Vanilla Bean Gone Too Soon
I’m so sad to let you know that Vanilla Bean passed away early Saturday morning.
But I am so happy to let you know that she had the best day on Friday. She was given a nice warm sponge bath, critical care, and time outside in the sun with Java and Misto.
Vanilla Bean came to us in April, 2015 with 7 other rabbits from Rabbitat Rescue. She was rescued from a rabbit meat breeder. When she and her friends first arrived, they were very skittish and afraid of people. It’s no wonder! She had been kept in a tiny bare dirty rusty cage and was in terrible condition with mites and other issues. Because of the kindness at Kindred, Vanilla Bean would eventually eat out of our hands and come up for snuggles. She always enjoyed seeing the children who were allowed to give her one dried craisin (her absolute favourite treat). I always had a hard time telling her apart from her twin, Misto. I had to look for their identifying tattoo in their ears. Vanilla Bean was AC625.
Vanilla Bean saw 4 different vets these past few months. I was encouraged with her last visit to see Dr. Upjohn at Kennedy Heights Vet Clinic who is a veteran exotic animal vet. He put her on a very strict diet of Timothy hay, pedialyte, probiotics, a shot of B12, and we continued with Critical Care. But then we had to wait for results from her fecal and blood sample.
Dr. Upjohn was away this past week. I talked to another vet at the clinic and she was worried about a very low level of protein in Vanilla Bean’s blood sample. She wanted me to take in another fecal sample and wait to talk to Dr. Upjohn. She said that low protein can be a sign of liver or kidney disease. She recommended an ultrasound and X-rays.
I talked to Rabbitat Rescue and they said these diagnostic tools are great at finding the cause, but there would be no treatment available for a rabbit 🙁
I felt the best course of action was to see if we could at least help ease Vanilla Bean’s constant diarrhea by altering her diet until I could talk to Dr. Upjohn. The Friday team actually saw some solid poos!
Her care by our volunteers was so committed, kind and attentive. We all hoped for the best and that we would have more time with her.