He's only weeks old. He needs more surgery and treatment. Can you help secure Dr Pepper's long-term future.

Born in June, Dr. Pepper is only around 21 weeks old, and already he hasn't had the best start to his life.

Dr. P was originally a Pets At Home rabbit.  His first owner had bought him with another male rabbit from the store, and unfortunately didn't receive any advice about what was likely to happen as the boys got older.  When the boys started fighting after a very short time in their new home, the owner returned Dr. P's buddy to the store, but at that time decided to keep Dr. P on his own. (Rabbits should always be in pairs by the way, so its unfortunate that the store did not offer advice as to how she could keep them together).

3 weeks after his buddy had returned to store his owner discovered he had a significant abscess in his back leg and sought vet advice.  On receiving an estimate of what it would cost she decided that rabbit ownership was no longer for her and turned to FBRC for help rehoming him.

On hearing the story, and recognising the seriousness of the abscess, we prioritised the case and found him a space in our network immediately and sought veterinary treatment right away.

It wasn't long before we also received an enquiry for his adoption and a reservation was made for his new home, once he had recovered from his ordeal.

Dr. Pepper has now been with us for 10 weeks and during this time has had the abscess surgically removed and has been on a number of courses of antibiotics in order to battle the infection.  We thought we had won as the abscess reduced and we started making preparations for his adoption.

On a routine visit to the vet last night (Tuesday 13 November 2013) we had expected he would get the all clear.  However, the vet's thorough examination found that things weren't as good as the appeared on the surface.  Infection had started again to build up deep inside the original wound area, and it is progressing again rapidly.

We are now essentially back to square one with his treatment.  The vet has recommended further surgical treatment followed by further antibiotics, and at this stage we have no indication as to when he may be considered to have fully recovered.

As a result of his condition, we have now also had to cancel his adoption as his new home as they currently have a lonely bunny that needs a husbun urgently.

The winter period is always very difficult for FBRC financially as the pressure on the service increases whilst donations dive.  We NEED to help Dr. P, but we are seriously low on available funds to do it.  So far his treatments have cost in excess of £130 and we expect that this could more than double before he is considered to have recovered.  That's before considering the vaccination and neutering that every rabbit gets, estimating a further cost of £100.

CAN YOU HELP? PLEASE?

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