Hello friends. We had a sad news last week: our beautiful Chester passed over the Bridge.
Chester arrived at Helicopter Ears with eight of his friends, a group of rabbits we rescued as a part of a cruelty case in 2015. Shortly after, he found a friend, Honey, with whom he lived in luxury and love with Sandra and Hayley. Chester and Honey bonded straight away, and he loved his bun-girl to bits. They lived in a spacious bunny-mansion Sandra and Hayley built for them, and Sandra and Hayley regularly updated us about how Chester was doing. He was understood and adored, with all his eccentricities. Chester couldn't have had a better family or a more loving home.
He was a rabbit who played football, a rabbit who loved people, and the rabbit who truly loved life.
We thank Sandra and Hayley for adopting Chester and for being there for him every moment of his every day, until the end. Thank you for coming to tell us in person and for supporting Helicopter Ears. We are sorry about your and Honey's loss. Our hearts go out to you.
Chester helping with the mail
One of Chesterâs first photos. He was a handsome and friendly chap.
With Mike
With one of our supporters
With Emma
Open House day. Chester with one of our supporters.
With Honey (Chester is on the right)
Chester looking smart in Mr Bâs boots, when his feet hurt.
Chester was a golden lion of a bunny!
Rest in peace, buddy, and send our kisses to our bunnies at the bridge.
This is just a quick post to answer some of the questions which may arise from the one made earlier, advising against using Rear Guard.
It is a tragedy when a beloved bunny suffers, and it hits us particularly hard when we believe it has been something seemingly easy preventable. Unfortunately, fly strike isnât one of those things: even despite our best efforts, thereâs often nothing we can do to save our friend.Â
If you lost a bunny to fly strike, my heart goes out to you.
Itâs 2:06 in the morning right now, so Iâll be very brief and I apologise in advance for any typos, errors etc.
Flies are a menace. We're also in the UK, and we get SO. MANY. FLIES. We have tight-fitting fly screens on all windows and doors, UV zappers, and fly paper around the house. Mike changes litter trays almost daily. Yet the annoying sods are still here! We couldn't get rid of them even though the winter: the house was very warm because we have a couple of log fires.
My experience is that healthy rabbits don't get fly strike. Rabbits most prone to it are those with mucky bums due to tummy problems, wet undercarriage due to urinary or renal issues, those not able to groom themselves properly due to dental pain, missing incisors, or mobility problems (such as arthritis).
In any case, whether they're fully healthy and mobile or not, I would definitely advise to check them daily. Fly strike can be very sudden. Fly eggs are not obvious, and when are spotted, it is usually after they have hatched and the rabbit is in considerable discomfort.
In my experience, vets often advise to PTS when the rabbit can and will recover. So, donât be in a hurry to say goodbye. Iâll try to write more on this sometime soon. Rabbitsâ skin heals amazingly quickly, and when I was advised to have Rita PTS and didnât take up the option, the exotic vet who recommended it was convinced it was the only option and said irreparable damage had been done. Rita healed in less than a week.
We've had many wet, mucky, continuously washed, vulnerable bunnies who all managed to avoid fly strike. I think what helped was the UV fly zappers which were installed above their cages, and those are very effective. Fly-papers are even more effective, Mike says.Â
Keep the rabbits super-clean and their litter trays fresh and dry.Â
Use appropriate litter. The litter which works best, we found, is pure straw/hay pellet. Donât be tempted with medicated / insecticide-treated litter, etc.. Something such as this or this works really well.Â
Other than keeping the trays clean and the rabbits dry, I don't think there's any way to minimise the risk of fly strike, but even then, you cannot guarantee you can avoid it.Â
A net over a cage is a great idea: but flies can get through a sealed suitcase! With the net, they'll lay their eggs as close to the net as possible, and then maggots get through and head for the bunny. So, a net is just a delay on their route, not an obstacle.Â
With our disabled bunnies, I always dried them thoroughlyâwhich is SO difficult with rabbit fur being so fine. But I found that medicated Cuticura talc speeds up the drying process greatly. I canât be sure, but maybe the talc being medicated, it helped prevent fly strikes in those vulnerable rabbits? I don't know ...
The other product we use on vulnerable bunnies to repel flies is Beaphar Fly-Free spray, £3.54 per 150ml bottle from Vet UK. The active ingredient is permethrin (5mg/ml), which is practically non-toxic via the oral route, Apparently, permethrin begins to cause neurological side-effects in rabbits when ingested at doses exceeding 400mg/kg, which is practically unrealistic when using the above spray solution, as it'd amount to 80ml of the liquid per kg of live body weight.
Please let me know if there are any problems with the above. I think some links may not work. Iâm too exhausted to check now, but Iâll look again at some point after I wake up today.
Thank you
Oksana @ HE
This post has been made possible by the generousity of our patrons. By supporting us, you help us continue working for the good of bunnies and bring you more content you will enjoy.
