Bobby Had A Fit Today :-(

It hasn't been the best of days; Bobby had a fit today.

It was a bit of a shock.  We had my parents over for the day and following a little Spring jaunt we came back to the house and went to visit the piggies and buns up in their bedroom.  My Mum and Dad loves seeing them so we had some fun with the piggy brothers; Scooby, Stewie and Timmy running about playing together.

Then we noticed Bobby behaving really strangely in her cage.  Her body was almost contorted and she had her head tucked weirdly underneath her; I couldn't figure out what she was doing.  I lifted her out of the cage immediately and knew something was wrong.  Normally she'd have struggled herself free or at least made some sort of verbal in-compliance.  When I held her on my knelt lap I realised she was having some sort of a seizure.  Her feet were moving erratically and her head was skewiff, her nose and mouth looking very wet.  I could only think she'd caught something off us from being outside, perhaps having an allergic reaction.  I felt her dewlap and to me is felt strange, like it was filled with fluid or ballooned, which fueled my worry that she was experiencing a bad reaction to something.  I tried to calm Bobby by gently stroking her and talking to her while my other half, Sean, rang our vet, Stanhope Park Veterinary Hospital in Darlington.  They said to go straight down when he told them what had just happened.

I was so upset even when she stopped fitting because she wasn't herself; she felt hot, especially her ears, and her breathing was rapid.  She kept yawning in her carry box on the way to the vets which is always a sign of Bobby getting stressed.  I just tried to reassure her by stroking her in her box on my lap.

When we got to the vets I was surprised by how full the waiting room was, I don't think I'd ever seen it so busy before which was just typical.  We found somewhere to sit and waited to be called.  I was really concerned that Bobby was in distress and was in total disbelief as we watched other people's appointments being taken.  It appeared Bobby wasn't being treated as an emergency, when in the past at previous vet practices we'd have been called straight into a consultation room right away.  Why on earth routine appointments and pet collections were more important is beyond me.

When we were finally called it was a vet nurse who initially assessed Bobby, for the vet to follow in shortly after.  She couldn't give a reason why Bobby had a fit, adding that we couldn't know whether she may have had seizures before this occasion.  The vet said it can be a sign of diabetes and so took a small sample of blood taken from Bobby's ear.  It showed normal results.  I asked about the strange feeling in the dewlap too but that apparently was normal as well.

We mentioned again that Bobby is in the PDSAs Pet Fit Club and that she's been on a new diet of Excel Light Nuggets.  The vet popped Bobby on the scales (which again read as 2.41kg) and said that Bobby is an extremely fat rabbit, also asking is she's been spayed.  Bobby hasn't been spayed because of the risk of an operation while over weight, which was actually the same vet's recommendation a while ago.  We know Bobby is heavier than she ought to be which is why we're doing all we can to get her more active.  It doesn't help to have your own vet say that getting an overweight rabbit down to size is virtually impossible because 'they're not like wild rabbits'.  If we abide by that attitude we all may as well give up now.

So as it stands we don't know why Bobby had a fit, and it's extremely worrying not knowing.  I've never experienced it before so it's an awful shock to see your pet reacting in such a violent way.  If anyone has a rabbit, or indeed any pet, who has had seizures I would be really keen to hear from you.  I just hope Bobby doesn't have any more of them.

Becky x

Bobby's Fit Club Weigh In

Bobby's misbehaving today!  Her second weigh in and check up for the PDSA Fit Club was due and, because we couldn't make it to the Middlesbrough hospital, head vet nurse, Steph Williams, came for a visit.

When Bobby had her first weigh in a month ago at her initial check up she was 2.39kg.  Back home we weighed her on our normal bathroom scales and it said she was 2.3kg.  The professional scales that the vets have will be more precisely calibrated but we wanted to know for our own use back home when we'll weigh her regularly to see how she's going.  I weighed her on Friday and we were over the moon that Bobby now weighed 2.1kg, already a small but significant loss from when she began.  Rather confusingly though when Bobby got on the vet scales this afternoon it read that Bobby is now 2.41kg.  Not the direction we want to be going in at all!

Official PDSA photo - but Bobby was 2.39, not 2.38

What the scales said did not measure up to what Steph saw though.  As soon as she came into the room she said Bobby looked slimmer and she saw for herself how active Bobby now is.  We're not quite sure why her weight has gone up when she's clearly moving about a lot more than she used to be capable of and already more mobile.  Vet nurse, Steph, said that she could see that Bobby looked more alert and happier in herself which is something we agree with.

Bobby on the move!

Two main issues I knew needed to be dealt with concerned Bobby's living arrangements and her food.  Bobby, opposed to my own long standing advice, lives with a guinea pig called Huey.  It started back when we had a little guinea pig called Clover who was an ill piggy and I wanted him to have some company who would look after him.  Bobby loved him and when he crossed the rainbow bridge Bobby was really lonely.  It wasn't the right time for us to get another rabbit so when another of our guinea pigs, Beans, fell out with his cage mate he was the perfect friend for Bobby.  Then when Beans died, the same happened when Huey (a similar looking white pig as Beans) fell out with his friend and that's how Huey and Bobby became buddies.  Even though I love seeing the pair together, cuddling up and grooming each other, my gut knows they shouldn't really be together and it makes a very tough problem knowing how to go about doing it.  The fact that there's two bowls of dry food in the cage too means Bobby may be munching on what's really Huey's ration.  I need to figure a way of separating them without them feeling the split.

