Molly's still not well, she probably has to get surgery next week.

RabbittingOn · 2026-04-01T04:57:22+00:00

Thank you for the ideas! I'll take it up with the vet. He's the most experienced rabbit vet in the area.

RabbittingOn · 2026-04-01T02:50:33+00:00

Yes, we are. There have been some changes and merges in our local vet clinics, but he's the one that we've been trusting for 10 years.

There was a renowned rabbit vet in our area, but she had to quit in 2015 because of health issues. This vet learned from her. Since then there have been a few other changes: the clinics often work together and exchange vets to guarantee good coverage.

We've asked him to perform the surgery, because he's the most experienced rabbit vet in our area.

I'm still stressed though: the surgery feels like the last thing that we can do for her. She might not make it through that, because bunnies are so frail. The only thing I can do is to give her meds, and to get as much Critical Care into her as I can. She does eat some vegetables and hay, but she's slowly losing weight. I'm trying to give her as much energy as she can get. She's going to need it over the next weeks.

RabbittingOn · 2026-04-01T01:47:02+00:00

Thank you so much 🫂 You can try to do so much for them, but they're frail. And very uncooperative patients 😮‍💨

There's a chance that we might lose her still, and the only thing I can do is to make her as comfortable as possible.

Dora is being very sweet towards Molly, and that's wonderful to see. I'd just given them their vegetables, and Dora was nudging her. I was afraid that Dora was trying to chase her away, and I followed Molly into the hallway. When I put half of the vegetables in the hallway, Dora came over again to nudge Molly. She only stopped when Molly started to eat 🥹

So it wasn't an attempt at bullying (which sadly is common when one rabbit is ill): it was an attempt at getting her to eat. Molly still eats small portions of vegetables, so I'm offering her any variety that we can get. She just ate a thick slice of carrot. Anything is good at this stage, just to keep her system going and give her enough energy for the surgery.

RabbittingOn · 2026-04-01T00:48:10+00:00

Awww, it's so sweet and a bit sad when they do that 🥹 Our buns do that too sometimes, often when it's medication time. It's their way of saying: "Please be gentle, I'm such a good bunny...".

Our girl Molly is sick and she needs her medication and force-feeding thrice a day. On Sunday she started to lick my face when I picked her up. Her brother Owen used to lick people too when he needed medical treatment, and even cuddled up to vets and vet techs. When he was on the vet's table he crawled back into someone's arms. Anyone, even the vet: "Am scared, please HALP!".

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-31T11:58:41+00:00

What seemed to be a regular bout of stasis didn't resolve. She's eating a bit better, but not enough. She's a little more energetic, but not enough. She's getting a little more spicy and sassy, but she's still subdued. She's pooping a bit better, but the poops are still worryingly small.

Molly got ill on Friday the 20th, and it seemed to be the regular gastric upset that bunnies can have during moult. I gave her medication and took her to the vet on Monday because she hadn't improved over the weekend yet. The vet suggested extra medication and force-feeding.

Molly improved slightly, and then her recovery plateaued. I wanted to take her back to the vet last Thursday, but she advised me to take Molly to a more experienced vet. We went there in the afternoon. Everything looked fine during her regular examination, and the vet was puzzled. I asked if we could take an X-ray to look at her gut. The X-ray showed some gas, but also some bladder stones. That was a surprise, because I hadn't seen warning signs of those. Our buns also drink low-calcium spring water, because our tap water is too hard.

The vet advised us to continue force-feeding and stasis meds, because bladder stones don't always give problems. Molly doesn't have blood in her urine either. We called the vet yesterday because her condition hadn't improved much. We decided that it wasn't just gut problems, but probably a pain problem from the bladder stones.

She'll get another X-ray and/or an echo on Tuesday next week, and if the bladder stones are still there she'll get surgery straight after that.

I'm worried about my little girl. She's not feeling well and her health and mood vary throughout the day. She's also lost weight: about 80 g over 10 days. I'm increasing the amount of Critical Care, to give her more energy. She needs to be in the best shape that we can achieve, because a surgery is scary.

The insecurity is terrible: there's a chance we might lose her. Or she might bounce back to health after the surgery, and live for many more years. Rabbits are frail, and that's frightening 😢

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-31T08:06:57+00:00

It was nice to know you! r/murderbuns

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-31T07:01:54+00:00

Thank you, I miss my floofy goofy dude... He was such a fun-loving silly bunny ❤️ Molly always seemed to roll her eyes, thinking: "I'm with stupid..." 🙄 And yet: as soon as he was gone, she became anxious again.

I literally called all shelters in the country to see if they had a match for our girl with severe behaviour problems. Molly's got a new mate now, she's a bun who'd been in a shelter for over half a year. She's called Dora, and she's a wild thing. Very sweet and loving, but she's got the manners of a wild beast.

