An Afternoon of Rabbits …
Sometimes I just sit and watch, take pictures and enjoy having them with me still …
Nap time
Stretch ...
Good grooming
Shadow makes it to the hay bowl first
Everybunny bellies up to the hay bowl
Ready, set ...
Taking turns, Shadow first
... and now Tigger's turn
A Picture Instead of 1000 Words
Throughout the month of September we were dealing with on and off stomach issues with Tigger. She would be on and off her diet and need gas meds, pain meds, and force feedings of Oxbow Critical Care at times and syringed water. On the 24th, we wrote that she seemed to have turned the corner. Since then she has continued to improve and the picture shows that improvement.
With bunnies, we have learned that subtle behavior changes can signal their health issues more clearly if you watch them closely. When Shadow spends a lot of time cleaning his ears or has one ear up, one ear down, we know it is time to have the vet take a look at his ears for an inner or outer ear problem.
With Tigger, a clear signal that her tummy is fine can be seen in this photo. She is kicked back with her back legs stretched out and is lying full-out on her stomach out in the open. When she starts pulling her legs underneath her and looking like a bunny hen all the time, she is starting to have some issues and doesn’t want to lay on her stomach. Especially if she does that in places where it isn’t easy to reach her, we know she needs some help.
Our key to keeping our bunnies going throughout their ten and half years is keeping a close eye on their behavior, knowing quite well what is and is not normal for them. We have learned to recognize the small changes in their daily activity that can be signals of changes in their health. Since both bunnies are elderly now, we keep a closer watch on them now than we did when they were younger and act more quickly if it seems something isn’t right.
Being able to have more pictures like this makes life so sweet.
Freaky Friday Instead of Follow Friday
Just a quick post here as today went really freaky midway through and I have been trying to get back on course ever since. It was a beautiful fall day, not too hot, not too cold. The skies were blue, the sun was shining and then the tornado sirens went off and continued to go off ???
Normally they test them the first Wednesday of each month at noon, so not a normal test day, no bad weather to be seen ??? When I checked weather.com, it showed an alert had just been released for our area warning of high risk for fires. So were they trying to alert us to that ??? There was no smoke to be seen and no smell of fire in the air.
So I called 911, twice and twice my phone service told me the number was not a working number ??? So I am starting to freak out as the sirens are still going off and I have no idea what is going on. I’m trying and failing to find the full phone number for the police department. So I phone the hubby and ask him to find the number and call the police for info while I head back to check outside again.
Hubby called back a few minutes later. He had reached the police who had answered the phone, saying “We don’t know why they are going off either” and then hung up. He said they sounded quite frazzled. So best guess is that someone saw the National Weather Service alert about the fire warning and turned on the sirens, leaving everyone including the authorities scrambling but clueless as to what was wrong.
Oh and the bunnies were taking their usual afternoon nap in their cages and weren’t bothered by it at all.
Would You Like to Take a Survey?
I would like to ask a favor today. If you have just a minute or so, could you pop on over to the Etsy Rabbits team blog and take the poll on the left. We are looking to increase readers for the blog and have just five items and want to know if those items are of interest to people who might read or follow the blog. You can pick all the items, some of the items or none of the items.
If you have the time and want to leave a longer comment, we would be happy to hear suggestions:
http://etsyrabbits.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-planning-what-interests-you.html
Thank you!
What Does It Mean When A Tigger Sees Her Shadow?
Well I know it means more winter when the groundhog sees his shadow. So what does it mean when a Tigger sees her shadow? Are we about to be hit with winter early in Georgia? It has been cooler than usual for this time of year.
It was cute to see Tigger pause in her rounds in a way that had the light hitting her just right to give her a shadowy twin.
Needing to Force Feed Your Bunny? Try This First …
I'm Acorn and not feeling so good ...
We have known Acorn and his mom all of his ten years. He has been a very healthy bunny, but is now sick and needing a number of medications and some extra feedings of Oxbow Critical Care. His mom called today for some advice on how to do the syringe feedings to get more of the food into Acorn.
After talking with Acorn’s mom and emailing her a link, I realized this would be something good to let more people know about. The first thing you may want to try if you need to force feed your rabbit is to see if you can take the force out of the equation. It is always better if the bunny feeds themself. I came across these recipes, http://rabbit.org/care/recipes.html, on the House Rabbit Society website.
