Comment on Grieving the loss of a rabbit by Marina.
I am so glad I found this site and to know that I’m not alone in my grief.
My beautiful girl Sprout died yesterday of GI stasis and I feel insanely guilty. She ate fine at dinner, bouncy as usual and good poop. The next morning wouldn’t touch her pellets, so I immediately became worried and gave her Critical Care and Reglan that I had left over from a previous visit at the vet. Waited and nothing. Called vet. Appointment available but only the next day. Repeat critical care 2 more times over the next several hours. No improvement so I took her in the middle of the night to an animal ER. She got worse overnight because the ER vet didn’t know how to treat rabbits that well and wasn’t sure what to do next. In the morning I transferred her to her regular rabbit-savvy vet, but despite talking to him on the phone and telling him about her critical condition he only assessed her 3 hours after I brought her to him. I was so angry. A few hours later he sent her home telling me she was “better” only for her to die in my arms within the hour. This has been very traumatic for me and I am extremely devastated. I blame myself very much because I trusted the vets and I shouldn’t have. I could have given her better care at home i.e. giving her critical care and staying with her overnight. I will probably never forgive myself for this. I’m so angry that the ER vet didn’t know anything about rabbits yet still agreed to see her (most of them would say, “no we don’t see rabbits” if they aren’t comfortable) and I am SO angry that her regular vet waited 3 HOURS until he assessed her (I brought her at noon in critical condition and she saw her at 3pm!) then told me she was much better, only for her to die less than 45min in my arms at home. And I am SO angry with myself for letting all of this happen. I feel like I should have advocated for her better and that I didn’t protect her well. I love my other bunnies very much but this experience has left me incredibly bitter towards rabbit healthcare. It’s like her little life didn’t matter to anyone else. Needless to say I got a new vet now. I work in human healthcare and while I know some things about rabbit health I am a human doctor and not a vet. When dealing with human patients if I don’t know how to do something I call my specialist colleagues right away. Also I would never leave a critical patient to wait for an assessment for 3 hours because of course they would die. I am just so angry and I had to include it in my rant.
She was almost 2yrs old and had so much life left in her. And I am so incredibly heartbroken.
Writing all of this out just breaks my heart.
However I am hoping that this will help someone at some point. Please research your vets and animal ER hospitals very carefully.