Meet Moonpie

MOONPIE
This poor rabbit has so many health issues. She has clearly never had attention or love and is somewhat shy, but interested in what we humans have to offer. 💚

Upon examination by Dr Labrecque we found that she has issues with the following:

HEART – Slightly enlarged and has a mild murmur. This could improve as her health improves, and will be rechecked within the next few days. She is not currently on heart medication, pending reevaluation.

LUNGS – Her lungs are what we would call busy. She does not have any nasal discharge, but her breathing is a little bit ragged. This could be from the heart or a URI. Again, recheck and time. She has been started on an antibiotic.

LIVER – Liver is enlarged, which may be in part due to what appears to have been a rapid weight loss, so it could be mild fatty liver disease and reversible. Her liver enzymes appeared okay on blood work. She is on dandelion and milk thistle. Recheck needed.

KIDNEYS- One of her kidneys is enlarged, but there is no mineralization, and on blood work we’re not seeing any signs of kidney disease yet. My guess is she does have some kidney insufficiency. Time will tell.

MUSCULOKELETAL – She has a collapsed disc and arthritis along her spine and neck.
Her hips and knees don’t look too bad.

She has mild hock sores on both back feet and they are painful.

Her dewlap appears to have fatty deposits inside. The abrasion that you see is possibly an abscess that burst and is beginning to heal, or abrasion from dragging around, possibly on wire and dirt. We sent out samples for cytology to make sure it is not cancer. She is not spayed so it would not be surprising if she has cancer. Personally, I do not think it is, I think it’s because it’s been dragging.

The size of her dewlap is likely and great part due to her having a been seriously obese, most likely having lived in a cage with no exercise and improper diet her whole life, and then she has had what appears to be rapid weight loss, which is why it is so floppy, and likely why her liver is enlarged (mild fatty liver disease).

TEETH – I’m pretty sure anyone looking at those skull radiographs can tell that she’s got a whole lot of problems with her teeth and her jaw. She will be going in Wednesday for reevaluation and to file some of them down. We want to make it easier for her to eat, obviously. She has tooth root impaction, as can be seen by the jagged line of her jaw, probably some bone density loss, and it looks like two of her molars have resorbed. Her incisors are maloccluded as well.

She is on tramadol for pain, an antibiotic, eye medication because both of her eyes are infected (in part due to dental issues) and she is on milk thistle for her liver. She will also be getting syringe fed. And of course will soon be reevaluated.

This little bunny is very messed up. She has a hard time moving around because of her dewlap, her feet and I would assume her arthritis. She even has a hard time getting comfortable to lie down. We desperately hope that we can bring her some relief and give her some sort of comfortable and happy life, at least for some period of time. Sadly, at this time I’m not sure what that means. We’re going to do the best we can. She already knows she is loved and beautiful. She has been kissed and loved and cried over.