They feature pellets ground in a coffee grinder which works if you don’t have access to Oxbow’s Critical Care. If you have the Critical Care for a sick rabbit, use that in place of the ground pellets. The Critical Care is specially formulated to have lots of good stuff to assist rabbits nutritionally who are ill.
I suggested trying the Banana Pellet Balls first to see if Acorn would voluntarily consume his Critical Care which would make things less stressful for everyone. Either the Pellet Balls or the pumpkin mix in a bowl can be offered first to a bunny to see if they will eat without having to be force-fed by syringe. Shadow will sometimes eat a Critical Care mixture on his own but our Princess Tigger never volunteers for anything, ever.
Hoping this helps!
Day Two of International Rabbit Day Weekend – A Personal Celebration
Just an image for today: Tigger, Shadow and bye bye banana
Day One of International Rabbit Day Weekend – A Personal Celebration
I would call this photo, Tigger gives thanks, for all of us. Over this past month when I have seen the postings for International Rabbit Day for either today or tomorrow, I was wondering if we would reach this weekend and still have two rabbits. Shadow’s allergies moved into a more serious case of Snuffles right before Labor Day. Since both bunnies tend to pass infections back and forth, both were started on the antibiotic Baytril.
After just a few days on Baytril, Tigger’s stomach problems returned and we needed to take her off the Baytril. Shadow finished out his two weeks continuing to improve. Starting earlier this week he has been a bouncier, happier, hungrier bunny than he has been in months. Tigger however throughout this month has continued to have stomach issues. She has been on again off again for appetite and on again off again for us giving her gas meds, pain meds and force feedings of Oxbow’s Critical Care and syringed water.
It has been very frustrating trying different combinations of hay, pellets and greens and having her at times even refuse her favorite treats of banana or dried fruits. It has been exhausting and heartbreaking at times wondering if she was going to pull out of this. She was overweight and we had been trying before this month to adjust her diet to help her to lose the excess weight. Now in one month with her stomach issues, she has dropped about a pound.
There were some bad moments this week when she really seemed hungry, but lacking appetite and exhausted all at the same time. Then we noticed a trend to her eating Kale and having a really bad spell. So even though Tigger loves Kale, we eliminated it on Thursday. Today, it is like we have a new and improved Tigger back. She is bouncing around, getting into everything and eating as if to make up for a month-long starvation diet.
I just hope she doesn’t overdo it all! However, it is a wonderful day and weekend to celebrate that we have two lovely companion rabbits who though elderly are still with us.
Follow Friday – The Etsy Rabbits Team
Click the image to see all the International Rabbit Day Treasuries by team members
Team members of the Etsy Rabbits team have been working to let everyone on Etsy know about International Rabbit Day. Since celebrations of the day have been listed for either the fourth Saturday / Sunday of September, the team has chosen to make the most of the different dates and we will celebrate on both the 24th and 25th, making it a rabbit day weekend.
Throughout the month of September and especially this coming weekend, team members have been creating wonderful treasuries. These feature the work of team members and many other Etsy shops. They have been finding some fabulous handcrafted bunny rabbits and lovely vintage items too!
Check out the Etsy Rabbits team blog to see mini shots of the treasuries. You can click on those treasury minis to go to the full treasuries and view items of interest. It is a wonderful time to shop and buy gifts for rabbit lovers, splurge on yourself, or even get something for your rabbit. Many team members currently have house rabbits, some are involved in rabbit rescue work and designate a portion or all of sales to be donated to rescue groups. There are shops that have items for rabbits and other pets too.
The blog will be updated with new treasuries as they are posted throughout the weekend, so check back for new finds! If you like a treasury, you can favorite it or Tweet it or like it on Facebook to share with others. Leaving comments, clicking on items in treasuries, and favoriting them can increase the visibility for them. We would love to really up the visibility of rabbits this weekend by having them be really very visible on a huge website like Etsy that has millions of viewers worldwide.
Getting ready to bunny hop big time!
Reminder – International Rabbit Day is Just Days Away
Just a reminder that International Rabbit Day is coming this weekend. Depending on which source you refer to, it is set for the fourth Saturday or Sunday in September which would be the 24th or 25th this year.
Here is one suggestion for whichever day you are observing: “Celebrate this special day with your pet rabbit. Learn a little more about him and how to properly care for his needs. If you don’t have a pet, maybe today is the day to get a pet rabbit! “
Click here to go to Holiday Insights for more information on the meaning and origin International Rabbit Day.
