Crummy Timing

A warning before anyone scrolls to see the photos in this post: Some people might be disturbed by the content, but my checkbook can attest to a veterinarian's intervention into the matter.

On the morning following Gus's departure across the Rainbow Bridge, I scooped Victor von Bunn up from the floor to put him back into his house. That's when we found this.

Given the lively chance he'd led me on in the attempt to not be put back in to his cage, and his horse-like appetite and resulting Pez-dispenser-esque bottom, the apparent injury came as quite a shock. A all rabbit lovers know if a bunny is playing, eating, and pooping then things are a-ok.

However this was not fine. A call to the vet's got us an appointment first thing Monday morning. The we waited... not calmly except for Victor. He was quite non-pulsed.

We went to the vet expecting to find a corneal scratch. Instead we found an eyeball full of pus. IF we'd been able to get rid of the infection with medication he'd still be blind in that eye. I didn't want to have the stress of trying to fight an infection in what's supposed to be a closed-off place... and Victor didn't need that stress either.

So the vet and I agreed the best course of action was to remove the eye. He did so that afternoon because he was very concerned. Victor's appetite showed the first signs of declining that morning and we didn't want to be dealing with gut stasis on top of the infection.

As to how the eye became infected... a cat's claw, finding a splinter whilst poking his nose where it really shouldn't be (he thinks barriers are a puzzle game to be figured out and beaten), we'll really never know. But for bacteria to get into an eyeball a piercing jab is required.

After the surgery was over the vet called me himself. There were minor complications making this procedure even more challenging. Enucleating a rabbit is more difficult than a cat or a dog in general, but Victor's surgery was more so. The major issue was abnormal dilation of the blood vessels along the optic nerve and the accompanying artery.  The vet explained there are only two reasons for that to happen: a nasty infection or cancer.

He wanted to take xrays while Victor was still groggy enough to hold still. I agreed and waited. I wasn't as worried about Victor's recovery at this point. He was waking up from anesthesia just fine. And the eye was out so either infection or cancer, he'd be more comfortable.

I was able to bring him home the following afternoon. Other than looking a bit like a lapine Harvey Dent, he was just fine. His appetite had come back and he was relaxed enough to give himself a bath. The surgical site was swollen and red, not surprising though. He's munching on fresh dandelion greens in the photo. While he was away, I moved his cage upstairs to make it easier to keep watch during the week.

The xrays didn't show any signs of metastasis, so we opted to not send the eye to histology. That cost would've sent the bill to over $1000... and we still need to pay Gus's last bill when we collect his ashes. The other reason we skipped the histology is our vet told us any cancer in such a young rabbit will be, "quick and devastating." Knowing ahead of time won't do a single thing for him.

So whether it be 12 weeks, 12 months, or 12 years, Victor is loved and cared for.

This morning he's looking quite well. The swelling and redness is gone. I think he'll make quite the dapper pirate once the fur grows back.

The worst part of the ordeal for me is the timing. The worst bit for him is getting medicine twice a day. He feels well enough to fight it, which is fine. That means he's getting better.

That's all for now. I'll hopefully get back to posting about fun and creative things next week. Fingers crossed for no more disasters!

Forever A Good Boy

Augustus Octavian, "Gus," my constant companion for the last two years has gone to sleep forever. 

We've been battling the onset of dementia for several months now. Various medications and new routines were implemented to mitigate symptoms, like accidents in the house and wandering at night. Nighttime was the worst... sort of like when humans with Alzheimer's "sundown," Gus would behave strangely at night.

The latest cause for concern was him snapping at me when I tried to get him out of the garbage by grabbing his collar after vocal commands were ignored. That behavior was so atypical I called our vet to discuss it. Our concern was not for the humans in our household, but for Artie, Pixel, and Victor. Gus would never knowingly hurt one of them, but with dementia getting worse we couldn't take the risk.

So last night we had a party with steaks, bacon, gingersnaps, and sugar cookies. Today we went for a drive and got ice cream (which I sprinkled peanut butter bone cookies onto) and cheese curds.

