Sanctuary Rabbits: Please Help Glenna Get Her Incisors Removed!

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8:09PM FRIDAY 3/12/10-WE'VE REACHED OUR GOAL FOR GLENNA'S SURGERY. But if you are still able to donate, we have outstanding vet bills

for Oliver, the former lab rabbit (who we also need to order Adequan for), and Galadriel, an elderly dwarf who is part of a dwarf trio, and we are almost out of hay. So we need to purchase enough more local hay to last us until later summer. And Glenna's ongoing care (molar trims) are always a concern - so even though we've reached our goal for Glenna's surgery, please consider donating toward our work! Thank you so much from all of the twitching noses of Bright Eyes Sanctuary! To go to our main site, click on the Running Bun logo above and you can view our foster rabbits and donate from the Help page there as well or just click on the ChipIn thermometer below. Thank you!

Here it is, the fundraising thermometer for our special little Earless Glenna's incisor removal. The approximate cost is $500. That is an estimate from the vet, however, we are pretty sure there will be extra anesthesia involved due to the complications from Glenna's existing TMJ disorder - she can't open her mouth! One person has already donated $100 toward her surgery but we're hoping that just covers any extra expense from the aforementioned complication.

Glenna is such a little trooper. To sum up her story quickly for anyone not familiar with it: Glenna was a stray and a Good Samaritan tried to capture her for several months. Finally, the Good Samaritan was able to apprehend her in August 2009. The Good Samaritan also happened to be a vet tech and took her to work where they discovered she had fly strike or "warbles." That means flies had laid eggs under her skin and this is a fatal condition if not treated.

Then that vet hospital tried to bathe her because she had an odd stench to her which it took a while to identify. She was also covered in urine stains from other rabbits - and being a white rabbit, this was quite noticeable. These stains were also the cause of the stench, we have rescued buns soaked in urine before but none had been quite so saturated as was little Glenna. When the vet tech bathed her, her ears "washed right off" as the vet tech put it. Apparently, Glenna had been a stray since at least the previous winter as this was evidence of frostbitten tissue.

That was when the Good Samaritan called us and told us she could not afford to care for Glenna since she also appeared to have not only molar malocclusion but also incisor malocclusion. That means her molars would need regular trimming, which can be costly because it has to be done under anesthesia, and her front teeth would also need this although that is not very costly as it doesn't require anesthesia. So we took Glenna in, had her "warbles" removed, spayed her so she wouldn't get uterine cancer, and took her for regular molar trims.

Glenna did very well and soon took over the household as the "main event," befriending dogs, cats, guinea pigs, birds, and especially humans. She was very happy. But then her incisor malocclusion began causing more problems for her, eventually leading to her current TMJ disorder - which is practically unheard of in rabbits - and got to the point where she could not even open her mouth and she lost a whole pound out of her four pounds.

One very young vet she saw recommended a nasogastric feeding tube, which in our opinion, is not an acceptable option. She also recommended euthanasia since she was unable to open Glenna's mouth to trim her molars and said that Glenna was virtually "starving to death." So we took her for a second opinion at our region's most experienced exotics vet (Dr. Scott Stahl of SEAVS in Fairfax, VA, who had a very different opinion!) and started her with weekly acupuncture appointments with Cynthia Clarke of Hands on Health in Rockville, MD. She also started being fed a shallow bowlful of Oxbow's Critical Care mixed with baby carrot food and phytonutrients (Dr. Schulze's Superfood Plus) two to three times a day which she helps herself to by slurping it up with no assist feeding required. She has since DOUBLED her weight and is working on a chin and a butt dewlap! She has a tremendous will to live. But she still cannot open her mouth!

However, and this is a big however, she no longer requires any pain medication every day or at all thanks to the acupuncture! AND not only that but her molars are getting better and only need trimming every two or three months instead of every month! This is thanks to the phytonutrients I added to her Critical Care which I've used in the past to help other small mammals of Bright Eyes Sanctuary overcome the malnutrition and/or malabsorption which originally caused this conditiion. And the molar issue will continue to resolve with continued nutritional therapy.

So here, finally, is the matter before us. I have to come to strongly believe, after doing a couple of Glenna's incisor trims myself (after instruction from the vet) with a Dremel and a tongue depressor, that her incisors are so badly maloccluded, with the upper ones growing inward and to the left and the lower ones growing up and to the right and left, causing her to always have to hold her lower jaw as far to the right as she can, that with all of these incisors removed and a few more acupuncture treatments, her TMJ disorder WILL RESOLVE. The wise doctor has recommended their removal regardless since rabbits who have these diseased teeth are at risk for having them abscess anyway. And this vet has performed this procedure many times.

Then Glenna would be able to resume the normal activities of eating hay and a little pellets and fresh veggies. I have been worrying about her getting a fur blockage with not being able to eat any hay although Critical Care is finely ground hay, it doesn't provide the same mechanism in the intestinal tract to bind and pass the fur through the system as regular hay which she would normally grind with her molars.

So please help and contribute toward this one last surgery for her so she, as a young bunny of only about two years or so, can thrive and live a long, happy life here at Bright Eyes Sanctuary and also serve as the Poster Girl for why rabbits should live in the house and not in the backyard hutch!

Thank you for your consideration. And please be aware that Bright Eyes Sanctuary, Inc. is a fully approved IRS nonprofit, all volunteer, animal-welfare charity and your donation is 100% tax deductible! Every penny will go toward Glenna's surgery and/or continued care, i.e., future molar trims, cost of Critical Care. You will receive a tax donation receipt for your donation - and a big warm, fuzzy feeling that you have helped the saddest little stray bunny story ever heard have a very happy ending! Just click on the fundraising thermometer above and you will be directed to make a secure PayPal donation to Bright Eyes Sanctuary for Glenna's incisor removal. Thank you!!!! And stay tuned here to Running Bun to hear about how Glenna is doing.