Our Options

I wanted to get the bunny healthy enough to have her eye surgically removed. I wanted to fix her, find her an amazing home where she could live happily ever after, and never have to suffer the cruelty of some humans again. ...that is what I wanted for her. Not for me. Not for you. For her. She deserved at least that.

Unfortunately, I can't give her that...I mean, I can...and I will...and I have...but, it isn't as long as I had hoped for her.

As you know, her eye socket is shattered...absolutely demolished. They eye, within that socket, needs to be surgically removed as it is a constant source of infection for her body. However, the area we were most concerned about was her jaw. I got the news a few days ago and it was...heartbreaking, to say the very least.

She has a fracture, from what I can understand, in the 'hinge' of her jaw on the right side. This is why her teeth don't line up. How she eats hard pellets and hard food is absolutely a mystery...anything to survive; animals are such amazing beings.

So, how do we fix that? Unfortunately, the only fix for this type of fracture is...to put it plainly, not recommended by any specialist that has seen her case thus far. It would be an incredibly risky surgery and would require complete removal of the mandible (the entire lower jaw bone). She would only be allowed to eat mush and would need to be sedated every two months to have her teeth filed down to avoid abscesses and other dental problems resulting from the surgery. This would have to be done by a specialist and would likely cost a few grand.

If we opt to not remove the mandible (which I have decided we are not doing), we have a few options.

Option 1 : Euthanasia. The final kindness. Her face is smashed, she took a serious blow to the face, and we should just end the suffering.

Option 2 : She eats. She explores. She grooms. She's on pain medication and antibiotics and is an otherwise completely normal bunny. Leave her be. No surgery, keep her maintained on medication until either the infection is no longer kept under wraps with the antibiotics or until the jaw bone fuses (through the healing process) and her jaw locks. (This will happen if the mandible is not removed. There is no way around it.)

Option 3 : Same as Option 2, however...we gather up about $700 (currently her account is $500 short) and remove the eye, do nothing for the jaw, but simply remove the eye. We get the infection under wraps, but cross our fingers that it will be a long time for the jaw to fuse. I cannot give a 'time frame' for how long until that happens. Could be weeks...months...could be a few years. There is also a high possibility that she would not make it through surgery. Rabbits are delicate and sensitive to anesthesia; surgery to remove the eye may kill her, even with an experienced rabbit doctor. If she survives surgery, she will still need to be sedated every two - three months to have her molars ground down, as her jaw does/will not meet and therefore her teeth are/will not stay filed down.

Where am I sitting...? Option 2, honestly. I cannot cut her short...not just yet. Not today. She has been shorted once before by a human; I won't be the second so soon. Crazy weird things happen in the animal world every day. I'm not saying her jaw isn't going to lock, it will...it absolutely will. But, what if it goes on another year or so? ...of course, this doesn't take into consideration the filing of the teeth...I would like to cross that bridge then, if we get to it.

I am not made of money. I do a job that I love and wouldn't trade for the world, but it doesn't pay very much. I have my own problems...my own worries...other animals who require in-depth special care. Take that into consideration if you decide to tell me that I am horrible for not rushing her to a specialist right now. If you would like to donate a few grand to do a surgery that she will likely not wake up from, be my guest. She has everything she needs; and she is living a heck of a lot better life than what I imagine she had.

I hope that with the information provided, you guys can make educated decisions on what you think I should do. I am torn between Option 1 and Option 2, but am certainly leading more towards Option 2. Thoughts?