Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob & Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance

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Three Blind Bunnies, Earless Bob, Beau and
Glenna the Good's Rainbow Hop Rememberance:

Beau and Bob Saved from the Jaws of Humans

Bob on his first night of safety

Published on International Rabbit Day 9-28-14

Sunday August 31, 2014

Four years ago today was a big day for Bright Eyes Sanctuary and today, the circle repeats itself like a running bun. Today, this little Sanctuary for special needs and hard-to-adopt rabbits finds itself with another earless rabbit who has simply awful teeth, three blind bunnies, two of whom are very old, and buns with various other maladies including megacolon, a thymoma, simple dental disease, and one very tender, sensitive tummy (belonging to the Prince with a Thousand Enemies) which requires copious amounts of romaine every day, several times a day to maintain hydration and thus, function.

I don't know if I'll finish this newsletter before midnight tonight but I write most of it on a day which has come to have much meaning as anniversaries of many life changing events for our sanctuary, myself and my family. So it seems to be the time to introduce to you two of our new sanctuary bunnies whom we whisked away from the jaws of abused hunting dogs and an elderly alcoholic trigger happy psychopath widower whose recently deceased wife's vulnerable hutch bunnies were being shot, sicced on by large hunting dogs (we presume they were hunting dogs because of their owner's gun fixation) and killed for food.

Beau accepts a carrot

Two stoic boys remained as survivors of this rural version of Danté's inferno, each kept alone in separate hutches, each scared to death and living on borrowed time in a situation only imaginable in a nightmare. Through a convoluted grapevine of animal lovers of various kinds, word reached me about an earless rabbit caught in a crossfire and awaiting his firing squad execution if he was not removed immediately from the situation, and one other bun had also survived thus far in that same hell hole. Knowing the mindset of some types, I suspected a manipulative plot to get me to cave and accept these bunnies. But investigation of the individuals involved in the dissemination of this dark news proved to be pure intentions of mercy for the bunnies and the two bunnies were indeed in mortal danger.

Enter Beau and Bob. Infested with fur mites, Beau also had irritated eyes from improper sawdust bedding and Bob, well, Bob's ears were missing, presumably cut off and his teeth were horrible with lower incisor tusks jutting out and upper incisor tusks curling around his upper jaw and then curling once again outward while threatening to pierce his cheeks. Their diet had been only crapple-quality corn pellets. Their coats were in poor condition. They were shivering with terror and nearly perished just with the scare of a car ride. But a neighbor of the psychopath had worked with a local lady who did one type of exotic rescue and managed to get this sad story to my radar where it pinged loudly if mostly because of the situation's close proximity. 

B!nky (Bubbles) is comforted by husbun Orion

Bright Eyes Sanctuary has been closed to new intakes for some years and we now have low adoptions as many of our alumni have been returned and, sadly, many come back in very poor shape or with poor habits for various reasons. My personal financial and health concerns also preclude our indefinite involvement in rabbit adoptions these days as those adopters of BES will know, adoptions are an incredible amount of grueling and detailed work which a post-recession (is it post- or ongoing?) climate shriveled up just about all chunks of this BES volunteer's free time and resources. So we focus on a careful, super cautious approach to continued rehoming attempts for those on their first, second, or third go around in the adoption merry go round.

Personally, my health has put pressures on my energy levels that just don't allow me, as the main face of this organization, to spend 40-50 hours a week rehoming rabbits anymore. Those days of 10-15 adoptions a month are over for more reasons than one. My focus had shifted to the maintenance of a high quality of life for our Sanctuary bunnies. But Beau and Bob needed a safety net, the absence of which had already failed the other rabbits in their home. So we pulled up our sleeves and brought them here this past Memorial Day weekend.

