Vertigo was easy compared to this

To Simone's friends, two-legged and four-legged:

Simone's health is not good. He seemed okay up until last week, but apparently has been losing weight gradually, so slowly that I did not notice until recently. He had still been eating like a pig and drinking plenty of water. Last week I noticed his hair seemed thin, but suspected the inconsistent weather might have triggered something odd with his shedding patterns, etc. and then on Christmas Eve he suddenly STOPPED eating and drinking. It was then I noticed his weight loss because he seemed frail when I picked him up. Apparently it was noticeable because he was dehydrated.

We immediately drove him to the vet and she placed him on a regimen of daily fluid injections, force feeding 4x daily, baytril and a probiotic to keep good bacteria in his system. He eats very little and would not even eat a baby carrot this morning. He refuses to drink anything.

I had to take him back to the vet today because I wasn't having success with the injections, so she let me practice in front of her to be sure I was doing okay with it, and now I can have better luck at home (rabbits have tough skin and it is scary trying to inject a tiny little bun with that long needle).

Between Monday and today, Simone has lost more weight. He is normally 5 pounds or so, and now he is only 3.1 pounds. His vet suspected he would only lose this much weight for two reasons: cancer or kidney failure. From the sound of it, kidney failure sounds a bit worse. However, neither one is good news.

She is afraid to do any tests on him (until he regains strength) because trauma from testing could cause him to decline faster. However, she emphasized that I should "be prepared for the worst" although "there's a chance we can get him back on track and we'll hope for that, but it's also possible we are going to be discussing quality-of-life decisions soon."

I am hoping and praying for him to recover from this and be able to overcome whatever has caused him to stop eating and drinking. I really wish I had noticed sooner that he was losing the weight. He might have a better chance if I had been handling him more attentively. There are probably lots of things I would have noticed more quickly if I had really been paying attention to the little details.

One good thing, Simone's vet does NOT think he is in pain, because he does at least try to eat a few bites here and there. He just feels very weak and tired.

The prognosis is scary, but we are doing our best to help little Simone feel better. I wish I had noticed sooner that he was getting sick. All we can do is help him from here and make sure he feels loved and supported. I really hope he has a lot more time left with us. Things wouldn't be the same without the little guy.

- Mama