Helicopter Ears | MINIMISE THE RISK OF FLY STRIKE IN SUMMER | Un-proofed, un-edited, unchecked draft. Needs work. Dead links corrected. | v.0.2 | 18-JUL-2018
Summer. Rabbits. Flies. More flies. Fewer rabbits. Nightmare. Then, Rear Guard comes to rescue. Vets recommend it. Rabbit welfare organisations praise it. Rabbit owners swear by it. Rabbits are queueing to have their fluffy bottoms lathered up. Problem solved.
I used Rear Guard in our early rabbiting days. The rabbit in question, Mushka, passed from unknown causes, and I canât confirm or deny the link. I never thought of it at any depth, to be honest. We kept supplies of it at Helicopter Ears, and weâve had many rabbits at risk of fly strike, but we never resorted to using Rear Guard.Â
And yesterday I was glad we didnât.Â
If you want to hear what I think yet gruesomeness is not your thing, I have an abridged version for you:
Don't use it.Â
If like me, you are the sceptical kind, read on.
Today, I chatted with one of our long-term supporters. About rabbits, as usual. I said how annoying it is when rabbits are diagnosed with 'gut stasis,' because in my experience, stasis is never an illness but rather a symptom of one: something causes it, and taking gut motility stimulants when a rabbit is in renal failure is akin to giving painkillers for a headache when there's a brain tumour to blame, which is when she told me that on one occasion, three of her rabbits went into stasis after they were treated with Rear Guard.
Hmm, that's interesting, I thought.
The rabbits became ill, she said, all at once, on the night they had been treated with Rear Guard, within hours after application. At first, they lost appetite, and by the morning, she had to take them back to the vet: they produced no droppings during the night.
The vet was not in any hurry to blame the miraculous and much-sought-after product which saved many lives (and lined many pockets) for the mysterious illness, but the rabbit owner was not quite so sure: three of her eight rabbits were ill following its application, and apart from Rear Guard, nothing had been different in their daily routine. A bit of a coincidence, no? I think so.
Some background information
Before we go on, this is what you must know about the lady, about her rabbits, about me, and about Rear Guard.
The lady is a super-experienced bunny-owner and diligent as can be. I didn't ask who applied Rear Guard, she or the vet, because I have no reason to think she would apply the product incorrectly, and there's not much room for error, frankly. It's foolproof.
She is sure that all of the rabbits had been healthy prior to the application.
All opinions, assumptions, guesses and any errors in calculations which follow are my own; the rabbit owner does not necessarily share my views or doubts her vet, Novartis or anyone who may recommend any of its products, including Rear Guard. I'm the one causing all the trouble here, and I'm the only one to kick, OK?
As it happens, Rear Guard does come with a warning. The manufacturer's label states a "temporary reduction in appetite" is possible (I can't recall the exact wording, as I binned our supplies, but it's something along those lines and not anything worth getting pedantic about).
Obviously, the less they eat, the less they poop, hence the stasis. Worrying and all that ... These paranoid rabbit owners, huh? Nothing but trouble, me included. And when it comes to me, you won't find much more paranoid than that! And, as I always wondered how this marvellous, expensive, and widely-recommended by the most credible and trusted of sources product works, anyway, and because I adhere to the view that a reduction in appetite is never just a reduction in appetite, Google, here we come!
My unscientific research
The first thing Dr Google spat out was the active ingredient in Rear Guard being cyromazine. According to not very many sources (1, 2, 3) (patience is not my strong point) I had the stomach to read, the acute LD (lethal dose) for rabbits (oral ingestion) is 1467 mg/kg. The solution is 6% w/v, meaning there is 60mg of cyromazine in 1 ml, and there's 25 ml in a bottle, which makes it 1500mg cyromazine per bottle, which, as we have learned, is sufficient to dispatch a 1 kg rabbit (with certainty).
Just so we are clear, LD is 'Lethal Dose,' meaning the subject will certainly die after ingesting that amount, while LD50 means half will certainly die. That is my personal, unscientific definition. Smaller "doses" (I don't know ... Do we "dose" poisons?) will more likely than not result in adverse effects.
But we're not feeding it to them, right?
Let's not forget that rabbits' faces spend a lot of time around their bottoms, both to groom and to consume caecotrophs.
But surely they can't ingest enough to cause harm, right?
That would depend on the size of a rabbit, how clean they like their bottom, and how thorough they are at cleaning it, I guess.
But why guess when we have science, right?
Finally! My favourite part. This science says ingesting 25 mg/kg/day (that's 0.4 ml's worth, I think!) or more causes rabbits to die from (brace yourself):
heart failure
pneumonia-pleuritis
lung congestion and oedema
other causes not possible to establish. Hmm.
That's just 0.4 ml: you don't have to drink the bottle. The bottle would be sufficient to knock out 62.5 kg's worth of rabbits. (Now, if you're Paddington, that's 7 of you. If you're Frankie, that's 62.5 Frankies. And thatâs a lot of Frankies. We donât even have that many.)
I didn't click on all the links to see how long it took them to die, but probably, not very. Anyway, moving on swiftly.
