A Picture Instead of 1000 Words

Tigger Kicked BackThroughout the month of September we were dealing with on and off stomach issues with Tigger. She would be on and off her diet and need gas meds, pain meds, and force feedings of Oxbow Critical Care at times and syringed water. On the 24th, we wrote that she seemed to have turned the corner. Since then she has continued to improve and the picture shows that improvement.

With bunnies, we have learned that subtle behavior changes can signal their health issues more clearly if you watch them closely. When Shadow spends a lot of time cleaning his ears or has one ear up, one ear down, we know it is time to have the vet take a look at his ears for an inner or outer ear problem.

With Tigger, a clear signal that her tummy is fine can be seen in this photo. She is kicked back with her back legs stretched out and is lying full-out on her stomach out in the open. When she starts pulling her legs underneath her and looking like a bunny hen all the time, she is starting to have some issues and doesn’t want to lay on her stomach.  Especially if she does that in places where it isn’t easy to reach her, we know she needs some help.

Our key to keeping our bunnies going throughout their ten and half years is keeping a close eye on their behavior, knowing quite well what is and is not normal for them.  We have learned to recognize the small changes in their daily activity that can be signals of changes in their health.  Since both bunnies are elderly now, we keep a closer watch on them now than we did when they were younger and act more quickly if it seems something isn’t right. 

Being able to have more pictures like this makes life so sweet.

Would You Like to Take a Survey?

Rabbit Survey TakerI would like to ask a favor today. If you have just a minute or so, could you pop on over to the Etsy Rabbits team blog and take the poll on the left.  We are looking to increase readers for the blog and have just five items and want to know if those items are of interest to people who might read or follow the blog.  You can pick all the items, some of the items or none of  the items. 

If you have the time and want to leave a longer comment, we would be happy to hear suggestions:
http://etsyrabbits.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-planning-what-interests-you.html

Thank you!

What Does It Mean When A Tigger Sees Her Shadow?

Tigger's Shadow
Well I know it means more winter when the groundhog sees his shadow. So what does it mean when a Tigger sees her shadow? Are we about to be hit with winter early in Georgia? It has been cooler than usual for this time of year.

It was cute to see Tigger pause in her rounds in a way that had the light hitting her just right to give her a shadowy twin.

Needing to Force Feed Your Bunny? Try This First …

Acorn flopped out

I'm Acorn and not feeling so good ...

We have known Acorn and his mom all of his ten years. He has been a very healthy bunny, but is now sick and needing a number of medications and some extra feedings of Oxbow Critical Care. His mom called today for some advice on how to do the syringe feedings to get more of the food into Acorn.

After talking with Acorn’s mom and emailing her a link, I realized this would be something good to let more people know about.  The first thing you may want to try if you need to force feed your rabbit is to see if you can take the force out of the equation. It is always better if the bunny feeds themself. I came across these recipes, http://rabbit.org/care/recipes.html, on the House Rabbit Society website.

They feature pellets ground in a coffee grinder which works if you don’t have access to Oxbow’s Critical Care.  If you have the Critical Care for a sick rabbit, use that in place of the ground pellets.  The Critical Care is specially formulated to have lots of good stuff to assist rabbits nutritionally who are ill.

I suggested trying the Banana Pellet Balls first to see if Acorn would voluntarily consume his Critical Care which would make things less stressful for everyone.  Either the Pellet Balls or the pumpkin mix in a bowl can be offered first to a bunny to see if they will eat without having to be force-fed by syringe.  Shadow will sometimes eat a Critical Care mixture on his own but our Princess Tigger never volunteers for anything, ever. 

Hoping this helps! 

Day One of International Rabbit Day Weekend – A Personal Celebration

Tigger and Shadow in the table leg thicket
I would call this photo, Tigger gives thanks, for all of us.  Over this past month when I have seen the postings for International Rabbit Day for either today or tomorrow, I was wondering if we would reach this weekend and still have two rabbits.  Shadow’s allergies moved into a more serious case of Snuffles right before Labor Day.  Since both bunnies tend to pass infections back and forth, both were started on the antibiotic Baytril. 

After just a few days on Baytril, Tigger’s stomach problems returned and we needed to take her off the Baytril.  Shadow finished out his two weeks continuing to improve.  Starting earlier this week he has been a bouncier, happier, hungrier bunny than he has been in months.  Tigger however throughout this month has continued to have stomach issues.  She has been on again off again for appetite and on again off again for us giving her gas meds, pain meds and force feedings of Oxbow’s Critical Care and syringed water. 

It has been very frustrating trying different combinations of hay, pellets and greens and having her at times even refuse her favorite treats of banana or dried fruits.  It has been exhausting and heartbreaking at times wondering if she was going to pull out of this.  She was overweight and we had been trying before this month to adjust her diet to help her to lose the excess weight.  Now in one month with her stomach issues, she has dropped about a pound. 

