How Can You Mend a Broken Heart ....

As some of you will know, for the kitten season of 2012 we fostered kittens and a few adults cats for a local shelter - Paws4Life. In total, 35 felines in need passed through our doors including two kittens - Lisbeth and Tyrion, who never left.

Tyrion and his three brothers; the Grey Babies, came to us with their adoptive mother Busy Lizzy. This little family had been uplifted from a property along with the kitten's birth mother who had rejected her kittens. Busy Lizzy  - just a kitten herself, was already nursing 2, one month old kittens and when the grey babies mother had rejected them she took the newborns on as well. On arriving at the shelter Lizzy's two kittens were fostered out as they were just old enough to be weaned. Lizzy and the grey babies then came into foster with us. The grey baby's mother was found to have a ruptured diaphram and once she had had corrective surgery and lots of tender loving care at Paws4 Life she was successfully adopted out to her forever home.

Five days after Lizzy and the grey babies arrived, I got a desperate call from the shelter. A litter of kittens had been found in a box on the road and the box had been sitting there for at least three days before the kittens were discovered and rescued.  One kitten was dead, two more had accepted the bottle but on wee girl was conpletely refusing to feed at all. She's had less than 5 mls in 24 hours and they wanted to see if Lizzy would accept her. I arranged for her to be brought straight over and I could hear her screaming as she was carried up the path to the front door. If she refused to feed or Lizzy refused her she was facing euthanasia the following day.

Sadly, it didn't work out with Lizzy but Geri and I sat up with the kitten all night and managed to get 5mls into her. The following morning I took her back to the shelter to collect some formula and get some advice from Rachael.















This wee girl weighted all of 185gms (a new born kitten weighs about 125gms) and it was thought she was about 2-3 weeks old.  But as it turned out, she had all of her baby teeth so was 6-8 weeks old but was severely emaciated.
 
In the mean time the grey babies were thriving but about a week after Lisbeth arrived they suddenly started crying and were very unsettled. Twenty four hours later it became apparent that Lizzy was very sick so off to the vet she went. It transpired that Lizzy was gravely ill and she ended up in the critical care unit at the vet for over a week. She nearly died but they managed to save her and after a prolonged period of recovery at the shelter she was eventually adopted.

Suddenly, we were bottle feeding five kittens! Once we confirmed that Lizzy's illness wasn't contagious I integrated Lisbeth in with the grey babies. She didn't know what on earth was going on but ultimately it was a really good thing for her socialisation.

Some of the fab Five wearing their 'food faces'

We had decided early on that we would adopt Lisbeth as she was obviously going to have issues and we felt that putting her back through the shelter wasn't going to be a good outcome for her. Of course, we also decided she would need the company of a cat her own age and we chose Tyrion as he was such a character.

We've been through ups and downs with our four ever since. In June 2013 we made the decision to stop fostering as we were having behavioural and health issues with our crew which I was certain were caused by stress related to having so many extra cats in the house. We worked hard at getting things on an even keel and things seemed to be fine for quite a while. Then in the late summer of 2014 I discovered that Tyrion had been spraying inside. This coincided with Effie and Coco becoming increasingly aggressive towards Lisbeht and Tyrion.

I put back into practice all of the measures I'd used in 2013 and for a while we made progress. Then Tyrion started spraying again so I put him on to Clomicalm and for over a month we had a break from nightly blacklighting and cleaning sessions.

Then, he started again.

I was at breaking point by this time and had to start to face the fact that  it looked like I was not going to be able to 'fix' this situation which meant that I had to make a decision about Tyrion's future.

Two weeks ago I finally came to the awful realisation that my wee man Tyrion would have to be rehomed. He couldn't stop spraying, was becoming aggressive with Lisbeth and was undergoing significant personality changes - becoming increasingly withdrawn and was obviously very unhappy.

I tried to rehome him through my network of friends and aquaintances to no avail as the stigma attached to spraying is hard to overcome, so admitting defeat I contacted Rachael at the shelter I volunteer for. 



Rach was fantastic and after discussing the situation at length we came to the conclusion that as Tyrion was maturing; he is 22 months, his need for his own territory - totally unchallenged or shared in his mind, was becoming overwhelming and that there was just no way I could provide this for him here with so many cats not only in the household but in the neighbourhood as well. We agreed that this was very likely an inherent personality trait that was coming to the fore as Tyrion entered adulthood and that there was nothing I could do about it - living here with us just wasn't doing it for him and I had to accept it was never going to, no matter how hard I worked at it or tried.

She also assured me that she has rehomed MANY sprayers successfully and that as long as they are placed carefully usually once they are out of the environment that they were finding stressful, they no longer feel the need to spray anymore. We agreed that Tyrion needed to be rehomed into a quiet (he's quite a nervous chappy), calm, sole cat household. Rachael is extremely picky when it comes to placing the animals in her care and I knew that she would be taking extra, special care with and of Tyrion for me.

