Blog Entry 10- The Story of Ruben

On one of my Friday’s we got a rabbit in, a male lop.  He was lethargic, barely moving in his cage.  The officer who brought him in, said that the family found him in their backyard.  They didn’t think there was anything wrong with him, but Daisy took one look at him and declared he was dehydrated and was going into Gastro Intestinal stasis.  I named him Ruben, and called another member of the Bunny Brigade to bring fluids like pineapple juice to bring this poor limp rabbit back to life.  Daisy began taking care of Ruben while I took charge of the work that still needed to be done. We originally took Ruben to the vet at the shelter and sent out a notice for foster.  We left him at the shelter in the vet’s office, and returned an hour later when we found a foster home that would take him in.  However, by the time we got back, the vet hadn’t even seen him yet.  They didn’t even know what GI stasis (as it’s also known) was.  Daisy and I took Ruben back to a volunteer’s house for the night and were up with him through the course of the evening.  However, he didn’t get any better.  By morning we brought him to Dr. Fowell where she discovered his kidneys were failing, either from dehydration or something toxic. This was in turn causing his digestive tract to freeze up.  Which is what GI Stasis is, it’s when the body starts shutting down because the rabbit did not receive enough nutrients or was harmed or poisoned in some way. By mid-afternoon, Ruben was gone.
It’s tough work being a rabbit volunteer.  No matter how hard you try, sometimes it just isn’t enough.