Stewie
Well on Wednesday he was supposed to see his normal vet, but they called to say that they were gonna be closed that day (totally not normal for them, sonthere must've been an emergency).
But I woke up and attended to Stewie -- cleaned him up, snuggled him, and put him in his box which he can socialize from rather than his cage/hutch where he's isolated. He took a few licks of water, and wouldn't touch hay, greenies, or even oatmeal. He also seemed sort of tired and put his head down on his left forepaw towards the end.
After a few hours, I had a massage (good for my MS, especially this time of year, and I missed my last one bc of work) and to grandma sit. Then I was to go get Kristine from Sandusky.
I got there around dinner time, and we woke to dinner with her family (she has fam in town from SC). Then she got all her stuff together (she KNEW I was coming, but hadn't gotten it together). So we didn't get home til around 10, and I had to work the next morning, so I had to get up around 5:40 at the latest.
But I wanted to get Stewie cleaned up a bit better since we finally had two people, and then give him some time out to be social since I'd be gone all day Thursday and he'd be stuck in his hutch. I figured I'd just put him back in and go to bed around 11, maybe 11:30.
When I took him out, he still hadn't touched any of his food or water. We cleaned him up and I put him in his box. He couldn't keep his head up. It was tilted to the side laying on his left forepaw. He was super lethargic. Our first thought was stroke.
So we took him back to the emergency vet where it was indeed confirmed that he likely had a stroke. We were offered treatment options, but told that there was less than a 50% chance of recovery. Plus at 7.5, he was starting to get older for a large rabbit (his normal vet had previously told us that he would have an estimated lifespan of approximately 7-10 years).
We opted to put him down.
They took him to the back to put a catheter in his ear for vascular access, wrapped him up and I took him. We got time alone with him and I snuggled him, and we let them know when we were as ready as we'd ever be. They came and gave him the injection and he was gone right away (contrary to just 49 days prior when we had to put one of our cats down bc of cancer, they'd calculated the dose by her weight, and they still ended up having to go back and redraw even more of the med to stop her heart....).
Not surprisingly he peed on me when he died (that was the one part that broke the tension for me bit bc I found it funny. Of course that happened. Not surprising, but Daisy hadn't lost control of her bowels and bladder).
After that we were given time alone with him, and after about a minute, I wanted to see his teeth, so I poked at his mouth and there was a BIG breath sound. That freaked me out some. Then it felt like his back was twitching. Daisy's vet had told us that can happen once they're dead, but it never did with her. It still freaked me out some so we went to get the staff, and they reassured us that it's the same with rabbits -- that can happen as the muscles settle.
By that time, we'd had rhe time we needed, so I handed him over to the vet. And we left.
We got home around midnight, and I went to sleep around 12:30. Yesterday at work (12.5 hours bc I'm a nurse) I was exhausted, and even moreso because I forgot to take my Provigil (med I take to help with my MS fatigue). Dummy me. And plus I started my stupid period so....hormones.
And today I'm just tearful about the stupidest little thing, which pisses me off.
Edit to add -- his vet called me this morning to offer his condolences. He got the info from the emergency vet and well, yeah.