Bunday Blog Business: Epinette's Battle with Pneumonia

It's been a long time since we did a Bunday Blog Business.  Most of the time, Epinette and I (Pippin) are just so busy with relaxing on the couch and eating hay that we really just can't get motivated to write a blog post.  The rest of the time I am busy doing audits, like garbage can audits and closet audits and hay feeder audits and audits under the couch.  It's exhausting.  The female hoomin bean (FHB) said we should do one anyway.  So, we are going to blog about a difficult subject today, and that is the subject of Epinette's health.

Sometime in early February, the FHB noticed that Epinette was sneezing a bit.  She thought it was because there was dust in the hay bale.  She took a close look at Epinette and there was nothing coming out of her nose, so the FHB didn't think it was too serious.  There was more sneezing.  The FHB thought maybe she had an allergy to a plant in the hay.  She looked at Epinette's nose again.  There was still nothing, but the FHB decided that Epinette was maybe starting to have a little trouble with breathing, so the FHB decided that it was time to go to the vet.

Epinette went to the vet on February 22, and she came home with some medication called Enrofloxacin, which is also called Baytril.  The FHB was putting it on fresh kale and snow peas, and feeding it to Epinette.  I wasn't getting any.  I didn't think this was fair.  Why wasn't I getting this treat on my snow peas?  The FHB said I didn't "need" it because I wasn't sick.  The vet had said that Epinette had a respiratory infection.  The Baytril was an antibiotic to make her get better.

She didn't get better.

The FHB took Epinette back to the vet after 2 weeks of Baytril.  By this time, Ivy the rat was also sick with pneumonia, but the vet said it was a different kind of pneumonia.  Ivy had a different medicine.  Epinette came back with Sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim.  The FHB put it on Epinette's snow peas and kale.  Epinette did not like it, and she stopped eating the snow peas and kale.  I wanted to eat them, but the FHB said I wasn't allowed.  So, the FHB had to start putting the medicine in a syringe and putting it into Epinette's mouth.  I can tell you, Epinette was not pleased by this turn of events.

By this time, Epinette was having a lot of trouble with her breathing, and she was sneezing and coughing a lot.  She had started to tilt her head upwards, to make it easier for her to breathe, and her nostrils were really flaring.  You can see her head is not in the normal position (like mine) in this picture.

The FHB noticed that Epinette's sides were really moving a lot when she was breathing, whereas my sides were just making small movements, like a normal rabbit.  The FHB gave her the new medicine for a week.

She didn't get better.  She was tipping her head more, and breathing through her mouth.

The FHB shook her head and said this wasn't good, so she took Epinette back to the vet again.

This time, they got serious and did some x-rays.  I bet most of you have not seen an x-ray of a rabbit before.  Here is your chance.  You can see in this x-ray, at the top of the area where her ribs start, there is a sort of a round-ish blob, and on the left side there is a sort of darker triangle-ish area.  That is her good lung.  The one on the other side, the right of the picture, is not dark and open looking, so it's collapsed, and overlaying the heart.  Also, you can see that the whole lung area is kind of speckled or mottled.  That's the pneumonia making fluid or mucus in the lungs.  You can also see that at the base of her ears, she has fairly bright loop structures in her head.  That is the ear infection.  It looks like two letter Vs at the bottom of her head. 

The vet in Moncton sees a lot of rabbits, and she looked at the x-rays and she noticed that Epinette's heart appeared to be extremely large.  I could have said this was because she has a lot of love in her, but the vet said this was because she likely had a heart condition.  The FHB was not pleased with this news because it meant that Epinette had maybe weeks or months to live.  The vet also said this was the reason why there wasn't any yucky stuff coming out of Epinette's nose.  Usually with rabbits, like humans, stuff comes out their nose, and you can see it on their front paws too, where they try to clean their nose.  Epinette had none of that.

The vet said that because it was an unusual case, she was submitting the x-rays to an international panel of consulting vets, to get another opinion.  The FHB liked this idea.

