This is the story of Daisy rabbit who endured a lot, but happily still pulled through. At ARC we like to give our animals the best possible chance to enjoy a long and happy life….here is the account from one of our volunteers:
“In March 2018 I noticed a large lump growing on Daisy’s back right leg around her ankle which Wendy at Twickenham Vets successfully removed under general anaesthetic.
She recovered well but unfortunately it came back again and started ulcerating. It was removed again in July.”
Leg with lump
Lego post op
“After the lump was removed for the second time, Wendy (the Vet) and I had a long chat about Daisy’s prognosis and it was looking grim. If the lump came back again the choice would either be to put her to sleep or have her leg amputated.
I was dreading the lump coming back, but it did, more quickly and bigger.
I did a lot of research on various forums about how well rabbits cope on only three legs and I was amazed to see that most did remarkably well and learnt to adapt to their new way of life.
Daisy is 6 years old and having already had two surgeries that year I was worried it would be too much for her. But I decided I couldn’t give up on her and made the appointment for the leg amputation operation.
On the day of the operation, waiting for the call from the vets was agonising but at 1.00 Wendy rang to say the op had gone well and Daisy was trying to move around.
Now back home, her partner Sidney helps to keep her eyes clean by grooming them for her and she has found ways of balancing so she can keep herself clean. I have to help her clean her ears as they normally use their back legs to do this, but other than this, you wouldn’t know she only has three legs . . . my tripod bunny.
This was three months ago now and there is no sign of any lumps coming back. It was a difficult decision, but I definitely made the right one!
This little video shows just how well she is doing now, what a little star she is: