Taking care of a sick rabbit

Question
Bonnie, a 5 year old unspayed rabbit, had a visit with a vet yesterday to look at a lump I'd discovered somewhere on her tummy. I'd also been worried because she wasn't drinking her water or cleaning herself properly, just kind of kind of sitting there miserably. The vet said she was dehydrated and had a very high fever, which probably had to do with an infection, hence what might be an abcess. The lump also seems to have a type of "stalk" that is leading to the abdominal cavity and the vet was worried that the infection might spread to the organs there. We would find out more if we had some blood work and and x-ray done but my dad isn't willing to dip into my college fund to pay for it, and he won't let me pay for the testing myself either, because I wouldn't be able to pay for the surgery if Bonnie needed it. The vet understood our situation, injected Bonnie with a bag of fluid (I can't recall what she called it) to help rehydrate her and gave us two oral medications to administer to Bonnie daily for ten days. She said that Bonnie may be able to take care of this by herself, but to call the vet if she gets worse. I left the office with tears and a very empty pocket.

Now, Bonnie is at home, but all she does is sit in her litter box. Her back legs tend to splay out in her cage otherwise. I've been tending to her meds (which weirdly, she loves) and providing lots of timothy hay for her, as well as a few pellets. I don't know whether I should try giving her greens. I took her outside so she could sit in the shade and maybe walk around a little bit, and she seemed to like that. She normally doesn't have full range of the house, because she prefers to stay in her cage; the same is the case now. I've been cuddling her with towels and frozen items (right now a jar of frozen instant coffee) but I don't know how to soothe her fever. I just want to make her as comfortable as possible so that she can rest and heal, or at least just feel better. What can I do to make her more comfy?

Answer
The fluids are called Lactated Ringer's Solution.  Since you can't really let the vet get in there to see if there is an abscess or tumor, or even if it is operable, all you can really do is make her comfortable.

Did the vet give you any kind of pain medication, such as Banamine, Torbugesic or Metacam?  She may be in pain.  If you don't, see if you can at least get some for the weekend.  Cooling her off is a good idea.  Giving her things she likes, including greens, is a good idea.

The problem with the back legs could be from a number of different issues, so I am not sure what to tell you, ecept to keep her on a towel or something she can't slide so much on.

Let the medications do their job, and hopefully that will help to kill the infection and thus bring the fever down.

You may also find some information here at http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html#electrolyte that could help you.

It's hard to have a sick bunny, and I hope that everything turns out ok.

Kim