We spent $45 at the vet but we learned a lot and got some reassurance.
Peter is not socialized and tends to be pretty territorial in his ways. He tolerates me and our daughter, and he responds very well to spouse, but any affront to his dignity is quickly greeted with "Fangs of Fury". (We got him from the Humane Society, who picked him up on the streets, but we think he was raised alone in an outdoor hutch by a woman.) At his semiannual vet visits it's always a challenge to dig him out of his cardboard-box burrow behind the couch and get him into the pet carrier. He cuts the vet a bit more slack but she does not put up with bunny misbehavior, so perhaps he can sense that.
When he was on the exam table and she tried to listen to his heart, he was in his usual terrified "OMG it's the VET! FLEE!!!" mode with his pulse racing at 200 bpm and his respiration almost as fast. She cuddled an arm around him and moved her stethoscope all over but couldn't detect any problems out of the background noise. She said "Well, we could do more work with ultrasound and X-rays, but I don't think it's worth the money." (Refreshing diagnosis from a vet!) She offered us a couple weeks' worth of diuretics and said that if it's a heart murmur or early cardiac disease then the coughing would go away within 72 hours.
We're giving him evening doses of 3 mg of Lasix (furosemide) in plain 12mg pills. Each pill is nearly $2, or 50 cents/dose. They're not flavored so they're not yummy. That means I split tiny little pills into quarters that are about 2mm in diameter, stuff one inside a raisin incision, and bribe the bunny. He gobbles it right down, and I think raisins have their own special diuretic effect. He is definitely peeing, but measuring output or checking for dehydration is problematic so we're just keeping an eye on his behavior. This morning he didn't offer to play, which has occasionally happened before, so we'll have to see what tomorrow brings.
The vet immediately observed that he's been licking his hindquarters where his rear hip bones join his pelvis. We missed the significance of this. Bunnies groom themselves with their tongues all day like cats, but in the last year we've noticed that he's been devoting an exceptionally generous ration of saliva to those two areas. His coat gets spiky & matted and needs extra petting from us to smooth it out. She calls it "bilateral licking" and she says that it's a classic sign of trying to stop an irritation by grooming the area. Licking on one side would be an injury or infection or a tumor, but bilateral is a clear sign of pain on both sides. She verified that he has no mites (he's an indoor bunny!) and concluded that he has hip pain caused by arthritis. He lets us pet him there without flinching so it's not too bad, but the pain is enough for him to take notice.
When he gets up from his crouch for a snack or a drink, he stretches & yawns like a cat. He does a downward-dog pose with his front legs that's the envy of any yoga instructor, but when he moves forward and stretches back his rear legs there's a little hitch & tremble to them. His hopping is fine, he can accelerate with any young bunny, and his midair maneuvers are a pleasure to watch. But in the next 6-12 months it's going to get worse. I don't know if glucosamine/chondroiton works as well in bunnies as it does in dogs & horses, and there are painkillers, but doses and side effects are the complications.
Another issue is that they lose the mobility to hike up their little bunny butts off the litterbox before they pee, and the "backsplash" leads to irritation & even infections. The vet was petting Peter as she said this, and she offered to show us what she meant. Before we could react she'd flipped Peter over on his back and was cuddling him in her arms like a baby.
Peter is not affectionate, let alone a lap bunny, and we've never been brave (or foolish) enough to try that maneuver. My daughter and I instinctively threw up our hands, certain that he'd go for the vet's jugular, but he was too surprised to react and didn't exactly have a lot of leverage at that moment. However when she tried to touch his little belly around his urethra, he vigorously expressed a strong opinion about that intimacy. She immediately concluded there was no irritation or infection to the area. She quickly put him back on the table, he declared a diplomatic armistice instead of counter-attacking, and he promptly ignored her by grooming the areas she'd molested. A little later on he "let" her clip his [-]claws[/-] toenails.
So not much has changed (aside from the exam trauma), he can take the diuretics indefinitely (especially the fruit-flavored variety), and we think he's worth spending an extra couple hundred bucks a year. When arthritis gets to the point of causing pain/mobility symptoms then we could step up to the joint meds and painkillers, but at that point it might be time to consider his quality of life. This could go downhill in a few months, or he could cope with advancing age for as long as 4-5 more years.
I think we're being treated great by the vet, but has anyone else had any problems or surprises in this area?