Wordless Wednesday featuring Shallot (2nd Edition)

The Story of One Shallot's Teeth: Update!

Poor Shallot Bunny, he's had quite an eventful month! I don't know about other rabbits, but I think that Shallot prefers his months to be boring.

As anticipated, we were able to get him an appointment a few days after Christmas to have his back teeth ground down a bit so that he could eat more comfortably. But while he was under anesthesia a problem was found. There was some sort of growth all along his gums and the inside of his cheek on his left side. The doctor called during his procedure and asked if it was okay to clean it out a bit and take a biopsy. Of course we said yes.

Then came the hard part: waiting for the results. Normally a biopsy takes a couple of days at most to come back. Not this time! Between the holiday backlog and New Year's, we had to wait more than a week. In the mean time we worried over what the doctor had said about the possibility that it was bunny cancer. She told us that the chances were 50/50 that it was aggressive, and that not much could be done if it was.

Shallot, of course, knew nothing of this. He went back to eating his normal diet much faster than anyone expected, took his antibiotics, pain meds, and anti-inflammatories like a champ, and generally acted like his happy self.

Then, during the first week of the new year, good news: it wasn't cancer, but a rare form of gum infection caused by his wacky teeth. And this week, more good news after his check up: his weight is up quite a bit, he seems to be eating much better, and the inflammation is almost gone! Hooray for Shallot, a true bunny trooper.

The Story of One Shallot's Teeth

I work at a zoo. I don't know why, but many people seem to think that zoo = place to drop off unwanted pets. Let me assure you, this is not the case. True, the zoo I work at houses a large number of rescued parrots and primates. So many, in fact, that we can barely keep up with them all. But unwanted pets? Well, when was the last time that you saw a house cat in a zoo exhibit?

Even so, many animals are abandoned by our back gate every year. Bunnies are a particular problem where I work; at one point someone dumped about 50 of them in the park next door! Everyone did their best to get them to a rabbit rescue, but not before they were traumatized by dogs, cars, and who-knows-what-else!

So I guess it was only a matter of time before I ended up with a hard-luck rabbit of my own. We already have something of a menagerie at our house. But this guy was just too pathetic to trust

to fate. So I took him home and named him Shallot.

Shallot is blind in one eye, was emaciated, and has terrible problems with his teeth. His front teeth grow so crookedly that they curve in four different directions, with the top two growing backwards into the roof of his mouth. No wonder he was so skinny! He couldn't chew vegetables at all. He was surviving by picking up small pieces with his tongue and pulling them into his mouth. He lived with some other bunnies at the zoo for a while, but it was obvious that he couldn't compete with them. So I finally brought him home.

Turns out, he's a wonderful guy! I was afraid that the fact that we have to take him to the vet every two or three weeks to get his teeth trimmed would make him skittish. Far from it! He roams my studio, grooming my ankles while I work at my desk, and generally brightens up the place. He doesn't seem to mind his carrier, and has been designated a "well-mannered bunny" by my vet's office staff.

Now that he is healthier and more robust, the next step is to trim all his teeth. For that he'll have to stay at the vet all day and be mildly sedated. I'll probably still have to dice up his food really finely, but it should improve his ability to chew. So wish Shallot luck! Hopefully by 2010 he'll be eating almost like a normal rabbit.

Wordless Wednesday featuring Shallot