Details of Bob's ears

Bob's ears, however, were probably not cut off by a human but rather by a terrified, inexperienced mother rabbit perhaps caring for her young in a vulnerable outdoor hutch during a thunderstorm or other frightening experience. Many species of mothers do things like this in less than optimal situations. His horrible teeth are genetic but probably worsened by poor nutrition since birth. Beau is in pretty good shape. Both buns have been vetted and had blood work checked. They needed to enjoy good care and diet just a while longer before neutering - they were neutered last next week. Both of them, along with BES' 50 other Sanctuary rabbits, who have all had their annual exams, are given premium food and enrichment and are very lucky to be right where they are.

B!nky (Bubbles) eyes are examined

But BES could really use some help with the annual costs of this veterinary care as well as their supplies like tons of Carefresh every month, Oxbow pellets, bungalows, treats, willow toys and hay. Isn't it great that there's this little life boat out there in the sea of misery for animals in this world? We know that we are very good at doing what we do best which is taking care of bunnies. We think we do this well because our bunnies live so long, like over 16 now for Josephine, 11+ for several others, and various other ages. Dr. Carr of Maryland Avian and Exotics is our exotics vet who cares for all our bunnies and they love her! (Follow her on FB) But our bill for the annual exams this year was almost $5,000!

Orion gets weighed for his exam

Also for those who are clients of Dr. Lisa Carr who don't already know, she is now located in the newly opened Hope Advanced Veterinary Care center in Rockville, Maryland at 1 Taft Court. Their website is http://rockville.hopecenter.com Dr. Carr is still available for house calls as well. She did all of the BES annual exams via house calls, in several trips.  However, if you have a rabbit emergency, you should call Pender Vet in Fairfax, VA at 703.654.3100 or if you are in the Baltimore greater area, call Animal Emergency Hospital in Bel Air, MD 410-420-PAWS. The latter is used regularly by BES board members who love them!

Bob in profile

Bob will need his incisors trimmed every 30 days until we feel he may be ready to have them all removed just like Earless Glenna had done four years ago. That will be expensive. Do any of you remember Earless Glenna? Well if your memory isn't so good, we have republished the original blog posts on BES official blog, Running Bun Magazine, at this link: http://bit.ly/RBM-Glenna The photos have yet to be restored to these posts but we'll do that as time allows. Nevertheless, it is touching to reread all the annals of that brave bunny's epic journey. And we wanted to have it out there on this day.

We will never forget our beautiful earless empress, Glenna, and her stoicism in the face of so much of which seemed fueled by her love for her porridge! What a spirit she was! One person of the many who she inspired was Bob Smith who became a stalwart supporter of BES but who sadly passed away recently. So when faced with naming another earless rabbit, this time a male, it only made sense to honor the memory of this special Glenna fan by naming the lucky little fellow after him. Hence, we have Earless Bob. And Beau is just named for his handsomeness. Additionally, Bob Smith's beloved bunny, Tommy, (both pictured below) was reunited with his doting owner in Heaven just a week or so ago.

Bob holds his little Tommy

We don't usually send out more than two fundraising emails a year but we really need your help now with these operating expenses. Would you please consider a donation to Bright Eyes Sanctuary? It would be 100% tax deductible and we have seen a great decrease in the amount of active supporters in the last few years. So please consider donating whatever you might be able to so we can continue spoiling these bunnies and giving them the best veterinary care possible. Thank you so very much!

PLEASE HELP WITH OUR CONTINUING MISSION

"Can You See My Will-to-Be?"

-RP

Editors note: Running Bun Magazine is published strictly for the express benefit of Bright Eyes Sanctuary. All revenues earned collected and donated through Running Bun Magazine are directly deposited into the Bright Eyes Sanctuary coffers. Your support of our publication, which we hope you find useful, is greatly appreciated and needed. Your patronage is paramount. 

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Sanctuary Bunny Gallery:

 

Our Presiding Angel Bunny - Glenna

Our hero forever and inspiration.

Josephine

 Now approaching 17, she's healed from liver problem causing heart murmur.

Orion guarding Bubbles

Orion has megacolon & Bubbles is mostly blind

Buno Pookah

This rock star is battling a suspected thymoma and winning.

