hi, i’m cross-posting this from /rabbits because i am hoping for some guidance:
this is probably going to be super rambly because i’m an emotional wreck, but i am looking for guidance about getting my bunny radiation therapy at cornell.
here is some background: i used to have two rabbits. last year i wrote in about about my 8yo silver marten girl having a thymoma — i ended up getting her to cornell, they told me likely 6-12 more months with her on the medical management (pred) route. however, she’d also been suffering from an upper respiratory infection that her local exotic specialist minimized/ dismissed multiple times, & despite a multi-day admission & antibiotics from cornell, i had to have her put to sleep at an emergency vet hospital four days after we got home.
i’ve actually made multiple attempts to write here about that whole nightmare, but it’s been too hard to relive. maybe another time. i am still *absolutely devastated* by her loss.
her “brother”, my 9yo lionhead-mix boy, was just diagnosed with a thymoma this week. i’ve been taking him to another local doctor who isn’t an exotic specialist but is rabbit savvy & she didn’t seem surprised by my having two develop this within a year’s time. she said she believes thymomas are likely underdiagnosed/ underreported & that it’s just a sad coincidence in two elderbuns.
i got him out to cornell yesterday, where the resident & med students said the same, but one of the specialists there thinks it’s very strange that two unrelated rabbits in the same household would develop it. he said that they only see thymomas in every 200-500 rabbits. i’m a wreck about this, wondering what i might have done wrong.
for now, we’re going the prednisolone route again. i asked about pre-emptive antibiotics because i have ptsd about my girl’s infection, but the specialist doesn’t think it’s necessary. instead we’ll do repeat bloodwork in two weeks & imaging in a month. note: he is going into this a lot bigger/hardier than she was.
however, i want to plan for if my boy doesn’t respond to the pred. after the trauma of what his “sister” went through, i want to give him every opportunity to live **most comfortably** for whatever remaining time he has. the specialist really emphasized radiation therapy, said they got a new machine in the past six months that is more precise & more effective.
the radiation oncology team said it would be 5 treatments across three weeks. $3000 just for the treatment, likely $5000 total after all costs added in. cornell is 3 hours away and the drive is stressful for my boy, so i’d have to look for a 1-month rental to save him from five 6-hour round trips in the car. just a quick glance at short term rentals for ithaca in early summer is ~$2000.
however, i also am disabled & now have limited financial resources; still trying to pay off all of those bills from last year that i had to put on credit. because i have an energy-limiting disability, i’m relying on income from my one job for everything. (otherwise i’d have gotten a second job, anything, by now to help with this.) between these two situations, at this point my care credit account is almost maxed out. i don’t have family to borrow from. **to be clear: i am not asking for financial support here**; i just have never had to personally fundraise before. i figure there might be better options for this type of situation than say, gofundme.
my head is spinning from all of this so please, if anyone has suggestions or even just thoughts on the situation, i’m all ears. thanks for your time & guidance. ❤️🩹
by nomap-