As you can see, Mr. Mick is too tired to share the good news, but he had his follow-up visit with the vet today and he has received a clean bill of health! YAY!
Dr. Shanahan said that, while she could still feel the spot under his skin where the abscess was, it was a very small pocket in the muscle and it feels much like a deflated balloon--nothing in it. We will have to keep an eye on that spot to make sure that "balloon" doesn't inflate again. Other than that, he is a healthy, handsome boy. His weight has stabilized at 4lbs, 10 oz., which is still much smaller than he was previously (he had been at 5 1/2 lbs. before he got sick), but oddly enough, he feels like he is heavier than he is. For gaining all of three ounces since his illness, he is more solid and his bones do not stick out nearly as much as they had before. If you asked me to guess his weight before he hit the scale, I would have guessed at least 5 lbs. His vet and I discussed it, and much as I would like to see him weighing at least 5 lbs. because of how he dropped so much weight before, this seems to be a good weight for him for overall health.
Of course, he may end up putting on some extra ounces now that I got him a new treatball. He still has the old one, but I also found this on Amazon.com. It has adjustable holes and fills much easier than his other one. I'm saving the old treatball for his papaya mini-bits, but I break up Oxbow veggie treats for his new one. Mr. Mick has already figured it out and was happily pushing it around all over the dining room to get every treat out. I may also break up some of his papaya tablets and add them to the treatball as well.
I'm also been trying to teach Mick to hop up on the footstool under my computer desk. He's done it a few times on his own, but never seems to want to stay up there for very long, so I've been trying tempting him with bits of dried kale. If he does it on command, he gets petting, praise and the treat, but if he does it on his own without my command, he gets petting and praise but no treat. The idea is for him to do it on command and not when I don't want him there. We'll see how it goes.
15 comments:
So glad to hear that he's all better. :)
Glad Mr. Mick is better! Sounds like he doesn't mind working for his treats. Have you ever tried "clicker" training?
SOOOOoooooo Happy! Yay Mick! Smart bunny, and I bet he has so much fun with that treat ball!
FF: I've never tried clicker training, but I may give it a shot if this is successful. I so wanted to go to the demonstration of clicker training at the annual meeting of our local House Rabbit Society chapter, but I had to skip the meeting because of last-minute company coming.
Yay!! great news for Mr Mick :)
but, er, Arabella and Wesley are a bit confused by the self-hop-up-but-no-treats on the stool bit - they reckon Mick will be expecting treats ALL the time ..... hear! hear!
Annette: I can imagine they would be confused. My thinking is: if Mick gets treats every time he hops up on the stool, he'll want treats every time he hops up on the stool. My goal is to teach him to hop up on the stool only when he gets the command to "hop up", hence the treats only when he hops up on command. If he never figures that out, it's ok--I don't mind him hopping up on the stool if he wants, I just don't want him expecting a treat every time he does it.
Yippeee!!! That makes my entire day!!!
xx, shell
Glad to hear Mickey's doing better. It's so cool the way he will use the treat ball. Only one of our rabbits would ever bother to do this, a little Mini-satin that we had so long ago. Brings back good memories.
Go Mickey!! So glad he's getting much better!
Good news! If you actually DO train a rabbit to do ANYTHING on command, well, fame and fortune will surely follow!!!!
Glad Mr. Mick is doing better.
So glad to hear that Mickey is recovered! Good luck with training him!
So happy to hear Mr. Mick is back in good health. What a long, scary journey that was. You must have that healing touch. Hope you both have a great weekend.
That is wonderful news!!! We are all so relieved to hear Mr Mick has a clear bill of health. Take care and chat soon ;o)
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