Rudy's Story
Rudy came to MCRS just after Christmas. He had been found by Animal Control just hopping about outdoors in the Bloomington area. Rudy was described as having a "mild upper respiratory" condition which we thought we could treat.
When we met Rudy, it was clear from his condition that he had been a stray for awhile. He was thin, his coat was dull, messy and matted, and he was urine-stained around his legs. In addition, his breathing problem was not your typical upper respiratory case. He wheezed with every breath.
MCRS immediately took him to one of our recommended veterinarians. The prognosis didn't sound good, but we were given antibiotics and told if he showed improvement in the next 10 days, there was hope. And, Rudy did indeed improve!
On January 13, Rudy went back to the vet as he seemed to still be struggling to breathe and any progress seemed to have gone away. We did Xrays of his chest to see if the lungs were involved, but they looked unexpectedly clear. There were signs that his heart was having to work extra hard because of the breathing difficulties, but that might improve if we could just fix the breathing issues. Next, we did an Xray of Rudy's head to make sure there was no physical obstruction in his sinuses. We hoped to find something as that would be an "easy" fix - but there was no foreign object there and no other obvious signs of problems. The good news from this visit was that the infection wasn't as wide-spread as we had feared (no lung involvement), so we were likely just dealing with a major sinus infection. We left with an aggressive treatment plan to help attack the infection and aid with draining his sinuses.
Having first-hand experience with sinus infections with humans, in addition to the antibiotics, sub-q fluids, and penicillin injections, we added in daily "saunas." We'd steam up the bathroom with a hot shower and set Rudy in the humid air to help loosen up the goop in his nose. We could hear the change in him from an airy wheeze to a wetter sound. We thought this was a good sign and progress.
Meanwhile, Rudy enjoyed the new antibiotics - each dose was hidden in a slice of banana! :) Rudy also enjoyed free fed pellets while he was here. He was initially underweight from being a stray, and always had an enthusiastic appetite. We were encouraged by his avid interest in food as a sign that he was not suffering and wanted to stick around, so we kept up with the treatment plan.
The last weekend in January, Rudy seemed to have more trouble than usual with breathing, and we increased his saunas to three times a day to help keep his passages clear. We decided that despite the risk, we needed to clear his sinus passages faster and opted to pursue a sinus flush. While any surgical procedure has elements of risk, Rudy was at especially high risk because we didn't know how well his heart/lungs would do under anesthesia.
On Monday, January 31, we took Rudy to the vet to discuss the sinus flush option. A second look at the Xrays showed something we hadn't noticed before - signs that the sinus infection was chronic and had actually invaded the bones at the base of his ears. With this new information, Rudy's prognosis officially became "poor". We could try the sinus flush and hope it improved his quality of life for awhile, we could do nothing and just keep him comfortable for awhile, or we could euthanize him immediately. It was really just a matter of when, Rudy would never be adoptable.
Since Rudy was showing so many signs he wanted to stick around, we weren't ready to decide to euthanize yet. But, we also realized that his condition was barely tolerable in its current state. So, we opted to proceed with the sinus flush - scheduled for Wed, Feb 2.
Tuesday, Rudy got his usual medicated banana slices (and a few extra slices, just because), we kept his pellet dish full (and he ate with gusto), we took pictures of him, and gave him all the love we could.
Wednesday morning, Rudy went to the vet for his sinus flush. As we had hoped, when they intubated him, he breathed quite easily - confirming that the problem was entirely in his sinuses. Unfortunately, rabbits are obligate nasal breathers, which means that unlike humans, they cannot breathe through their mouth. We had to fix the nasal problem in order to help him. The flush produced little, indicating that it wouldn't have provided much relief. Rudy awoke from the procedure and they attempted to remove his air tube - only to discover that there was too much irritation in his nose for him to be able to breathe immediately, so the tube went back in for awhile. During this time, he was able to breathe more easily than any time in (likely) several months. It was clear that he appreciated this as when they came to remove the tube the second time, he fought with them. It seemed there wasn't really any choices left - we couldn't do anything more to help him, so we decided to euthanize Rudy.
We wish there was more we could have done for this sweet guy and are very sad he is no longer with us. Our hope is that, wherever he is now, he is comfortable, able to breathe freely, and is happy again. We will miss you, Rudy!
