Camp Nibble updates 2021

[Camp Nibble]

We'd like to start the year off by saying an enormous thank you for our amazing Christmas donation! WOW! Well done and thank you so much everyone

Our rescue accommodation is mostly outdoors so (full as always) we've been struggling along doing our best to keep everybun as dry and cosy as possible with the snow/wind/rain this month as I'm sure many of you can relate to urgh!...along with the joys of homeschooling our two boys, but I won't go into that ha!

Our bunny vet has done a great job of making sure that our special needs buns are still getting the help they need despite the current lockdown of which we are so grateful. We had a successful trip with a handful of bunnies yesterday to make sure that any vaccinations were up to date and that our dental bunnies were doing ok. Only Dougie needed to stay in for a dental on that trip which is good going for us, and he's recovering really well today.

At least our resident guinea pigs are managing to stay warm and cosy as they are all housed indoors. We have three lovely new piggy arrivals Chalky, Milky and Pinky who mature piggy who have joined us on the wishes of their owner who sadly passed away between Christmas and New Year. He had shown so much kindness to many rescue guinea pigs in need of a loving home. Having given several of our Camp Nibblers a wonderful devoted home over the past 10 years we are honered to now give these lovely girls a safe retirement in his memory. The three girls seem to be settling in well, although we're sure they will be missing their dad who we know loved them very much.

[sdf76]

Thank you for your update.
Good to hear that your dental bunny Dougie is recovering well, and thank you for the super photo of Charlie.
sue

[Camp Nibble]

I've just come on to update for March and have realised that we didn't update in Feb. I'm sorry I hadn't realised! The days/weeks/months are all blurring into one at the moment!?

We were delighted to be a winner the January end of month draw, Thank you so much for our donation

We're really happy that this week is the first national Guinea Pig Awareness week so our sanctuary piggies have made a little awareness video in support of GPAW, they were very happy to perform but demanded a high very veggie fee ha! : https://www.campnibble.com/news_106964.html

Our sanctuary bunny of the month for March is the wonderful Nick Fury:

Nick Fury is a medium sized lop born around 2018. He is full of character and after originally being rescued from neglect has subsequently been in and out of several homes (through no fault of his own) before joining the Camp Nibble family.
Prior to being rescued he had sadly lost the end of his nose (giving him a piggy-look!), as well as having lost an eye. His most recent owner sadly felt unable to keep him following a diagnosis of complicated dental disease and an abscess. He has joined us here to make sure that any health issues can be carefully monitored/treated, and to ensure that he finds bunny company.

[sdf76]

Thank you for your update and super pic of Nick Fury.
I loved the video
sue

[Camp Nibble]

We're very sad to have lost our lovely old Flynn last week. He left us without warning at 10.5 years old. He passed away snuggled up to his best friend Peppa Pig bunny.
Flynn joined us around 4 years ago completely blind and we think pretty much deaf, he stayed with us getting lots of love and support from his group of sanctuary bunny friends who were his guides. We knew that Flynn was 7 when he arrived, but other than worrying changes with his eyes, he never aged a day!? He was the most handsome bunny, in the best condition. He'll be very much missed



Our Sanctuary bunny of the month for April is new arrival Russel Brand:

Russel Brand is a feisty, fast, lion head born around 2019 originally rescued by an RSPCA branch. Since being rescued, RB has had snuffles and has needed dental operations around once a month due to advanced dental disease, making him a very hard rabbit for the branch to responsibly re-home. He has joined us here as a sanctuary bunny where we can carefully monitor his health and ensure that he receives bunny companionship and all of the ongoing vet care that he needs.

[Camp Nibble]

We’ve been left juggling 3 pairs of unexpected older bunnies who we hadn’t accounted for space wise this month which has put on the pressure eek. We’ve had a little influx of bunnies who we re-homed 5/6 years ago suddenly need to come back to us. We’re probably not alone with this with covid having such a wide impact on so many people. We’d pushed our luck a little by sneaking Russel Brand the RSPCA dental bunny in last month when we were already at capacity as he really needed help. We do usually try and keep at least some space free for unforeseen circumstances. However, we’d gotten into a bit of a false sense of security as our own bunnies needing coming back to us are luckily usually few and far between. It’s very important to us that we do fit them back in again under any circumstances if needed though as per our adoption agreement. We hadn’t accounted for 3 bunnies that we’d re-homed so long ago needing to come back in with their bonded companions all at the same time, Keeping us on our toes!

