grief is a sword, or it is nothing.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer | 3.02 Dead Man's Party

While we were visiting family in Ohio and dealing with my parents' estate stuff, Amos started to show signs of having GI stasis and I treated him with the usual critical care force-feedings, keeping him warm with a hot water bottle, and baby gas drops (simethicone) all of Thursday.

By early Friday morning he was just nibbling at random hay and pellets, was lethargic, felt cool to the touch, and acting confused (signs of dehydration) but was able to poop and pee a little bit from all of the feedings.  We called around to multiple exotics vets in the area and were turned away due to schedules being fully booked, no exotic vet on staff that day, and refusal to see a rabbit as an emergency case that hadn't been treated at that facility before until we finally spoke with Barberton Veterinary Clinic, who took care of him as soon as we could drive there (about 35 minutes away).

After giving him pain meds, fluids, blood tests and x-rays they discovered that Amos had a liver lobe torsion (one of the five lobes of his liver had twisted on itself and cut off the blood supply to the twisted lobe) which had caused internal bleeding into his abdomen, kidney damage, and changes to his GI tract that required emergency surgery.  We got to see him and tell him how brave he was, how he was being such a good boy, and that we loved him before they whisked him away (along with Mr. Giraffe) to give him the best care they could.

Amos made it through the surgery where they removed the right medial lobe of his liver.  As he was recovering from anesthesia while still intubated, he threw a blood clot that caused him to lose his basic reflexes.  Our sweet boy never regained consciousness.

We were told that the reason for otherwise healthy rabbits suddenly developing a liver lobe torsion is still unclear, but that Holland lops are one of the more common rabbit breeds seen to have it as well as male rabbits in general.

I just wanted to share Amos' story to help others recognize the symptoms to look out for so that they might have a better outcome for catching it early.  I don't think we could have done anything differently as it was the clot that ultimately took him from us and that's a risk with any surgery.

We brought Amos home so Naomi could understand that he was gone and say her own goodbyes.  She's hanging in there and has been using Mr. Giraffe as a security blanket and will sleep with her ear draped over him in a hug.  We're giving her all of the love, noogies, treats and attention she can stand.

Two years was not enough.