Celebrity bunnies - April 22, 2010

So Bennett and Ella are now officially celebrities, see this webpage (if you aren't reading this on April 22, you might have to scroll down a few bunny pics to see Mr. Bennett and Miss Ella.)

Well, Bennett is back to his old self, he's eating lots and lots and drinking on his own and even binkied for us last night! I'm heaving a big sigh of relief that he's ok because I'm not sure what it would have been like if he didn't make it through this. Interestingly enough, when I talked to the vet two days ago, he said that he had been thinking about Bennett's symptoms and the progression of the illness and believes that it was GI all along. Not stasis or woolblock but an infection somewhere in his GI tract. They did a urinalysis at our last vet visit that showed his urine ph to be 5 and rabbit urine is supposed to be alkaline, the vet thinks that it is possible that the infection made all of his body a ph of 5 and that is why he started having respiratory symptoms, his body was trying to breathe out the acidity. Two days ago, he had mucus in his poop and the vet thinks that was the gunk that the infection was producing coming out of him, which is really good news. The antibiotics are working and the infection is being killed and swept away and out.

One of the benefits of this illness is that Bennett and Ella are inseparable now, his being sick sealed the bond between them. They snuggle all the time and definitely watch each other's backs. It's very sweet to watch and be a part of their coupledom. The picture on Disapproving Rabbits really shows how much she cares about him and he loves her. In the last couple of days, he's run behind her a couple of times to get away from us trying to give him medicine or comb him a little. It's hilarious! I'm just glad things worked out well for them as a couple, given the sad trial run with Mallory. Bennett and Ella are definitely cute together!

Well that's all for now, I posted some pictures to another page joined to the blog of Bennett and Ella, they are currently under the heading "FAQ" until I can't get my brother Nathan's help with changing the titles of the other pages. My spindles are on the other page title, the name is escaping me now, so check them out! I will be posting some of the bunny pics on the other page here with more explanation some time in the future here.

Slow process to full recovery

I'm happy to report that Bennett continues to be recovering form his bout with infection. We still need to finish the rounds of his three antibiotics to make sure we really kill this bug but he seems to be doing much better. He's picked up on eating more greens, still not too hot on the pellets and lots of hay. The one thing he hasn't really started doing is drinking, so we're still doing the sub q fluids for him. Actually, today I have held off on giving him the fluids in hope that he'd be thirsty and drink something but I don't know if that is going to work. If he hasn't had anything to drink in my presence before we go to bed tonight, he's getting the fluids. Laurie took some cute pictures lately of him being sick. I wrap him up into a bunny burrito to put the nose drops in, so he can't kick or scratch me and I can use my hands to do the drops and not to fight him. He looks like a little baby in my arms (albeit a fuzzy one)!

This one, I took this morning. Ella has been very comforting to Bennett through this whole illness thing and what she's best at is being in solidarity with Bennett (you can practically hear her saying "these humans are only here to torture us, I'm with you buddy!") and being his bodyguard. Here's a pic of bodyguard Ella, she says no more medicine for Bennett or I get bunny wrath.

ETA: Bennett sure showed me. Not too long after I posted, Mr. Bennett moseyed on over to the water bottle and had a long drink of water! He is officially off of the fluids and had quite the appetite for pellets and hay and greens tonight, not to mention the frequent long trips to the water bottle. I really do think that this crisis is finally over :) Yay for healthy Bennett and for me not having to stab him with the 18 gauge needle for fluids!

Feeling a little better

I'm am so excited to have happy news about Bennett to report! He seems to be feeling better. Yesterday, he couldn't hold his head up by himself and was struggling to breathe and today, he's been resting much more comfortably, hopping around a little (still a bit shaky but more that he's done in days), breathing normally and eating with a little more gusto. Last night sometime, his fever broke, thank goodness, which I think is part of him feeling better. He seems to be running a bit of a fever tonight, but it's been a little warm today, too, so that could be it as well. Either way, he's resting with us up here on the bed with a wet towel draped over him to keep him nice and cool. He seems very comfortable to just sleep and rest and not move around too much. He is still looking very tired, but lots better than he was looking yesterday. He's on a lot of medicine: 3 antibiotics, an anti-inflammatory and subcutaneous fluids right now. I feel bad about having to stick him with needles quite frequently, but he's really patient with me and I think he knows that it's helping him feel better, so he's allowing me to do it. I was most nervous about giving him the fluids this morning, the needle is an 18 gauge size and it has to stay in until he's gotten his 150 ml, we both survived it and I know the fluids are crucial to him recovering until he can drink on his own. Ella's been doing a good job taking care of him, encouraging him to eat and cuddling up with him for moral support. I really don't think Bennett would have hung on like he did if he hadn't had Ella right by his side. She tries to fight me off when I come by in the morning with the needles. I got nipped twice today from her while I was giving him the fluids! I'm hoping by tomorrow Bennett will be feeling even better! Here's a picture of him convalescing on our bed tonight with his saddle blanket - I mean his wet towel:

Poor baby

I'm sad to report that I've been too busy to post these last few days because Bennett has been really sick. Since Monday, we've been to our vet twice and the emergency vet clinic once. We think that it is a really bad sinus/nasal passageways infection and he's been in pretty bad shape. We have gotten fabulous care with our vet and my mom has been so sweet to drive me back and forth with him, Laurie too for being such a good auntie. He's had a pretty high fever and has had no or little appetite. We're taking the best care of him that we possibly can and we're hoping for the best. Ella has been really good to him, too. She actually alerted us to his not feeling well and he is most relaxed and unstressed when they are cuddled up together. We have to fight her off when it's time for his injections. Any healing thoughts and prayers for our little Bennett would be much appreciated. I hope to report back to you soon that he's doing lots better.

The winning Easter photo!

Just a short little post, waiting for my eye mask to dry so I can take a nap. We did an Easter photo shoot with the bunnies for our Easter card (sorry to all of you who will be receiving said card, here's a little preview!) We ended up with quite a few good ones, and some funny outtakes. This one won, though, but I'll be posting some of the others sometime soon, too. So, Happy Easter from Bennett and Ella - lots of nose rubs and licks sent your way!

Changes

Hello, again!

Even though I posted on Easter, I feel like I haven't posted in forever, due to feeling very poorly last week, when Laurie sweetly posted for me, and since I've been busy with my mom having surgery yesterday. So - I'm back!

First thing, you'll notice that the blog has changed! Laurie and I are staying with my mom right now to help her out after her surgery and my younger brother, Nate, is really good at the computer stuff and I had been wanting to look a little different than the blogger templates that you can choose from with the basic blog stuff, and tonight, he very kindly spent some time with me, helping me pick out a new look for the blog! Not all the links work - yet! I'm hoping that I can see if I can get them working, with Nate's help over the next few days, so we'll see. Even if they don't, I still like the new look much better - I hope you do too!

Dinner's almost ready, and I have bunches to post about, so expect lots more from me very soon! I'll leave you with a cute bunny picture to start things off...

Happy Easter!

The tomb is empty!

Alleluia,

He is risen!

Happy Easter!

Just got home from Easter Vigil service, participating in new Catholics entering into the Church via the sacraments, and it was beautiful. Definitely one of the most exciting times of the whole liturgical year and always amazing to attend. Blessings to all those who entered into the Church around the world tonight, and for all of God's people. May His peace be always with you.