New News

The past week has certainly been a rollercoaster of emotions. I FINALLY found out that I am officially doing my student teaching at my school of choice in January. And it only took six months to organize!!! Sooo frustrating....but at least that HUGE worry is off my chest. For awhile, I thought that I was going to be without a job and without a student teaching placement. I always tend to assume the worst, no matter how many times things turn out of the best. That is something I am definitely working on. I don't want to spend the rest of my life freaking out over every uncertainty that pops up--because of course, there will be many of them. So needless to say, I am quite proud of myself. I feel like I'm taking a giant step to where I want to be, and the thought of beginning my teaching career fills me with nothing but happiness and excitement-I am completely certain I am on the right path for me. It is such a great feeling to know that things are finally falling into place.

A few days after hearing this news, I went into panic mode for another reason. Friday night, I was playing with Armani when I decided to do my weekly health inspection. Every week, I check him all over to make sure he looks healthy and everything seems normal. I don't think most people do this with their pets, but it is something I think everyone should do. A lot of times you hear stories about sicknesses that were caught too late in animals. Because they obviously can't tell us what is wrong in words, we have to be on the lookout for tell tale signs of illness. This is especially true in rabbits; because they are prey animals by nature, bunnies will instinctively hide their illnesses and not act sick. If they did act sick in the wild, this would make them more susceptible to predators. But for owners this is bad news!!! I've become extremely vigilent in checking for problems with my little bun. Even though he is an indoor bun and not as prone to illness as outdoor rabbits or a house of multiple rabbits would be, he's still able to get sick--as you'll learn from the following story. So...as I was saying, Friday night, I was giving Armani a little checkup and noticed, to my SHOCK...what I could have sworn were a few tiny worm-like things moving on his bottom. Gross, I know. Well I also saw some of these tiny white things in his litter box. Ryan didn't notice anything. He thought it was just the paper based litter we use in his potty...but it wasn't. I was supposed to hang out with a friend later on that night after Ryan went to work...but when I was literally about to walk out the door, I checked his litter box again and there was no doubt in my mind that what I saw was pinworms. Disgusting. I immediately called the emergency vet in my area after calling my regular vet and finding out they were closed. They told me to bring him down so they could check it out, so I ended up having to cancel on my friend. Sooo...a little while later, after meeting (and frightening!) several LARGE dogs (what is there to be afraid of? he's a five pound pile of fluff), the doctor was finally ready. Of course, I wasn't smart enough to bring a poop sample with me, so I ended up going back home to get some. I know this sounds gross, but it's been the major event in my life the past few days, so bear with me. So, coming back with the sample, they ran some tests and found out he tested negative for worms, but they did see the ones I was talking about. So, they gave me two doses of panacur (a parasite medicine for animals) and told me to inject it into his mouth!!! They obviously don't know how difficult that is to do with a rabbit. Well, they sent us on our merry way, and I was left to my own devices. I tried several methods to get him to take the medicine, and finally, after much head shaking, fussing, and general panicking (maybe that's why the medicine is called panacur?), I got most of it in his little bunny mouth. And voila! Four days later, no wormies. I haven't seen anything since Saturday morning. We even brought him back to our usual vet (who called me a "worrier"...like I need to be told that), and said that he his most likely A-OK. They said the medicine will clear it all up. And I really think he's ok...because I've checked him out about twenty times since then...lol. Plus cleaned the house from top to bottom. I just feel so guilty thinking that I might have somehow given him something to eat that was contaminated, or when I let him play outside at my grandparents, if he picked something up that way...I just feel so bad. The vet said he could have gotten it from anywhere...even could have had it since he was a baby! :-( To some, a rabbit isn't a pet, but Armani is definitely a part of our family and we care about him sooo much. I don't care if I am a worrier...he's my baby and he's my responsibility. I'm just glad everything is turning out well in the situation.

Well I'm getting pretty tired so I'm going to go relax after a lonnng day at work. Until next time!