Dealing with a terminally ill rabbit

[Sycamore Chins]

I'm hoping someone out there has had a similar experience, so I don't feel so alone in this.

Friday my rabbit (7 yrs old) was diagnosed with cancer, likely osteosarcoma. She has a tumor off her right tibia about the size of a garlic clove. From what the vet and I have read, osteosarcomas aren't as aggressive in rabbits as in cats and dogs, but at the same time we think this tumor grew to garlic clove size in 2-3 weeks...so she may have a very aggressive form.

She was on Metacam but I didn't think it was helping so she is on Buprenex and Rimadyl right now. I think it is helping now that she's been on it for almost 48 hours. She is having these episodes where it seems like her leg gets stuck in one position and she freaks out and hops around her cage a few times then (presumable straightens her leg out) calms down and goes back to resting.

Yesterday she didn't want to have anything to do with the bag of goodies my neighbor (fellow vet student and rabbit/bird rescuer) brought over for her. I wasn't sure if this was due to meds or pain. When I woke up today she had eaten all the treats and took some from my hands. She also took some parsley this afternoon. Thankfully, I think she is having a better day today than yesterday.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, i've never dealt with a terminally ill pet before. I just don't know what to do, and don't know how to judge when it is time. I'm a firm believer of "better too soon, than too late" but I just don't know with her. It's freaking cancer, something that is so unpredictable. With our chins and our previous rabbit we knew we needed to euthanize them, or they died on their own.

So, I guess I'm just looking for how you knew when it was time to put your rabbit down. I've heard that some rabbits will stop eating from pain and some won't. Some will just not find it worth it to get up and go to the other side of the cage for food or water. She is eating and drinking and peeing and pooping in her litter box. I just don't want to wait till it's too late...

Attached is a picture of my girl, Annabelle. Don't mind the eyes - it's from the eye lube from sedation for x-rays.

 

[mercynursie]

I'm so sorry about your bunny.She's a beautiful girl.I can only suggest what our vet from my early childhood always told us.He said to pick three things that we knew our pet really loved in life and write them down.When our beloved pet could no longer enjoy those things,it was time to give them the gift of peace and ultimate healing.This has helped me with my decisions so many times.It's just different when an animal is suffering from injury or disease vs the natural process of growing old and slowing down.I hope this will help you in your walk,both now and in the future.I'll be praying for you and your loved ones as I know how hard this can be.:flowers5:

 

[Laurie]

Alicyn I'm sorry you are having to go through this with you bunny. I have had to put a pet to sleep--my cat, Sam, just last July and I've also sat by my sister's beside while she died of breast cancer. It isn't easy. And for me I feel no one or no thing should ever have to suffer. When she is no longer herself you will know it's time. And remember the decision you make will be a loving a decision.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

I have made a list of 3 things she likes and taped it to her cage.

She is such a trooper with the meds, she's getting stuck 4 times a day but puts up with it so well. The rimadyl apparently stings, which I feel terrible about.

 

[EMSChins]

I am so sorry Alicyn. This is a long story but maybe it will help. Sometimes your pet can help you know when it is time.

We had a German Shepherd, TC who was diagnosed at the age of 8 years old with Hemangiosarcoma. He never had a sick day in his life. I saw what I thought was a small blood splatter on a lower kitchen cabinet and went looking for the source. It almost looked like he had sneezed and I was worried that there was a cut on his nose or something. After looking him all over, all I could find was a very small ulcer by one of his upper back teeth. I thought that maybe he had cut himself chewing on a stick or something but since he had apparently bled enough to sneeze it all over the cabinet I took him to the vet. She knew right away as soon as she saw the small ulcer on his mucosa what it was but did xrays to confirm. He was riddled with cancer.

It was impossible to believe because he was acting perfectly healthy. This was one month before Christmas and at the time this was our only pet. My middle son was especially attached to this dog and the thought of him dying over Christmas was almost too much to think about. The vet said that without very aggressive surgery that would likely involve resecting his jaw and leave him unable to eat that he probably wouldn't make it to Christmas. He has tumors in his heart and in his lungs and liver. We decided to wait and watch as he was acting fine and we decided that quality of life was more important to us - thus began my daily prayer of recognizing when it would be the right time.