Our sanctuary bunny of the month for May is the gorgeous Marky Mark:

Marky Mark is a handsome giant breed lop who joined us as a stray. Something had caused this lovely boy to self-mutilate to a disturbing extent before being handed into us (this is unusual in rabbits.) He arrived having chewed his tail off to the point of leaving the bone exposed, making him very vulnerable to infection and in need of treatment.

After making some sanctuary bunny friends, Marky Mark seemed much happier and, to our relief, stopped self-harming. He remained with us in good health as a much-loved member of the Camp Nibble family until sadly recently developing a severe head-tilt as the result of an ear infection, which his huge loppy ears have predisposed him to suffer with. He is currently managing well, but of course his health and welfare is being closely monitored.

[Camp Nibble]

We're delighted to have found a perfect new home for one of the older pairs of bunnies who were sadly returned to us last month after 5 years together in a home. Toni and Jaws are used to being pampered house bunnies so we have been so grateful to find a lovely couple looking for house rabbits who were happy to commit to a pair of 7-year-olds rather than only considering a cute pair of baby bunnies. We delivered them to their new home at the weekend. Everything crossed that they have found their forever home this time around.

It's been much sadder for one of the other returning pairs. Indy bunny joined us with a huge jaw abscess. Our vets have been able to successfully operate on some very complicated abscesses for us in the past so despite knowing it would be a big surgery we were hopeful that we would be able to help him. Sadly though under during the surgery it became apparent that it was just too complex to remove, we were told that he needed to be euthanised. His wife Molly (although getting on in years) was one of our healthiest bunnies. It was a huge shock to also lose her completely out of the blue last week!? Her fosterer found her suddenly collapsed. We were able to get her very quickly into our vets. They were happy that she was hydrated and her tummy felt full and healthy, and her lungs and heart with strong, but her body temperature wasn't registering and her eyes were flickering. They tried their best to warm her artificially and bring her round but they just couldn't, something catastrophic had gone wrong in her brain. Not what we were expecting at all and another reminder of just how complicated and delicate these bunnies can be!

Despite one of the third pair of returning bunnies (Poppy and Larry) having SO many health issues, they are settling in really well.

We're keeping everything crossed that no one else will need to come back to us now for a good while.

Our sanctuary bunny of the month is Poppy:

Poppy is an adorable lion head lop born around 2014/15. Her previous owners initially rescued her as a young bunny from a very unsafe situation. Poppy has joined us with multiple complicated health issues and will remain with us as part of our sanctuary family. She can experience urinary incontinence due to a spinal injury in the past, and therefore, needs frequent help with hygiene. She is prone to snuffles, urine and eye infections and gut stasis. She has also required dental treatment in the past and treatment for a large abscess behind her eye. We haven’t yet come across quite so many different health issues in one bunny! Poppy really does illustrate just how complicated rabbits can be health-wise.

Despite her many issues, Poppy is currently doing well and is a very friendly, happy, calm, gentle bunny. She really is an exceptional little girl.

[Camp Nibble]

July update:

We'd like to say an enormous THANK YOU! for our summer donation, as always we are so grateful for the ongoing support

Along with all of the usual ongoing dentals we've had a couple of bigger much more expensive surgeries this month so it will all get put to good use. Our one-eyed Nick Fury has needed an abscess in his missing eye socket opening up. All very gruesome, but after a few weeks of daily cleaning out and lots of aftercare he's doing brilliantly now. Our resident king of jaw abscesses Wolverine is also recovering from his latest (I've lost count of how many!?) surgery. He is just the happiest fittest rabbit otherwise though so neither us or our rabbit vet are in any doubt as to whether treatment is in his best interests, he always somehow sails through and seems completely oblivious to just how complex his issues are!

