It must be Wednesday

[altivo]

I need a user pic like the one tugrik has that shows him flattened into a rug.

Because a meeting was cancelled last week due to snow, it was rescheduled for today. I had to go to Rockford for a 9 am meeting but I still had to work until 8 pm tonight. Instead of going right to work from the meeting as I usually would do, I went back home for a couple of hours, but it really wasn't long enough to get any rest. Then back to work at 4 pm through 8 pm. I don't know which is worse: when it gets hectic or when it's dead. Tonight was mostly dead, which means you end up clock watching. We all know clocks never move while you watch.

Anyway, I'm finally home, fed, and completely washed up. Bed time I think.

Oh, we lost a bunny today. Poor old Buster was nine years old if I've counted right, which means he was way past 100 in rabbit years. He was a tiny black and white Holland Lop with way more personality and friendliness than he should have had. We both really liked him. Still, age was catching up with him and I really didn't expect him to get through this winter. You could tell he was creaky in his joints, and his fur was getting thin. The last couple of days we thought perhaps he had had a stroke, because he seemed to be partly paralyzed on one side, drooling a bit and having trouble walking straight. This morning he was in a coma, apparently, but still breathing. He wouldn't awaken, though he twitched or nibbled if you touched him. By noon he was gone. I suspect kidney failure, which is no surprise at that age. I hope there's lots of clover and carrots wherever he's gone, poor little guy.

	Buster Bunny He's a Holland Lop buck, age five years here. That's already getting pretty old for these little guys.
	Buster and Me I am not small, but these little guys are tiny. Generally they weigh less than three pounds. Buster was not much over two.

Comments

[lobowolf.livejournal.com]

That's the sad thing about animals..they just don't last long enough :(

*hugs*

[altivo.livejournal.com]

*hugs back*
Yes, that's certainly true. In this case I saw it coming as early as last fall so it wasn't much of a surprise.

[corelog.livejournal.com]

Poor Buster. :(

I remember one of our rabbits had something happen to him that caused his head to twist right over, so one eye was pointed at the ground and one eye up to the sky. He stayed like that for a good five or six years, as I recall.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

That's a condition called "wry neck" or toriticollis. It was long believed to be caused by an inner ear infection, but new evidence seems to suggest that it's a protozoan parasite that infects the nervous system and sometimes the kidneys. Some rabbits recover, or live with it for a long time as yours did. Others develop paralysis and die rather quickly. Now they say to treat it with ivermectin, which was never considered in the past, but might work. It's conceivable that Buster had it, though he did not show the usual symptom pattern.

[tinbender.livejournal.com]

Sorry about Buster. Yeah, nine years is quite awhile for a rabbit, but it doesn't make it any easier.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Yes, it doesn't really make it easier, though I could see this coming for quite a while, so I was prepared for the inevitable. He really was a sweet little guy and we'll miss him. I'd have had him as a house rabbit except that the dogs and cats would have played too rough with him and I couldn't risk it. He only weighed about two pounds.

[scruff.livejournal.com]

Tiny! ;.;

Do you have any pictures of him?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I do, somewhere. I have to find them, but I'll take a look.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

There, found a couple. Added to the original post above. Not the greatest but you get the idea.

[dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com]

Rest in peace, Buster.

You could do with some rest yourself, 'Tivo.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I could. But I'm not ready for that kind of rest yet. :)

As they say, there's no rest for the wicked.

This might interest you. In checking my response to corelog above, about torticollis, I realized that in fact, Buster may have suffered from it. The current theory is that torticollis in rabbits is a neurological syndrome induced by a parasitic infection with Encephalitizoon cuniculi, which normally infests the kidney but can penetrate the nervous system and form lesions in the brain. (It used to be blamed on ear infection, but that just doesn't seem to work out in most cases.) I never considered torticollis in Buster's case because he didn't exhibit the twisted neck symptom. But in fact, he had all the other symptoms, some of which I didn't know were associated. And, it turns out, a fair percentage of infections never develop the twisted neck or tilted head manifestation.

E. cuniculi responds to treatment with ivermectin, but that has to be done early in the progression of the disease. So chances are, it wouldn't have saved the poor guy at his age. It is believed to be transmitted in urine, and he hasn't been exposed to another rabbit's urine for years. Chances are he had the parasite for a long time, and as his immune system weakened from age, it was able to increase its damage suddenly.

[dongstyle-ltd.livejournal.com]

Hey thanks. I was interested actually in what you said about the actual causes of Buster's progression irrespective of the torticollis- specifically you suspected that the kidney failure was the ultimate reason...is this because of the general aetiology for death in rabbits, or was there a more specific history in Buster's case?

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Kidney failure is a frequent diagnosis in elderly rabbits, yes. Buster was probably somewhat dehydrated for quite a while. I observed last year that his water intake was lower than I thought it should be, but he seemed in no distress at the time, so I just kept watching. My rabbit experience in the past was mostly with larger breeds, so I wasn't sure whether this was a real issue or not.

However, when I looked up torticollis to make sure I remembered it correctly for my response to corelog it suddenly clicked that Buster had virtually all the symptoms except for the actual wry neck. He began to manifest some stiffness or possible paralysis in the rear legs when the weather got cold this winter, and I put that down to age and arthritic symptoms too. Now I see in this new theory on wry neck syndrome, that the Encephalitazoon cuniculi parasite is commonly found in the rabbit kidney, and attacks there when the immune system becomes weak. One typical progression is for it to reach the brain and produce the neurological symptom pattern of wry neck. It seems an odd connection, but nature is odd sometimes.

[doug-taron.livejournal.com]

Nature is odd, and nowhere more so than where parasites arre involved. Describe a particularly complicated and obscure life cycle, and most likely you will be describing some sort of parasite. Sorry to hear about Buster (but happy about the return of Rikki II).

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Parasites are some of the weirdest things alive, unless you count Republicans.

[marzolan.livejournal.com]

Awwws... Poor bunny... *hugs* Well, he had a good home and a good life.

And more hugs for a tired plushie. Exhaustion is no fun, belive me, I know.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Hugs rejuvenate a plushie. Thanks. ;D

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Poor Buster!

*does calculations now and wonders how old in Bunny
years Snuggles is*

Bunny years

[altivo.livejournal.com]

I figure 20 for the first calendar year, 15 for the second, and 10 for each additional calendar year if it's a small rabbit breed (Holland Lop, Dutch, Polish Dwarf, MiniLop or similar.) The third and following years count maybe 8 for the larger breeds (New Zealand, Satins, Siamese, Rex, Californias.)

Re: Bunny years

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Snuggles would be about 50 then.

He seems spry enough.

You know how those fifty somethings are.

*ducks*

Re: Bunny years

[altivo.livejournal.com]

Yep. Civilized living can prolong life for all of us, provided we don't get too addicted to the more decadent features of civilization, like fast food. ;p

Re: Bunny years

[octatonic.livejournal.com]

*puts down his Quarter Pounder and peers*

^_^

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Wow thats a long life for a bunny, sorry you lost an old friend, he sounds like he was quite the unique rabbit.