This gallery will be continued in subsequent posts in October!

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The Truth About Vitamin D

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Is it the answer to rabbit dental disease?

Frances Harcourt-Brown publishes a new paper on acquired dental disease in house rabbits

Frances Harcourt-Brown is considered by many to be the world's leading rabbit researcher. She is the author of the seminal Textbook of Rabbit Medicine. Although there are many wonderful rabbit medicine practitioners and researchers in this and other countries, Harcourt-Brown, a 1973 graduate of Liverpool University, is generally considered at the forefront of rabbit medicine for a couple of reasons. One reason is that she has espoused rabbit medicine enthusiastically and her practice in the UK is approximately 85% rabbits whereas here in the US, there probably aren't any practices having as high a rate as that of rabbits being seen. The vets that BES bunnies most often go to, SEAVS, is about 65% rabbits and that's the highest we've heard of in this country. Arguably also, there is a higher concentration of rabbit owners per capita in the UK than the US.

That might be because rabbits are a native species in the UK and are not in the US - there are no American rabbits (well, except for the highly endangered tiny pygmy rabbit), there are only hares (cottontails) in the US. So Harcourt-Brown also has access to a large population of wild rabbits to study.

Harcourt-Brown is particularly interested in rabbit dentistry although she has published many peer-reviewed scientific articles on rabbit medicine. The latest of her works is titled, The Progressive Syndrome of Acquired Dental Disease in Rabbits. and was published in the July 2007 Journal of Exotic Pet Medicine. Intriguing article title, isn't it? We thought so, so I bought it and now I can relay to you the most important parts of the article for rabbit owners.

For the past year or so, Vitamin D has enjoyed a lot of publicity. If you're like me and stay on top of medical and health news, you've heard a lot of hub-bub about Vitamin D. Certain media outlets, like Life Extension Foundation, are usually years ahead of the rest of the media in reporting on what will soon be hot topics. That's where we read about the Vitamin D 'epidemic' four years ago and have watched with interest as medical media and general media outlets around the country have finally caught up. Not only are people not getting enough Vitamin D, but neither are house rabbits! And, according to Harcourt-Brown and other rabbit researchers, that could be a key cause of rabbit dental disease.

My first rabbit, Darth, didn't wake up from his last molar trim. He was an 11 year old little 2 lb. Netherlands dwarf, a darling little fellow much like Spike. His teeth were particularly bad. His trim frequency had gone from every two months to every two weeks. I ended up driving all over Kingdom Come trying to find the best price on his trims. I ended back at the place where I started though with his final trim because all that driving was wearing us both down. For his last trim, he was dehydrated from drooling with pain and he didn't wake up. We were very sad but we also couldn't afford that anymore. Still, he lived a long, dignified life. Really, we should have thrown in the towel earlier, but it is very hard to know when it's time to do that.

Not all rabbit dental disease is this bad. But what happens is, your rabbit's molars, which are supposed to have a flat surface, grow pointy and sharp and pierce the tongue, or roof and/or sides of the mouth causing pain and infection. And they can't eat. The vet puts him under anaesthesia and trims the points down with a Dremel-like tool.

Harcourt-Brown's new article discusses not only appropriate treatment, which has changed in the past several years, but also things like exposure to sunlight, the lack of which may be a key cause of this syndrome.

LET THE SUNSHINE IN

Many people don't understand what Vitamin D and sunshine have to do with rabbit's teeth. Good question! Sunlight or sunshine allows your body to synthesize, or build, Vitamin D. Vitamin D allows your rabbit's body to metabolize, or utilize, calcium. Calcium is needed by the teeth and bones. In rabbits, teeth grow perpetually, so they need to be able to effectively metabolize calcium all their life. Yes, you can get Vitamin D from other sources than sunlight, like fish and algae, and a few other plant sources [editor's note: supplementing Vitamin D in the diet is dangerous and can be toxic if not supervised by a medical professional, sunlight or artificial lighting simulating sunlight cannot be toxic as the body simply stops synthesizing Vitamin D from these sources when sufficient levels are reached]. But those sources got their Vitamin D by synthesizing it from the UV in sunlight. And not just any sunlight, it has to be a certain wave-length of sunlight which is most accessible around high noon.

