It's been a bit of a week.
2nd eldest daughter was relieved of her appendix on Monday afternoon, having woken up at 4.30 am, in pain and in a panic. Husband was persuaded to take her to ER after his failed attempt at diagnosing her ailment ~“Does it hurt when I prod you here? Well it’s not appendicitis then” ... (can I admit to a small twinge of self righteousness that he was wrong?)
Oldest daughter proved herself a stellar big sister ~with her all day during the interminable wait for the surgeon, and then all night, as the nurses checked in on them every hour.
Tuesday saw the patient sent home to continue her recovery.
All well and good.
On checking the rabbits later that day ~maggots crawling around Lady’s cage. On closer inspection ~ maggots everywhere. Blow fly strike. Very bad. Very very bad. Emergency trip to wonderful exotic pets clinic. We had caught it in time. Phew. They shaved away her butt fur and flushed out the maggots that were busy devouring her flesh. She was left with a cool new hairdo and three deep open wounds near her tail. I was left with a long list of medications and a huge bill.
Tuesday night we went to sleep.
Wednesday morning, 3am, we were disturbed by unfamiliar sounds from outside.
Someone softly knocking.
Two police officers and third daughter.
“does she make a habit of running away?”
“No, but she does have insomnia ...”
I asked where they found her “... she was dancing in the middle of the road”
An affronted Jessica declared succinctly “I wasn’t dancing I was twirling!”
“She has Aspergers” I explained.
(Reminder to self ... must make that child psychologist appointment).
Wednesday, a fever took 2nd daughter back to ER. This time I stayed. Two nights of being woken by machines beeping and nurses checking and some annoying stranger asking for blood at 4.30am. Hers not mine.
Home on Friday (all better, thank you God). To discover bunny not eating or drinking, pooping or peeing.
G.I. stasis. Even worse than very very bad.
And while the vet was giving me a run down of the treatments proposed, and the (even more) medicines we will have to administer, and the (even higher) astronomical amount this was going to cost, something in my head (I think it was my Mother) was screaming “It’s a RABBIT for goodness sake! It's VERMIN!!”
... what does it take these days for a vet to put a rabbit to sleep? How sick does this poor little bundle of fluff have to be? ...
So I brought her back home, and we have spent the last few days force feeding her critical care hay mush, syringing 5 different medicines into her mouth and injecting saline under her skin to keep her hydrated. Twice a day. (Don’t other people get paid to do this sort of thing?)
Last night she ate a slice of apple.
And I think I saw her munch on a stalk of hay.
And she definitely drank from her water bottle.
And 4th daughter read to her. And prayed for her.
Maybe she’s turning the corner?
It’s a long, s l o w process
No comments:
Post a Comment