At just 10mg/kg/day, rabbits suffered a reduction in weight, and pregnant does had miscarriages. Male fertility was also affected.Â
Graphic depictions of fetus malformations and birth defects featured in every paper I came across, and the didnât seem to be dose-related:
multiple head deformities
cleft palate
hydrocephalus (for those wondering what it is)
spina bifida (not very nice)
a variety of hernias (diaphragmatic and umbilical)
vertebral and rib anomalies
tarsal flexure
absent kidney and ureter
And, as we read on, we finally learn reduction in faecal excretion was reported in "treated" groups. Ah, that's why the manufacturer warns about the appetite reduction!
Now, to the positives
I'm sure there are other "effects" to marvel at, but I'd had enough at that point and decided to focus on the positives:
No malformations were observed in kits dying at days 4-28. (Never mind they're dead.)
No changes in behaviour were noted.
Cyromazine is thought to be only very slightly cancerogenic. (Phew!)
But the best thing is: it prevents maggots from hatching ...
... for 10 glorious weeks ...
... at a mere cost of ÂŁ30 or so ...
... and minor indigestion.
Ah, that's how it works! Now I understand!Â
How it works
It's so freaking toxic even maggots don't survive in it.
My guess is, assuming a rabbit ingests this product, he will quite likely be somewhat ill. Possibly, very. Maybe, dead.
My guess is Novartis didn't follow up on the subjects of their "study" for long enough to know what possible consequences could result from the application of their product. ( I was so sick of it all by this point, and I didnât go into too much depth, so I must admit, I didnât go into it in too much depth, but upon a quick scan, it did appear 6 rabbits were studied for 21 days. Wow. )
My guess is if there are no immediately obvious adverse effects, they are more likely than not yet to come.
I'm not a vet, and my degrees are not in pharmaceuticals, so the opinions expressed are probably just guesses, anyway, and you should feel free to dismiss them as nonsense. If a reputable source you trust recommends Rear Guard, by all means, totally go ahead and use it. As to me, not being a huge fan of animal testing, I shan't experiment on our herd. Call me paranoid if you like.
If you must use it
The good news is: There's no need to pay over the odds!
Cyromazine is an AGRICULTURAL PESTICIDE, and as such, it very reasonably priced. A quick Google search will get you a litre of this miracle-drug for just $3 (thatâs right, just three bucks). And if you think a litre is 40 x 25 ml bottles, wait until I tell you, it's undiluted. I'm not gonna reach for my calculator here, you can do your own math, but that's AHELLAFALOT OF RABBITS you can treat.
Something tells me that Novartis pricing Rear Guard handsomely at nearly ÂŁ30 per 25 ml, and Rear Guard being nothing more than a common pesticide of a very thin dilution, we're being taken for a ride.
It comes with a health warning, though: you absolutely must follow the manufacturer's instructions and wash your hands after use! Cyromazine is toxicology category III, you know?
Which conveniently leads me to my next point:
Come on, Novartis ... I think a small label adjustment is in order:
For ideas on how to minimise the risk of fly strike in summer, please check this post, and donât forget to share your experience and advice.
This post has been made possible by the generousity of our patrons. By supporting us, you help us continue working for the good of bunnies and bring you more content you will enjoy.
Helicopter Ears | REAR GUARD: EVEN MAGGOTS DONâT SURVIVE IT | Formatting changes | v.1.2 | 18-JUL-2018
Despite all the struggles and misfortunes, finally, eventually, we launched it: our Patreon page. And though there is no video to show for all our troubles (yet!), hereâs a screengrab to prove its existence:
Though it is a poor substitute, we have put up a transcript of the video to the page, and there is some other info you may be interested in, as well as a short story of Dominic the bunny. He started it allâhe had helicopter ears.
Itâs still very much in the making and work in progress, but please go and take a look. No, donât just go and take a lookâjoin! Because without you, we cannot help the rabbits, but together, we can continue making miracles happen.
Many thanks for your support.
Mike and Oksana đ
And, in case you missed the link to it, here it is again.
Rodents! What a menace, right? Did I say Michael has been rodent-proofing? I think so ... Well, look what he found! This whole winter the circuit-breaker for the outdoor bunnies' underfloor heating has been tripping, and he re-waterproofed the electrical connections and the control boxes and repaired rodent-nibbled cables many times. What a bother this has been! He has been re-waterproofing all the while he should have been rat-exterminating. I mean, look at what he found today. And he repaired rat- (and rabbit-) damaged cables before, but this is the worst he has ever hadâeven worse than Furby's efforts. And you know what he was like. I have been trying to tell him RATS ARE A PROBLEM.
Look at these wires! Isn't it lucky Mike found 75 metres of exterior grade cable at last Sunday's car boot sale for just ÂŁ9? I think so! And I think he's going to need it.
And, the worst of all, as he went from one hutch to another today, rat-proofing, checking for holes, underneath Geraldine's hutch, there was a bucketload of soil, obviously from rat excavations, and holes gnawed from the back of her hutch and RIGHT INTO HER NEST BOX! Well... I've been trying to tell him... Â
Thank you for all your help today. I am happy, contented, and most pleased to announce that today I ordered some excellent traps, and by excellent, I mean VERY. Â
Rodents, beware! I may be Rusty, but these are FAR fromâthe are slick. And they click.