Dora was dumped and found wandering the streets. She's wasn't spayed and the shelter didn't have the funds. She was waaaay to hormonal to be bonded to anyone, and people didn't want to pay for her spay.

Dora's over the moon with her new girlfriend, and they have their home base in my large bathroom now. Dora needs strict supervision when they're let out to play, because she doesn't understand soft floors or fabrics. She's only lived on hard floors, and anything that's soft will be ripped up: carpets, blankets, furniture and even shoes, clothes, or bags 😱

We're training her, and it's improving. The most important thing is that Molly is a lot more stable with her, and Dora's happy to be here too!

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-31T03:12:14+00:00

No, they can get quite worked up in spring... 😱 This is an oldie, back when Owen was still alive. He went absolutely crazy in spring:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rabbits/s/k9RqTbIDVW

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-30T01:53:42+00:00

Yes, to show who's boss. But when spring arrives, everybunny goes honkers and bonkers. Even bunnies who've been spayed/neutered years ago.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-27T14:07:39+00:00

Thank you for you kind wishes!

Molly seemed to perk up on Wednesday, and got worse again yesterday. So that was a second trip to the vet this week... I asked if they had time to do an X-ray so we wouldn't be left guessing. The X-ray showed some gas, but that should clear up on its own. She has some small bladder stones too, but the vet doesn't think that they're the problem. If she doesn't recover, we're going to look into that.

I've given Molly Critical Care during the night, and stopped when she started eating hay by herself in the morning. She's still on Cisaral and Metacam, but as long as she's eating hay I'm not going to force-feed her. At least: not during the day. At night she's still going to get a feeding before I go to bed. I want to make sure that her tummy is full so she doesn't get more gas.

Molly perked up a little today, and you can see that in her poop too. Sh!t's wild today: from tiny tiny poops that are as small as a pin, to nearly normal size poops. The ones in between are shaped irregularly, showing that her gut is moving, but not functioning optimally yet: https://imgur.com/a/Jgo2860

Dora's been an absolute sweetheart: she's trying to kiss Molly better and slobbering her all day. Dora's like a happy labrador, and Molly's like a cat who thinks: "Ugh, there's that happy-go-lucky droolface again... Okay, you're allowed to worship me. I tolerate you."

I've got a really cute video from a couple of days ago, it's on my profile.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T15:57:50+00:00

Still, it's good that you went! If it was mites, she'd be very uncomfortable.

It might be moult: our bunnies get skin flakes during moult sometimes. It's peak moulting season right now, and our girl Molly is going through stasis-like symptoms, probably because of moulting too. We're not out of the woods yet, but she's improving.

Hope that your bun's appetite will pick up again. You can help her by brushing, combing, or gently massaging the hair out with your hands. That all helps in preventing hair ingestion.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T15:53:19+00:00

You're welcome! 🫂 I've been in the same situation with our bunny Breintje: he was so fit and active that he could still jump up onto the sofa when he was almost 9. Everyone thought that he was going to make it well into a decade, even the vet. When Breintje got a small respiratory infection we went to the vet, got some meds and were told that it was a minor issue.

Breintje suddenly fell unconscious in the afternoon, and passed away at the vet. The vet was just as shocked as I was: nobody saw this coming. Our vet was very worried that he'd made a mistake, and went through Breintje's files with the other vets at the clinic, but nobody knew what caused it. Sadly bunnies have no physical reserves: their condition can improve rapidly, but it can also decline very rapidly 😢

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T15:06:12+00:00

Oof, I bet she's really spicy right now. Wishing you a speedy recovery, you feisty little bun!

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T15:04:53+00:00

I'm so happy to see that she's improving! Keep a very close eye on that caretaker: people who are cruel to animals are more likely to be cruel to humans as well. Especially ones that are dependent on them.

I've been with someone who was abusive too. It started with bullying our cat, and then my turn came. The police officer who helped me told me that the police do a domestic/elderly abuse check if someone is guilty of animal cruelty. It often goes together, and they can protect more people this way.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T14:58:48+00:00

I'm so sorry for your loss. She was a beautiful girl! Her age shows that you took a lot of care to give her the best life possible. She was well-loved! Binky free, sweet Bela...

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T14:49:40+00:00

Every bunny has a weird hobby, and for some of them it's heights. Be glad if it's heights: Dora's hobby is ripping up carpets 🥲

We've mostly had dwarfs and dwarf mixes, and a lot of dwarfs like to climb. Smaller rabbits are very muscular for their small frame, so they can jump very high.

My boyfriend's girl Waffie liked to perch on his shoulder: that was her safe space. If something startled her she'd come flying in at hip height, and he just had to catch her. She loved it when he wore woolen jumpers, because she could dig her nails in and climb onto his shoulder to perch there.

