Unfortunately I had to have Smokey put to sleep last Thursday
I adopted her from Southampton Rabbit Rescue at the end of 2016 when she was 2 years old. She had gone into the Rescue pregnant and then had only 1 baby who unfortunately died a few days after birth

she had been surrendered by someone with mental health issues who had obviously let her get pregnant, we were advised she had also had a previous litter some time before not sure what happened to those babies

one of her ears was also half hanging off never actually found out how this happened could have been done by her mother, bit it never gave her any trouble.
After being spayed, I bonded her with my rabbit Jinx who had sadly lost his wifebun Daisy to EC, she then had to have an operation to have her 4 incisors removed as she had maloclusion due to her breeding

she lived very happily with Jinx without any further health problems until June last year when she developed an abscess on her bottom jaw, this then turned into 2 seperate abcess's next to each other. After an operation and 2 lots of xrays it was discovered she had infected and diseased bone in her bottom jaw and puss was coming out through a small hole in her jaw bone where one of her incisors used to be. She continued to do quite well up until Boxing Day but was on daily pain relief and antibiotics since June last year, one of the abscess's burst about 4 or 5 times in these months. On Boxing Day she was very poorly and refused all food, so I syringe fed her and she went to the vets numerous times in a few weeks, she never properly recovered this time, and about a week before I had her put to sleep she started to become unsteady on her back legs. She then started stumbling and falling over, and then seemed to loose the use of her back legs all within a week

The vets felt that the infection in her jaw and gone into her bloodstream and seeded in her hips causing her to loose the use of her legs. I felt the kindest thing was to let her hop over the Rainbow Bridge.
It was all very sad and happened so quickly at the end but I am so thankfull that she had 3 happy years living with her husbun Jinx after the difficult start in life she had. I believe Jinx knew she was very ill as he was grooming her lots more at the end

I put her body in his cage so he could say goodbye and that he would know she had gone. He sniffed her a lot and then gave her 2 kisses on the side of her face and then hopped off and started eating hay!
RIP Smokey and have fun at the Rainbow Bridge with Peter, Buttons, Daisy, Casper and the rest of the buns
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