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Stella
Stella is a rescue bunny who was brought to us about a week ago along with her sister. We didn't know it at the time, but Stella is a very poorly little bunny.

X-rays show that her teeth are so mallocluded (overgrown and deformed) that they are growing through her skull and even into her eye socket. She has been taken into the Dick Vet small animal hospital, where one of the leading rabbit experts in Europe operated yesterday (April 20th) to try to correct her teeth.

The prognosis is not good. Stella will need dental work (more operations) frequently - possibly as often as every 6 weeks from now on. She will need pain relief daily. And her life expectancy is greatly reduced, it could be that she is only with us for another 6 months.

Still, there was some good news. She shows no sign of infection and scans showed that her chest is clear. She is breathing freely and well, and has woken up from the surgery. She's alert enough to chew a drip out!

This morning, though, we recieved some further news. Stella is not eating and has not passed any droppings since the operation. She is now in Intensive Care. Either she will respond by the end of the day, or we will know that there is another underlying condition, possibly affecting her liver.

We're prepared to do anything within our power to help Stella, and to make the time she has left (however long or short that may be) as safe, happy and pain free as possible. She deserves a little bit of happiness before the end.

But we need your help. Stella needs your help. Her care so far has cost Ł250, and will cost another Ł45 for every day she spends in Intensive Care.

If it is within your power to donate, please consider doing so. Even the smallest amount will make a big difference. Please spread the word, re-post this campaign and let people know about her.

stella

We're not going to let her down.

Thanks for your support.

Update

Stella had to be put down on the 19th of May, less than a month after we made our first appeal. Stella was a little fighter. I will never forget seeing her in intensive care at the wonderful Dick Vet, trying to dig up the cardboard in her cage.

Rachel and I looked after Stella in her last weeks with us. She required hand feeding five times every day as she could not chew food on her own as her teeth were so painful and decayed. At first Stella would fight with me when I tried to feed her, but after a little while she realised that the syringe I was holding held her food and then she would take it eagerly. It took Stella around twenty minutes to get through a syringe of food, and while I was feeding her she would sit on my chest, tickling my nose with her ears. Even when she was so ill, Stella was very much in charge. She would bite me when she was bored with me or wanted to be put down--these bites were painless as she had no proper teeth, but she got her point accross. I was impressed by her attitude.

She and her beautiful cagemate Sage would run around on my living room floor and chase each other, and at times like that, Stella seemed like a normal bunny. Around two weeks after her oringinal operation, we had a breakthrough: Stella started eating on her own! We were all so happy, and it seemed like our little fighter was finally on the road to recovery.

Unfortunately, this wasn't to be. I noticed Stella's rear end becoming wet and soiled over the weekend, and on Monday morning we took her to the Dick Vet. They took her in overnight, and operated on her the next day. It wasn't good news. Though Stella was eating on her own, she wasn't gaining weight, and her teeth were so decayed and broken that the vets couldn't even remove them as they would crumble before they could extract them. Stella's rear end was paralysed, which was why she was incontinent. She had quite advanced e.cuniculi, a parasite which attacks the nervous system. As well as that, her liver was failing from the repeated anisthetics. Rachel and I fought as hard as we could to keep Stella alive, and the Dick vet gave her the best treatment availible, but it wasn't enough. Our fight is nothing compared to Stella's: the little rabbit was terribly ill, and her illness was caused by years and years of neglect and poor diet, and yet she ate on her own and fought to get better.

Though we couldn't save Stella, any donations we received helped to pay her extensive vet bill, and will continue to pay for vet bills for animals like Stella. Stella was ill, but I'm very glad we gave her the best possible chance she could have for survival, and I hope we can continue to give that chance to every animal who comes through our doors: they deserve it.

Thank you for your support.