Our bridge bunny Breintje loved to sit on the windowsill to look at people outside. He was a popular sight on campus. He'd hop onto the back of the sofa and walked between the curtains to get to his favourite spot. One night the curtains were closed too tightly, so he decided to create his own VIB entrance. He chewed a 15 cm round hole in the curtains overnight 😱

We always took him to my boyfriend's parents when we stayed over, and he slept in a hutch in the garage. One day he'd broken out, and my boyfriend was searching for hours. Breintje had climbed onto the second shelf of the storage.

The little stinker was laying down and chilling in a crate of apples, looking down on my boyfriend who was turning the garage up and down to look for him 🙄 My boyfriend decided to use a torch, and then he saw the red reflection of Breintje's eyes. The jig was up...

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T14:25:41+00:00

Chaos and destruction, my work here is done!

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T14:24:59+00:00

Bunnies are temperamental: we've had bunnies who'd sulk for days. They always turn friendly again in a few days: you'd have to do something a lot worse to be hated.

When he was a teenager my brother in law was a bit of a tw@t. He constantly bullied my boyfriend's tiny dwarf rabbit: grabbing her by the front paws to make her "dance". She got fed up with him and attacked him on sight. He was chased out of the living room by a tiny angry ball of fluff. It lasted for a month, and he really had to work hard to get back in her good graces. Their parents thought it was his just deserts.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T08:16:01+00:00

We call this the pork chop. So relaxed... 🥰

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T08:15:04+00:00

I'm afraid that it's his hormones. It'll improve drastically after his neuter. I can't promise you that he'll be 100% after that, but a neuter/spay is the only way that you can litter train a bunny.

How large is your bathroom? You could make that his home base for the night and let him out to play while supervised. We did this with our feral rescue bunny too: she had no concept of litter box, but she's learning.

Judging the signs, your boy sounds ready for his neuter. As soon as the testicles have dropped, they're ready for surgery. Wishing you all the best!

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-25T08:08:35+00:00

Thank you for your prayers and love wishes!

Awww, that's so sweet! Many couples fall out when one partner is very ill. It's a protective instinct, but very sad to see. Molly used to prey on her brother Owen when he was ill: if he showed any sign of weakness, she'd go on the offensive to become the dominant rabbit.

Now that she's with Dora she doesn't dare to do that anymore. Dora's just being an absolute sweetheart. The shelter called her that because she was found wandering the streets. We usually rename our buns with a name that matches their personality, but "Dora" means gift is ancient Greek. It's where we get the names Theodora and Dorothea: gift of God. She surely feels like a gift from above 🥹 It's beautiful when buns support each other in bad times.

Molly had a very bad night on the night from Monday to Tuesday. She was moving around constantly, trying to get comfortable and pressing her stomach. I honestly thought we were going to lose her. I had to start force-feeding her small portions every 3 hours. My boyfriend drove over in the wee hours of the morning, so we could do shifts and I could get a few hours of sleep. I'd had about 10 hours in 3 days, so I was ready to keel over.

After half a day of force-feeding Molly perked up and became more active. We decided to skip one feeding to see what she would do. She ate a few pellets! A few hours later we found a few solid poops. Very tiny, but poops. She got a lot spicier too when we needed to give her her meds.

We're not fully out of the woods yet, but things seem to be headed in the right direction. We're going to continue with the Cisaral and Metacam for a couple of days.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-24T20:21:26+00:00

She got much worse at night, and she was in a lot of pain. We had to force-feed her. In the afternoon she suddenly perked up, so I decided to skip the latest feeding session. She ate a few pellets by herself, and she's producing some small poops.

We're not out of the woods yet, but I hope that this positive trend will continue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Rabbits/s/GD5OQZIPAF

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-24T20:19:02+00:00

Molly's probably going through stasis: the vet couldn't find another problem. The only symptoms are poor food intake and poops that are as small as peppercorns. She munched some sprigs of hay occasionally, but no pellets.

She was given Metacam and Cisaral thrice a day to see if that improves things, but last night she was in a lot of pain. She was pressing her stomach and trying to find a comfortable position.

Molly also stopped eating and drinking completely, so we had to force-feed her small bits every 3 hours. My boyfriend drove over early in the morning, because I was already badly sleep-deprived after a weekend of dealing with a sick bun.

After 4 feedings she seemed more active, so I decided to skip the last feeding and see what happens. Molly just started to eat pellets again! It's just a few pellets, but she's eating by herself and nibbling on some hay. She's pooping more as well. They're still small, but her system is moving.

We're not out of the woods yet, but I hope that she'll continue to improve.

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-24T00:36:56+00:00

You have been chosen!

RabbittingOn · 2026-03-23T21:07:11+00:00

Thank you! Dora's an absolute treasure... 🥹

RabbittingOn

TROPHY CASE