I talked to a few vets about Vitamin D lately and its possible relation to this rabbit dental problem. They had varying opinions on whether increased sunlight exposure would be useful, but that's all they were, opinions. It is not really known right now just how this would affect the new syndrome Harcourt-Brown describes in her paper. But she does make some interesting conclusions. "Most pet rabbits are housed indoors or in hutches and are proteccted from sunlight, so they are unable to synthesize Vitamin D," she says. If that is so, then a little sunlight could go a long way toward helping ease not only dental issues, but bladder sludge, bladder stones, and the like. Leading US rabbit advocate (and Chapter Manager of the Florida House Rabbit Society) Dana Krempels, PhD, seems to agree about the sunlight factor and dental disease (see link for comment).

Let the Sunlight Pour Down

It should be noted though that the sunlight must fall directly on the animal. Sunlight coming through a glass window has the UV filtered out by the glass and is of no use in the context we are discussing here. For people who keep parrots and reptiles, we have long known that this a vital part of those animals' living requirements. Parrot people who live in climates where it is too cold most of the year to take their birds outside, purchase special full spectrum lights which simulate the sunlight spectrum and these have been proven to be beneficial to the birds, and people as well (who suffer from SAD). There is no possibility of a toxic amount of of this light as the body simply stops synthesizing Vitamin D once it has enough. And, your body (and also your rabbit's) can store Vitamin D for later use. So if a rabbit's required 'photoperiod' is 5 minutes a day, and he gets 35 minutes of noonday sun in one day, that's enough for that week.

There are risks, though, in taking your rabbit outside. Predators, escape, pathogens, pesticides, and other dangers lurk about. If you do take your rabbits outside regularly to munch on some grass in the noonday sun, be sure that the grass is pesticide-free and that it's a dry day. More humid days make for more pathogens swimming about in the air and on the ground. Harcourt-Brown also says, "Significantly higher PTH and lower blood calcium levels have been found in rabbits without dental disease and living outside in natural conditions." Finally, an interesting note Harcourt-Brown makes, "Despite its prevalence in the pet rabbit population, PSADD is not documented in laboratory rabbits, even though the majority of these animals are not provided with twigs, grass, hay, or any other abrasive diet."

In Conclusion

She goes on to include, "Similar (dental) radiological changes to those that occur in rabbits with PSADD have been recorded in the incisors of genetically obese laboratory mice. In the mouse study, restricting the food intake prevented the (dental) changes taking place, which is the opposite expected result if the dental pathology was due to insufficient chewing." These two observations, that lab rabbits do not develop PSADD, and that elimination of obesity in lab mice eliminates PSADD in mice, are packed with potentialities. And more research I'm sure will be done on these two topics by Harcourt-Brown.

In the meantime, it is certainly a good idea to look into making sure your rabbit gets their true 'photoperiod' each day, or the amount of time required by a certain animal to obtain their needed amount of sunlight. And also to keep them slim and trim. An aside, cats are the only animals that, other than invertebrates who manufacture their own Vitamin D, do not require sunlight in order to synthesize the Vitamin D hormone.

One final note on this article by Harcourt-Brown, she clearly opines that doing a minimal trim on maloccluded teeth is preferable over the now 'old school' approach, which is to trim them down to the base of the gum line. Doing this, she notes, only causes the tooth to grow back faster and more deformed and destroys enamel of which rabbits have a finite amount during their lifetimes. This would be a good thing to discuss with your vet if your rabbit is going in for regular trims. I personally, will request this in the future, although it won't be necessary really since this is already how my vets are doing it. But I will still double check just to be sure.

 -Thumper S. Thompson

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