The very next day, a vet in Germany sent information to the vet in Moncton.  The amazing news was that Epinette did not have a heart condition.  What looked like an enlarged heart was actually a normal heart (still full of love) that was overlaid by a collapsed lung.  The lung and the heart together made it look like an enlarged heart.  So, the new diagnosis was that Epinette had pneumonia, and a collapsed lung.  This is quite serious, and in the meantime, Ivy the rat had died of pneumonia, so the FHB was really worried about Epinette.  We still don't know why she doesn't have any stuff coming out of her nose.

The vet in Germany also pointed out that Epinette had a very serious ear infection.  The treatment of rabbit ear infections is quite complicated because in some cases (like Epinette's), the infection is behind the ear drum, so it is hard to access.  The other problem is that the infection is in the ear canal, which is an air-filled space, so the blood vessels carrying any antibiotics do not reach into this space.

So, Epinette got a new medicine that the FHB has to give her using a big scary needle that she pokes into Epinette's back muscle, right next to her spine.  Fortunately, the FHB has had many years of administering sub-cuteaneous and intra-muscular injections to sheep and goats, so she was totally up for the job.  Epinette is less than impressed.

So the FHB gave Epinette an injection, once per week, for 3 weeks, of Duplocillin, which for the scientists out there is a combination of procaine benzylpenicillin and benzathine benzylpenicillin.  It is a strong antibiotic that isn't used in rabbits except in quite serious cases, but Epinette needed the "big guns" for this health problem, so that's what she has.  I am quite worried about her, but Epinette pats me on the head and says she'll be alright.

On Thursday of this past week, Epinette went to the vet for follow-up x-rays to see how things were going.  The FHB felt that her breathing was improving and that she was in less discomfort, although she is still sneezing a lot.  The x-rays showed the good news that Epinette's lung was now re-inflated and not collapsed.  In addition, much of the mottling in the lungs caused by the pneumonia was cleared, but there was still some at the upper portion of the lung, which is why Epinette is still sneezing and having some breathing trouble.  In the x-ray below, you can see that the lung on the right side of the picture is now more open, and there is much less speckling and mottling.  You can also see there is still an issue with her ears.

Epinette is now getting the Duplocillin injections for another 3 weeks.

The not-so-good news was that the antibiotic had essentially no effect on the ear infection.  This is very unfortunate.  At this time, Epinette is not showing any sign of vestibular distress (no head tilt, no excessive ear scratching) so the FHB thinks that she is not experiencing any pain or distress from the ear infection.  However, this could change, and the FHB is going to have to figure out what to do.  The vet said that the pneumonia is the first priority, and we are confident that is getting better and that after another 3 weeks with this antibiotic, she will probably be all better in her lungs.

Here is another picture of the ear infection from March 15...

...and April 5.

Those areas at the base of her ears should not be bright like they are on the x-rays. 

Sometimes dogs have inner ear infections like Epinette's.  Sometimes these dogs have surgery to remove part of the ear canal and they scrape out the infection and pack antibiotic into the space and then sew them up.  This has been done in some rabbits with mixed success.  The FHB will discuss the options with the vet in 3 weeks and will determine the best course of action.  The most important things are Epinette's quality of life and her comfort level.  The FHB does not want her to suffer.

The vet said that Epinette is "sassy" and that she was very grabby with the treats following the x-rays.  This is a positive thing because it shows she is in good spirits and has good energy levels.  I could have told the vet that she is sassy but nobody listens to me except when I am giving audit results.

So, the important thing is that we love Epinette very much and we are doing everything we can to help her get better and we hope that in time, her pneumonia will be all gone and also that her ear infection will subside.  We will keep you posted.

Bunday Blog Business

This week I'd like to advocate the benefits of resting.  We rest a lot during the day.  We might also rest a lot at night, although I'm not saying, because the female hoomin bean (FHB) is always wondering what we get up to at night, and I prefer to let her live in mystery.