Surrendering Tyrion to the shelter has been the hardest decision I've ever had to make in my life and I am still unspeakably sad. I've been mourning his loss for weeks and Paws4Life/Rachael is the ONLY place/person I would/could have entrusted him to.

Once at the shelter, he stopped spraying which is usually the case according to Rachael. He was so bewildered and scared when I took him over, it was awful. I had taken his favourite cubby bed with me so I set him up in his crate and after crying on Rachael's shoulder for an hour I left, sobbing my eyes out all the way home.

The following 10 days were horrendous, but then I received this text from from Rachael -

"Tyrion adopted by the most amazing, sweet and lovely older couple. He is off (with his bed!) to watch Pirongia Mountain and to be thoroughly and utterly loved."

I rang her straight away and she said the couple's previous cat had died of old age and that they are very gentle, quiet people. I've been crying ever since with joy, hope, relief, sadness, grief, happiness .... I don't know!

The shelter has a condition on adoptions that if for ANY reason the animal needs rehoming the owners are legally obligated to return them to the shelter. So, I know that if it doesn't work out Tyrion will still be safe. However, Rachael has a full disclosure policy and this couple sounds perfect so I am hopeful that he has found his forever home.

Since Tyrion left the dynamic between my girls has changed enormously with less aggression and a LOT more "Oh, it's just you Lisbeth, yeah ok .... I'm going back to sleep" instead of "LOOK!!!!! IT"S LISBETH (or TYRION) > LET"S GET HER/HIM!!!!!" 

For now, I am holding my breath and hoping against hope that Tyrion has found his forever home, that his need to spray is a distant memory and that he will now move forward to live a blissfully happy and content life full of love and cuddles with his new family.

Goodbye my special wee man. I will forever hold you in my heart where there will always be a void in the space that you used to occupy.

Showers Clearing with Sonny Spells

Blind Sonny UPDATE - SUPER< COOL< WONDERFUL<FANTASTICO GOOD NEWS!!!!

I've been monitoring Sonny via IR camera and she's only been up a few times since building her nest and hibernating in early May - which was VERY early. During one of her 'wake ups' she actually deigned to eat some biscuits that I had placed in a box close to her nest. This is the first food she has accepted from me since she was released into her garden last March. Stubborn much???

When she went into hibernation Sonny weighed 856gm which isn't huge and I've been VERY anxious about her well being through all of this very wet, soggy weather. I have also been loathe to disturb her to check on her because historically she has become very confused and disoriented when I've disturbed a nest she has built and has often then rejected that nest.

Sonny; fast asleep in her nest

We've had heavy frosts and it's been very  cold for the last few nights so I figured that today would be a good day to check Sonny as she was more likely to stay fast asleep and less likely to get upset and antsy at being disturbed. Holding my breath, I VERY carefully got her up and weighed her.



WOOT WOOT WOOT!

 She is 708gms. Not huge but also not anywhere near as light as I was dreading she would be. After giving her  a dose of Advocate I carefully popped her back to bed and she stayed put. PHEW.

Sonny's lovely dry, cosy bed

When Sonny made her 'nest' - which consisted of some peastraw she had dragged from another part of the garden to cover the burrow she had dug under a comfrey bush, I boasted her efforts by covering the nest with a plywood shelter and back stuffing it with fresh hay which I topped up periodically as the hay settled. I wasn't sure what state the nest would be in down under all of the hay that I had added but discovered today that it is completely dry and that there was no mould either, which I was rather worried there might be.

With spring approaching I now feel confident that Sonny will survive her first 'wild' hibernation and I can breath easy ... for now!

Weird Winter Weather ...

This winter sure has been a strange one. It was late arriving and has ebbed and flowed, never really settling down into 'proper' sustained cold temperatures. Couple that with a prolonged, very hot summer and you get a hedgehog rescue scenario that hasn't really tapered off as it should have done.

Charlie, fast asleep in his hibernation nest

Charlie's hibernation has been a real education for me and I wonder how closely it is tracking the hibernation of wild hogs. It is quite different to Sonny's which is prolonged and almost uninterupted ... hmmm, maybe Charlie is just a glutton - he has woken up regularly throughout his hibernation in order to eat ... and certainly hasn't read the manual on hibernation which states that hogs are supposed to lose weight during their hibernation; usually about 10gms/week. To date, Charlie has lost exactly 5gms! Or maybe it just hasn't been cold enough to fully penetrate Charlie's impressive layer of blubber for any length of time so he keeps waking up.

Anyway, due to the weird weather we are getting a lot of older juveniles with severe mange coming in. How on earth they have kept going for this long is beyond me ... These teens would have been born in the Autumn and have struggled along all winter.

