11:21 a.m. - 2007-09-06
One AM Bunny Emergency Care
I guess I'm not completely out of the bunny rescue business. Nope, far from it. In the past week I've helped one of our adopters deal with her bunny having gas - at 2 am! - and taken care of two shelter bunnies after they got spayed. It feels nice - Despite leaving the rescue group I was working with I really didn't want to stop working with rabbits. I love rabbits - probably more than I love most people!
So I got to have a very late night visit with Greta, one of our former foster bunnies, and her adopters, Sam and Kerry. The phone rang at one am, a panicked Sam calling to tell me that Greta wasn't eating and that she felt cold and seemed listless. She didn't know what to do.
Unfortunately our vet emergency clinic here is woefully inadaquate with bunnies, so that wasn't really an option. From what Sam was saying, it seemed like maybe Greta was having gas, which can actually be fatal to rabbits as they can go into shock from the pain. It's really hard to tell someone what to do over the phone, especially when they have never dealt with the problem before, so we agreed that I'd come over.
When I went upstairs to wake up Bruce he was marvelously agreeable. It's embarassing, but I think he's actually gotten used to my waking him up at all hours because some bunny somewhere is having the hiccups. Usually it's one of our bunnies and he only has to drag himself downstairs, but the idea of heading out to help Greta didn't seem to phase him. Whatta' guy!
We arrived to be greeted by Sam offering a cup of coffee and to find Greta looking better than I expected, but still a bit peaked. She seemed dehydrated and uncomfortable and ....gassy. Her boyfriend, Sprinkleberry (I kid you not, that is his name!And it fits him perfectly!!) was begging for attention, which he finally got by chewing apart the tubing for the IV fluids I had brought. It's really hard to get mad at such a charming little goofball of a rabbit, which is a good thing. A really, really good thing....
Kerry and I managed to splice together the tubing, and while giving fluids to Greta we actually had a nice visit. If it hadn't been 2 am I would have absolutely have had a ball. Sam and Kerry are that rare thing in Huntspatch - cool, enlightened people - and I really enjoyed hanging out with them. Once the coffee kicked in and Greta decided she wasn't dying, that is.
Around five am she finally got that "lights on in the head!" look that rabbits get when they finally pass all that gas. She grabbed a piece of basil and started enthusiastically chowing down. Time for us to go home!
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