A Doe to Remember

The following article was contributed by Teresa Vallis, one of our long-standing clients. Thank you, Teresa

I remember the day well when I drove to the RSPCA at Yagoona to collect Daisy, a young black dwarf rabbit who had been languishing there for weeks. Plain rabbits are not so easily adopted. She had obviously suffered some trauma, was so frightened and did not like to be held. We settled her in and later introduced her to our old rabbit Piggy who welcomed her with a thorough washing. Daisy seemed too scared to move and submitted to Piggy’s tongue lashing. In no time Daisy began mutually grooming Piggy; trouble was she licked her against the lay of her fur and had such a large wet tongue that Piggy’s white coat ended up looking like meringue peaks!

Piggy passed away eight months later and we adopted another RSPCA bunny as a friend for Daisy. Shawn was adolescent, sweet, good looking and thought he was going to run the show. After a couple of weeks of Shawn’s bullying Daisy had had enough and charged, knocking him aside with her shoulder. Shawn was stunned and turned on Daisy; she stood there staring at him, showing the full force of her presence and intent. The message she sent was clear: “I will let you think you are the boss but beware: if you ever bully me again that is what I am capable of”. Shawn looked very embarrassed and could not hold her gaze, but from then on a good friendship developed until Shawn died too soon of kidney disease, possibly due to neglect before the RSPCA seized him from a property. We adopted a big New Zealand white boy next. They became friends, but fate seemed to be against Daisy when Mario was also taken by kidney disease. Twice! How could this happen? Domestic rabbits are not hardy creatures and need access to fresh water at all times. Maybe a child was mistakenly left in charge of caring for him and was naturally not fully aware of his needs. However, it seemed Daisy was destined to be an ‘only’ house rabbit.

By this time Daisy was 9 years old and still going strong. Her coat was glossy, her teeth were good and she had an excellent appetite. Last year (2008), at age 11 years, Barry diagnosed a cataract in one of Daisy’s eyes.

It worsened, making her blind on that side. We hoped for the best but later she developed another cataract in the other eye. We now had an old rabbit who was fit and healthy in every other respect but was blind.

What should we do? Was it fair to let her carry on unable to see? We discussed her case and decided to see how she went. We confined her to a large cage indoors with en suite litter tray and a generous sized soft bed, and served her usual gourmet meals. She seemed quite OK about it. We gave her lots of extra cuddles, she showed her appreciation by making gentle tooth grinding sounds called ‘tooth shuffling’ in rabbit language. She was a sweet girl who never showed any signs of aggression to us.

Earlier this year we think she started to have minor strokes which left her head tilted for a day or so.

Gradually from then on she seemed to go down hill, then she would rally. This up then down condition continued until a couple of weeks ago when it was obvious she was struggling and we rushed her to the vet for euthanasia. We said goodbye to our friend, our little black angel, this precious girl who had graced our lives for over a decade.

GVH had served her so well in those 10 years. Always being available to attend to her medical needs with such kind care and expertise. We extend our heartfelt thanks to GVH. It made ours and Daisy’s journey all the richer for having a dedicated veterinary team to accompany us as we experienced the various rabbit ailments needing attention.

This article is in memory of Daisy Vallis aged 11 years.

She was GVH’s oldest rabbit patient.