What a great day this has been for ducks! We've been splashing. As ducks, it is our duty to do so - and we are experts.
Any expert needs proper equipment: a potent pump is a prominent feature in the duck-yard, and there's a fabulous filter too. We are armed to our beaks. Or so we thought. Dissatisfied with our working environment, today we drafted a duck-directive: WE NEED A NEW POND.
We've always thought this one was iffy, and after some research, we were astonished to discover we this thing we've swum in is not even a pond. Yes, we don't have a pond. Never had one. Don't even know what a pond is. And, as we ducks say, an ignorant duck is a deceived duck, so no wonder we find ourselves deceived. No wonder we are dissatisfied and disadvantaged. A duck without a pond is not unlike a doctor without a hospital, a scientist without a laboratory, an electrician without electricity... Every expert needs an office.
But what IS a pond? There's no Duckipedia, no duckctionary for us to look up stuff in. We had to start one of our own. Here's the first entry:
"POND is a splashing facility 4 ducks deep, 9 ducks long and 5 ducks wide. AT LEAST. (The measurements provided are in nice big ducks, not little ducklings. That'd be a silly pond to have. Probably not even a pond, actually.)"
There. We said it. Put that in your dictionary, you deceivers!
We then drafted further specs: there must be comfortable rocks to sit on, a wave-maker, and a fountain... No - waterfall. Actually, make it a waterfall AND a fountain. A free-for-all Worm-Wending machine must be installed within waddling distance, a lovely gazebo erected above, and ... and ... and... and did we say there must be a wave maker? Quack!
And we're not demanding ducks or anything, but it's always safer to be specific than sorry. How else does a duck get exquactly what she wants and not what she don'ts? We quacked about it, and we quacked and quacked, and we quacked so much Michael had no choice but to put his work off, gloves on, and expertise to a good use, which, of course, is digging. And not just any digging, but digging a pond. And by a pond we mean AN ACTUAL POND. Write that down!
A duck directive has been issued. The order is in. The work is underway. We will be busier than ever: we shall be overseeing and making sure this pond is A POND. You can't trust anyone these days ...
Laura, Gary, and Thumper are fundraising for Helicopter Ears! On 27 May, they are running the Edinburgh Half Marathon in aid of our bunnies. Well, Laura and Gary are. Thumper, unfortunately, didn't get in even despite being one of our most ardent supporters.
Thumper: a brief autobiography
Meet Thumper:
Thumper isnât quite sure how old he is, he can never remember, but itâs in double figures, he knowsâand thatâs VERY old for someone whoâs a rabbit.
Meet Laura and Gary:
To Laura and Gary, Thumper is family, and he may not know his age, but he knows how pricey it can be to have a bunny in a family: VERY. Not only has Thumper been very old for quite some time now but also impressively ill. He's an intensive care bunny, and he has a photo to prove it:
He's not at his highest point in that one, but such is c'est la vie, as Thumper likes to put it, and he is determined to not let anything get in the way of a good one.
Thumper isnât very talkative; it is not natural for a bunny to speak but especially with his mouth full, which is how Thumper finds himself most of the time, but if Thumper was to tell about to himself, he would speak about his favourite things first: the snacks, the sofa on which he eats the snacks, the bunny-sport of running and his computer where he watches it because he hasnât been able to do any, not in a long while. And if you asked Thumper how he learned about Helicopter Ears, heâd say it was when he started to follow Mr Buttonsâs running adventures. âWhy,â heâd say between mouthfuls of snacks, âthat rabbit knows how to run!â Heâd write that in his diary if he could. Writing would be much easier than speaking. Itâs much easier to snack that way. But Thumper couldn't write. Yet.
Unfortunately, the bunny-sport of running has been prOscribed by Thumper's vet, which it didn't take long for Thumper to discover was quite an opposite of pr-E-scribed, which was what he would much prefer.Â
But, fortunately, his other favourite pastime, the snacking, turned out to be an activity conducive to reading and watching sports, and, like any old hare would, Thumper resorted to participating in sports through his screen: he still very much ran, though only vicariously.
He also reads endless bunny stories, and not just to imagine himself running like the others do, like he used to, and like heâd want to run again, not just to cheer up after vet visits by having a laugh at the silly rabbits who post funny clips but also to get the tips on the new ways of keeping his people wrapped around his little pawâand to share some, too, because his mum and dad are very well trained by Thumper: he can get anything he wants, and that takes skill and experience.
Thumper's friends
You get the gist. Thumper is a very well provided for and even better loved rabbitâas he imagined all rabbits would be because they are the best, right? It was when he came to meet Mr Buttons, who also liked running, and learned about the others at Helicopter Ears, Thumper realised the world doesnât work quite like he had imagined it would: most rabbits were not nearly as fortunate as him, and some not at all.
