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My bunny has cancer
It's a rough week for Baltimore Nesties and their pets.
GusGus stopped eating and drinking, and wasn't using her litter pan, so I took her to a local emergency vet as soon as I got off of work today. The vet felt a lump in her abdomen and suspected uterine cancer but wanted to do an x-ray to confirm, and also to see how far it had spread. If it was in her lungs, prognosis was fatal.
The x-ray shows that the lump is large and pushing her stomach and other organs forward, but it has not spread. She's not a candidate for surgery due to the lack of eating and drinking - the anesthesia alone would be too stressful for her. So almost $200 later we're home with three medications and critical care, a powdered food replacement that we mix with water and feed her every 6-hours. They also administered fluids under the skin to help rehydrate her.
If she is not eating and eliminating on her own by Monday, her prognosis is very grim and I'll likely be taking her into the vet's office but leaving empty-handed. If she is eating, we go back for a follow-up on Tuesday to discuss the next step. It sounds like surgery is it, but we'll have to discuss it from a financial standpoint....which makes me feel like a horrible pet owner, having to even discuss it, but it's a factor and I have to consider it.
I'm miserable. We have a very long weekend ahead of us with all of these meds and, most of all, the syringe feedings, which have to happen every 6 hours. Thank goodness I work so close to home - I'll have to come home on my lunch break tomorrow and Monday to feed her. Also, syringe feeding her is a disaster. The mess is massive, I'm not sure how much she actually ingests, etc. I put the leftover mixture into her cage in a bowl in the hopes that she'll eat more on her own, but I'm doubtful.
Re: My bunny has cancer
... every single day of forever.
Someone's getting a little brother!
I'm so sorry:-( I can give you some tips on the syringe feeding since I was doing that a few months ago--get a sturdy carboard box to sit your bunny on and sit on the floor when you feed her. That makes it a lot easier in my experience than trying to keep her in your lap or having someone else hold her. Cover the box with a towel and use another towel to wrap her in if she needs to be held steady. Keep some moist paper towels nearby for the inevitable messes. If you can get a second syringe to use with the Oxbow, do it so you always have a clean one handy. Sometimes I refrigerated leftover food if it was just for a few hours, but I made sure it wasn't cold when I fed my sick little one.
Best of luck.
My Goodness...another food blog. Featuring: Macarons from a old post with a photo taken by my mom for a break from my crappy food photos!
Goodness...it IS a bad week for nestie pets and their owners!
Dani, I'm so sorry to hear about GusGus, but I hope that the feeds through the weekend will pep your sweetie up enough to move on to the next steps and that you can reach a decision you feel comfortable with. I'll be thinking of you!
I am so sorry to hear about your bunny. The meds she got, will they make the tumor smaller?
I hope she will start eating again!!
Thanks for the kind words, everyone - I appreciate them very much. You're all so sweet.
Thanks for the suggestions. Syringe feeding her has been a nightmare and I wonder how much is actually making it into her stomach versus how much is coming back out. It takes forever, the mess is crazy, and she hates it. Not that I blame her. Not to mention trying to manage doing it every 6 hours, especially with work. I also have trouble mixing it to the right consistency. They told me to do a 50-50 mix of water and Oxbow, but that's so thick. It's like cement and I can't get it into the syringe!
Thanks Jenni. The meds are an antibiotic to help avoid the potential for infection, a good bacteria builder, and a gut mobility inducer, trying to help her get things moving in her stomach and intestines again. The critical care is to get her nutrients because she hasn't been eating, plus she has pellets, hay and water available to her at all times. So right now she's not on anything that's directly related to the uterine cancer - it's all an effort to get her eating and drinking on her own again. If she will not, we have our "answer" and I'll have to let her go. If she can get back to eating and drinking, then we take on the next step of what to do about the cancer.
BFP#1: 01/10, M/C 6w -- BFP#2: 06/10, M/C 5w -- BFP#3: 09/10, DS born June 1, 2011
BFP#4: 07/12, M/C 5w3d -- BFP#5: 12/12, EDD 08/18/13
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I'm SO sorry, it's really tough to be in that predicament...
and it is a bad week for our pets....my 23 year old bird who has been being treated for tail cancer, is not doing well, and is at the vets on oxygen...I think we may be at the end of his precious life and I"m struggling with that
5 cats. 1 baby.