We adopted Lucy almost three years ago as a teeny-tiny 6 week old bunny. We originally adopted her as a companion for our other lop, Loki. After the first introduction, Loki bit the tip of her ear off (and we never found it and now think that Loki is the first ever omniverous rabbit). Since then, they have become much better friends, however, never completely becoming a bonded pair.
Since we adopted Walter, him and Lucy have become quite the pair. The would lay together on the floor (and even in the cage sometimes), play and chase one another, and even on certain occasions, groom one another.
Lucy is a very sweet rabbit, never had any issues with her, never territorial, would love to snuggle and was just such a well-mannered and sweet rabbit. Loki, on the otherhand, is your typical male rabbit, generally territorial, though very smart and cuddly when he want to be. Actually, they are both very smart, I clicker trained both of them!
Well, unfortunately, we noticed something was up with Lucy on monday night. We had went grocery shopping, and when we came home, I offered the rabbits some fresh cilantro. Lucy has always loved her fresh veggies and hay, and she didn't eat any of it. I opened her cage to let her have some fun time, and she didn't want to move too much. Later that night, I thought I might as well start medicating her (to make a long story short, rabbits can easily go into gastric stasis, essentially colic. They become painful and anorexic, and without early intervention, it can turn out ugly, however, it is generally always secondary to another problem....diet, infection, stress, etc.). So we gave her some sub-q fluids, and an anti-inflammatory pain reliever. The next morning, I brought her to work, started force feeding her, more fluids, more pain meds etc. That night we repeated everything and tried to get her to move as much as possible. By the next morning (tuesday morning), she couldn't hold her head up. I brought her in, and took x-rays. The rads showed a HUGE amount of gas throughout her abdomen, she was pale and cold to the touch. I knew this wasn't going to turn out well. We tried to stablize her...I actually got an IV catheter in (not the easiest thing to do in a rabbit, especially when it's your own animal who needs it so desperately). She was so painful and the only thing we could to to relieve the gas in her abdomen was to essentially trocharize her (insert a needle into her stomach and relieve the pressure). Shortly after that, she started to fight. I've seen all this before, in our last rabbit, Roxy. It's almost like they know that the end is near and they physically fight it.
15 minutes later, she passed away. It went so quickly, thankfully.
We have no idea what made her get so sick so quickly. But now, she's out of pain, and across the Bridge. We gave her an amazing life for 3 years, she was a very spoiled bunny, and I am thankful we were able to spend that time with her.
I know some people may think, "it's only a rabbit", but ask any one in my family or any one of my friends, I love my rabbits as much as I love Walter. They are part of our family, and we love them dearly.
When I think of the animals that we lost, I do find solstice in knowing that they are in heaven....healthy and happy. I also think of my Grandmother, who passed away in September, she was an animal lover (I think that's where I got it from), and I know that she is caring for them and loving them as I did up in heaven,
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