I promised an update on Trooper, the feral rabbit I took in to nurse after she'd been hit by a car. These pictures are grim, so consider yourself warned. But the good news is that Trooper, despite being hit by a car and now fighting pneumonia, is doing remarkably well. She's not out of the woods yet, but she doesn't seem to know that. The first day she couldn't even stay upright on her own or move at all. Now she's not only moving a little, but in one picture you'll see she's stretched out snoozing.
She spent the whole day shuffling herself around on the floor on a towel spread on top of a feather bed. She tries to do normal rabbit things like shake herself, stretch, clean herself. Occasionally she topples over, but she gets right back up. (And actually looks a little embarrassed.) While you may not see much difference in the way she looks, the pictures go in order of when they were taken and she's made some fantastic progress: her lower lip is not as swollen, her eye looks good - it's beginning to open more as the swelling goes down and the vet says she'll keep it - her paw is still swollen, but she's learning how to use it to prop herself up, and she's demonstrating a tendency towards being nosy. Oh, and I'm happy to say there's absolutely nothing wrong with her bladder. She has peed on me more times than I can count.
Her coat is ATROCIOUS, but in the interests of keeping her alive, I'm restraining myself. I would like to give her a sponge bath, but I won't do it until she's past the danger point with the pneumonia. In addition to the brown staining from the Critical Care I'm feeding her, which is messy stuff, she's also a dingy yellow all over. And when I sponged the blood off her face, I uncovered blue on her cheek and under her chin. ??? I'm wondering if someone dyed her at some point and this is what's left?
She goes back to the vet on Monday. I'll try to post a new report then as I should have more news about the pneumonia. (p.s. Excuse the bunny beans in the pic...she fell asleep just after she made them, and it was a choice between getting a cute pic of her sleepy self or cleaning the area first and risk waking her. I took the shot.)
She spent the whole day shuffling herself around on the floor on a towel spread on top of a feather bed. She tries to do normal rabbit things like shake herself, stretch, clean herself. Occasionally she topples over, but she gets right back up. (And actually looks a little embarrassed.) While you may not see much difference in the way she looks, the pictures go in order of when they were taken and she's made some fantastic progress: her lower lip is not as swollen, her eye looks good - it's beginning to open more as the swelling goes down and the vet says she'll keep it - her paw is still swollen, but she's learning how to use it to prop herself up, and she's demonstrating a tendency towards being nosy. Oh, and I'm happy to say there's absolutely nothing wrong with her bladder. She has peed on me more times than I can count.
Her coat is ATROCIOUS, but in the interests of keeping her alive, I'm restraining myself. I would like to give her a sponge bath, but I won't do it until she's past the danger point with the pneumonia. In addition to the brown staining from the Critical Care I'm feeding her, which is messy stuff, she's also a dingy yellow all over. And when I sponged the blood off her face, I uncovered blue on her cheek and under her chin. ??? I'm wondering if someone dyed her at some point and this is what's left?
She goes back to the vet on Monday. I'll try to post a new report then as I should have more news about the pneumonia. (p.s. Excuse the bunny beans in the pic...she fell asleep just after she made them, and it was a choice between getting a cute pic of her sleepy self or cleaning the area first and risk waking her. I took the shot.)