There were some bad moments this week when she really seemed hungry, but lacking appetite and exhausted all at the same time.  Then we noticed a trend to her eating Kale and having a really bad spell.  So even though Tigger loves Kale, we eliminated it on Thursday.  Today, it is like we have a new and improved Tigger back.  She is bouncing around, getting into everything and eating as if to make up for a month-long starvation diet.

I just hope she doesn’t overdo it all!  However, it is a wonderful day and weekend to celebrate that we have two lovely companion rabbits who though elderly are still with us.

Reminder – International Rabbit Day is Just Days Away

3 bunniesJust a reminder that International Rabbit Day is coming this weekend.  Depending on which source you refer to, it is set for the fourth Saturday or Sunday in September which would be the 24th or 25th this year.  

Here is one suggestion for whichever day you are observing:  “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! ” 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

A Treasury – Dark with Rabbits …

Dark with Rabbits Etsy treasury
Click on image above to view the full treasury and the twist …

I created a treasury of dark and wonderful items on Etsy with a rabbit twist. Click on the image above to view the full treasury and read what is behind Dark with Rabbits.  You will find the answer in my Curator’s description just below the pictures.

Most spooky tales have cautionary elements to them.  So, this isn’t based on personal experience.

Reminder – 1 Week Until International Rabbit Day

3 bunniesJust a reminder that International Rabbit Day is a week away.  It is set for the Fourth Saturday in September which would be the 24th this year.  *Note: Some pick the fourth Sunday to celebrate. 

Here is one suggestion for the day:  “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! ” 

Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.

The Etsy Rabbits team is celebrating all of September through Sunday the 25th, the day Etsy chose to celebrate International Rabbit Day.  Check out the Etsy Rabbits team blog for the growing list of treasuries of great handmade rabbit items on Etsy, including items by team members.  There are items that are rabbit themed and things on Etsy for your rabbit too.

Banana Bad

stinky banana and boy

Replace the boy in this photo with a bunny but keep the facial expression and you have the reaction our bunnies are giving us

Well, the bunnies are really opposed to Baytril that was started just before Labor Day when Shadow developed Snuffles.  I am not sure if it is the medicine or what has been used to flavor the medicine, since it has a really strong flavor aroma.  We tried to mash the medicine up with some banana since someone elses bunnies will take it that way. It was a wonderful suggestion, however …

Tigger voted paws down on Baytril banana mash.  We tried it first with her.  She ran up to sniff the bowl.  Then she ran right back to hide in her litter pan at the very back of her cage.  Shadow seconded her vote and turned nose up and turned his head away from the bowl when it was offered to him. 

So we went back to syringing it by mouth.   They fought having to have it.  Medicating them is a two person job.  One person has to be the bunny holder while the second syringes the meds into the side of the mouth and rub cheeks and throat to get them to swallow it instead of drooling it back out. 

Then a few days into it, Tigger decided to go back into a stasis situation.  So Tigger came off the Baytril and is back on the regimen for  pain meds, gas meds, Critical Care feedings, probiotics, extra syringed water, tummy rubs and humans following her with food begging her to eat.  She is now beginning to bounce back.

Shadow is still getting the Baytril and has stopped sneezing and is getting a good appetite back.  We only hope that with Tigger off the Baytril that she isn’t carrying the infection.  We hope she won’t reinfect Shadow once he finishes his course of treatment this weekend. 

Fingers crossed.  It is so hard with 10-year-old rabbits to balance what is best for them at this point because they are beginning to have multiple health issues.

Silent Sunday 9/11

The images from 10 years ago are burned so strongly in my mind.  Even after a decade, I found it impossible to adequately translate anything in to words that didn’t sound trivial or trite.  So I did what so many do when an event is overwhelming and observed a day of silent remembrance for the lives lost and all the lives forever changed by the events of that single day.

Invitation to International Rabbit Day

Invitation to International Rabbit Day

Click on image above to go to treasury and view items

Okay, so yesterday I said today I would have a bit of a surprise.  Surprise, I goofed when I created this yesterday and it was released on Etsy from the wrong user account instead of Rabbittude as I had intended. Then I almost forgot to post it today. So, doubly embarrassed rabbit here. While I was getting this post ready, I was surprised when a leader on the Etsy Rabbits team pointed out that Etsy has the day listed on their dates to remember for September as being, Sunday the 25th.

So isn’t that just the way with event planning. Two coordinators check dates with different people or sources and the next thing you know, you have people being notified about two different dates. For Etsy we will make it the International Rabbits Day WEEKEND, September 24 – 25th.

Whoo Hoo!   We will get ready for a two-day party of rabbits bouncing around and into view as much as possible as we treasure the days by creating lots of treasuries to promote the now over 100 shops of the Etsy Rabbits team members.