Now that it is summertime here in Canada, we think that resting is a national pastime. There are hoomin beans resting everywhere - at the beach, on their deck, on their patio, at outdoor cafés, the list goes on and on.  We like to rest on the window sill.  The cat also likes to rest on the window sill, but we evict the cat when we want to be on the window sill, because bunnies have precedence since the cat can lounge in places that we can't reach.  It's only fair.

Lady Épinette Nutkin shows excellent resting form.  She stays close to the water dish.  The FHB always makes sure we have fresh water because it can get warm on the window sill in the sun. Épinette is also still moulting, so she needs to keep herself warm in the spots where she has less fur at the moment.

Sometimes we like to snuggle while we are resting.

Sometimes, we rest further apart.

Sometimes, Lady Épinette lets her leg dangle off the edge of the windows sill, in a most alluring way. I see the duck looking at her.

On cloudy days, like today, we put on our sombreros and have a siesta on the rug.

Bunday Business

Hello everybody!  It's Pippin reporting for Bunday Business.  Today, we need to talk about an embarrassing rabbit problem that plagues most of us, although on some of us it is more noticeable than on others.  The subject today is moulting.  By the way, we Canadian buns, and a lot of other buns around the world, spell it "moulting" but you American buns spell it "molting." It's the same thing.


The main thing is that it happens, and when it does, we can look pretty dreadful.  Sometimes people think we are not well, because we look like we might have mange or something.  There are lots of animals who moult.  Snakes shed their skins, horses shed their fluffier winter coats, chickens and other birds moult their feathers...so it's a totally normal thing, and buns should not be embarrassed about this normal phenomenon.


The female hoomin bean (FHB) had another bunny a long time ago named Thumper.  The FHB had him for 14 years!  He was a very senior bunny, but the FHB says she never saw him moult.  The FHB looked at Épinette Nutkin this week and she said "Hmmm...something odd is going on here."  She started to notice tufts of fur sticking this way and that out of Épinette Nutkin's back.  She brushed them away, and more of them showed up.  "Hmmm..." said the FHB.


Then, the FHB saw there was a bit of a bald spot forming on Épinette Nutkin's back, only it wasn't really bald, because there was new fur underneath.  "Pippin!" said the FHB, "you are a bad bunny! You have been pulling this fur out of Épinette Nutkin's back!"  I completely denied anything to do with it but she wasn't listening.


The next day, the bald spot was bigger and the FHB picked up Épinette Nutkin and inspected her.  As she did so, more fur began coming out in her fingers as she was doing the inspection.  "Ah-hah!" I said to her, "YOU have been pulling the fur out of Épinette Nutkin's back," but she wasn't listening again. She was sitting at her computer and using the Google thing to look up rabbit moulting.  "Hmmmm..." said the FHB.

Sure enough, she found out that some domestic rabbits do moult, and they look exactly like Épinette Nutkin in the pictures that Google showed her, and therefore it is not my fault at all, and possibly not the FHB's fault either, and just the fact that Épinette Nutkin is a very visible moulter.  Poor Épinette Nutkin thinks she might need a sweater to hide her funny fur until she is finished moulting, but I told her not to be so silly, it's just normal.


The FHB thinks that it might also be due to the fact that Épinette Nutkin wasn't in a very good place before she went to the SPCA where the hoomin beans got her, and maybe now that she is having proper nutrition and is settling in, she is having a very big moult to get rid of her former not-so-good fur.  The FHB learned that some rabbits have "mild" moults and "heavy" moults.  We'll have to see if this happens every time (rabbits can moult every 3 months) or if Épinette Nutkin is just having a special moult this time.


All rabbits moult to some extent, and some of us look worse than others when we do, but our lovely, soft, furry coats grow back and there is nothing wrong with moulting, so all of you bunnies who feel reclusive when you are moulting should moult with pride.  After all, the hoomin beans can't grow a whole new hairstyle every 3 months!

