Monday Bunday: Sketches

It's all a bit of a jumble, this moving and despite best efforts and having use of my bro's truck (OK pictures of me in the truck next time, maybe) I only have a chair and three boxes in the garage. There's been a couple of setbacks; a gas leak in the garage and a new carpet that needed cleaning and the off-gassing sealed. It looks, however, like DS will be joining the 4 Buns of Fun and myself at the new warren. These sketches were done for the Sketchbook Project. My theme is "Inside/Outside", but it might as well be rabbits, not everything I've sketched has been rabbits, but maybe almost.....

Have a decent week everyone, thanks for visiting.

Monday Bunday

"Look out below, Mere Mortals"

Twister Thursday

As we have discussed before in this blog, Yoga was invented in India by a rabbit. It is still practiced by rabbits, but not in a class setting, rather is it integrated throughout the buns daily activities. Here, Amelia demonstrates a simple seated twisted pose. You have most likely seen your rabbit do same. Twists help maintain a supple spine and gently massage the intestines. Although humans can by no means achieve the level of cuteness that a rabbit can, we can, like our bunny teachers, integrate gentle twists and stretches into daily life.

Monday Bunday: Call to Action

Space Walk Bunny

Attention fellow and sister Bunheads here is an opportunity to get some good rescue rabbit PR out to the general public. The talented Etsy quilt maker Cindi Glinksi has created a Bunny quilt for the NASA Etsy Spacecraft Contest. As you can see it is a fabulously wonderful piece and has been chosen as a finalist. For the bun to win it must get the most votes and anyone can vote, but just once, it's not like in real elections. The winner gets lots of publicity since Cindi not only a bunny lover but a rescue supporter as well, rabbits and rescues will be in the forefront, where they belong.

Click HERE to vote on Etsy.

Amelia doing her Rembrant imitation.

VOTE, it won't take hardly a minute and could make a big difference.

Art is powerful.

It's Thursday and An Incident

Twice weekly visits to the Farmer's Market are required by the four rabbits here at the Raboratory. They claim it is in their contract or within their scope of practice or one of many inalienable rights depending on the day. I didn't buy the limes for them, I brought them, 5 for two bucks, because of the color, though I did think I could take some pictures with rabbits and the marvelous limes and what fun that would be and it was. They all wanted to eat them after an initial sniff.

At the Farmer's Market there is often musical entertainment. This week there was a fine guitarist, Boogie Bruce. He had four guitars and played some fantastic steely blues while I was there. I gave him a dollar. Outside the natural foods store where I went to buy ginger there was an older gentleman playing really good violin, no really good. I didn't buy the ginger they had because it was from China and that seemed like way too far away.

Further up the Mall, which is not Mall as in a covered shopping mall or a strip mall, but just a one lane street with lots of businesses. Some call it the heart of downtown Santa Cruz. Further up the Mall playing off the acoustics of buildings that replaced those taken by the earthquake of '89, was Santa Claus type of fellow. Though unlike Santa he wore a blue and white baseball cap with a six pointed star. He also wore dark blue Crocs with grey striped socks. Standing on a corner amidst the tall buildings he played a jazz trumpet. The song "On the Street Where You Live", the notes riffed and rippled up and falling back down off the walls and coating the street as dusk, too, fell. Amazing stuff. I gave him a dollar too.

I give a little more rent when I have more patients than usual. Not because I have to, but because I know that my office mate, the lease holder, has to carry the office and he's struggling to do that since not all the days are sublet. When the State Board of Equalization called me a few days back trying to get all my info current, I was asked how much rent I paid and I said usually $200, but sometimes I pay more voluntarily, just trying to be fair. There was a sort of silence on the other end. "I guess you don't hear that often" I ventured.....

Lest you think the Raboratory these days is all posed photos with brightly colored fruits that rabbits can't eat. Here is an incident that occurred just last night. Tyler was just too happy to comply with Amelia's constant grooming requests and simply rolled over on his back, feets in the air.

Tyler the Love Pillow

Today's breakfast basket special was Hidden Surprise in a Radicchio shell. Unbeknownst to the buns inside the cilantro garnished radicchio nestled in a bed of dandelions lay 3 chunks of fresh home grown pumpkin. Not a secret for long split seconds after the baskets were introduced the pumpkin had been plucked.....

Amelia excavates for the golden treasure within.

And is rewarded.

Harriet just after she finds her first piece.

Sydney guards her tasty bit.

Good to the very last molecule.

Tyler amidst the carnage, hunting for more pumpkin.

Yes, they did finish their meal, completely and utterly.

An Incident

Disclaimer: this is single incident and does not apply to all rabbits who do not eat, many of these rabbits could benefit from veterinary care and intervention.