Rabbits came to Helicopter Ears because they didnât have a family to give them snacks to eat, sofas to eat them on, computers to bun-socialise at, and not only were some of them ill, or old, or both but also all sorts of unfortunates. Quite a variety, in fact. Thumper had his Carrot & Parsley Fund, and it was a modest allowance, but at Helicopter Ears, they didn't have any! They âfundraisedâ for their upkeep, which, as Thumper learned, meant they shared their stories, clever tips, silly pictures and so on in the hope someone would like them well enough to help them get their treats, computers, sofas, vet appointments, etc. Needless to say, Thumper regularly contributed out of his Carrot & Parsley Fund. It is also worth mentioning that the air of anti-bunny-breeding and anti-willy-nilly-bunny-selling there was about the place resonated with Thumper very well: anyone who contributed to his cousinsâ misfortunes deserved a decent amount of propaganda against. In Thumper's opinion, anyway, and it was one he cared about the most.
Thumper became an integral and active member of an eclectic and thriving rabbit community: the earless, the tailless, the eyeless, the friendless, the homeless⊠ There were all sorts of âlessâ at Helicopter Ears, but there were no talentless, for sure, because those rabbits told their stories better than even many people Thumper had read. And so, Thumper took up writing, too.
It naturally follows that Thumper made many, many friends, and when Mr Buttons left for the Rainbow Bridge, he was very sad but not nearly as sad as he would have been without his online buddies: they were sad together and the sadness was shared, and it was not as bad as Thumper imagined it to be.
When he realised the value of friends, Thumper wrote in his diary:
Writing came easy to Thumper and he enjoyed it, quickly developing a reputation for his succinct, punchy style.
Thumperâs fright idea
Thumper and his compatriots fundraised together, and between their fundraising sprints, they watched bunny videos, funny videos, and Thumper also watched running videos because he was a fan of running. Which brings us to how the idea of a marathon came to Thumper.
It was a minor thing, one that came up in his Google search for fundraising and stuff, and Google can be a very sinister device in paws of some-bun with big dreams and strict vet orders against.Â
YES! They'll run a marathon in aid of the Helicopter Ears bunnies: he, his mum and dad, and all the other rabbits.Â
The thought of it! To train up, to get fit, to run ⊠For several years, his mum, his dad, and he have all been told by the so-called veterinary professionals that every day could be his last. And Thumper did indeed treat every day as such: he snacked like ANY day could be his last. And maybe thatâs why he keeps proving the experts wrong year after year. What if he runs a marathon now? And fundraise at the same time? Thumper was sure it was a swell idea and one every-bun would jump upon.
âNo,â Laura said in a voice that left no room for discussion whatsoever.
âExcept in his dreams,â Gary added.Â
And, as if that was not enough to ruin an evening, in a show of union one inevitably discovers in his parents adamant to prevent a time of his life, they proceeded to ring Thumper's vet, who, in a tone not at all amenable, proclaimed: NO. THUMPER COULD NOT RUN IN A MARATHON. HE'S GOING ON FOURTEEN. That was a very public announcement, through a loudspeaker, for everyone to hear, including the neighbourâs hamster, Lauraâs house plants, and the kitchen sink, and a very embarrassing moment for Thumper.
As he eavesdropped on the conversation which followed, Thumper heard something about 'parental controls' and started getting an uneasy feeling. Who would have thought that something so innocent as a click of his paw would result in an idea as treacherous as a marathon take over all Thumperâs search queries, then a hold of his screen, then possession of his mind? Laura and Gary were having a lively discussion about the dangers of the Internet. âYeah, who would have thought his parents would prove so resistant to ideas!â Thumper thought in return, but he was not one to give up at a first hurdle, and, having contemplated the vetâs words for the precise amount of time required to thoroughly misinterpret them, he hatched a plan:
Marathon no go? OK. And, on that thought, Thumper went ahead and booked the three of them into a HALF-marathon instead. The vet says heâs for-what? For-teen? Thumper Googled. Nope, there is definitely no such word, but heâs definitely FOR-TEAM. And on that thought, he proceeded to invite his friends at Helicopter Ears to join the run.
And, finally, Thumper's marathon
A few days later and no RSVPs whatsoever in his inbox, Thumper presented the half-marathon tickets to Laura and Gary. They thought it was very funny and said he was a very clever rabbit indeed. But not nearly so clever as to trust his judgement of his own abilities, obviously, because they still wouldnât let him run.
