Ragwort was our third bunny after George nibbler passed away. Mercifully he died in January 2004, but he didn't go without a fight. Before Ragwort succumbed to his final ailment he was a strong and muscular buck. Ragwort was very gentle and loved being cuddled and carried when he was a baby, but since he moved in with Poppy he didn't need our company anymore. He did still like a cuddle every now and again but pretended to be tough in front of Poppy and so only had a cuddle when his big sister wasn’t looking.
When Ragwort and Poppy first met fur flew! Poppy had suffered a lot of stress when George died and she did not take to her new little brother straight away. She gave Ragwort a very nasty bite on his inner thigh, just missing a major blood vessel. After several stitches Ragwort recovered and they grew to be the best of bunny friends. Ragwort also survived a very bad ear infection which almost led to him being put to sleep. He lost his balance completely and could not walk for several days. He rolled around the floor only stopping when he came up against a wall. This was incredibly distressing but thanks to the wiseness of our vet and perseverance he recovered after a week of syringing liquid antibiotics into his mouth. Then Raggy's teeth problems started. We noticed something sticking out of his mouth - one of his front teeth had grown badly out of alignment. We had never seen an overgrown tooth before and it was very alarming, so much so that we called the emergency vet out to see us the following morning. This could have been the result of a knock on the tooth that had knocked it out of place or bad nutrition when he was a kitten. It is also a common problem in dwarf lops, especially males.
The front teeth only stop growing when they meet each other, so if one of the teeth is knocked and they don't meet anymore then the teeth will continue to grow. The vet cut his teeth right down and we continued to do this for a couple of months ourselves. However, if the teeth are cut too many times they start to bleed. At this point we knew they had to come out. Through "Rabbiting On" the house rabbit magazine we found a vet in Harrogate who specialises in rabbits. We took Raggy through for the vet to see his problem and she was confident she could take his teeth out. This was done and all seemed well. But then his eyes became very weepy and the fur around them matted. As with Poppy this is a sign that all is not well with the back teeth. We took him back to Harrogate to have his tear ducts flushed but the roots of his back teeth had grown into his tear ducts and so they couldn't be flushed through. All we could do was bathe his eyes and "peel" away the matted fur. This was a horrible and painful experience for both Raggy and my husband (who had the job of doing it) but it had to be done. Raggy seemed to know we were trying to help him and he sat calmy through all the pain he must have felt. This problem continued and the fur on his face was getting more and more into a state. Then he started losing weight. We
separated Raggy from Poppy to see if he was eating and although he was interested in his food he wouldn't eat. We guessed his mouth was so painful that he couldn't chew his food and so we
started softening his food with water. This seemed to work but he would eat so incredibly slowly, it must have really been hard for him. In the end he just couldn't carry on. We knew he was dying and I reproach myself for not taking him to the vet sooner to release him the kind way.
He slept in the cat basket that night in our room - he was too weak to move around. At 4am we were woken by the strangest noise - Raggy. He was sort of squeaking. I honestly think he wanted us to know he was going and it was a relief when he took his last breath. He was a brave, strong, proud and courageous buck, who suffered a lot on his little life, but was loved all the more for it! We still miss him!
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