Pet Forum / Mammals / Rabbits / July 2008

Hi guys,

Just a followup about Precious. She went into surgery on Monday as you know.
The vet planned exploratory to see what the lump was. When she went in, she
found cancer everywhere. The uteris was about 5 or 6 times the normal size.
She was able to remove all that. She then found that the cancer had attached
to the fat and was wrapped around the kidney. She was surprised to be able
to remove this as well. The cancer also had the bladder totally compromised
and that would explain her problems with peeing the last few days. After
looking after the kidneys, she kept checking and found that the cancer had
also spread to the lymph nodes. She did as much as she could in the surgery.
Her plan was to make her more comfortable so that hopefully she could get
her appetite back and be able to pee ok. When she was closing, Precious'
heart stopped. Probably a blessing given the prognosis - although not too
easy on us. We definitely would not want her to suffer. I guess we didn't
expect this although we were not surprised at the cancer diagnosis. Debbie
was at the hospital that morning and I got the call there while she was in
recovery after having a procedure done. Debbie was shocked and devastated.

She wasn't with us long (only 5 weeks) but she definitely left a permanent
impression on us. She was such a special bun with a wonderful personality.
It's funny how no matter what they are going through, they try their best to
be there for us. I know Precious was in pain but she was upbeat, loved to be
snuggled and scratched and did her best to eat whatever i gave her. She
loved dandilions and did her best to keep eating right to the end. She was
pretty laid-back and loved lying on the bed with Debbie with her head
nuzzled in under Debbie's chin. Even when we were trying to clean her last
weekend, she didn't complain and sat there and let us do what we had to do.

She is now at rest under the maple tree in our back yard and can be seen
from the patio doors in our family room. If we had not taken her for that
intial routine checkup, I'm sure she would not have let us known she was
sick until it got too bad. The vet said she probably wouldn't have lasted a
week without the surgery.

The sad thing is this could have been prevented if she had been spayed when
she was younger as we all know. Precious shows us the importance of having
the buns get checkups early and regularly. Also, spaying is so important to
their long term health.

She was one of a kind. Her original name was Garden Patches. But Debbie says
that where she was almost put down before we adopted her, that every day was
precious and that should be her name. Little did we know how prophetic this
was.

We loved her and will always remember her. Here we were rescuing her and it
seems she was doing something special for us. She graced our lives and I
wouldn't change a single thing. I am glad we made the decision to rescue
her. We said she would give her a forever home with us and we are proud to
say we did that.

I can't explain the depth of how she touched our lives in such a short time.
We have lost pets before but this seems so much worse for soem unexplainable
reason. Debbie feels like she really tapped into her heart. She held her all
the way home from the vet cuddled to her chest. She would not let me bury
her till she had said her goodbyes. Debbie had a hard time letting her go
even though the rational part of her knew it was time. When I took her from
Debbie the last time, the tears were flowing freely.

Joe (for Debbie), little Zoe Bunny, Tabitha Trueheart, Tiffany and Bugsy the
Bandit.

Dear Precious, may you find health and happiness at the bridge. I know there
are lots of APR bunnies there to welcome you and show you around. We will
love you and miss you forever but we thank you for blessing our lives for
the time that we had with you - it truly was precious.