On Thursday Harriet decided she would not eat. All treats were summarily refused with the turning of the black nose. She seemed depressed. However her posture was not hunched, nor was she grinding her teeth or drooling. Her ears ere cool. I rubbed her tummy, I massaged her ears and back. Around 11 I gave her some pumpkin through a syringe. I could hear a gurgle in her intestines, her abdomen did not seem particularly bloated or hard. I went off to a two hour seminar on Autoimmune Conditions and Nitric Oxide. On my return she seemed a bit more lethargic, though in all fairness it wasbunny nap time. Feeling a bit over loaded in other categories, I decided to see if the vet could see her. At 4 we were at the vet. Although our regular Dr. was not there, there was an exotics specialist. Harriet charmed the staff and was well behaved for all the pokings and prodings. Her temperature was normal and she weighed 7 lbs and 1 oz. The vet couldn't find anything wrong as far as obstructions in the intestines, or with her teeth, nor did Harriet seem to be in any sort of pain. The vet was happy with Harriet's diet and could find no fault that may have caused the problem: Ritz Crackers, Chocolate Cake, excessive rug chewing... The diagnosis was gas. This based on my having heard gas gurgles two times at home. I was given the opportunity to leave her for treatment and observation or do the procedures myself at home. Some pet owners would not have had the latter option, but I am all too well known at the vet's and can perform almost any task a vet tech can. We got an IV bag with SubQ fluids, antibiotics ( apparently there can be build up of bacteria with stasis which must be controlled), a motility inducer, and some Critical care.

$153 dollars later I put Harriet back in her space at home and started unpacking the pharmacy. Harriet went straight to her box and started eating hay, she left a couple poops. Then she got out and did some grooming, plenty of twisting (work that tummy) and face work, (such a face she has, have I mentioned that?) and she ate some cecals (nature's probiotic for rabbits). Then she got back in her box and ate more hay and did 20 poops. She gobbled up the rose I proffered. She chewed vigorously on some matting. I called the vet and inquired if I could just wait and observe, hold off on all the meds. No, I was told, do all the meds until the bunny if eating and pooping normally. Over the course of the next few hours it became quite clear that if I administered all the meds I would in fact be keeping the bunny from eating and pooping normally. She ate almost all of a normal greens vegie dinner with her warren mates. I held off on the meds. During the night I could hear her eating hay and at one point drinking. The next day she was perfectly fine full of piss and vinegar, begging for food and boxing with Amelia.

Naturally, I am grateful she has recovered and certainly the next time she skips a meal and has no other symptoms I'll let her recover in her own way for the first say, 24 hours. about every 3-4 months Tyler or Sydney will skip a meal in just this same way. The first time this happened with Tyler I brought him in to see the vet and really all she could say was maybe he has a little gas. When Sydney first did this I couldn't catch her to take her to the vet. Generally speaking if I can't catch the rabbit, the rabbit doesn't need to go to the vet. Now on to gas, often I have heard gas inside Amelia as she stretches out. It's presence was not accompanied by any refusal to eat or discomfort. It would seem that gas alone is not indicative of a problem. Thinking about wild rabbits I would imagine that every so often they don't have 4 square meals and 12 snacks a day. It is hard to know how many wild rabbits get stasis, that sort thing doesn't make it into the news or even Facebook. A brief investigation points to stasis being a domestic rabbit condition. Many factors could be contributors to this: lack of proper space to exercise in, the wrong sorts of food. Wild rabbits live in social groups, could this somehow contribute to maintaining digestive health? It is true that premature babies grow more quickly and become viable faster if they are touched.

Back to Harriet the only things I could think of that could have sparked the digestive strike are: dandelions too many meals in a row and lack of contact. In the wild I imagine that rabbits eat a variety of foods everyday, I could certainly be wrong, but could there be a mechanism instilled in rabbit physiology that prevents the animal from mono dieting. In humans a mono diet can lead to food allergies and other imbalances as an imbalance of constituents accumulates in the tissues and irritates the digestive tract. Then there is lack of contact. Harriet still isn't getting groomed by any of the other rabbits. In the couple days leading up the incident I'd been very busy on the other side of the fence and actually did feel like I wasn't giving her enough attention. There was a point when I picked up Amelia and saw Harriet watching and I though "Uh, oh she was hurt by that". But how silly is that? My scientific brothers often remind me not anthropomorphize. However it is true that in Chinese Medicine the condition called "Wood Attacking Earth" can result in a lack of appetite. The Wood element can be adversely effected by emotional upset........

I did get most of my money back for the meds.

Monday Bunday

AMELIA HELPS

click title to see the film short

HARRIET HELPS

click title to see film short

The films are very short for the reason that if they went on any longer the pumpkin would be gone. All the buns have sampled on of the home grown pumpkins and their appetites are well and truly whetted for this winter treat, which they go after like sharks on a rump roast, if I may use a predator metaphor to make a point.

Enter November with a scarf and without fear.