Quincy and the Needle

We dropped off Quincy at the vet earlier this week, due to his infection and liver levels not really improving very much. He ended up getting an ultrasound and he’s now on even more medication. We’re still working on tackling the infection that he has, but we’ve also since found out that he’s got heart disease.

Some of the medication is tackling the buildup of fluid around his spleen and liver. He’s also getting some antibiotics and probiotics.

In addition to the two new things we feed him using a flat syringe, we got a much more daunting task. To give him his antibiotic, we need to do an actual injection with a real syringe. This happens 5 days in a row, with us then switching to every other day.

When Liz was at the office, she was shown how to do the injection (basically pinch up a tent of skin below the base of the neck). She said she heard a pretty sickening crunch sound when they did it at the vet… and she’s been stressing out about having to do it, ever since. Literally stressing out for about a day or so.

I had her show me what she learned, and volunteered to do the actual needle work. I was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but imagine Quincy was more nervous than me.

We ended up doing a bunny burrito, and had him on the countertop. Surprisingly, he was very calm when I used the needle on him. I went slowly, and was able to inject him without much of a problem on the first try. The hardest part was knowing whether I was actually under the skin.

Amazingly, Quincy seemed pretty calm. Which amazed me.

We’ve got a whole big bag, full of needles…

Recently, Quincy’s been refusing to take his other medication. Since we already had him wrapped up, we decided it would be good to try to force-feed him. As you can see, the bunny burrito wasn’t tight enough, and he was able to tuck his nose and face under the blanket. We felt bad, but it was also pretty cute seeing this small bit of protest from him.

After all the medication, we set up a small pile of pellets for him to eat, as a treat.

I’m sure we’ll get used to it, but I’m finding the whole needle process pretty rough. Deep down, we both know this is for his health and that our actions are necessary and for his own good. It’s always tough to see loved ones enduring pain. But it feels slightly different when it’s your hand inflicting the pain.

Related:
Needles, Anesthetic And Thankfulness
Giving Medication To The Bunny Rabbits
Home From The Vet, And The Baxter Bunny Burrito