Sanctuary Rabbits: Glenna Would Like to Fang All of You!

 

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They're they are! Those are Glenna's incisors! They're out and they're not causing her trouble anymore fangs to all of you!

Well everyone, Glenna is home from the hospital and she is glad to be! I picked her up today. Before I went to pick her up, I swung by Nancy Schroer's house who donated $700 worth of supplies (Oxbow hay, Oxbow pellets, Carefresh litter, Oxbow treats) to Bright Eyes Sanctuary! Thank you Nancy!!! How can we thank you? Not good enough, I'm sure but Glenna 'fangs' you too!

Then leaving there, I headed over to SEAVS but went the wrong direction on 66 and ended up driving around the Pentagon about five or six times. My GPS is horrible, and Arlington is definitely the acid test of any GPS (I miss my Tom Tom!) but finally got onto 66 in the right direction and picked up little Glenna. And they gave me her incisors which is what you see pictured above. Most of them are roots and normally hidden under the gum, it's amazing how such little things can cause so much trouble for a little sweetheart like Glenna. I have quite a collection of rabbit teeth now that have been pulled from buns over the years. Thinking of a rabbit tooth necklace, hmmm. Kinda weird, yea, but when something so small causes so much work, you don't just want to toss it in the trash.

Glenna was really stressed, she doesn't like being away from home. She didn't know what was going on. She didn't accept very much assist feeding in the hospital, it turns out. So we headed right over for her acupuncture appointment and she got all that stress right out of her thanks to the excellent and wonderful Cynthia Clarke who dearly loves Glenna almost as much as Glenna loves Cynthia. Sometimes I wonder if Glenna just wants to be adopted by Cynthia or if Cynthia wants to adopt Glenna, they are so bonded. I have to carefully consider everything Glenna wants.

So our little gal then came home, a long, long ride and I fixed her up nice and cozy in her little spot. She started drinking lots of water right away. She has to make the place smell like Glenna and let everyone know she's back! Some rabbits will drink a lot so they can make their presence known with the smell of their urine which only rabbits can really smell. We use Carefresh (and LOTS of it) and it has the best odor control of any litter. But the rabbits can smell each other even though we can't. And it makes awesome compost. We are re-landscaping our yard with it. It fills in muddy quagmires made by the snow very well.

She ate quite a bit of her slop, too, after coming home and resting up. She just looks so happy to be home. As soon as Cynthia had started giving her some energy healing, Glenna calmed down and felt much better. And then she got a little acupuncture. Glenna is moving her mouth a lot but she's not really ready for anything like hay yet. But she will be soon! We've got to take baby steps. Glenna is still on pain meds and anti-biotics and must go back in for a recheck in not too long. She is still sore and will be for a little while longer. Then she'll be able to start experimenting with moving her jaw some more.

We'll keep you posted on everything going on with Glenna! I'm pretty pooped right now though with such a long day and hauling stuff out to the shed. So we'll fill you in more later.

Oh by the way, the typo in the description of that carved rabbit? It says it is the 'essence of lupine motion' - uh, hello, lupine is a wolf! It should say lapine.

Thank you all again who helped out Glenna with contributions and thank you to everyone who sent her well wishes. She is basking in them now that she is back in her domain.

Sanctuary Rabbits: Update on Glenna's Incisor Removal Surgery

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Obviously these aren't pictures of Glenna. But I don't have any photos of her today since she's in the hospital. So I thought I'd post these just for to have at least some type of visual. This is a little carved rabbit figure in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, which you shouldn't miss! Awesome, spectacular place! But do you see the typo in the description of this piece? It's quite silly, I've been meaning to write to point it out to them but gee, wonder why I haven't had any time to do that? If you don't catch it, I'll tell you tomorrow.

So as for Glenna! Glenna sailed through her surgery yesterday without any complications. The good doctor would like to keep her in the hospital until possibly Saturday so he can flush the cavities where her incisors once were. Since she does not eat normal food because of her TMJ disorder, which prevents her from opening her mouth and can only lick up Critical Care slurry (with lots of baby carrot food mixed in), it is a concern that these cavities might get filled with this food and cause infection. So the doctor would like to keep her as long as he can while the cavities heal and close up so that he can flush them every day. I have the option of attempting this at home should they be unable to get her to eat, but I think she will cooperate and eat. However, she may refuse to eat and demand to come home where I am her humble handmaiden and know just how to appease her.

I gave the staff instructions for preparing Glenna's "slop" mix just as she likes it; Critical Care with extra water but not too much, finely blended, and then 3.5 oz carrot baby food added in and garnished with a sprinkling of crushed Oxbow freeze-dried banana treat. Glenna is quite particular and demanding on every point. If there is not enough of the baby food in it, she will only lick up a little of it, if any. It must be pretty much baby food with some Critical Care added in, and those yummy bananas crushed to a fine powder on top. She also is particular about having anyone watch her eat and will stop until they afford her the privacy she requires. And yes, those are carrot juice stains on her lips in the photo above. And by the way, did you know that rabbits have prehensile lips? So she should be able to live off of this slop mix she loves so much even if she never regains jaw movement, but I'm guessing that with a few more acupunture treatments from her excellent acupuncturist, Cynthia Clarke (who has donated 99% of her treatments), she'll get back to chewing hay in not too long.

Historically, she has refused assist feeding, or "syringe" feeding from anyone. She just swishes the slurry around in her mouth sucking off the carrot juice and then spits it out. Everyone thinks she is such a sweet rabbit, loves to be petted, but in reality, she loves to have you pay homage to her by constantly petting her. If she could wear a ring, she would have everyone kiss it and say 'oh my liege!' but she must settle for constant head pets like a little dog who imagines herself queen of the known universe.

Glenna is quite unlike any other rabbit we've ever met here and we've met hundreds and hundreds! She is truly a unique character and she does appreciate very much everyone who helped her get this surgery she needs. Her lower incisors had badly overgrown in only a week or so since being Dremeled! They had to come out right away.

I told the vet I want those incisors for my rabbit tooth collection I've been building up over the years so I can make a rabbit tooth necklace. Yea it will be ugly as all but completely unique. Never know when it might come in handy.

Thanks again to everyone for their incredibly generous help and care and concern for this special little rabbit. She's in the best possible hands down there at Stahl's Exotic Animal Veterinary Services (SEAVS). And special thanks to all the staff at SEAVS for being so patient while I mother henned over every detail of Glenna's itinerary.

This morning's report was that she *has accepted* assist feeding from the techs at SEAVS! This is really amazing considering her disdain for such in the past. So she'll be able to maintain her weight at least for today. She has only taken in about 30cc total though since the surgery.

She did not try to eat on her own at all. The doctor feels she is very painful today although she is doped up on narcotics and NSAIDs and should control the pain, the place of pain being the mouth is probably why she doesn't want to lick up any of her slop. But she is accepting assist feeding so this tells us that she does want the help.

So she is going to stay another day and hopefully feel a little better tomorrow and get more interested in feeding herself and they will try to get a little more food in her as time passes. Normally in a day, she'd eat 180cc of her special slop mix.

But the doctor feels she will feel a whole lot better by tomorrow pain-wise and start to perk up. At this time, the plan is for me to pick her up in another few days and take her straight to her acupuncture appointment (which is on the way home) unless she will not take in enough food and needs to come home to her domain sooner rather than later. I hope that she can stay there though and get those cavities flushed daily as she needs.

I did tell them that she does not like to be watched while she's eating so they will cover her cage with a towel for privacy. Can you imagine an empress being expected to eat in front of vassals? I was so careless in not telling them about this requirement - I try my best but it is hard to meet the demands of one of many royal charges around here.