FUN Bummy Bath…NOT!

[MimzMum]

Day before yesterday, while cleaning Fiver’s night hab, I noticed something messy on his foreleg. I froze. Oh Lord, tell me that’s NOT blood.

I was sure he’d either torn a toenail or caught a sharp piece on his hay basket. Nope, just smeared cecal…again. (groan)

So I pulled him out and turned him belly up. OMG…POO EVERYWHERE. Okay, it’s bathtime.

My daughter wasn’t up yet, so I had to fly solo. But wow, what an experience!

Having handled Jenna for almost a year, giving her a bath every week or so, I am getting more confident about holding, carrying and working with the bunnies, surprisingly. So I just stuck out my tongue, bit my lip and turned on the sink faucet with Fiver in my arms.

Now at first, he was like, WTF?? But as the warm water began to wash over him he relaxed and seemed more of the opinon that this was good, at least mum is not coming at me with those darned toenail clippers.

So his bath goes much easier like this than when I use a washcloth and water, and I am able to completely rinse all nasty areas.

I took him into the bathroom with a fleece blanky, plopped him in my lap and told him, “Okay, I need you to be a REALLY good boy,” and I plugged in and turned on the blow drier…

Once again, he just sat there and actually began washing his own forefeet, occasionaly going over my hand with his tongue (SQUEE! Bunny kisses! Sort of…) and letting me dry him. But at one point he did decide he’d had enough and tried to get off my lap. Had to drop the drier, (still on!) which scared him and I lost my grip, made a grab for him, caught his left foreleg and he and my hand slipped about a foot to the floor. (oh no…the bathroom floor is dirty! ew!) I got a hold of him again and brought him back up on my lap, comforted him, apologized profusely, made sure nothing was hurting or broken, and recommenced the drying. He decided it wasn’t worth going on that floor again. (I was lucky because the door was standing open to the rest of the house, I’d never have caught him!)

All in all, I can’t believe nothing worse happened. And you could see he was so happy to be really clean. However, his left rear heel is broken open on the callous, looks very sore and needs closer attention. I slathered both heels with HealRx, then by that time my daughter was up (she’d heard me yelp when Fiver fell) and got me the nail clippers, so he got stuck having his trim anyway.

Oh, and his anals were TERRIBLE. Man he hides those well, he can actually suck them in so I can’t see them at first. I just used my fingers as opposed to a q-tip. It’s faster and more efficient. But N-A-S-T-Y!

I kept a hawkeye on him the rest of the day, waiting for any signs of shock. He displayed none. So I must’ve gotten him dry enough, although I was certain he could’ve used more blow drying. Considering that he almost always has some cecal dysbiosis, I am glad to know that he doesn’t seem to mind a submersion. But I’d rather not do it every day.

Any bummy bath horror stories you’d like to share?

 

[RabbitPam]

Just seeing this today, MM.
That all sounds good to me, except for the slight slippery escape, but obviously he’s fine now and happy to be clean.

I don’t have bath horror stories, but one of my last baths with Spockie is burned in my memory. He couldn’t clean himself when his back legs lost mobility, so we had a sink bath and warm rinse almost daily toward the end. I supported him under his chest/belly and he clearly felt good getting washed with a soft washcloth and my hands. Never his head, of course. Anyway, I set him on my lap in a towel, and he actually fell asleep one night. I knew I was losing him, but he was so clearly happy to be clean and warm in my lap. Our last months together were very, very close.

[Michelle&Lolli]

No horror stories really, but when I would give Lolli her baths, she always felt better afterwards. Absolutely hated the bath though. lol

I’m glad Fiver didn’t get hurt and feels better!

[MimzMum]

Geez, Pam…you’ve started me crying…that’s so sweet and touching! *sniffle*
I can just see you and Spockie snuggling. What a dear he was!

Yeah, he just wiggled right and I lost my hold. But he just slid to the floor. I was more worried about how he struggled to make it out that door and I’d only had hold of his leg. I was so afraid I would snap it if I grabbed too hard, but was desperate to keep him in the bathroom.

Next time I will ask for daughter to be nearby. He is going to need another one soon, his heels look really raw and that scab on the left is nasty.
He is now eating the Valley Organic Timothy and alternates with the Bunny Blend from BB.com that has more stalks and seedheads in it. It’s doing a number on my sinuses, but his cecal dysbiosis is improving somewhat. But he still gets poopy butt, even though I’ve taken down his canned pumpkin/Benebac offerings which seemed to be doing more harm than good.

That’s what was so weird, bunbuns1…he should’ve been frantic at that sink, but he was cool as a cucumber. Of course, I don’t think he’s forgiven me yet, he continues to box the heck out of me when I go into his cage now.

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