This is hard for me to write; I’ve never cried for a pet as much as I did last night. I am saddened to report that my cute bunny Pepper died last night due to complications from surgery.

I had brought her in to our small animal specialist vet for an Ovariohysterectomy (Spaying procedure). This is usually done for rabbits to curtail behavioral (territorial) problems and also to eliminate chances of ovarian cancer. (For unwanted pregnancies, it’s the male that would need to be neutered.) The procedure was done and I was called later and informed that the operation was a success. I was told that we could pick her up after 4pm. We got there at around 5:45 and she was still in legarthy from the surgery. We were instructed to keep Pepper warm when we got her home and give her medication before bed. We never got a chance to give her the medication because, as time progressed, she was still laying on her side. Christine listened for a heartbeat and found it rather faint sounding and weak. We had her wrapped up in a towel for warmth all this time, and I decided to move her to the heated waterbed. She seemed to have gotten much worse after a little time, and her limbs were starting to stiffen! I made the decision to get her to the emergency vet right away.

Just scant minutes after checking her in, we were told Pepper had passed on. After the initial breakdown and healthy tears, I instructed the vet to do a general autopsy. A full one would be overkill for something like this. Before writing this entry, I called and found out that there was significant internal bleeding… not quite enough for death. However, in combination with a reaction to anesthesia, it may have been enough to kill her. I will be calling the regular vet today for follow-up discussion.

In closing, I just want to say that Pepper was actually one of the best companions I ever had. I’m more of a cat person, as I grew up around them, and my wife is a bird person. Pepper was very loving, craved attention, loved being around us and I’ll miss that attention greatly. I passed by her cage this morning expecting her to be there, standing on her hind legs, looking at me with those large lovable eyes like she usually does every morning. When I’d cuddle her, she’d lick my hands and arms. I’ll miss that, and more.

Goodbye, Pepper.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2006 at 9:17 pm and is filed under In Memory Of..., Pets/Animals. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.