Calypso's Page
Adopted 1996 and went to the bridge on
12/02/02
Calypso in her full coat of fur
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Calypso playing Peek-a-boo
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Calypso sitting in her bucket of food!
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I adopted Calypso in 1996.
She was a beautiful English Angora bunny. The pictures on the left was taken
right when I got her and when her fur was about a foot long!
We tried bonding Calypso in with
various groups of our bunnies and it really didn't work very well. Caly bonded great
with Dazzle as long as it was only those 2 but she just seemed so
scared all the time. We realized that she preferred human company over bunny
company.
Calypso's territory was always our entire home
but she was nice enough to share her space with us. She would go around and
visit with
the other bunnies and spend time on all 3 floors of our house. Her preferred place
to hang out was in our breakfast room. She became like a little puppy though
because when the kids would eat and drop food on the floor, she was right there to gobble it up.
November 1999...Caly officially began begging for her treats. Any time someone
would be in the kitchen or she heard a
rattling sound, she would come running over and stand on her hind legs and put her front paws
on our legs and give us that pitiful look. Being the wonderful slaves that
we are, we would find ourselves getting her something each time she did this!
Once we adopted Clyde, we decided he was really to big to be
confined anywhere and we hoped for the best that he and Caly would accept each
other. They got along great from day 1 and were inseparable until Clyde's
death.
These next few pictures show them relaxing together.
I always called Caly my little girlfriend and she was just so cute
and so sweet. I loved cuddling with her and she always pushed her head up
into my neck to get as close to me as possible.
Is this girl cute or what?????
Update: September
19th, 2002, my
girlfriend Caly started getting sick. She showed signs of having
difficulty in keeping her bottom clean and would get urine on her butt and
legs. I took her to the vet and they found no signs of bladder infection
but there was some thickening to the bladder. We brought her home on an
antibiotic and she started getting better.
In October, she suddenly got much worse and lost the use of one
of her back legs and she was an absolute mess. I bathed her up, trimmed
off all the yucky fur and took her into the vet the next morning. I left
her there for the day while I went to work and the vet called to say she didn't
see any problems with Caly's legs and she was walking just fine, she also passed
all the neurological tests. Seemed strange to me but it might have been
transient.
With the other rabbits in the house being sick and dying, I
took Caly along with 2 of the other bunnies and the body of Freckles to the
vet. The vet wanted to see other rabbits to try to figure out what was
going on. He took blood tests and everything came back fine. He gave
me an injectable antibiotic to give to all the bunnies who had been exposed to
those that had died.
November, Caly took another turn for the worse. She was
emaciated and dehydrated although she has been eating and drinking. She
now had 2 legs that she appeared to have no control over and she couldn't
stand. I washed her up again because she smelled so bad and was very
messy. 11/6/02, the vet said that Caly was dehydrated, although I had
given her 150 cc's of sub-q fluids the night before and 100 cc's the night
before that. Caly's eyes, nose, ears, mouth, lungs were all fine but she
had 1 leg that was completely not working and 2 others showing severe
neurological signs. At this point, Caly is already on baytril, Pen-G, sub-q's
and syringe feeding. The vet did a Rabbit complete blood panel. The
results showed the following: HCT 55 (high), Lymphocytes 1206 (Low), Platelets
appear increased and are above 600,000/ul., Alkaline Phosphatase 41 (high),
Albumin 2.0 (low), Cholesterol 82 (high), BUN 41 (high), Phosphorus 3.4 (low),
Chloride 127 (high). The only thing these results really indicate is the
Caly is dehydrated and starving to death for no apparent reason. The
results of the EC titer are pending but the Pasturella titer was negative.
To see the complete blood results, click here.
The vet called a small mammals specialist she sometimes consults with to see if
he had any ideas what were going on with her since 6
bunnies have already died and shared many of these symptoms.
11/8/02, I took Caly back into the vet to get a urine
sample. Again, I left her at the vet for the day so I could go to
work. The vet called to say that Caly was even worse than she was 2 days
prior. She now has pneumonia and is having difficult breathing and she has
no function of 3 of her legs and the 4th leg is showing the same signs.
Her legs don't hurt her, she isn't even aware they are there, they have no
feeling. The vet has no idea what is killing Caly. Her urine was
fine and no test done yet has proved any problem. We are still talking
about mycotoxin posioning as a possibility but the vet felt that if it was from
mycotoxins, her liver would show serious damage. I asked her to contact
Dr. Riggs who is an exotic specialist in Akron and confer with him for other
tests that we can do or what could be the problems. Dr. Riggs wasn't in
but Dr. Nathan who is also an exotics specialist was. Dr. Nathan said that
even though the liver appears fine, aflatoxins (mycotoxin) can not be ruled out
as the likely culprit. Dr. Nathan suggested running an eile acids blood
test that checks liver function. The only problem is, animals are supposed
to be fasted for this and you can't fast rabbits, especially Caly with the
condition she is already in.