Bunday Banana Business

Today's post is all about bananas.  All of you bunnies and bunny lovers should know how much most of us adore bananas.  They are a very special delicacy.  The hoomin beans say that we should not eat very much of them because they are high in sugar, so if you are a hoomin bean and you are going to give banana to your bunny overlords and ladies, then do not give too much!

When the male hoomin bean (MHB) decides to have a banana, sometimes he sits on the couch in the home office, to chat with the FHB.  We can smell banana a mile away, so we know immediately when he brings one for us to share.  We rush to help him out with eating the banana.  Here you can see that I am very active in assisting with peeling the banana.  Naturally, this is my job, since I must carefully inspect the banana.

Hoomin beans are fussy and only eat the inside part of the banana.  We eat the peels, and the inside bits, and all the bits we can get into our mouths.  The MHB likes to feed us the "strings" as he calls them, that come from the layer between the banana and the peel. Here is Épinette Nutkin having a banana string.

I will stand on my hind legs to amuse the HBs and therefore obtain more banana strings.

The hoomin beans say that this is a very cute habit!

We are both very helpful with the peeling and the eating functions.

 Sometimes, the MHB has to hold the banana up in the air so we don't steal it from him (and believe me, we would steal it if we could!)

The best approach to this problem is to climb the hoomin bean to get to the banana.

We are both good climbers, but we aren't always successful....that crafty MHB just switches hands!

In summary, we both advocate for all hoomin beans sharing their bananas with bunnies.

Brief Bunday Blog Business

This week's Bunday Blog is, unfortunately, brief.  

The female hoomin bean (FHB) says there is just no time for blogging.  Doesn't she know how important it is?   

She says she is way behind on her work commitments and is going into panic mode.  We don't like it when she gets that way. 

Also, she has a very funny voice at the moment because she has some kind of respiratory illness and she sounds like a cross between a mouse and a frog.  Maybe some donkey noises thrown in for good measure.  We still love her because she picks dandelions for us, even when she is busy.  

Here you can see that Lady Épinette Nutkin's fur is growing back following her spaying operation. She likes to lie down on her side.  I just stay upright, to protect her in case of intruders.  The FHB says there won't be any intruders, but one cannot be too careful, especially when the FHB might be too busy to notice.

We hope that the FHB will give us more computer time next Bunday.

Bunday Blog Business

Well, today is quite exciting.  I am bringing you my report from the great outdoors!



The Lady Épinette Nutkin and I are enjoying some time in the sun!  The female hoomin bean (FHB) set up the exercise pen for us outside in the yard.  We are helping her by mowing the lawn.  Do not worry about us - she is monitoring us and there is netting over the top of the pen, so the hawks will not decide that we look tasty.


The FHB even picked some extra dandelions for us and we are snacking on those.


She gave us a water dish because it is warm and sunny, and we might get thirsty.  She also gave us a box for some shade, or to hide in if we get scared.


My recommendation is that all you buns reading the blog should encourage your hoomin bean to get you an exercise pen so you can go out in the sunshine too.  The air is full of interesting smells and the grass is really soft under your feet, and you can eat the dandelions and grass and feel like you are on a holiday.  Don't go on the grass if your hoomin bean sprays it with nasty chemicals.  Our hoomin beans do not spray at all, and they think that is best, so we don't have to worry about that problem here.

Sometimes we hear the goat - her name is Lucky Nickel.  She is always complaining about something.  Right now, her fleece is coming off.  The FHB didn't have time to shear her yet, and it's still cold at night.  The FHB says that Lucky Nickel looks like the wreck of the Hesperus.  We don't know anything about the Hesperus, but she is a funny looking goat.  We think she is interesting, but we are keeping our distance.

Have a dandelion-filled week!

Bunday Blog Business

The female hoomin bean (FHB) has been super-duper busy this week.  She has sat at her desk every day, all day, typing and grumbling and making flow diagrams and grumbling some more.  She gets a bit distracted when she's like that.  Sometimes, she does questionable things without really thinking about it.  For example, this week, she gave us hats.  Honestly, what was she thinking?

