. "He had a Q-tip rubbed across his eye." Heh, heh, heh. You're all in a state, aren't you? Actually, they gave him a numbing agent first, and did it in very low light so he could barely see the Q-tip. He was totally relaxed the whole time, honest.

And they had a fabulous restraining technique that I must remember. Basically they wrapped the rabbits up in towels so that only their eyes and chins showed. Loki looked like a refugee from a towel factory explosion and Mirage looked like someones' babushka grandmother.

Mirage's eye is more serious. The infection has gone down into the second layer of her cornea and we may need to do surgery. Blah. Again the eye vet was trying to be reassuring, but I notice on the sheet they gave us to take home it says something about "Watch for signs that the eyeball is bursting". Well, guess what bunny I'll be glued to in the next couple of weeks?

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After this we wandered back up Highway 459 to see Alvin. Actually only Loki was supposed to see Alvin, but he had a vet student with him. So the famous Miss Bunny was introduced, so that the vet student could feel the antibiotic beads in her cheek and discuss the whole Pasturella bicillin protocol.

I always enjoy this. It was a hard decision to let Mirage take part in both of these experimental procedures and now that they have been helpful I feel that it was so worth it. Maybe some other rabbits will be cured as a result of her experiences, not to mention her own life has been greatly improved as a result.

Besides, she loves the attention. She happily sacked out on the exam table and gently ground her teeth and tried to chew on Alvin's lab jacket when he was feeling her chin. The vet student had no idea that rabbits grind their teeth when they are happy. Did you know that most vet students only spend maybe a day learning about rabbits? This student had no idea that it's possible to put a rabbit into a trance to clip their toenails or examine their stomachs. We gave her a demonstration with Loki.

It wasn't hard to get him hypnotized. By the time we got to him the poor little guy was exhausted. It was a good thing though, because Alvin needed to draw some blood since his weight is still a little low. Between being tired from all the socializing and the whiff of gas he got to tranquilise him for the blood drawing, he slept all the way home.


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