Bobby's New Apartment!

Last weekend we set about transforming Bobby's living arrangements.  She'd been living in an indoor cage in the room with the other cages but despite it's large size, it just wasn't big enough for a rabbit to be living in.  (Remember - a hutch is not enough.)

We got a puppy pen and created a long area for which Bobby could live in instead of the cage.  I lined the pen with cardboard and covered it with fleece blankets.  The wooden bedroom went into it, along with the bowls, some toys and a pigloo for piggy Huey to escape to.

Lucy, our other rabbit who spends her time with the cage opened to the floor, seemed pleased to have another bunny close by.  In the past Bobby and Lucy didn't get on well and Lucy would pounce on Bobby when given the chance but she seems to have mellowed.  

When we first set the pen up we had a mishap, something that luckily didn't go wrong like it could have!  Lucy had found a way into the pen and one morning we went into the room to find Lucy laying down inside the pen next to the bedroom.  I couldn't get her out quick enough!  But I was surprised by the lack of kerfuffle.  Bobby seemed okay and was definitely unharmed.  It looked as if Lucy just wanted to be near Bobby.

I didn't want Bobby to feel afraid of having her territory violated so we increased the security of the pen by affixing a smaller pen I already had to the top of the pen frame, which stopped Lucy thinking she could get a grip on the pen.  It's working because she no longer attempts to jump in.  What we have noticed though is that they're appreciating each other's company by sitting on corresponding sides so they can sniff and be near each other.

I'm still cautious of having them together without the pen because I don't fully trust their temperaments, especially since, being girls, they aren't spayed.  (Well, when we took in Lucy we were told she had been, but to be honest I don't know how to tell.)

Over this weekend we took the steps of separating Huey from Bobby.  We've known for a long time that rabbits and guinea pigs shouldn't be together but since they've lived in each other's company for over a year, and Bobby has never known company other than a guinea pig, it was a really tough decision to part them.  So, Huey is now in his own cage and getting used to the fact that he no longer has Bobby there.  I feel awful about it, Bobby looks lost and it's a cruel thing to have to do to her for both of their sakes.  Bobby must be dieted properly and can not do it properly having another lot of food in the vicinity.  Huey has been struggling weight wise himself but with him it's weight loss.  We're hoping to build him up again, but there are already concerns with him which has been overseen by our vet. 

We're pleased now that Bobby is at least able to move about more freely when she's not downstairs with us.  She has more space and the company of her own species in the best way for the both of them. It's nice to see both Bobby and Lucy being attentive.

I weighed Bobby yesterday, her weight now stands at 2kg exactly, or 4.2lb which is a step in the right direction.  Hopefully by the time she is weighed properly again by the PDSA team, she'll have lost some more.

Becky x

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

A Quick Catch up with Pet Fit Club Bobby

So, the big day has arrived and the PDSA have announced the participants for the 2012 Pet Fit Club - and my Bobby is one of them!

Even though it's being brought to the attention of the public and media as I speak the process behind the Fit Club has been under way for a month now.

Bobby had her first weigh in at the beginning of the competition at our nearest PDSA branch which is the Middlesbrough Pet Aid Hospital.  There she was assessed by one of the vets and head veterinary nurse who decided Bobby is indeed a little on the overweight side.  The PDSA press photographer was there taking photos of Bobby with me and the PDSA staff and she was a little star.  I think she looked gorgeous with her pretty little face just posing for the camera.  Bless her heaving dewlap and tubby belly.

I don't think I've ever really looked at Bobby in a critical way before.  It's actually been quite difficult and definitely an eye opener to be told Bobby shouldn't be the size she is.  Being a guinea pig girl for 20 years of my life I assumed so much about rabbits and just thought Bobby being a rabbit she was meant to be big.  I hadn't realised I was the one who made her the size she was, that it was not her breed.  I really do think there's similar owners of rabbits out there who not out of intentional ignorance have allowed our bunnies to grow to the size they are.

So we have a lot of lessons to learn and we're trying to put Bobby right.  Bobby has not been getting enough exercise so we want to change her routine, give her more freedom and space.  A new living arrangement may be a positive step forward from her permanent indoor cage but for the meantime Bobby is coming out of her cage for hours of free run around the living room and she's been reveling in it!

I grabbed Bobby in the middle of her playtime for a quick video.  So this is me and Bobby.  :-)

Becky x

Bobby's in PDSA Fit Club!

I can finally announce it - my Bunny, Bobby has been selected for the exclusive UK nationwide competition: PDSA's Fit Club 2012!

Bobby!

What does this mean?  It means my four year old lady bunny, Bobby, gets to be closely monitored and guided by a PSDA team including head vets and nurses, to help her lose her chubbies and become a fitter, healthier rabbit.

It all started when I saw on the PDSA website that they were appealing for applicants to enter their fat pets into the infamous Pet Fit Club.

I knew one of my rabbits had definitely piled on the pounds.  Bobby is a Dwarf Lop breed (or possibly a mini??), a doe (female) and 'intact' at that, which means not only is she a highly hormonal lady she has accumulated a tubby belly and a voluptuous dew lap.  She doesn't appreciate the athletic life led by rabbit neighbour, Lucy, who loves nothing more than to bound around 'their bedroom' and play and instead she prefers to lie about and wallow like a hippo in mud.

