Walter’s First NYC Vet Experience

I took Walter to meet his new veterinarian on Saturday. Dr. Anthony Pilny was listed as a recommended veterinarian on the NYC House Rabbit Society’s website, and as he was the closest vet to my apartment, I decided to check him out. Fortunately for me, he’s available on some Saturdays for appointments, which works out well for my schedule. I thought Dr. Pilny was great – he’s very knowledgeable about rabbits, took time to truly listen to my concerns, and really communicated with me about Walter’s health, behavior, and steps going forward. With pets, patient care is about not only the animal but the owners, and I thought Dr. Pilny was really tuned in to this.

Dr. Pilny said that Walter looks really good, aside from gaining a little too much weight. So now we’re on a bit of a diet – reducing his pellet intake from being not measured (but approximately 1 cup a day) down to half a cup a day. Walter will still get a heap of veggies and hay, and hopefully now that he’s able to run around the apartment, he’ll lose some weight rather quickly. We only need him to lose about a pound, so it shouldn’t be that hard.

While waiting to see the veterinarian, I met with a woman who works with the NYC HRS. She came in with two of her buns, and I was envious of how well they dealt with being picked up, cuddled, and otherwise handled. She offered to give me some tips if I stopped by the Petco on the Upper East Side, where she organizes rabbit adoption events, which I might just take her up on. She also tried to talk me into adopting a second rabbit, which I’m still on the fence about. I’m not sure my landlord would like it, seeing as I had to talk my way into getting just Walter into the apartment.

Does anyone else know of people or places in NYC that help rabbit owners learn how to handle their bunnies? I would love to meet with someone in my home who can show me how to work with Walter so that I can pick him up, trim his nails, get him into his travel carrier without chasing him around the room, etc.

Testing Out My Vet's Suggestions

Over the weekend, I tested out my veterinarian’s suggestions for incorporating pineapple juice into Walter’s medication routine.  I started with the add-juice-into-the-syringe approach, but what I failed to realize ahead of time was that this would mean that there would be more liquid to squirt into Walter’s tiny rabbit mouth.  I have enough trouble getting him to take just one milliliter of medicine; adding four more was torturous!

Needless to say, this method failed for me.  Next, I tried to put out a small dish of plain pineapple juice, in the hopes that Walter would slurp it down, and the next time I could place out a small dish of pineapple juice laced with meds.  Walter snubbed the juice entirely.

So, back to the basics, which now entails using some serious brute strength to hold Walter in place and force the medicine down his throat. Walter repaid me by tearing his entire box fort to shreds on Saturday.

I’m about a third of the way through Walter’s medication period. Only two more months to go, and I can’t wait for this to be over!

Adventures in Bunny-Proofing

I decided to jump-start my Thanksgiving break on Tuesday, and set aside the afternoon to completing some unfinished household projects.  The most important project was a major bunny-proofing effort in my living room.

I mentioned in an earlier post that my entertainment center is an open bookcase, meaning it has no backing and you can see through to the wall.  This was fine in my pre-rabbit life, but now means that Walter has easy access to all of the television cables, which he loves to chew.

(Side note: why is it that my rabbit seems to seek out these wires to chew?  I could understand the chewing if the cords happened to be in his way, but he goes through great lengths to get to them!)

In my head, I dreamt up a clear behind-the-bookcase blockade.  When I got to Home Depot, I had no idea where to begin.  After wandering aimlessly, while trying not to look like a stereotypically lost girl in the home improvement store, I finally asked for some help.  The salesperson directed me to the display of polycarbonate, acrylic, and glass sheets.  I chose acrylic, since it was lighter (and obviously less fragile) than glass, but cheaper than polycarbonate.  I picked out a sheet that measured 36” x 48” and bought a knife that claimed to easily cut through the material.

Because there is an extension cord behind the bookcase that took up some space, the bookcase sits about three inches out from the wall.  Three inches is enough space for Walter to squeeze himself into, so I decided that I would need to block this off, too.  Essentially, I was building three acrylic walls behind the bookcase: one to cover the back of the bookcase itself, serving as a clear backboard, and two to serve as clear walls to cover the three-inch space between the bookcase and the wall.  I chose Krazy Glue as my acrylic-on-acrylic adhesive.

