# Farewell, My Three



## Leaf (Dec 31, 2007)

I just wouldn't feel right, closing the year without saying a formal goodbye to the three little souls I lost in November.

Until now I've mulled over whether to post or not, but I think there is an important message to send out.

Our rabbits are the heartbeat and bonding thread between all of us here on the forum.

They depend on us, love us, bring us joy and, at times, pain.



Some here may remember when I brought my little fluffy crew home. They were given to me by a co-worker after both of her sons were killed in a car wreck while returning back to the county fair after taking an disqualified light-weight animal back to their farm.

I felt honored to take the rabbits in and promised to cherish them, care for them and love them, of course.

As "blue ribbon winners" withprizesbehind them, they were my pride and joy. Though I have never bred an animal in my life I considered doing so with these, as they were beauties and carried a wonderful pedigree behind them.

In the end, I decided I wasn't ready to take any such step and opted to have the three fixed, a final decision - a gratifying choice because I felt it was the right one.

In November I took four rabbits in to be altered.



I've had multiple rabbits fixed this year (jeez- Bumble Bee, Diamond, Genelle, Onion, Cricket, Skeet, Taps, Blue, Anseland my friends boys, Ben, Oscar and Coal).

The cost gets high very fast.

Risks are always there. One that I lost (Cricket, wbo has her own memorial here), I later learnd was given a medication that rabbits don't tolerate. The vet knew this. The new vet tech should have as well but made a "mistake" on a chart notation and I was unaware of the widely known *fact* that rabbits do not tolerate amoxicillan. I was actually unaware of this completely until I read of another fourm members loss in their thread, unfortunantly I read it a little too late.

The other three I've lost, the ones I post about now-I'm not positive what happened. It was with a different vet completely. All three were healthy, same breed (two related, one not). A fourth was spayed the same day - different breed, slightly older - same vet, absolutely no problems. 

The ONLY possibility I can see is that the day they were fixed (all on the same day) we had a power outage when a truck hit a power pole and wiped out that side of town for just over 8 hours. All 4 were overnight stays when the outage occured.

So, my experiences have been rough. One experience was bad, partly due to the office ignorance and my own. The other experience was devistating because I had multiple rabbits done all at once and the only blamed source we can find is the power outage, though besides drops in body temperatures nothing has really been conclusive.

Still, I have had many positive endings well worth it all in the end. 

However, I will never, ever go back to the vet that made a mistake in medications. And on that note, I will never have multiple rabbits fixed at the same time. I think it's a little too stressful. Flukes (maybe in my case) can happen, but in all I think its important to do one-on-one care with *a* recovering rabbit, rather than trying to focus on several all at once.


Yes, I have lost some after making the decision to have them altered. This is one of the main reasons I opted not to post when it happened. I truely believe there are times events happen that you cannot fully control and I worry that the problems here would discourage others from having their bunnies done. Please don't take this as such. If you take anything from this thread, let it be:

My message to everyone is simple. Love, cherish and enjoy those you have now. Each day, each special (or frustrating) moment is precious and should be remembered as such.

No matter the decisions you make regarding your rabbits, do it with love, honesty, a level headand an open heart.

I will always be rescue oriented. I will always be pro-altering. I will always respect responsible breeding and those who make wise decisions and become mentors to others.

My household has been full of pain these last few months, but so rewarding and full of cherished memories as well.



So for now, as we come near the end of 2007 I want to formally say goodbye to my three stooges, the ones I'll always remember as my "Bananerds"









SkeetTapsBlue


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## cheryl (Dec 31, 2007)

I'm sorry Leaf :hug:

Like you say here....My message to everyone is simple. Love, cherish and enjoy those you have now. Each day, each special (or frustrating) moment is precious and should be remembered as such.



Yep....i do cherish each day i have with my bunnies....always cuddling them..telling them how much i love em.....every moment and every day that i have with my bunniesis so soprecious to me

Cheryl


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## Bo B Bunny (Dec 31, 2007)

:bigtears:

I'm so sorry. They were so adorable. Those boys have their bunnies with them now.


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## Gumbo1993 (Jan 1, 2008)

I am so sorry for your lost! ( i promous i didnt kill them lol ) ( just tring to make a good thing out of bad) i know how it is to loose someone you love. in 2007 i lost about 6-7 FAMILY members. so i know how hard it is. in 2005 hurricane katrina came and i had to leave my 5 mounth rabbit ( gumbo ) home. i live neer woods so i thought he died. i praed and praed so i am so lucky for him to be here. agin sorry for your lost.


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## naturestee (Jan 1, 2008)

:hug: If nothing else, I've learned this year that we can't control or prevent everything. Sometimes bad things happen and nobody is at fault. It's just awful that you had three bad things happen all at once.

Binky free bunnies. :rainbow:


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## LuvaBun (Jan 1, 2008)

I am so sorry - to lose 3 at once is terrible, especially when you were doing the right thing to help them.

I agree, we should all be thankful for the times we spend with our bunnies, and the memories that they leave us with.

Jan


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## Ringer (Jan 2, 2008)

I'm so sorry. They were beautiful. So fluffy.

I lost three newborns right before Christmas. One by one in a period of two days. Awful as I was trying to handfeed them and they died anyway. I felt terrible but much worse for them than for me. They tried so hard to nurse out of my hand from a bottle. But it wasn't to be. They needed their mother, both for warmth and the milk. I think the last one died from being alone and not warm enough even though i used a heating pad.

I often wonder if I did enough and rue that I didn't do somethings differently. Especially being more vigilant that they didn't ingest into their lungs. But they didn't seem to be getting enough milk and maybeI was feeding too fast. It was hard but I did try my best and I told them I loved them and petted them. Darn life is hard sometimes.


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## Gumbo1993 (Jan 2, 2008)

i have to say 2007 was the worst year of my life! no lie


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## PixieStixxxx (Jan 19, 2008)

*Gumbo1993 wrote: *


> I am so sorry for your lost! ( i promous i didnt kill them lol ) ( just tring to make a good thing out of bad) i know how it is to loose someone you love. in 2007 i lost about 6-7 FAMILY members. so i know how hard it is. in 2005 hurricane katrina came and i had to leave my 5 mounth rabbit ( gumbo ) home. i live neer woods so i thought he died. i praed and praed so i am so lucky for him to be here. agin sorry for your lost.



Awww, that's harsh. May I ask why you had to leave him though... and how did you end up finding him =P Haha all I can think is you coming home, and there's Gumbo on front porch.


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