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Last night we had to have Abner put down.

I went downstairs to let both dogs out yesterday morning and Abner was sluggish and reluctant to get up. He wouldn’t eat and just sat around all day at home. After I got home from work I took him to the vet. Dr. Ziess said that it felt like there was a large tumor on Abner’s spleen and that it had ruptured, filling his belly with blood. He drew a syringe full of blood to confirm it. I asked about treatment options but none of the options provided him with more than a matter of months to live. At ten years old I didn’t think that putting him through all that surgery and discomfort was worth just a few more months.

Traci dropped the kids off at the neighbor’s house …read more »

At one point in time we had four rabbits, two males and two females. Despite the fact that a rabbit can live as long as twelve years or more, three of ours didn’t make it past age four or five. Only one rabbit, Opus, our first and last rabbit, has survived until now. He’s now nine years old an I’m beginning to think he’s immortal.

At age nine he gets around pretty well. He doesn’t do much hopping anymore and he usually just stays in one or two spots. He eats, he sleeps, and does the kind of things rabbits normally do. I think he’s deaf now since it seems he can’t hear us coming until we pop into his field of vision. [Now I'm pretty sure he can still hear but just decides it's not worth the effort to react to the sound.] Such is the life of a rabbit, I suppose.

About a week and a half ago we found him in his litter box, looking half dead, apparently unable to get up. We figured this was the end …read more »

Rest in peace, Ugly Dog Sam

ugly_dog_sam

Well, it looks as if Abner has pulled through. A month ago I was convinced that it was the end for him; we thought he’d had a series of strokes and he’d have to be put down. I was surprised when our vet diagnosed him with meningitis and we began treating him with antibiotics and steroids. Sure enough, within days of beginning the drug treatment he began to show signs of improvement. He became progressively better and better each week and now he’s almost back to normal.

He still has a slight head tilt and his balance isn’t what it used to be but he’s functioning at probably 95%. He can now get up and down the steps with little difficulty; he can even run up the steps when he gathers enough ambition. The vet said that he might …read more »

Since I last wrote about Abner’s apparent stroke there have been some major developments. Around the beginning of September we noticed that the other side of Abner’s face had become paralyzed. We assumed that it could be another stroke but since his behavior had not changed we didn’t do anything about it. He was still eating, drinking, playing and doing everything else normally. Then, about a week later around September 8 we noticed a pronounced difference in the way he walked and his balance. He was extremely unstable and shaky, and had extreme difficulty walking up and down the steps. He also had a pronounced head tilt. He walked almost as if he was drunk.

Fearing the worst I called the next day and had them move his appointment up to Friday the ninth. I came home from work preparing myself for the worst but there he was, still going strong but still …read more »

A couple weeks ago we noticed that Abner’s lip was a little droopy on the right side of his face. At first we thought he’d been stung by a bee in the back yard so we let it go. Then a couple days ago we noticed that his right eye seemed to be behaving abnormally. So, we took him to the vet and he had the same suspicion that Traci and I did; it appears that Abner had …read more »