Not the end of the road, Thumper decided, and made his case: the vet knows nothing about the bunny-sport of running and a second opinion is necessaryânot from another vet, of course, but someone who would know something about sports, someone who'd know about old age and illness, some-bun who'd take his side, for a change, and he wrote to Paddington, using the most conspicuous highlighter in the history of stationery to circle all the important letters:
Next week, a menacing-looking envelope arrived for Thumper:
Paddingtonâs response was:
Oh, Paddington, Paddington ⊠Clever enough to type on a computer but not so clever as to decipher a secret message.Â
But Thumper couldnât believe anybun would be quite that unintelligent. So, Thumper began thinking. Though they returned Thumperâs ticket, Laura and Gary didnât dismiss the idea of the half-marathon as hastily as they did that of the full one, and they had began training and would run to fundraise for his friends. Paddingtonâs a rabbit, after all, as is Thumper, and who knows a rabbit better than another rabbit? Maybe a snacking spree would be just as nice a way to spend the day as running it ⊠if not even a little bit better. As much as he wanted to run the marathon, the idea of snacking while someone else runs it was too good to dismiss out of paw, and Thumper was not one to dismiss any idea without giving it the due consideration it deserved. Hmm.Â
This thought process took about three seconds and a half and strengthened Thumperâs already firm belief that the best ideas came from unexpected sources, something heâll definitely need to write in his diary. Without any undue delay, Thumper started compiling a list of supplies for the day of the marathon and created a Skype account.Â
Laura and Gary have been training hard and they will run the half-marathon at the end of the month. Please give a paw of support to Thumperâs idea and a cheer to Laura and Gary by making a donation. Your donations will help us care for the rabbits that few charities will take onâthe disabled, chronically ill, and those who have long given up hope. We do everything we can for them, but we wholly rely on your support, and these rabbits have no chance without you. We work with specialist vets, and provide them with the relief from pain and the quality of life to enjoy their sunset years in our sanctuary. On some months, just our vet bills exceed ÂŁ1500, and we are grateful for any contribution you can spare: to these rabbits, every penny matters.
Three little ducklings arrived yesterday: Kiki, Bella, and Harriet. They are unsteady on their legs and need a bit of help. Hopefully, with a bit of treatment, they will be fine.
Today, our beautiful Mr Buttons is here to share his very own invention with the bunnies of the world: the Button-Boots. Mr Buttons and I worked tirelessly to make these boots. Just take a look at him finally running like he is meant to!
Mr Buttons spent several years confined to a small crate before we rescued him, and when he arrived, he ran so much he rubbed his feet to blood. And so we had a rather large bunny with rather sore feetâso sore he couldnât even walk.Â
They didnât heal with any treatments we tried until we made him these boots. In them, he could comfortably run around and continue on his adventures until his feet healed. Read on for the patterns and the instructions on how to make a pair for your bunny.
The Button-Boots
These boots have been designed specifically for rabbits, and Mr B was comfortable in them all day when he had to wear them. He could run in them, and he rested in them. He was a little bit annoyed with them at the start, but he quickly got used to them.Â
The length of Mr Buttonsâs paw was approximately 14cm, and if your bunnyâs foot measures the same, these should fit perfectly, though they will appear rather large when you make them. Donât worry about thatâitâs normal. Youâll readjust the pattern and make several boots before you get the size right. Donât expect this to be a quick job. It took me from about 5:30 PM until 3:30 AM in the morning until I was happy with the result, but I had to come up with the design which would be right for a rabbit, and I had to make the pattern from scratchâyou wonât have to do this; all you need to do is to resize it for your bunny.
Materials
1. An old coat that you can cut up or some other breathable, durable, non-stretch, non-tear, non-fraying material that would hold its shape while being soft and pliable, such as fleece. We cut up an old coat, and we found that it was soft, had good ventilation, and the material was easy to work with.
2. Strong thick cotton thread and needles
3. Pattern tracing materials and some way to scale it to your bunny's size. Please share with us if you find a good way to scale it.
4. 1cm wide elasticânot too tight; it must be easy to stretch
5. 2 x medium buttons
6. Shoe sole material. An old hot water bottle is perfect.
7. 1/2 inch wide Velcro
8. Scissors, obviously!
Pattern
The pattern is provided for the right foot only. Youâll need to mirror-trace it for the left foot.Â
For each shoe you will cut out the following:
Part A. 1 x from the fleece material (#1 in the materials list), WITH the seam allowanceÂ
Part B. 1 x from the fleece material (#1 in the materials list), WITH the seam allowanceÂ
Part B. 1 x from the shoe sole material (#6 in the materials list), WITHOUT the seam allowanceÂ
Part C. 1 x from the fleece material (#1 in the materials list), WITH the seam allowanceÂ
Donât forget to cut out the slots for the elastic to thread through the boot, mark the places where you will be attaching the elastic and the buttons, as well as the Velcro exactly as they are marked up on the pattern. Make the marks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 on the fabric exactly as marked up on the patternâyou will use them to align the parts.
Instructions
For the steps 1-3, you will be stitching each boot on the inside, so you will be working inside-out.Â
STEP 1. Join parts A and C between the points 1 and 5.Â
STEP 2. Starting at the point 1, join the now connected parts A and C to the part B (the one cut out from the fleece material) between the points 1 and 2 on each side of the shoe. This will leave only the heel seam opened at the back of each shoe.
STEP 3. Now stitch the parts A and C to join them between the points 2 and 6.Â
STEP 4. Turn the boot the right side out.