My plan seemed simple.  I measured twice and planned to cut once.  But the knife I bought didn’t cut the acrylic as easily as I anticipated.  After scoring the material over two dozen times, my frustration set in and with force that came out of nowhere, I managed to break off a piece of the material.  It didn’t break off in a straight line as I intended it to, but it did break off just wide enough and long enough to suit its purpose.

After getting the two side pieces broken off, I glued everything together, organized all the wires and cables behind my entertainment center, and stared proudly at my workmanship as Walter unsuccessfully sought ways to outthink my contraption.

My clear Walter-proof wall works well and looks good, so I am pleased that my dreamt-up blockade has become a reality.  Additionally, I set out some clear doormats at each doorway, since Walter has recently taken to trying to chew his way through the carpet into rooms with closed doors.  I also found a jar of lemon oil and rubbed some of that on walls that Walter likes to chew.  So far, both items have been successful, though he only had a day to experience all the changes before I brought him to the kennel for Thanksgiving.

I bring Walter home tonight, so we’ll see how all my bunny-proofing measures hold up to his antics over the next few days.

Lessons in Giving a Rabbit His Medicine

Paul and I attempted to give Walter his medicine last night, very unsuccessfully.  After watching the video provided by a commenter in my last post, I felt confident in my ability to use a blanket to wrap Walter in a “bunny burrito” long enough to squirt the medicine in his mouth.  But this proved easier said than done.  We just couldn’t get him to stay in the bunny burrito.  Just as I thought we’d wrapped him up securely enough, he’d wriggle out and dart to one of his hard-to-reach hiding spots.  I was able to give him maybe one-tenth of the required dose through the course of the night.  After spending about an hour chasing Walter around the apartment, probably scaring the bejeesus out of him, I gave up.  By bedtime, Walter was terrified of us; he wouldn’t even come over for a peace offering of basil.

I went to bed frustrated, but woke up with a new plan.  The video showed the rabbit handler sitting on a stool – a place that is out of the rabbit’s element.  I needed to recreate the same situation for Walter.  Trying to pin Walter down on the carpet was fruitless; he would always have an escape route.  So, what could I use that would block off all his exits?  My answer: the dining room table.

I had seen Walter hop up onto the table from the dining chairs enough to know that it was a scary jump down from the table for him.  Too scary for him to attempt it, in fact.  I asked Paul to lay a towel on the tabletop and lift Walter on the table. (To Paul’s credit, he is a much firmer rabbit handler; picking the bunny up still scares me, and I’m sure Walter can pick up on this.)  Once on the table, I wrapped Walter into his bunny burrito and gave him a few forehead scratches while Paul got the medicine ready.  To my surprise, Walter calmly let me insert the syringe into his mouth, behind his teeth, and squirt a little bit of the liquid towards the inside of his cheek.  This was a huge improvement from the night before, when Walter would shake his head and violently run away at the first touch of the syringe on his mouth.

After the first squirt, I let Walter take a short break to lick his lips.  I placed the syringe back in his mouth and repeated the process.  Two more small squirts later and Walter had taken his entire dose of medicine! Paul and I praised the bunny for his good behavior and then gave him a small bit of carrot as a reward.

I’m still nervous that we’ll encounter another medicine-taking struggle for tomorrow’s dose, but I’m confident in the tabletop bunny burrito, and proud of both myself and Walter (and Paul!) for figuring out how to get through the first round.

A big thank you to those who have left comments or tweeted at me with tips and tricks to make giving my rabbit his medicine a lot easier.  I appreciate all your help!

Eating Baseboards: A Love/Hate Story

Walter loves to chew on our apartment’s baseboards. His appetite for baseboards is voracious. Paul’s and my enjoyment of fixing the walls every six weeks is not. We have tried all sorts of things to deter our rabbit from nibbling on the walls, to no avail.