Last weekend I assisted a rescuer; Maritha, with a little hoggie she had found when out for a walk. Freddie weighed in at 316gms and has bad mange. He's being looked after by Maritha and is up and down, but still with us. Then this afternoon I had another call from Maritha - she had found another hoggie! When she asked what on earth was going on - finding another one so quickly, I explained that once you found/rescued one the word gets out and the hoggies come looking for you!

Kero, the face of misery and suffering

Maritha couldn't manage to care for a second hog so I got her to bring him to me and here he is - We've called him Kero as Geri is watching anime tonight and a character named Kero is in it.
Kero tips the scales at 450gms but should be at least 800-1000gms. If you look at the photo, you'll see how tiny his body is compared to his head. It's quite disturbing really, poor we guy. He has very severe mange is is really stinky. But, if he makes it through the night we'll start treatment tomorrow and his state will start to improve pretty fast after that.

After he arrived, I warmed Kero up some more on a heatpad - Maritha had done a great job giving him a hottie to snuggle up to so he wasn't ice cold when he arrived. I then offered him some electrolytes and he drank steadily for about 20 minutes. Next up was a feed of the magic AD/Puppy formula which he tucked into until he couldn't fit any more in. His tummy was discernibly rounder by the time he finished. He's now asleep on a heatpad in his hospital box. I'll wake him up once more before I go to bed to see if he'll have some more to eat and drink and then we'll keep out fingers crossed and will see what the morning brings. If he makes it through the night, he'll have an oil drizzle tomorrow, I'll start his Ivomec injections - if I can find a spot of clear skin on his back which looks like concrete at the moment, and he'll start Panacur as well. If I can't find a spot I'll wait 24 hours for  some of his crust to fall away and then jab him.

Mr Podgy aka Hector

 The speed of the transformation once the hog receives treatment and decent nutrition is really quite astounding as is evidenced here by Mr Hector. Let's hope that Kero can pull through so that his real hoggie self can be revealed.

Hector with his new quills coming through - loves to 'splat' on his heatpad

Hoggie Hospital Highrise - HUZZAH!

As you may or may not know, I am really allergic to hedgehogs. This makes caring for them a bit tricky as I can't have them inside the house. I cope ok once they are out in a hutch or a pen but they invariably need to be inside for at least 3-4 weeks before they can move outside.

Recently I was put on some medication for my newly diagnosed Lupus and found that it settled my reactions down enough for me to have a hoggie or two; Sonny and Chance in this instance, in the spare room as long as the door was kept closed at all times. Unfortunately I developed side effects from the medication and had to come off it which meant that hoggies inside was again out of the question.

So .... I got to thinking about how to solve this dilemma, developed a plan and shortly thereafter - with impeccable timing,  Hector appeared on the scene. Although a fosterer had been found, I fell in love with him and decided to 'keep him on', using him as a 'test subject' for my new plan.

Said plan was to accomodate 1-2 hoggies in the garage. Now, this isn't an ideal scenario as the garage isn't insulated and it is winter so keeping the hogs warm enough was going to be the biggest issue. However, I have two electric heatpads and decided it was worth seeing if these along with lots of fleece bedding in the hospital boxes would be enough to keep the hogs warm enough.

So since his arrival two weeks ago, Hector has been living out in the garage with a heatpad plugged in 24/7 and has been absolutely fine, other than being rather 'creative' with rearranging the heatpad and his bedding. You see, he likes to sleep under the heatpad thank you very much, but I have won the heatpad wars and finally figured out how to thwart his best efforts to dig the pad up and toss his bedding into his waterbowl.

This weekend I declared the two week trial period a success as I've been coping well with him in the house - but not in the house, so set about making the arrangement more permanent. To date the hospital box has been on the floor (on top of a corkboard for insulation) which isn't very convenient as it chews up precious floor space and also means I have to bend over a lot to clean/feed etc which is really bad for my heart condition so a solution was needed ...

As I stood in the garage pondering the issue, my gaze lit upon the big black set of shelves and I got to wondering if the hospital boxes would fit in them. A quick measure up soon confirmed that they would, so I got busy emptying the shelves and setting up the new 'Hoggie Hospital Highrise'. There is room for nearly everything I need on the shelves - hospital boxes, food, cleaning kit/caddy (which I also take outside to clean the hutches with), food stash and all of the bedding - towels, fleeces, old sheets and heatpads.  The rest - medications etc, are stored and prepared inside the house.

Because I like efficiency and being organised the Highrise ticks many boxes for me as my ultimate goal is to streamline my hog setup by centralising it so that everything needed is on hand or within easy reach.  To complete the hospital area the only other requirement was a 'weigh station' which needed to be adjacent to the Highrise and elevated to reduce bending. Now, it just so happens that next to the Highrise is our Triton Sawbench which is only rarely used so Hey Presto it is now the weigh station! On it I have the scales and a box of gloves. Behind them is the hog bucket where the hog resides whilst I am cleaning out its hospital box. When I am ready to clean the hospital box, I sit it on top of the railings and in front of the bucket. This puts the box above the scales and gloves so that I don't have to move anything! Efficiency ROCKS!