This would be a good point to try the boot on:
Keep making these âdraftâ bootsâhowever many you needâuntil you get the boot to the right size for your bunny. Keep readjusting the pattern as you go. The boots must be spacious yet a good fit for your bunnyâs feet: donât forget that the feet must flex, but you donât want them to be as floppy as for your bunny to stumble as he runs. Once you get the pattern right, proceed to make your final pair and finish the boots. You may need to make a few prototypes until you know that you got it just right for your bunny before you make the left boot.Â
STEP 5. Cut a length of elastic longer than you think you will require and attach the elastic to the outside of the part C at the spot marked with a cross on the pattern. The elastic must be attached on the right side of the shoe, not on the outside.Â
STEP 6. Attach a button to the outside of the part A. The place to attach the button is marked with a cross inside a circle on the pattern.Â
STEP 7. Thread the elastic through the back of the boot. It must be as marked up on the pattern so that it goes on the outside of the boot at the back, thus holding the boot in place but not rubbing the foot at the back. Trim the elastic. Unstretched, it should just reach to the edge of the button.Â
STEP 8. Cut a button hole in the elastic length-wise. Be careful to not cut through the elastic threads.Â
STEP 9. Attach the Velcro pieces, stitching those with hooks onto the inside of the part C and those with loops onto the outside of the part A.
STEP 10. With the boot turned the right side out, attach the part B cut out of the shoe sole material to the underside of your now assembled fleece shoe (this will be the fleece underside of the shoe, part B). You can glue or stitch this together but stitching allows for easy replacement when the sole wears out.
STEP 11. Cut out a mirror image of the pattern for the other boot and repeat steps 1-10 to make itâeasy! It only took me 12 hours ...
Putting them on
When you put the boots on your bunnyâs feet, you will have a large opening at the top of the boot (between the point 5 at the front and the point 6 at the back), through which you will put the foot. This opening should give you sufficient room to put the boot on without forcing it on. You will then fasten the Velcro so that your bunnyâs foot is nice and snug inside the bootâyou don't want the boot to twist around the foot as the rabbit runs; the boot shouldnât flop around the foot, because the rabbit will stumble and injure himself. You will then fasten the elastic to the button: the elastic will already be threaded through the slots in the boot, and all you will need to do is to put the button through the hole you cut out in the elastic in step 8. A rabbitâs sheen and the foot are mostly at a sharp angle, and the elastic will keep the boot over the heel and prevent it from slipping.
And hereâs another video of our Beautiful B for your viewing pleasure.
Have fun and donât forget to share the photos of your creations and your bunnies with us!
We put a lot of effort into these boots, and we hope they help your bunnies. If youâd like to thank us, please make a small donation in Mr Buttonsâs memory.Â
Get a double-length free trial of SmarterQueue and have your first monthâs payment credited to Helicopter Ears
For those of you trying to make sense of all your social media, we have tried many (if not all!) social media management platforms out there and done the hard work of finding what works and what doesnât. After many months of much pain and little gain, we have settled on using SmarterQueue.
You can read Oksana's thoughts on all things on offer out there and feel her pain or just use our referral link to sign up. You will get a double-length free trial of SmarterQueue and if you choose to take out a paid plan, have your first monthâs payment credited to Helicopter Ears.
Hello, bunnies. Freddy here, with a bunny health tip for all bunnies.Â
Can you see how my face is so pretty? Iâve always been a handsome chap, but lately, my face went wonky and I started looking somewhat funny. I thought it was nothing, but it was a serious illness for which I am having a big operation tomorrow.Â
First, it was only slightly noticeable, and then it got worse, and I became properly wonky-faced. Over the last week, my head started to tilt, and my friend Thimble thought Iâm only doing it out of solidarity with himâafter all, heâs been tilted forever. I went to a vet, of course, and the vet told me to get on Panacur as soon as possible.
But very soon, my tilt got even worse, and in a few days, I started losing my balance; Thimble got worried; Michael panicked; and Oksana called another vet for a second opinion. Off we went me and Thimble, far, far away, to have me checked over.
Underneath my ear, on the down-side of my tilt, the vet pointed out a marked swelling, which was very likely to be an inner ear infection: it is very common in lop-eared bunnies with an inner ear infection to have a swelling between the affected ear and the eye because we lack a certain type of cartilage there which would hold our ears up. In uppy-eared bunnies like Thimble, the swelling would not be apparent. It is also very common for the infection to affect facial nerves and give us a wonky face.
My ear was painful, and the vet could not look in with a scope or take any swabs. She consulted another vet, a bunny specialist, and he said to book me in for an operation because, in his experience, such things rarely resolve with antibiotic therapy alone. So, tomorrow, Iâm having a massive surgery, and I am very scared because my situation is seriousâall because my tilt was assumed to be EC but turned out to be something a lot more serious.Â
So, if you are a tilted bunny, do not automatically assume your tilt is caused by EC. Likewise, do not presume itâs an ear infection: it can be other things as well. Prestonâs tilt, for example, is caused by a stroke he had because of his heart condition: DCM.Â
And so was Dustyâs and Fridayâs: they had the heart disease, causing them to have strokes, causing head tilt, imbalance, and wonky faces too. Find yourselves a good bunny vet and work with your vet to get better.Â
And if you can support me at Helicopter Ears, please send me a donation. My bill is likely to be in the range of ÂŁ1000, and, living at a rescue for disabled rabbits, I cannot afford this without your help.