Our sanctuary bunny of the month is Pickle Rick:

"Happy 10th Birthday Pickle Rick!

Pickle Rick is a very handsome crossbreed born in 2011. He joined us in need of rescue support at 9 years old after being handed into a vet practice. He has an obvious deformity to one of his front legs, which bends at a severe angle. This means he uses his elbow to walk on rather than his foot. This is not a new injury and is more likely a deformity from birth.

We are guessing that Pickle Rick might have lived alone so far as he has joined us un-neutered. Therefore, it's been such a joy to see him living so happily with us as part of a large group of bunnies with various special needs. Since joining us, Pickle Rick has lost sight in one eye. We need to monitor the eye for any further severe changes that might impact his quality of life. As an older man now, we hope this will stay stable to spare him any major surgeries. He is currently happy and enjoying his retirement to the full."

[Camp Nibble]

August update:

We’re very sad to have lost our cheeky little sanctuary bunny Emu very suddenly last. Emu joined us as a snuffly bunny 4 years ago and we managed to keep his health stable with courses of antibiotics when his snuffles flared up, he was such a happy adventurous character to have around the place.
Sadly, though he developed an acute head tilt and neurological symptoms and unexpectedly passed away very suddenly soon after the onset. All very unexpected as he was so happy and active up until the end. A sad reminder of just how delicate bunnies can be. Definitely a little bunny with a big personality that will be missed.

We've been in the midst of a bit of a space crisis for the past couple of months and have been finding it so hard to free up new spaces to fit in new bunnies in desperate need of a sanctuary space Having re-homed so many hundreds of rabbits over the last 12 years (with an adoption agreement that gives them support for life) over the last few months we keep finding ourselves being forced to go over capacity needing to make arrangements for senior (now very hard to re-home) former Camp Nibble bunnies who we originally re-homed years ago in need of help again due to their owner's changes in circumstances (of course it's been a very tough usual year for so many people). Sam is our newest arrival but another old familiar face from 11 years ago!

Our Sanctuary bunny of the month is Sam:

Sam is a little piece of Camp Nibble history as one of the first bunnies we ever rescued as a charity back in 2009. He was originally rescued as a baby from rat-infested conditions along with his parents and his 5 littermates.

He eventually found a new home after a few months of getting overlooked (due to being a shy boy and a crossbreed) and has been well cared for in the meantime. However, he has come back to us just shy of his 12th birthday! (all of our re-homed rabbits have support for life). He hasn’t aged a day to look at, it's unbelievable. If we didn’t know it to be true, we would never believe he was such an elderly chap. Having been part of an unplanned litter and a crossbreed with healthy uppy ears and a good mix of genes seems to have really worked in your favour Sam.

[Camp Nibble]

We're delighted that 12-year-old Sam who came back to us last month (after we re-homed him 11 years ago) has found love with a 12-year-old lady bun and has hopped off to a wonderful new home We've a piggie due to leave to a very experienced home and another bunny due to be bonded at the weekend so everything crossed for another couple of happy endings.

We've needed some good news as this month really has been the saddest. We've lost four of our very special sanctuary bunnies in quick succession, it's been emotionally very hard. It's hard not to lose your confidence when it all happens at once but we know that the deaths were all completely unrelated and all due to very complicated health issues (hence why they'd needed to stay here with us). The boys were all being carefully monitored by our excellent vet and had any treatment possible so we have to accept it was just their time to leave. We really hope we are due a happier run for a little while now though after such an unlucky month.

Our beautiful newest arrival is big bun RuPaul:

RuPaul has joined us in need of sanctuary support due to his caring owner's genuine changes in circumstance. They'd adopted him from a rescue shelter following a bad start to life. He is a giant bunny weighing in at 7kg. Like many rabbits bred to look so different from how nature intended, he is sadly predisposed to many health issues. Due to chronic eye, skin and mobility issues, he will need ongoing medications and help with grooming and keeping himself clean. After recently losing his bonded companion RuPaul has joined us to ensure he receives bunny companionship and all of the ongoing special care he needs.