Westley the Toothless Wonder

Seven days ago, Westley had his surgery - neuter, four front teeth removed and microchipping. We were mighty anxious about it as rabbits are very sensitive little creatures and the risk of something going wrong during an anesthetic is quite high. After dropping him off at the vets at sparrow fart I came home to wait - and a very long day it was too. I watched the clock all day and finally went back at 3pm to pick him up.

Everything had gone to plan except for the fact that one of his lower teeth had actually snapped off below the gum some time before the surgery so the vet wasn't sure that he had managed to get the root out. This means that it is possible that the tooth may grow back. If this happens (and it is quite likely according to Dr Robert) Westley will have to have another operation to remove it. Poor bunny .... I guess the only consolation is that it will only be for one tooth, not all four as well as a neuter.

Because it is winter and Westley had had quite a shock to his system, we decided to set him up in the garage in a vacant hutch rather than put him in his outside hutch. We put a Snugglesafe heat pad in with him and covered the hutch with an old feather duvet in an effort to keep him a bit warmer as he recovered. He was a very sad boy indeed but managed to have something to eat and drink which was great because a rabbit's gut is designed to have food in it all of the time and if they stop eating they can get into serious trouble very quickly.

On the second day I popped into the garage to check on Westley and this is what I saw -

Westley wearing his 'sad face' 

I think it is safe to say that he likes the heat pad LOL!
I was relieved to see him using it as the warmth would not only have been soothing but would be helping with the stress and shock of the surgery.
In the photo, you can see how swollen his poor little mouth is. His eyes and nose were also running a lot and the vet explained that this is because the roots of the teeth are very close to a rabbit's sinus' and tear ducts.

Westley remained very subdued for the first 3 days and although we didn't pick him up we did visit him very frequently for gentle strokes and air hugs. On the 4th day, we took him back to the vet for a post op check up which he passed with flying colours. He had really turned a corner so once we got home we let decided to let him have a run around outside in the garden and to spend the day in his outside hutch. He just loves his garden sessions and zooms around throwing binkies (a rabbit's 'jumping for joy' aerial ballet) all over the place. 

Nights; for the foreseeable future will still be spent in the garage hutch as his outside hutch isn't really warm enough in my opinion. You see, a wild rabbit spends its night down a cosy, insulated burrow with other bunnies to snuggle up to for warmth. Most captive rabbits - especially solitary ones, aren't provided with enough shelter and warm bedding to stay truly warm and comfortable. Also, as is the case with many hutch rabbits - especially when they are living in a hutch that is too small, Westley has decided to use the 'bedroom' portion of his hutch as his toilet which means he sleeps out in the area which is open to the weather. In this part of the hutch there isn't enough room to set up a nest box which means, in my opinion, that the hutch inadequate for long term use for a rabbit. My long term plan had always been to provide larger accommodations for Westley and to the use his old hutch for hoggies, so I have been having a good think about alternatives.

Nom, Nom. I likeee Dandelions!

Initially 'The Plan' was to have Westley spend his nights in his existing hutch and his day times in a 6m long run that I was going to build at the back of the garden. However, we have been letting him out twice a day in the early morning and early evening; the time when rabbits are naturally most active, for a good hour each time. Then in the evening, Geri has been bringing him in for cuddles before he goes to bed in the garage. This arrangement seems to suit all of us very well and the fact that Westley is more than happy to snuggle with Geri for hours at a time seems to indicate that he is getting enough exercise and 'natural rabbit' time. Once he has a bigger hutch which has multiple sleeping/lounging areas, shelter and plenty of room to potter around I will be much happier and he can move back outside full time. This will also mean that on those days that we can only let him out in the evening - like when we have to go to Auckland for hospital appointments, he will still be a happy bunny.

Snuggle time

The cats have decided that Westley is ok and he loves to chase them - especially Miss Effie, who isn't quite so enamored with that particular 'game' hehe. Lisbeth is slowly overcoming her suspicion and even sniffed him when he was on Geri's lap last night. Coco has given him the odd bop on the head when he has gotten too cheeky and Tyrion just follows him around the garden looking perturbed.

This morning during his play time, Westley discovered the open dining room door after following Effie me back inside from the washing line. He happily hopped inside, had a look around and then took himself back out to the garden. Once he has worn himself out running, chasing, raiding the vege garden (parsnip seedlings are da BOMB) binkying, grazing and binkying some more his Lordship takes himself back to his hutch for a feed of pellets, a big wash and then a nice long sleep.

We are just SO lucky that this wee man has come into our lives...