Hello from Rita, bunnies! As I have been separated from my bun-friend (temporarily, I hope), and deprived of my favourite activity of pulling his fur, Iâve taken it upon myself to run the website. Though it may not look like much, I think Iâve done quite well so far: I have a few pages at the top that are working, and Iâm starting to put in other content, moving our Facebook page over to here, for posterity - and for fun. More content is coming soon. I hope you like it, because I donât. Thereâs nothing much to like here yet. But trust me, Iâm gonna get my paws dirty and Iâll show you what I can do. Rita â€
Hutch has just gone to the Bridge. It turns out, he had been ill for some time, but he showed no signs. He fooled us all, including the vets whom he regularly saw for his dentals. No-one noticed anything wrong with Hutch.
He always ate well and never gave any appearance of pain or illness, but lately, he developed an eye infection. Yesterday, I took him to get his eye checked, and for the first time ever, he had a messy bum. Both vet and I thought he appeared thin, but when we put him on the scales, we discovered his weight went up, not down.
Later in the evening, as I was cleaning his eye, I was shocked at how firm his belly wasâit had no give to it whatsoever. It was solid. I immediately went to take some of the blood from him and ran it through our glucometer, sure itâd be super-high because something was definitely drastically wrong, but his glucose was completely normal. Perhaps, he had a bit of gas?Â
Michael suggested Hutch's messy bum could have been due to his recent celery overindulgence, and we hoped his tummy would soften overnight. But it hasnât, and today, I again tested his blood glucose: normal. I offered him some parsley. He ate it. I realised he wasnât running away from me like he did in the past, and remembered we all noticed that for a few months, Hutch had been spending a lot more time outside his hiding places and was always under our feet, out in the open, which was unusual for a wild bunnyâand for him, too. But then, he ate well, and he never gave any indication of being in pain: he was not seen grinding his teeth; he didnât sit in a hunched up position typical for a rabbit in pain; he had never collapsed. He was perky, but he didnât run away from us, and last night, Michael said he gave him a little head rubâand this was definitely not like Hutch. And why, despite having put on the weight, he looked so thin? And whatâs with this rock-hard tummy? Something wasnât right, but what?
I immediately rang the vet, and she saw us right away. She x-rayed Hutch and noted he was just too easy, too cooperative through the procedureâhe had always put up a fight in the past. His belly was definitely too firm, and the X-ray didnât show anything to go on, so we shaved his belly, and I held Hutch as she did an ultrasound. There was something strangeâa huge round mass in his belly, so large the vet couldnât even think what it could possibly be. I asked how soon she could operate, and she said she'd take him through right away.
This was when Hutch had his first kissâthe first kiss he had from anyone at Helicopter Ears. He was a wild bunny, and we always had to be very quick and efficient with him. He hated being touched, and I never got as close as to kiss him. But he let me. And then, I went to give him a head rub too, and he didnât flinch in the slightest. For the first time, he appeared to enjoy a human touch, not run from it. And how soft he was! I told him how much we loved having him around and what a special rabbit he was, and then I let the vet take over. Somehow, I knew Hutch would not be waking up from this operation. I knew this was a goodbye.
As I waited in reception, a nurse appeared and asked if I wouldnât mind coming into the operating theatre. I didnât mind at all. As Hutch lay there anaesthetised, with all the due tubes and a mask, the vet showed to me what had been bothering himâthere was an abscess in his belly, and it was the size of a large mango. In fact, the abscess was his belly. It was inoperable for a number of reasons. The mass had been pressing on the organs and compressing his intestines, which would explain the messy bum. As it was dislodged during the operation, there was a drop in blood pressureâthe abscess was no longer providing the pressure it used toâand Hutch began to struggle under the anaesthetic. It would have been impossible to safely remove the abscess: some of the intestines fused to it and appeared necrotic in places; blood vessels enveloped it, and a large artery ran through it. Even if there would have been a chance of him surviving the operation, which there wasnât, the risk of septicaemia was too high, and he would likely not recover. I asked the vet to put Hutch to sleep there and then, and she gave him the injection.
We weighed the abscessâeven partially drained, it was around the massive 400 g. We also weighed Hutch, and he was his normal 1.1 kg. It was unbelievable that somebun with an abscess as large as his ate so well as not to lose weight. His thin appearance was likely due to his stomach being disproportionately large in relation to the rest of his body, and his resent tameness must have been due to the discomfort from the abscess. Vets mainly operate on domestic bunnies, and she had never seen an abscess as big as Hutch'sâin any rabbit at all, large or small. She thought only a wild rabbit could have been so strong to survive as large an abscess in his stomach for so long, especially being as small as Hutch, but wild rabbits rarely live so long as to grow a large abscess, and not able to run swiftly, they wouldnât stand a chance against predators.
So, our Hutch is now gone. His body is now with Dottie so that she can say goodbye to her buddy.
He was the first and so far the only wildie at Helicopter Ears and a true superbun, old and wise. He must have been one of the oldest wild rabbits, and even despite having to live in captivity, he remained a true wild soul. Everybody loved and respected Hutch. Weâll miss him. He was a most gentle rabbit, so sweet, so innocent, and he brought a touch of wilderness to us at Helicopter Ears, and he will be very much missed.
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