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| Honeysuckle's Headtilt |
A while back
Anita found Honeysuckle huddled in a corner and for a day and a half she did
not move. She didn’t eat, drink, chew or poop her little brown beads. Then she
began to strangely lie on her side as if she couldn’t hold herself in an
upright rabbitty position. She dirtied herself in a most sad, uncommon way.
When we picked her up she rolled onto her back and couldn’t seem to right
herself. When she fell down her ramp, we were alarmed and knew something was
very wrong. The vet diagnosed her with Pasteurellamultocida , a bacterial infection that had settled in her inner ear and was
giving her vertigo. By then she was so dizzy she couldn’t even sit up. Rabbits
often die from such infections. The outcome was uncertain as she languished for
about two weeks, getting antibiotics and being fed timothy hay puree and canned
pumpkin from a big syringe because she couldn’t eat on her own.
It’s been two
months now and she seems to have stabilized, but has neurological damage that
gives her a permanent head-tilt. She has one good eye that is always pointing
up as if she has a question to ask. The other one uselessly gazes at the floor.
Her energy is back and she is almost normal except that she cannot sit up quite
right and one ear is always flopped. When called for a treat – we call her
“Honeysuckle! Sweetheart, come get your carrots.” (She loves grapes, too.) She
hurtles toward us but usually overshoots the mark as if her brakes are also
missing.
Strange isn’t
it? How we have tender feelings toward God’s creatures? I know, especially the
cuddly, cute ones. But we care for her more especially now – needing to clean
her more frequently, be more careful with her diet. And in turn, she seems even
more affectionate. Demanding to be petted and loved. She continues to have a
good life on Toad Hall’s back porch.
Since many of
you, in the past, have followed her little life. I thought you’d like to see
our angora rabbit who now has “special needs.” Please excuse the blue-tint. We are amateurs.
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1 comment:
This is a sweet story. I hope that when each of our special needs times come, someone will feed us pumpkin from a syringe, and grapes.
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