Dijon has been to the vet. Twice in as many days.

Silly boy began to tug at his stitches yesterday... All credit to him, though, he did manage to last a week without being bothered by them. The problem was that one of the knots must have come loose and this began to bother him. But instead of gnawing it off, he began to tug at it.

Kate, the vet who operated on him, had done a wonderful job of tying the sutures which meant, alas, that they loose one wouldn't come out no matter how hard Dijon tugged. We could see the flesh on his abdomen stretching in a most alarming way. We didn't really have much choice other than to turn him upside down (not a recommended move unless absolutely necessary), and cut off the knot.

Unfortunately, Dijon had managed to cause a little damage to himself, and the end of the incision had begun to bleed. Not knowing how he would react to this, we called the vet and it was recommended that we take Dijon in for a quick examination.

The good news is that there is no real harm done, but the vet suggested we give Dijon a course of antibiotics, just in case of an infection. And to come back after 24 hours for another quick once-over. £7.90 the poorer,  we returned home. Dijon showed no sign of being interested in his wound. So we decided we wouldn't give any antibiotics, yet. (Some of you may tut at us, but we reasoned that the antibiotics would probably cause more problems than they would be worth - all those good bacteria in Dijon's gut could be killed off, causing digestive problems.)

Well, all was fine today, but Dijon and I nevertheless returned the vet. Thankfully, the wound is healing nicely, and so there is no need to return for another few days.

We're really very impressed with Anderson Vets.

Happy news... for our family, the carpets, the walls, but especially for Mabel...

Today the bunnies have spent the day at the vets... 'exploratory surgery', and the vet found Dijon's missing testicle! Now, you may recall that when the bunnies went to the vet for neutering last year, Dijon was found to have one generously proportioned conker, and one minuscule, fat-covered, one. Well, that turned out not to be the case, and we've had a few issues with Dijon's adolescent hormones.

He has been so intense in his 'romancing' Mabel, for the past fortnight the cage has been shaking like a heart-stopping fun-fair ride as he mounts her everytime he is excited about anything. Poor Mabel has taken to cowering in her litter tray and squealing as he approaches... also the spraying has continued, so we (us and the vet) decided last week it was time to have a look, just in case.

Apparently she snipped open where she thought she'd taken it out before - last time his big one turned out to be all fat with a teeny weeny one inside. She had pulled it as far as possible, had a good look around, but no more to be seen. Again this time, nothing there. So she opened up his abdomen and there it was, a long, thin, 'abnormal' one, hiding in the inguinal canal!

Snip-snip, out with it!

We're so, so pleased - for a start we would have felt awful putting him through that only to find nothing. But now we hope that he calms down, even a bit would be a relief. And poor Mabel will be able to relax.

The vet had mixed feelings - she was also very happy to have found it, glad she had done it, relieved that it was abnormal and therefore not really her fault missing it, but her biggest regret was forgetting to take a photo!!

Now we have to hope he doesn't have any problems with the wound - he's been cleaning it a lot, but just hope he doesn't cause problems. He was bit dozy at first but has eaten well, drunk loads, and is now busy destroying his cardboard tube. 

I was with the vet for nearly 40mins discussing Dijon's mounting and spraying. She had a good feel around and could find no lumps (sadly no "oops I must have missed a testicle", thus putting and end to this spraying nightmare.)

She clipped his claws, then started to doubt herself and had another feel, this time with him 'dangling' so that anything there would drop down. On one side she could feel slightly more fat, and started to wonder if she should just do a small operation, a little incision on that side, under anaesthetic, just to check for any testicular tissue hidden in the fat. Poor woman said that, if she did find anything, it would be the first time, and she began to doubt her whole career, but said she takes pride in her work and wants to make all her animals happy... 

She recalled that when she did the castration back in September, she found that one testicle was actually much smaller than it had appeared, being inside a lot of fat, and she had a big dig around to make sure it was all out. The fact that she double-checked at the time makes me (and her) think that it's unlikely anything's been left, and more likely just his nature... And so we've left it that we'll see how he goes, if he calms down, and re-evaluate in a few months if he hasn't - or if he's really bothering Mabel.

Well, all has gone well for Mabel - I collected them at 4.30pm. Thankfully the operation confirmed there were no babies - I can't imagine how awful it could have been to have been told she had been pregnant.

The nurse asked where I'd put my other pet carrier - I explained that they'd shared one for comfort/company and she was surprised... apparently, despite being in such a scary environment, as I'd handed over the carrier this morning, Dijon had instantly resumed his attempts at mounting Mabel, so they couldn't even be put in the same cage at the surgery - so a pointless trip for Dijon! I couldn't believe he would try again in the waiting room, in the presence of so many scary dogs, but sure enough he did. Mabel was too drowsy to even notice, but fortunately he stopped once in the car.

Needless to say, they were put straight into separate cages. He is very cross - when we let him out this evening, he ran around with his tail up very high, pooing everywhere and thumping! Mabel sat in her cage (door shut of course) and just made her strange whimpering/chattering noise every time he came close to the cage.

She hadn't eaten anything I'd offered, so I've just given her some pellets mixed with water, which she licked from a teaspoon, so I'm happier now. Unlike Dijon, who is still sitting bolt upright just watching her. Well, things could have been very different if he'd had some consideration!!