Bobby spending more time on the floor has meant there's also the issue with her pooping and peeing wherever she pleases, so Steph said she would arrange some information regarding litter training.  When I bring Bobby out of her cage she comes downstairs for free run of the living room, and I put a carry box with water bottle attached out on the carpet with some newspaper and a heap of hay so she has a place of refuge.  Not that she's much interested in the box, as she prefers to lie around on the rug!  Steph suggested a very valid point that perhaps Bobby doesn't go in to the carry box to do her business is because she probably associates it with negativity, such as going in the car to the vet.

So we have quite a way to go!  I will begin by cutting down the dry food even more, which is now Bobby's diet Excel Light Nuggets.  The vet overseeing Bobby's diet plan, Helen Dyson, suggested we do this while Bobby and Huey are together and then to substitute the vitamin C which Huey would normally get from his guinea pig nuggets by supplementing the water with a vitamin C soluble tablet.  (If we split a human Vitamin C tablet of 1000mg into 10 bits, and pop 1/10th into 800ml of water.)  Bobby also has a good supply of Excel Fresh Herbage and Excel Nature Snacks Mountain Meadow Herbs provided by Burgess to keep her munching her way to a better diet.

Bobby meanwhile is being very cheeky and rebellious during her floor time as I speak.  She keeps trying to get behind the tv and then tearing the wallpaper off the walls.  I think she knows what she's up to because she keeps running (yes, running!) over to me and chinning my foot!

I'm sure we'll get there.  Whatever the scales say right now there's no denying Bobby is fitter than when she was at the beginning.

Becky x

Keith Lemon's Lemonaid

Back in February I applied for a new ITV programme called Lemonaid, presented by Leigh Francis, famed for his award winning Celebrity Juice show.  Anyone who's watched late night Celebrity Juice knows how rude and suggestive Keith Lemon is so I had a good idea what kind of show it would be.

Knowing that Keith Lemon is all about sexual innuendoes, an idea I'd already been planning involving nipple tassels was my instant thought to pitch.  As I'm a model and love wearing tassels I wanted to combine the cheekiness of pin up with my infatuation for Katy Perry; make a funny and rude video paying homage to the California Gurls singer and get her to see the vid.  So that's what I wrote in my application to the production team.

I wasn't surprised when I received a call about my application because I knew it was a cheeky idea that was right up Keith Lemon's street.  It didn't quite pan out that way though.  I was told quite literally that my idea was too rude for the programme!  The show was intended for a prime time family viewing slot and that because of the time schedule it meant all ideas had to be clean.

Keith Lemon do a clean family teatime show?  The potty mouthed comedian of night time sexually driven Celebrity Juice?   I couldn't honestly see the connection and waited with baited breathe for the series to actually come to air.

Lemonaid was aired for the first time on Saturday night at 6:15pm over the Easter weekend and within seconds of the show starting it proved to be the same recipe as Celebrity Juice, barely it's diluted sister.

The set was a huge Keith Lemon head with his porn star moustached mouth as his table and trademark bandaged right (wanking) hand as guests chair.   Lemon's opening words were to proclaim he never thought he'd be 'sat on my own face' and told his live audience that he's 'a genie of the lamp' - 'give me a little rub' he said as he gestured with his bandaged hand.

And so the usual remarks continued, echoing Celebrity Juice, only this time having prime position of teatime tv.

Guest Cilla Black was complimented on being 'bang tidy' and that she had a figure that was 'svelte; streamlined like a nice sausage'.   During an on set game Lemon remarked on the costume camels saying  'look at all the camel toes', referring to what we all know.

Don't get me wrong.  I like a bit of sexual innuendo.  I have a dirty mind myself that I bet even Mr Lemon would raise his bushy eyebrows at.  But call this family viewing friendly?  I totally disagree.

Then Keith Lemon had a mission to complete which involved an eleven year old lad wishing he could be Keith Lemon.  His 'wish' was granted and he spent the rest of the day dressed like a mini Keith, 'tash and all.  There wasn't so much a problem with what they did (they went bowling to 'shoot some balls' and chatted up women) but more the fact that how would an eleven year old know who Keith Lemon was if he didn't stay up past his bedtime watching late night adult tv programmes?  Not exactly what a kid that age should be doing, or more to the point, a tv show basically approving it.

So really the same old naughty suggestive lines continued through to the end.  The innocently titled 'Lemon Drops' game dropped to the gutter with prizes such as a JLS duvet cover - 'go to bed with four fit pop stars' - and a swingball game for a man told 'you'll love swinging'.  Cilla Black, who was controlling Lemon's human fun fair grabber, said 'You've never talked to me between your legs before' with Keith swiftly replying 'can sort that out at the end of the show if you want'.

Celebrity Juice is hilarious and it's appropriately aired around 10pm.  Yet Lemonaid which is literally the same programme is aired just after 6, with the same rude jokes before the watershed, and this time there's kids in the mix.  Ewww.

What I can't understand is how my idea which involved a bit of pin up fun and current pop favourite, Katy Perry, was poo-pooed for being too rude?  Only last week on Britain's Got Talent there was a burlesque dancer who stripped down to her nipple tassels.  How was that aired then?

I have it sussed.  My idea wasn't too rude or racy for the tv audience.  It's because Keith himself would have been stuck for words when he'd see me whip out my tassels - bang tidy an' all!

Becky x