Goodbye Hot Shot

[Nyboy]

You can tell by reading this post, how much he meant to you !! Sorry

 

[canesisters]

I'm so very sorry. The hardest part of loving animals is that - no matter what - we always seem to outlive the great ones.

 

[bobm]

So sorry to hear of your loss of Hot Shot.

 

[bobm]

I am sorry you lost your pet bunny, GWR. It sounds like you did all you could. I think I may be dealing with this same very frustrating disease in our pet rabbit. I took him to the vet and she said she didn't think it was pasturella and she didn't do a culture because he didn't have much discharge in his eyes at the time. He still doesn't now, but she also sent him home with an antibiotic "just in case". She said if it were pasturella it couldn't be cured and could only be managed. She also took a look in Thumper's mouth. He doesn't have any abscesses, but she said his back teeth were a little too long on the bottom. There's a vet an hour from here that will file them down under anesthesia for something like $200, but I can't do that. It's just not reasonable for me to take it to that level. She also said I messed up by giving him free choice pellets and that he should be eating mostly hay. I never knew that before. We had rabbits when I was a kid and I don't know how but they never had any trouble like this. I had one live to be 8 and another 13. So I mix a little alfalfa hay into his timothy hay to try to entice him to eat it. He won't eat it unless he is really desperate (although he loves alfalfa by itself, but it's too rich to give all the time.) His 1/4 c. of pellets are gobbled up quickly. He did lose a lot of weight while the eye problem was going on, but has held about the same since, although I'd swear he's eating even less.

As for your vet ... I raised hundreds of rabbits at UCD Veterinary Pathology Dept. for years. All that they ate was only ALFALFA PELLETS and they were as healthy as they come. Since rabbit teeth, especially their front insisers, constantly grow so the rabbit has to wear them down by chewing harder feedstuffs... Pellets are harder then any alfalfa or grass hay as they are compressed under steam and pressure so they put more wear on the teeth due to their hardness. Alfalfa pellets too rich ? Hmmmm , I guess I as well as a Veterinary Teaching Hospital School and the Animal Husbandry Rabbit Colony people were all wrong.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

I'm so sad for you. I gasped when I calculated the age cus I know that they live much longer. I took the liberty of copying and pasting your comment without your name, etc, to my niece. She is going to be a vet and has a pet rabbit in her bedroom for the last 2 years. (Also a button quail, and a rat and a gerbil). She will find the discussion interesting.

 

[Smart Red]

So sorry for the loss of your Hot Shot. Really special friends such as he was come around very seldom and losing such a special friend after such a long and seemingly improving period is tough. Hot Shot certainly earned a special place in your heart and in your memory. Both of you were blessed when you rescued his momma.