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“My rabbit keeps biting his toes,” the young teacher cradled her 3-month-old Netherlands dwarf rabbit in the nook of her left hand. “What is the cause?”
“Put the rabbit on the table so I can examine properly." I advised.
The young lady took out 2 bottles of medicine from her plastic bag, “As you were on leave, I consulted a vet when my rabbit leapt and then limped. The vet diagnosed a leg sprain.”
“The rabbit looked thinner since I saw him 6 days ago.” I encircled the rabbit with the fingers of my left hand as he tried to scamper away. The teacher’s pet was fighting to be slimmer than the teacher.
“He’s very picky and eats only the green dry food,” the teacher laughed. “I don’t know what to do to make him eat more.”
The rabbit’s crusty toes caused by the scabies mites, except for two, were now normal skin. That was good news as the scabies mites had stopped multiplying and burrowing under the skin of the toes. The scabies mites caused considerable itchiness in the rabbit, leading to licking and biting to relieve the itch.
“But why was the rabbit still biting his toes?” the teacher asked when I declared that his mite infestation was no more.
I removed a scab on the right fore paw. There was a red 4-mm diameter wound. I pressed the lower part of the skin below the wound. Thick creamy pus oozed out. The rabbit squealed suddenly. The teacher uttered a sharp cry as if she was stabbed. Sometimes it is best not to have owners around but their presence and interaction educate them more on pet care than talking and books.
“It is best to clip off all the hairs of the paws,” I advised. “In this way, we can examine all toes thoroughly. Can you do it?” Most Singaporeans of her generation do not have contact with Nature and animals and she was not able to restrain the rabbit, afraid of hurting the little one. The teacher, in her early thirties cradled the rabbit. She scissored the paws in vain. The rabbit shifted and withdrew his paws.
“Grip the skin with the fingers of your right hand,” I demonstrated. “The fingers curl onto the scruff of the neck. Hold the rabbit upside down, like what his mother would have done to carry him. He would be quiet.” The rabbit appeared ‘hypnotised; as I snipped the hairs off the paws.
“Can you do it?” I asked the teacher. She tried but the rabbit would move. “It is cruel,” she must have thought. Her groomer would take care of the entire nail clipping and grooming.
To save time, I cut off all the hairs. There were 2 more abscesses with pus.
“What do secondary school children read nowadays?” I asked. “Do they read books about animals as I am thinking of writing one for the children and want to know the prospects of sale?”
“I doubt my students read. The English teacher gives them books to bring home to read. They return the books. No questions asked. I teach Mathematics and Chemistry and so do not know about their reading habits. But I know many spend lots of money to buy gaming books.”
Maybe there is no audience for the animal story books for children in Singapore.
“Thank you for your feedback. Fiction like ghost stories seems to be preferred by the Secondary school students.”
I advised observation of the rabbit’s appetite, daily cleaning of the wounds, removal of the chewed-out plastic spoon and stopping the medication meant for another 6 days.
The thin rabbit must eat good food. So should this ultra slim educator but it would be rude of me to say so.
"No plastic spoons as the bits and pieces of gnawed plastic ingested will kill the rabbit," I reiterated. The teacher's pet was not thriving.
In the 1960s, a student who carried books for the teacher to the common room to mark was called “the teacher’s pet.” Was it a privilege? What do you think? I was proud to be a teacher’s pet in primary school.
Do secondary school students carry books for this teacher in 2007? I did not ask her. I hope she learnt something today on rabbit care and that the dwarf rabbit would eat all day to gain weight and thrive.
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