Morrigan (Molly)
1998 - 2007
Molly, the lovely little black rabbit.
Molly has been ill occasionally for years, with strange fits of sneezing occasionally (though not rabbit flu), and most notably
a seizure in June 2004, but she always got well again, and the vet was always able to reassure us that everything was fine with her.
Always. Until today, when I noticed that she had difficulties breathing when I gave her her breakfast, which she did eat with an appetite. Still, she kept breathing through her mouth, and it seemed to give her considerable difficulty.
When I clipped her claws she panicked completely, which was very unusual, because she is not new to having her claws clipped, so I put her on the floor to calm down, but she did not. Her breathing became worse and worse, and she died while I was on the phone with the kindergarten, telling them I could not come because I had to go to the vet's. I wish I had been there, it was a question of minutes, and the thought that she must have suffocated is horrible.
The worst thing about this is that Crocky, who fed her two days ago, said that Molly's breathing had sounded strange. When I checked on her that night she was fine again, but I could have done something if I had gone to the vet immediately that night. She usually did sneeze when her cage had been cleared out because the dust from the hay got in her nose, and sometimes over a period of days, and her breathing occasionally sounded strange because there was slime in her nose, but it always went away again. It sounds as though it has
really been rabbit flu this time, and that can be cured if you act immediately - and can be fatal if not.