It's not warm when she's away

As the subject line hints, this is about our pet rabbit and it's not happy.

After an incredible week, one where her breathing was as silent as we could have hoped, the rasping came back. Small, yes, but still a sign of fluid back in her lungs where it had only just gotten cleared out. Some sneezing, too. She's always been a sneezy bunny but when it gets to the point she can't stop sneezing it's a sign of deeper troubles.

So that's why we, with vet approval, doubled her diuretic. We have a split decision whether that's doing anything at all regarding her sneezing and noisy breath. But there's no arguing that it hasn't eliminated them. The only thing we could try that we hadn't already was putting her back on penicillin, in case somehow against all expectation her problem was an infection that a half-week's shots helped out. The vet was skeptical but not so skeptical as to refuse to let us put her back on. This may be humoring overprotective pet owners, but ... I mean, I would think she'd be willing to say if she thought there was no credible hope. We had Sunshine ready for euthanasia just a few weeks ago, after all. We're ready for awful news.

But there hasn't been good news, just a steady degradation of Sunshine's willingness to put up with our care.

So we had a hard discussion again today and agreed on a date to plan for her euthanasia. Hopefully soon enough that she won't feel too miserable before it happens, not so soon that we won't give the last stand of the antibiotics their chance. Still, though, a last day again.

If all we've done is get her one last great week, and a couple good weeks ... all right. I wanted more great weeks, but we always do.

As it is, it's hard to think she's in such poor shape. She's eating her pellets with more reluctance, yes. And her voice is raspy. But she's still energetic, she still plays, she still scampers even a bit. She comes and demands head-pettings and has discovered what it is to have a bite of banana off my morning snack. If only she didn't have to breathe through liquid in her too-constrained lungs she could go on forever.

Again, no time for pictures. Tomorrow maybe.

Trivia: The (United States) Internal Revenue Act of 1862 set taxes on alcohol and tobacco, playing cards and billiard tables, carriages and yachts, medicines and advertisements, manufactures, processed farm goods, licenses, stamps, dividends, and inheritances to fund the war effort. Source: The Money Men: Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar, H W Brands.

Currently Reading: Pogo: The Complete Syndicated Strips Volume 8, Hijinks from The Horn of Plenty, Walt Kelly. Editors Mark Evanier and Eric Reynolds.