Then the three of us went and played at the park for a bit. It was pretty apparent that Gus was in more pain than we thought. Watching him walk around the park was painful as he was quite stiff and moving very slowly.

But now he's no longer in pain, no longer confused, and no longer afraid.

And my Gussie will be a good boy forever.

A Few Hours Early

In the hopes that I can hit the ground running in the morning, I'm posting now before I go to bed. I wasn't feeling very well this week, so I didn't get as much done as I'd hoped.

But the sea horse row and the goldfish row from last week are sandwiched and I have another row ready to sandwich. It's from Charlottesville, Virginia.

I also got the appliques for this row ready to sew on. They're pinned in place and ready for me in the morning... or the evening.

I've got fabrics picked out for a row that's all piecing, so I may start on it in the morning instead. There are also a couple of rows that I have kits for that might pique my interest. We'll see what mood strikes me once the sun is up.

A Day Late

Apologies for missing Sunday. Saturday was so busy that blogging completely slipped my mind. I spent the day displaying some miniature scenes at a "makerfest." That's a term for a group of people who come together to show off their various talents/projects and talk about how the made them. The makerfest itself was part of a larger arts festival which included a car show and live performances by local dancers, singers, etc.

Last week's progress on the quilt was slowed down a bit by getting ready to display at the show, but I still got some good work done.

The Freemont, CA row is ready to be sandwiched. I'm very pleased with how it's turned out. I'm planing on adding some more texture details to the sea horses with the quilting.

The Grantsville, MD row is also ready for sandwiching, although in this picture threads need cleaned up. I did that last night, so it's truly ready to go.

I decided to added appliqued eyes to the Morris, IL row instead of just embroidering them. The fish are large enough that I was able to trace around quarters to make the applique templates. This row is already sandwiched and waiting on me to finish blind-stitching the label on the back. I started that last night and am almost finished.

Two other rows are also sandwiched and in the stack to have their labels stitched on before quilting.

I did work on a couple of other projects last week as well. In the effort to reclaim some of my safety pins for sandwiching rows, I started the quilting on some things that have been waiting for attention.

These are the halves of what will be a large tote bag/diaper bag. It matches a quilt a friend and I started for another friend's baby. The link will take you to the post with the quilt top if you're interested.

This is the pile of safety pins I reclaimed, just from those two sections.

I also started on one of the twin chevron quilts. I still need to finish the quilting in the white sections, but I did enough work to get all my safety pins back from it and gave my shoulders a good workout.

I'm hoping to get caught up with all the rows that are ready for quilting this week and then get started on a few more. I have family who've been collecting patterns for me and they'll be mailed soon. If I can be finished with what I already have before the next round gets here, I'll be ecstatic.

That's all for now. I have a busy day of sewing and laundry waiting on my presence. See you next weekend!

Progressing

In order to get back to work, I need to keep this post short and sweet.

Three more rows are quilted now.

I pieced another row that needs appliques attached. This one is from Grantsville, MD, and is one that my neighbor picked up for me during her road trip. I had to add the strip of brown to make the row the same height as all the others. The fish appliques are needleturn but there will be fused applique grasses as well.

The row I showed last week was a surprise row sent by a friend who was visiting California. She didn't even put her name on the return address (her son's home), so I had quite the mystery on my hands for a few hours! It still needs some work on the needleturn applique. The seahorses will be fused applique and made from the brown fabric sitting next to the iron. It's from Color Me Quilts in Fremont, CA.

Two more rows are ready to quilt.

And I finished a row that ultimately needed to be taken apart because it was 4 inches too long. Needless to say I was irritated. The directions left quite a bit to be desired. I use scant quarter inch seams, but 4" is too long for even that. Plus it started out too narrow as they'd designed it at 6.5 inches wide, so I needed to add the sashing. I also made the row vertical whereas the original was horizontal. So it's waiting on me to find out if I"m getting a specific row from Albuquerque, NM that will be used in place of this row vertically before I make any changes.

I have to get back to work now. See you next weekend!