I tried mine on, but it wasn't at all suitable for my regal bearing. 

My Lady Épinette Nutkin tried hers on and was briefly traumatized into stillness...

...and then she realized her photo was being taken and was utterly horrified.

I had to console her afterwards.


No, dear FHB, we do not want hats.  At least, not ones like that.

On the positive side, after she grew tired of repeatedly filling our water bottle, the FHB decided that we should have a larger water repository, so she gave us our water in a cats-are-old dish.


I don't know why they call it a cats-are-old dish.  Maybe it's the kind of dish that cats eat from when they are old because they lose the ability to eat tidily and make a big mess, most of which gets caught in the dish. The FHB said that she used it previously to cook cats-are-olds in it, but really, she can't possibly have cooked a cat because she is not that crazy.  Yet.  In any case, it holds a lot of water for us and we are quite pleased with it.

I think we might need an intervention with the FHB to stop her from working so much.  Somebody ought to feed her more alfalfa.

Bunday on Tuesday

This is most irregular!  Bunday posts should be done on Bunday.  The female hoomin bean (FHB) was away for the weekend.  She was visiting her parents.  We have decided that this is an acceptable reason for not providing us the means to publish our usual Bunday post.  Naturally, we were very busy all weekend because we had to supervise the male hoomin bean (MHB), since the FHB was not here to do it.

We also have been enjoying our new expanded shared area in the home office.  The FHB found out by doing some online research that bunnies who are recently bonded can't be given too much space too soon.  Sometimes I forget who Épinette Nutkin is, and I chase her, sort of by mistake.  The FHB learned that if she expands our area gradually, this is less likely to occur.

She went and bought a dog exercise pen. I know what you're thinking....doesn't the FHB know the difference between dogs and rabbits?  Some days I wonder.  But actually, it works rather well.  It is made of multiple folding panels that can be adjusted so she set it up to go in front of our shared crate.

Most of the time, now, I remember about Épinette Nutkin and I don't chase her.

The FHB says that when the grass starts to grow properly (it's still only just starting to grow here), she will take the exercise pen outside and let us play in the grass (supervised, of course).  She says she will put some netting over the top of the pen to make sure the hawks don't decide that we are breakfast.  Imagine!

Eventually, the FHB says we won't need the dog exercise pen anymore and she can let us run around all over the place like I used to run around before Épinette Nutkin came along.

In the meantime, we continue to snuggle together and cement our bond.  And keep each other's ears clean.

Bunday Blog Business

Do you know what time it is?

Of course you do.  That's why you're here.  It's time for today's Bunday blog!

Somebody asked me recently about the importance of ear cleaning.  This is a very important task for rabbits.  One reason is because we get extra vitamin D that way!  I bet you didn't know that.  Our ears have a special oil on the surface of the skin that makes vitamin D when exposed to sunlight.  Rabbits get some of this vitamin D when they clean their ears.

Lady Épinette Nutkin is especially good at ear cleaning.  You can see that in the picture below.  She is just pulling down her left ear.

She uses a paw to pull her ear down, and then she holds it in both paws as you see in this next picture. She is licking the inside of her right ear in this picture.

Hoomin beans cannot lick their own ears.  This is a very serious design flaw.  I feel sorry for you.  We also keep our ears clean to avoid having problems with mites.  I bet your hoomin ears are all full of mites because you can't lick them properly.

Sometimes we help each other with ear cleaning.  I think that's what you hoomin beans ought to do.

It wouldn't take you very long to do this, because your ears are small and insignificant compared to ours.  Sometimes, I don't even know how you manage to get along in this world, with such pitiful ears.  We can rotate our ears 270 degrees to listen to things.  Your ears are stationary.  What were you thinking when you had those ears ordered?  I suppose opposable thumbs might make up for the defect of your ears, just a bit.

So do clean your ears, or have a friend do it, on a regular basis.  Take it from me...I'm an ear expert!