Today we said goodbye to Rabbit! After his amazing recovery from Vestibular Syndrome, a few days later he rather rapidly went downhill; losing the strength in his back left leg, suffering quite chronic pain in his back end generally, being sick, losing more weight and ultimately not being able to get around or be comfortable any more. Examinations and x-rays were not conclusive. He had a touch of spondylosis in first two lumbar vertebrae plus what could be some crumbling BUT this did not really explain his lameness and pain. The sickness was thought to be due to the pills he was on, but as these changed, the sickness continued. He had a fast heart rate even at rest (well over a 100 at times), felt cold to touch at times and then his poo became horrid and contained blood. He lay on a mat in front of the rayburn and hardly stirred. The vet agreed that his time had come! It was a tough call as there was not an obvious cause for all his symptoms and indeed other x-rays showed hips and knee joints to be fab and blood tests came back fine. Speculation was however pointless: at the end of the day Rabbit could no longer get around or keep his food down and it was our responsibility to no longer allow him to suffer.
The pain at losing a dog is immense. After thirteen and a half years of sharing our lives, one almighty big hole has been left!! But we are left with hundreds of gorgeous memories (and photos..). Thanks Rabbit!!