This is Beau. He’s a 5 year old Conti who is palliative from an untreatable sarcoma on his hind leg, which we’ve been dressing every 3-4 days as otherwise he bleeds all over the home and it bothers him.
When we can get his dressings and baby sock on, he actually handles this really well and lives a fairly good quality of life, but the dressing changes themselves are becoming more stressful for every human and bun involved.
So far I’ve been scooping him up / supporting his spine while my partner quickly cleans and dresses the tumour, and we do pop him on the floor where we can for breaks at certain ‘checkpoints’.
This doesn’t seem to be working that well anymore – he is struggling / kicking more and just getting less tolerant of these sessions as time goes on, and last time all we could do after a few failed attempts was just put the sock on him (the white sock pictured – we changed it the next day after a higher dose of pain meds but he still struggled)
This is where I turn to you fellow Reddit rabbit owners and creative thinkers, how can we make this easier and less stressful for everyone?
I had initially thought getting one of those dog grooming hammocks but it looks like they’re bad for bunny spines, and the other idea was using something similar to the vet mouse trap or box that they put buns in for CT scans, but with a hole in it for his leg to pop out, though no idea how I’d begin to measure the size of the box and where to put the hole (He’s about 80cm when lying completely flat). Maybe I find a way to sew / stick his dressings to the inside of his sock in advance to save on time was my other thought.
Thanks for any and all ideas!
by tardyarty