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Calypso's Page

Adopted 1996 and went to the bridge on 12/02/02

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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!

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.

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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?????
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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.

11/05/02 This is while Caly could still get herself up enough to be able to eat on her own.

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.

11/09/02 This is Caly taking treats from my hand.

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

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

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!

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 :(

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I love you my Caly girl and will forever miss you.

 

 

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Last Updated: December 03, 2002 05:46 PM