The main reason why I wanted to enter Bobby is because she's fat, and rabbits and fat don't mix.  I've spent 20 years of my life dedicated to the enjoyment of owning guinea pigs (never bred) and until a friend gave me Bobby as a surprise present, rabbits never entered my head.  Because of this, I had no clue about owning a rabbit and have found the first four years of Bobby's life an immense learning curve.  I've since learnt that, unlike guinea pigs, rabbits are prone to heart disease exactly like us humans, which is why I found it frightening to have Bobby living with the threat of very serious conditions.

Then there's the matter of *poops*.  Whether a nice topic or not, in essence rabbits need to eat their soft poops, called caecatrophs, to live normally.  Vitamins that are not processed first time round need to be re-ingested, and a rabbit with a HUGE dew lap like Bobby's, is not able to reach their bottom to get to these poops.  This means an obese rabbit is missing out on vital vitamins.  This pretty much scares me too.

Rabbits are the 3rd most popular pet in the UK today yet we as a nation are not meeting their needs and putting our bunny friends lives at risk.

Another important reason why I wanted myself and Bobby to be part of PDSA's Fit Club is that I want to make an example of myself and get rabbit owners to listen up.  I have been a pioneer (or preacher?) of the proper care of small furries and from 2001 to 2011 I ran a hugely successful website for the proper care of guinea pigs.  I had people asking me every single day how to look after their guinea pig, help them find out what is wrong with their ill guinea pig and I actively promoted how to look after a guinea pig the proper way.  I am someone who should know better, yet I am still someone who has a fat rabbit.  It 'happens' to anyone, regardless of age or class.  What is important is that the facts are realised; of obesity in not just our dogs and cats but our very much loved rabbits too.  It is a lesson to be learned that if we have pet rabbits, we should not be confining them to life within a small hutch that is their home.  Rabbits not only need a good healthy diet consisting of good quality pellets/nuggets, tonnes of quality hay, fresh water and juicy greens, but regular access to freedom.  You wouldn't confine a dog or cat to a box 24/7 so why a rabbit?  I feed all my guinea pigs and rabbits a good diet but this is admittedly my failing.  Because Lucy and Bobby don't live together, and Lucy is the livelier of the two, she gets to be out of her cage all day and Bobby only comes out for shorter times elsewhere in the house.  I've known this isn't good enough and wanted to find a way of breaking the cycle and developing a better exercise plan, which was why I turned to the PDSA's Fit Club.

I'm looking forward to getting Bobby down to a healthy weight and size.  Check back for regular updates on Bobby's progress!  For more info on Bobby and the other Pet Fit Club participants check out www.PDSA.org.uk/petfitclub.

Becky x

Tuesday.

I hadn't seen the Grammys but last night I saw on Katy Perry's Facebook that she'd performed a new song on her first outing since the split from Russell Brand.  I am totally blown away by it, it's an absolutely amazing song and definitely the right tune to belt out at this point in her life.  The song's called Part of Me and if you've not yet heard it, you must!  I'm totally addicted to it already - and you can hear here:

I got an awesome phone call this afternoon and I'm so bursting to tell about it but I have to be sworn to secrecy at the moment.  It concerns my lovely bunny Bobby (who's in my main picture with me) but that's all I can say!  It's really good news anyway - may not sound that great, but really is good, for Bobby and me.  I will tell all soon enough...!

I also had a phone conversation with a tv production company who are making a new Keith Lemon show.  Unfortunately the huge idea I had to go on with seems too rude for it!  Now, knowing what Celebrity Juice is like, you'd think a new show would be equally if not more rude than that, but no, apparently it's going to be for family viewing.  Very disappointing on my part, I think I sounded absolutely crazy and that guy on the other end of the phone is probably wondering what a kind of mad woman I am.  Hmmm.  I think I need a plan B and come back to it.

On a different note, I finally used my sewing machine!  Woo-hoo!  I had been petrified of trying it out, since the last time I touched one was at school and I remember how pants at it I was.  But yeah, it was kinda cool (once I'd had a melt down trying to figure out how to rig it up and ended up reeling Sean in to figure it out for me.  He's a man.  It's mechanics.  That's how I'm seeing it.)  It reminded me of the first driving lesson I ever had, oh my goodness, that feeling of touching the accelerator and not daring to actually push your foot onto the pedal.  I'm sure it'll all come with practice, I'm hoping!  I had a little go of stitching in a straight line with various stitch types and then reinforcing stitches by reverse stitching.  Then I decided I would just jump straight into it and finally sewed some lining on the bedroom curtains.  I think it helped that I did stitch something tangible, and makes me feel more confident about going on the sewing machine again and trying out other stuff, like the cushions I've been wanting to make for months.  If anyone has any tips for a sewing machine beginner, please do share!  Being a perfectionist it frustrates me that I can't do it perfectly right away and I want to be a proper sewing machinist.  Well, capable of producing more than lining on curtains.  :-)

Becky x