It seems as soon as he was diagnosed he began to slow down but anyone on the outside wouldn't know anything was wrong. Instead of sleeping under our bed, he now slept in the hallway halfway between our bedroom and the boys bedrooms as if torn between us and them. He followed us everywhere. He remained playful and his appetite remained good.

Christmas Eve he stopped eating. We had to go to the Grandparents, the boys were little, this was Christmas, what to do, stay home in case he died, go because the boys would be disappointed. I wasn't sure he would still be there when we returned. I left thinking this sucks!!! But I had a feeling that T.C. wouldn't do this to Tyler, not on Christmas anyway. We returned home late that night with 3 very tired kids. T.C. was waiting for us at the door with his tail wagging. We put the kids to bed and I slept on the floor with him in front of the fireplace as he could not make it up the stairs to sleep in the hallway for the first time in his life. I prayed all night long for him not to die on Christmas and even more that he not be in any pain. He didn't seem to be, just tired.

Christmas morning, I woke to him licking my face. We woke the kids up because Santa had come. T.C. was perfect, could it be a Christmas miracle? He sniffed around his gifts and got all excited just like every other Christmas, his tail wagging threatening to knock over the tree. He tore open his gift as he knew that his was always the first gift...not his regular rawhide bone which was his favorite thing in the world (yes, I know those are bad for him which is why he only got one for Christmas), but something soft to chew so his mouth wouldn't bleed. Christmas was perfect, the kids had some surprises in the basement and we have great pictures of TC playing in our 2 year daughters new playhouse with her, he was up and down the stairs all day with the kids. No evidence of the night he had had.

Christmas night we put them to bed. He couldn't make it up the stairs for a second night in a row. I slept with him on the floor again knowing that while I was so worried that I wouldn't know when it was the right time to do what was right for our friend that he did everything he could to make it through a very important time in our kids lives and a treasured family ritual of watching a dog get excited about tearing the wrapping paper off of a bone every Christmas. He gave that to them one more time to remember him by. As I lay there that night looking into his big brown eyes while he raised and lowered his eyebrows at me (anyone with a Shepherd will know exactly what I am talking about), he told me that it was time.

The next morning, he couldn't get up off of the floor. He didn't act as if he was in pain, he was just so weak. My kids got to say goodbye, we had time to make a treasured grave marker with his pawprint in it and an imprint of his favorite bone and my son came up with the phrase "TC, gone but never fogotten." That stone has followed us to every home we have lived in since. If we have a pet that dies whether it is a fish or a chinchilla kit, it gets buried around the stone and TC watches over them for us.

No one can tell you when it is time, it is never easy but this is your pet so you will know.

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Thank you Juanita.

This came as a huge shock to me as well - she is healthy in every way shape and form except for this cancer. I just built her a new cage a month ago and just planted seeds for mustard greens and parsley so she could have her own garden, thinking she would be around a few more years...now I don't think she'll be around by the time it's big enough to be eaten.
I took her in to the vet for limping, thinking it was a sprain or something from the way she tears around her new cage. I was expecting a call Friday after classes, but called in between classes to straighten something out and the vet said he was done with the x-rays and had news for me. It was 4 minutes before my next class was supposed to start when he told me. I was pretty much crying through my entire neuro class.

I really do hope she lets me know...

 

[Sycamore Chins]

Annabelle is having a good day today - she seems bright and spunky like just before she started limping. She rearranged her cage while I was in school so that's a good sign.

I did trick her today - she thinks tasty things come from syringes but I decided to try giving her the rimadyl orally. Boy was she surprised when she found out it's NOT tasty! She did take it though, and if she takes it orally that's one less injection I have to give.

I talked to my pathology professor and he pretty much told me the same things I found about osteosarcoma. He said the NSAID may help with the inflammation and even slow the progression down. It seems like the Opioid and the NSAID are working well on her.

She will be donated to my school when we euthanize her. My professor will do full necropsy on her and she will be used to teach next years first year pathology lab as a case study.