We put down double-sided tape, so he would get annoyed with his whiskers getting stuck in the glue while chomping. Walter resolved this by simply eating the tape, too. (We quickly abandoned this strategy and removed all the tape.)

We bought an over-priced bottled of lemon oil, but haven’t used it yet out of sheer laziness and the fact that I no longer remember where I stored the bottle. I read mixed reviews about lemon oil: some sources say that putting it on the wood will deter the rabbit entirely; some say that the rabbit will enjoy the taste and thus chew more. The same goes with bitter apple spray, which we have not yet purchased.

We tried teaching Walter the word “no” by filling a spray bottle with water and spritzing him while shouting “NO!” every time he started gnawing. Walter was unfazed by the water and just noshed away.

I finally decided to ascribe to the old adage, “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.” Walter wanted to chew a baseboard, so I’d give him his very own baseboard to chew. I debated the method for accomplishing this for a while, unsure about how to affix wood blocks to the wire sides of his cage. Fortunately, my coworker came up with a clever idea: Using cable ties to secure chunks of wood between the slotted sides.

I bought a pack of 10 white plastic cable ties, and a pack of 10 stainless steel ones, too. I wasn’t sure which ones to use at first: the stainless steel ones would ensure that Walter wouldn’t eat the cable tie, but the sharp edge could be dangerous and, as it turned out, they were hard to pull tightly enough around the wood blocks. I decided to use the plastic ones, and fortunately Walter's teeth hasn't come near them (yet).

I also spent a while pondering what to use for the wood blocks. I read many conflicting articles about rabbit-safe woods, until I finally settled on the majority opinion: untreated pine. After wandering aimlessly in the lumber section of Home Depot for half an hour, I stumbled upon a bin of pine wood shims. They were untreated, about eight inches long, and could be grouped together to make a block thick enough to satisfy Walter’s need to chew.

I got home and set to work. I made three “baseboards” that were four shims thick. One was placed at rabbit-mouth-level in front of his litter box, the other at rabbit-mouth-level if he chose to sit on top of his wooden bungalow, and the third was set vertically in the other corner of his litter box, in case Walter felt like getting creative while chewing.

My hope was that Walter would spend enough of his cage-time while we’re at work chewing on these rabbit-friendly baseboards, and then no longer have the urge to chew on our actual baseboards during out-of-cage time. And it worked! ..For about three days.

Six weeks later, Paul and I got out our wood filler and paint cans and set to work on the baseboards.

Rabbit Techniques: Picking up your rabbit

I've had Walter for about five months now and still have not mastered the art of picking him up. From the day I considered owning a pet rabbit, I read about the dangers of picking up your rabbit improperly. One instance of incorrect positioning could lead to a spinal injury, surgery, or death. This set me down a path of insecurity and paranoia related to carrying my pet bunny.

It doesn’t help that Walter has quite a mind of his own. He likes adventure! And while he enjoys the frequent cheek-rub or scratch on his forehead, he doesn’t want to be “tied down.” He likes the freedom to hop about on his own, and makes it quite known when we’re infringing upon his adventure and exploration time.

So I set out for YouTube. I found several videos like the one below, all giving great pointers and encouraging advice for picking up your rabbit, but I couldn’t relate to a single video.

For starters, look how well-trained and well-behaved that rabbit is! The chances of me getting Walter to sit patiently on a table while I practiced these new techniques was just as likely as me teaching him to speak English.

I still haven’t gotten the hang of it. I freak out and panic anytime I watch someone attempt to pick him up. My boyfriend, friends, family, and I all bare scars of the scratches we’ve received while Walter writhes away from our grasp. Not being able to master this practice has been a hindrance for my pet’s care, as well.

The inability to pick him up translates into an inability to get him to hold still for health inspections (by me, not by the vet; Walter melts like putty whenever the vet handles him!). I can’t get him to let me clip his toenails or check his belly for abnormalities. I can’t even pick him up when he refuses to go voluntarily into his cage! Clearly, this makes for an occasional long night before bedtime.

So, what works for you? What techniques have you employed to be able to successfully pick up your rabbit?