Dora update (with bad pictures)

Dora is still at the vet's and will be for a few more days. So long as she continues to improve, I hope to bring her home on Monday evening. My vet recommended surgery on Thursday because she hadn't shown any improvement overnight and wasn't responding to medicine. With other bunnies that have had bouts with GI Stasis, I've always been very conservative and waited it out. I was terrified of the surgery. Somehow with Dora I was brave enough to take my vet's advice and allowed him to perform the surgery, called a gastrotomy.

If you happened to read the link in my last Dora post, you might remember that this surgery is considered by many vets to be a last resort. My vet doesn't agree with that, and feels it should be done sooner, rather than waiting until the bunny is at death's doorway. So, he opened up her stomach to remove the mass of food and hair and fiber that she couldn't pass on her own. As it was, her stomach was bloated to twice its normal size and was putting pressure on her other organs. That's why she wasn't eating or pooping and was so painful.

You wouldn't know it from these pics, but Dora is improved today. She was doing normal bunny thiings like washing her face (in the photo above left) and scratching her ears (at right). She ate a little bit of salad and pooped some for the first time since Tuesday. She still needs to be syringe-fed and is getting fluids and pain meds (you should see the size of her incision!), but the docs thinks she is on the mend. Good news!