The vet contacted the lab where they sent the blood to see if
this test can be done without fasting and could they test on the blood samples
they already have. Dr. Nathan also said it could take multiple necropsies
before there can be a definitive answer and that under the current circumstances,
2 may not be enough (that is how many I have had done). I was also told to
back-off on the amount of fluids I am giving her from what they told me
originally because the extra fluid could be making her lungs worse.
Things are looking very bad for Caly, I am not sure she will
survive the weekend but I can't bring myself to make the decision to let her go
at this point. This is just to painful, I can't just sit here and watch
bunny after bunny die like this despite everything I have done to try to help
them and make this stop. Will this nightmare ever end? I don't know
how much more of this I can take. I almost wish the rest of the bunnies
could be moved from my home so I don't have to watch them all die 1 by 1, this
is just way to painful. I would rather them leave knowing that they left
here ok than fight to keep them alive, knowing they are going to die despite my
efforts. I just can't stop crying.
11/19/02. Caly is still hanging in there and in good
spirits. She can't stand or move at all and her legs are starting to
stiffen but she still anxiously seeks my hand looking for her treats. She
accepts the syringe feedings with no problems, licks my hand and begs for
attention. She hasn't told me yet that she is ready to go so I will
continue to care for her until she either gets better or lets me know that she
can't fight anymore.
I hate to even ask but some tests and
treatment at this
point have come to whether I can afford to do it or not. I currently owe
several hundred dollars to my 2 vets offices. If you would like to help me
with all the bunny expenses? There are 2 ways that you can do this. You
can look at my collection of bunny items that I am selling to raise funds or you
can make a direct donation by clicking on the link below:
These pictures show Caly once she started getting
really sick. You can see her getting worse as time goes on vs. the healthy
and large fluffy bunny she used to be. (In the pictures above).
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11/05/02 This picture shows Caly once she started losing the use of
her back legs. I diapered her so she wouldn't sit in her pee and
poop all day.
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11/05/02 This is while Caly could still get herself up enough to be
able to eat on her own.
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11/08/02 This is Caly getting bathed to get all the poop and pee off
her butt, sides and legs.
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11/08/02 This is Caly sleeping with me after she had been bathed.
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11/09/02 This is Caly taking treats from my hand.
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11/19/02 This shows Caly 10 days later and you can see she has
started to develop lesions on her skin. The lesions are NOT on the
side of her that is constantly down against the fleece, they are on her
"up" side.
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Closeup of one of Caly's lesions
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Caly wasting away to skin and bones. You can see her one back
leg and one front leg out to the side of her, they are pretty much
locked in those positions
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11/19/02 This is how Caly needs to eat now. I must syringe
feed her every day in addition to the sub-q fluids.
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11/19/02 More Lesions!
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Calypso's
Final Chapter: On 12/02/02, Calypso left for the bridge and my heart was
totally shattered. She had fought the fight of her life and was really
hanging in there. When I came home from work on 12/02/02, I went directly
into my room to check on her. She perked right up and was trying to get up
to me. I grabbed her some craisin and rolled oat treats as I always do and
she started snarfing them down, the way she always did. A few minutes
later, I looked over and she was making a strange coughing noise and she
appeared to be choking. She was gasping and had the red from the craisin
around her mouth and she had some clear fluid coming from her nose. I
assumed she was choking and I picked her up and started patting on her back and
pressing on her stomach, trying to get up the rest of the craisin. I
called the vet and he told me to put her head down and briskly rub on her back
and pat to try to get whatever it was to come up. He said her head needed
to be down so she wouldn't re-swallow or inhale whatever was coming up.
She wasn't responding at this point and was still gasping for air and had clear
fluid coming from her nose but a few pieces of the craisin did come up.
After about 10 minutes of this and Caly letting out some cries, I decided that I
couldn't watch her suffer anymore and asked my husband to please take her to the
vet in order to let her go and end this misery. I trimmed off some of her
fur, soaked the rest of her with my tears, kissed her goodbye and then broke
down completely. I felt so guilty not going with her but I just couldn't
bring myself to go through it again. I made my husband promise that he
would hold her when they gave her the shot.
The vet preliminarily said that her lungs were filled with
fluid and that the food probably didn't have much to do with it. I just
can't bring myself to understand this because when she got her zillionth recheck
on Friday with my primary vet, it was written in her file that her lungs were
clear and she was breathing easily. I just don't understand and don't
think I can go through much more of this. It could be a week or so before
I get back her necropsy results.
These are my last 2 pictures I took of Calypso. The one
with her and Snugglebunny was taken on 11/29/02, as I left for the vet.
Snugglebunny never made it there :(
I love you my Caly girl and will forever miss you.
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