Mona's 5th Birthday

Happy birthday, Mona!!! 


Mona celebrates her 5th birthday today! We all wish her a very happy birthday with lots of presents, kisses, hugs and toys and whatever she wants more. 

Shaggy's sick...

Hi!

Just a little message to tell you Shaggy's sick. He's got a bladder infection. According to the vet we were just in time to turn it around.
Friday Shaggy didn't really want to go out to play. When I got his collar he ran through the whole house, otherwise he just goes and sit in front of the back door to go out. Now he really didn't want to go out. I put his collar on anyway and he went out to play, but I didn't see him again that day. Normally he comes and goes a bit. Friday evening at around 5, I started calling him but he didn't show. Around 6 mum and Aaron came home and we started looking for him, because this isn't something he normally does. Finally at 7.30 he came home looking really stressed out. He was angry with us, with everything,... in short this wasn't our Shaggy! Than we noticed he had problems relieving himself. He just sat in his kitty litter for ages, but he couldn't go... Saturday morning that hadn't changed. We were in doubt wether to go to the vet or not. We did, because we thought well tomorrow's Sunday and than there's a school holiday, so our vet would be out of town.
When we arrived at the vet's yesterday he told us we were just in time. Shaggy's bladder felt like a huge tennis ball. The vet managed to get him to pee, so he could check his urine. If we had waited longer, Shaggy could've died... Apparently most cats with bladder problems, get these problems from certain meals they sell at the supermarket. 70-80% of the cats with these problems, are on those feeds. I cannot understand how this can still be sold! 70-80% is a lot! Certainly when most cats even die from it!
Luckily we had him checked in time. He got some antibiotic shots and a pain killer. Yesterday he was really sleepy form the medication, but today he's a lot more lively! We still have to check his litter to see if he can pee normally, because it could still turn out bad, but we're keeping a eye on him and if we see any irregularity we can call our vet on his cellphone! The vet gave us his cellphone number so that we could reach him if something's wrong. Isn't that the best vet ever??

Rabbits and winter time

A little tip to help your rabbits through an ice cold winter: add some pineapple juice to their water. It helps them build up a good resistance and the water will not freeze as fast.

Keep them warm with enough hay and straw!

Safe and sound through the winter!

A lot to tell...

First of all: all rabbits survived the parasite!! Hemi will stay paralyzed from the waist down, but that's not really an issue as she perfectly live with it. The only thing we should stay attentive for is that she doesn't get diarrhoea, because that may indicate the parasite has come back and then we should immediately start treating her again. So far she does a very good job. It's weird though that although she's paralyzed, she can still manage to walk around a bit.
Bentley can walk again. She lost a lot of coat due to the medicines, but she's alright again. And because of the hot weather in Belgium she didn't care about losing a bit of hair... :)

Viggo strained his thigh during a much too rough game with the girls... He can walk, run, do everything you'd want him to do, but when he has to step inside, it hurts.

Mona got bitten by Grace today. Grace ain't no little sweetheart!!! Mona came too close to her when Grace was licking a plate. Grace growled and then bit her. Mona's nose is hurt, but fortunately we managed to stop the bleeding pretty fast. Grace has detention for the rest of the day and will not be taken for a walk tonight, that's for sure!

Shaggy is just good little Shaggy-boy! He's doing fine, nothing to tell there.

Well now, did I miss somebody? Guess not...

Talk to you later! :)

Grace

Viggo

Mona

Shaggy

Zieke konijntjes

Een keer een bericht in het Nederlands, omdat ik het in het Engels niet weet te verwoorden.

In het vorige bericht hebben jullie kunnen lezen dat Hemi erg ziek was. Ze is vanaf haar heupen verlamd. Enkele dagen nadat we dat bij haar hadden vastgesteld, is ook haar ma, Bentley, verlammingsverschijnselen beginnen vertonen. We hebben hen natuurlijk meteen in quarantaine geplaatst om ervoor te zorgen dat al de rest het ook niet zouden krijgen.
Nu blijkt het om een parasiet te gaan, E. Cuniculi. Die parasiet tast het zenuwstelsel (hersenen en ruggenmerg) aan. Ze krijgen nu allemaal een behandeling met panacur (ontworming), baytril (antibiotica) en de twee zieken krijgen ook nog metacam (meloxicam, pijnbestrijdend en ontstekingswerend).
Meestal trekken de verlammingsverschijnselen weer weg, maar als te laat met een behandeling werd gestart, is het mogelijk dat de verlamming permanent is. Bij Bentley is de verlamming weg, bij Hemi werd het nog erger....
Vanmorgen zijn we terug naar de dierenarts geweest omdat ze nu ook nog diarree had gekregen. Ze is ook heel futloos, wat ze de dagen voordien niet was. De dierenarts heeft ons aangeraden toch nog een tijdje aan te zien of ze niet toch nog reageert op de medicatie en in tussentijd de diarree in de gaten te houden. Op dit moment zit ze met een goed pak hooi in een hondenbench in de garage zodat de vliegen zeker geen eitjes in haar hok (of erger) leggen. Ze mag nu ook geen korrels of groenvoer meer eten, alleen maar hooi, tot de diarree gestopt is. Ik hoop dat ze snel weer beter wordt, want ze ziet er nu toch echt wel heel zielig uit. Als ze voor de rest van haar leven verlamd is, vind ik dat nog niet eens zo erg, daar leert ze mee leven, maar ze mag niet te veel afzien, want dat is geen leven meer. Voor de rest ziet ze er ook heel gezond uit: ogen, tandjes, rugspier,... alles tip top. Ze eet gelukkig ook nog goed. Ze krijgt nu  ook water met ananassap in, dat vindt ze heel lekker en dat is heel erg gezond voor konijntjes.

