Cheap Cologne Saves Bunny

Under the bathroom sink, an old bottle of men's cologne lurked for more than ten years. I meant to throw it out but never did. It finally got some use Thursday morning.

One of the does delivered a litter of 6, but they were dead when I found them except for one little runty bunny. Scaredy Kat had chewed on one (yes, gross, but sometimes happens). I didn't want to leave the live one, considering the mood Scaredy was in,but I didn't want to bottle feed a newborn bunny. Or collect rabbit night dung, dilute and feed with milk, to ensure the baby got the correct enzymes. GACK! Don't forget stimulating elimination, too!



Specs and her combined litter

  I remembered something about fostering babies with another doe. Specs had delivered the day before, and had room for another. I needed some Mentholatum, Vicks, or something smelly to block her sense of smell until the fosterling picked up the smells of her nest and kits. Couldn't find anything smelly until I thought of that awful cologne. I snatched it up and went back out.

Usually Specs is glad to see me. After the first short burst of spray on her back she flinched, and her nose twitched. Thinking she  might need more smell, I gave her another three bursts: between her ears, on her forehead, and on the area just above the nose. Whew! She began wildly scrubbing her face with her paws. I added another spritz or the top of her nest box. If she smelled the other doe on the foster baby it was a goner.

It's possible I might have used a bit too much cologne. I was feeling a little queasy from the smell, and I wasn't even wearing it. Poor Specs! She scrubbed her face  intermittently for hours.

White fosterling with new litter-3days old

It worked, though. She's been nursing the foster kit, who is fat and squirmy along with the rest of Spec's litter. Going to get some Mentholatum for the vet box next time we go to town. I'll put the cologne back under the sink. You never know ....

                     
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Sorry for the lapse in posts. Stayed with Maggie during the first round of the TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) so I could administer small group testing at the school without driving back and forth most of the week. Thanks for the hospitality, Maggie! The truck engine is being rebuilt. Why do we need to have the engine boiled? It's always something, isn't it?