This page contains information about what I have learned from living with a house rabbit for about a year and a half. Believe me, it is plenty. As of this moment our little mini lop is in the animal hospital fighting for his life. He has ingested Pelon and it has formed a mass in his stomach and cannot be passed through his system. He has a tube down his throat and is being hydrated and medicated to try to break the mass apart. Surgery is not recommended because of fragility of rabbits. The report for today was that he is improving but still is critical and it can still go either way. Awfully careless of them to leave something like that laying about you say? Not the case at all. We don't even have any in the house that he can get at, or so we thought. He has taken to hiding under my Mom's bed again and little did we know that he could find something there that could threaten his very life. It seems that there is a thick Pelon covering on the bottom of the box springs. What we didn't realize was that he wasn't just tearing it up but actually swallowing it. It seems that the opening from a rabbit's stomach to his intestines is really quite small and anything of size that won't dissolve cannot pass through and will kill the rabbit. We think this was about a week to two weeks ago, can't really remember. The interesting aspect of the whole thing is Snuggle E.'s penchant for chewing allowed us to find out before he died but he was very close the night he first got really sick. I have a decorative whicker antique baby stroller that has a canvas hood that is painted with black paint. He decided to take a hunk out of the hood part. When my husband was doing his daily brush out Snuggle E. licked the sheet he was sitting on and he left a black mark where he licked. It was the paint and it wasn't color fast. Something I had never even thought of. It's not something in a rabbit's normal range of tricks. He must have been feeling the need of something with the mass in his stomach to chew on it. It also is higher than he ordinarily would reach to chew. He started to look ill and very listless. We thought he had been poisoned by the paint and glue which could have been a factor but not what was making him really sick. He got so bad at one point that he was sprawled out with all four legs out to the side like he had been squashed. I'm sure he was really close to death at that point. He was dehydrated but not knowing this and thinking he was poisoned we decided to take an eye dropper and give him some water to dilute the effects of the paint. My husband also gave him some oil from vitamin E and A capsules thinking the oil might help absorb any toxins. After an hour or so of doing this, he started to perk up just a bit. He wasn't flattened out any longer but still a definite candidate for the vet's office. What happened in fact was that the water and vitamin oil we gave him helped get his stomach working somewhat again which saved him from immediately dying. If this chain of events had not occurred two nights ago, we would have a deceased bunny at this time instead of one with a chance to live.

My reason for doing this particular page is to warn everyone that has house bunnies or plans on getting any to be sure to check all corners of your house to see what he can get into. Do it from his level. Check the under side of your mattresses and furniture for separations, etc. It might even be a good idea to pull apart a section of the covering yourself to see what is in the box springs. It can be glued or stapled back but better safe than sorry. A bunny is a Personality on testosterone. In other words, they have so much personality, it's like they are actually human. They speak to you with their eyes and expressions and when they die it leaves a tremendous hole in your heart. Between Babbit and Snuggle E., we have replaced or repaired every phone line, every speaker wire, most of the lamps, some computer cords, a heating pad cord, a sewing machine cord and pinned up the skirt on the backside of the couch and love seat. Snuggle has torn the paper off of book covers, torn three holes in a blanket left on the floor and peed on everything in sight. All the cords now are incased in heavy plastic tubing, tacked up or taped up to walls and furniture. He started to chew the wall up where a TV cable came through it with no cover plate. We have found a very good deterrent to that though. My husband will wet the area he wants him to leave alone with a spray bottle of water and then rub either black or cayenne pepper on the spot. He has not bothered again any of the spots that have been treated.

We have a wide range of toys available for him to play with so it isn't just boredom and he has the run of the entire house and is never left alone. There is almost always someone here. There are two cats he loves to harass also. It's just in their nature and unfortunately can be their undoing. They say when child proofing a house you need to look at it from a child's level and you really need to do that for a bunny. It will be a good work out for sure but necessary. Take it from our experience and protect your little bundles of fluff and love before you have a tragedy too. We are hoping for the best and tomorrow, May 28 will be the turning point. If he starts to pass them by tomorrow, he has a chance to survive. If not....

Update* Snuggle E. Bunny came home today to die. He was not able to pass the blockage and left us just before 6 PM PDT on May 28, 1999. He gave us so much love and lived up to his name to the very end. He wanted to be picked up and held and then died in my husband's arms. He will be so very missed. There will never be another quite like my little Snuggy.