Duimen jullie mee dat ze weer die happy spring-in-'t-veld wordt onder onze konijntjes?

Hemi, our youngest rabbit

We have some sad news. One of our youngest rabbits, Hemi, is probably paralyzed from the hips down. We noticed she was having difficulties walking while she was playing in the garden. We took her to the vet but since she was very scarred and the floor over there was to slippery he couldn't make a fair diagnose. He told us to let her be by herself for some time and than wait and see if it'll just pass. This morning we tried to put her back with the others in the garden, but we noticed it just got worse. When we picked her up we saw her paws where just hanging there, not trying to scratch us - she always does that, so we immediately knew something was awfully wrong. We tried to move her legs, but felt there was not much life in her right leg. Her left leg still has some muscle but not enough for a healthy rabbit. We've had rabbits ever since we can remember, so we get the hang of it... Now we're in doubt of what to do... She lives perfectly with it, but doesn't it endanger her overall health? Our vet's on vacation right now, so we have to wait at least a few more days... He assured us last week that apart from her legs she looks very healthy, has a good, strong back muscle and clean teeth and eyes. Doubt! :(

Hemi (left) in better times

Happy birthday, Gracie!!!

One year ago our Mona gave birth to 8 little Newfies! We want to wish them all a very happy birthday! 

This obviously also means our little Grace turns one! After her problems with her kidney and knee, we're very happy to celebrate her first birthday! On to her second birthday! The vets told us we should be happy with every day she's with us and although she's a real pig, we love her with whole our heart! It's still special to have a mother and daughter Newfy! :) 

She got a new horse stuffy for her birthday! Unfortunately the horse lost an ear about 3 minutes after we gave it to her... :s

Grace, one day old

Grace, 1y old with her new stuffy 

"What should I do with it?"

Here the horse lost it's ear... 

"Whatcha doin' Viggo?"

Demolition derby: whose stuffy will die first?
Viggo stole Mona's duck and demolished it...
He won the demolition derby. 

Mona, sad about her duck... 

Auguri, Viggo!!!!

Today's Viggo's 6th birthday!!!!
We'll treat him with a very long walk, lots of cookies and lots of hugs & kisses! This evening he'll have some 'doggy lasagna'! Once an Italian boy, always an Italian boy, so Italian food it is! :)
We want to say Happy Birthday to Viggo's brother and sisters: Happy birthday, Noè, Noelle & Iris!!!

Viggo at 12 weeks old when he joined our family! 

Viggo 12 weeks old

Viggo, 12w old, in search for COOKIES!!!

Beautiful Viggo, 12w

Viggo & Aaron
Viggo, 1y old
"Can we get something to drink, please?"

Viggo yesterday at 6y old minus 1 day ;) 

Grooming and Crazy Gracie

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. I apologize! From now on I'll post more often, I promise!

This weekend the weather was wonderful in Belgium, so we decided to groom our three doggies.
These are the results:

Mona after grooming

Mona

Grace after bath, blow dried but not yet groomed

Grace

Viggo
He didn't want me to take some
other pictures so this is the only good one... :s

Sunday, Grace got into the Rabbits' residence...

Grace saying 'Hi' to Viper

Grace in the Rabbithouse 

And today our beloved Grace decided she wanted to look more like Viggo and turn into a black & white Newfoundland... She bumped her head into the freshly painted mailbox and now she looks like this: 

Of course I couldn't end this message without a picture of our Shaggy...

Can you guys find him anywhere? 

Ooohhh, there you are!!! :) 

Grace at school & Mona at the vet's

Grace at school


Thursday, Grace went to doggy school for the first time! We waited so long to send her to school because of her kidney and knee, but now we couldn't wait any longer because little Miss Gracie thinks she's the boss of everyone here at home! Time for change! :)
To my and my mum's surprise she did amazingly well! She obeyed like she's never done before! Other great thing: as I practiced yesterday what we had learned the day before, she did everything right from the first time! :) She's an A student, which means she can already start a more difficult class next week! We are so proud of our little Gracie!

Mona at the vet's

Friday morning we noticed that Mona was limping, so in the evening we went to the vet to check her right paw. Apparently she bruised two of her toes. So now she has to rest and take some medication!

Grace takes Viggo for a walk!

This movie shows you how our Gracie takes her 'dad' for a walk! :)
We wanted to take Viggo for a walk ourselves, but Grace thought she should do that...!
Viggo is being very easy as you can see! :) His little jumps are sooooo adorable! :) And Mona doesn't really know what to do! :)