Easter Bunny Part 2

Well Smudge seemed brighter this morning. She came bounding up to me and tucked into the broccoli I offered her. She still hadn't touched her pellets though so I rang the vets and got her an appointment this morning. After thoroughly examining her (Smudge wasn't impressed at having her temperature taken) the vet concluded that one of her back teeth is overgrown and has started to become infected. It's very common problem in pet rabbits so for Smudge to get to almost seven years old before needing anything done has been a bonus. The vet said she'd seen rabbits less than a year old with teeth worse than Smudges. She gave her an injection of antibiotics and another anti-inflammatory one and she's booked back in for a review on Tuesday morning. If she's perked up enough by then they're going to keep her in that day and operate to remove or trim the tooth.

In the meantime it's important to keep Smudge eating so on the way home we called in at Asda to buy some more broccoli and spinach as she still seems to eat those. The vet also suggested that I try soaking her pellets in water to make a paste and see if she'll take that from the bowl or I can syringe it into her mouth. If all else fails I should phone them and they'll prescribe some "convalescent soup" for her.

As you can imagine Smudge was glad to get home, she's had some spinach and apple and is sat in the sun. I've mixed some of her pellets with water (smells like henna hair powder!) and tried the syringe technique. Once you can persuade her to open her mouth she actually seems to quite like the paste and was licking up the bits I'd split on her after we finished, so fingers crossed, come Tuesday she'll be well enough to have the problem sorted.

However of course, I'm feeling like a total failure as a pet owner. I should have taken her to the Vets on Thursday night, I should have phoned them as an emergency when they were closed yesterday, I should have realised she was eating the fluffy end of the broccoli rather than the stalk bit that she usually goes for first....

Oh in other news. I won the euromillions last night. Well £8.30 anyway, which (if you deduct the cost of the ticket) just about paid half of todays vet bill.