Grooming

Misty enjoyed a full grooming today. She needed a thorough groom badly eversince I adopted her. There were lots of matted fur on her and pee stains on her fur. Sigh. The grooming includes nail cutting, fur combing and removal of matted fur.

Now that she's litter trained, hopefully she won't pee around and step on it. I've also learnt quite a few useful tips in handling and bonding with her. Big Thank You to the 2 HRSS volunteers for the grooming session. There were a few things to follow up on, the urine burns on her legs & the tip of her nose needs some checking up by vet.

Misty: How do I look?

The groomer also revealed the truth about Misty: she's a pedigree ND and was imported. How could she tell? There were tattoos on her ears.

When I first saw those tattoos, I looked it up in the internet and saw that tattoos were done on bunnies when they go for pet shows. Felt sad that Misty had to go through the pain of tattooing. =(

After a long day, all she needs is a good rest, in her "hatching" position.

Innocence

This is my favourite picture so far. The I-am-innocent look.

Just when I thought she's starting to be litter-trained, she pees on the tiles and my hall. sigh. What can I do... help~

I've changed her litterpan into a bigger tray and also used tiles on the base. She's improving with this setup and with this smaller space I have to let her roam the house more often. With supervision though...

Moving Around

Perhaps some of you might wonder how do we transport bunnies? Some owners might choose to buy commercial carriers like dog/cat carriers. However, there's a cheaper alternative - picnic baskets. I bought this basket from the neighbourhood shop that sells plasticware like cookware, and many various household items.

If some bus drivers don't mind, you can even carry it up the bus but preferably not for long journeys as bunnies get stressed out during bumpy rides and the noise adds to that stress too.

All's Well

Misty is recovering well after the surgery. She's back to her usual eating habits. I did notice that she doesn't want to eat the hay stalks whereas she used to prefer those previously. Maybe partly due to the new hay which I tried. Will test the older brand and see if she still prefers the leafy bits.

As usual her favourite food - pellets. She will never hesitate to "beg" for them whenever she sees me at her cage with the pack of pellets. Then she'll get very gan cheong about it.

Misty: Pellets!

I recently bought her a new water bottle. It comes with a push tip instead of a ball bearing. The previous one was leaky and much of the water was gone when I reached home. Here's a pic of her drinking after she has had her meal.

Pre-sterlisation

It's been some time since I posted any pics of Misty. Here are some pics of her one day before her surgery.

This is how she will lie down when she's relaxed - elongated, stretched out body.

Some information about pre-sterilisation: it is not necessary to fast the previous night before like what other animals require. Bunnies require food to be in their system all the time.
After sterilisation, the sooner they start eating, the sooner they will recover. It was good to hear from the clinic staff that Misty started chewing on some hay within 2 hours after being sterilised. She's now on her road to recovery and I will soon post some pictures of the tamer her.

Sterilisation

Misty was sent for sterilisation yesterday. It was a tough decision to make. On one hand, there was the possibility that she could react negatively to the anesthetic. On the other, she might carry the possible genes that lead to cancer. It's a 80% possibility in adult rabbits. Ovarian, uterine cancer just to name a few. When such diseases happen, there is no return and will result in death.

Does (female rabbits) might also experience false pregnancies. This results in them thinking that they are pregnant and they need to prepare a nest for their babies. They will then pull fur from their own body and collect hay and whatever they can find to create that nest.

After she came back, she kept to minimum movement and stood in the cage looking rather dazed. Her face and body also looked saggy. Perhaps it was due to the anesthetic that acted as some form of muscle relaxant and her body was also weak after the surgery. Afterall, it was no small surgery that her womb was removed. Sigh. This morning, I noticed that she did not eat or drink much at all. When I offered her a leaf of veg, she took a few bites of that. At least she is eating. She also started moving about compared to last night where she simply can stay at one position for more than 30 minutes.

By evening, she was up and running like before. All the food from the morning especially the vegetables were eaten up and there were some soft stools in a couple of places. There were healthy looking poos in her litterpan. Phew. So glad that she's back to her eating habits again. Hope that she will recover well, meanwhile I will leave her alone to rest for a couple more days.

Misty - the brave and strong bunny