 Hey guys, so I just got home from work. It is Saturday and we are going to do some chores with the pets today Like you guys are crooked Is that better? I Feel like that's better So I wanted to talk to you guys and give you an update about Mikey and his ear issues and kind of just the bunnies Ear issues in general I get a lot of questions on some of my older videos about Mikey and why he has a head tilt And if he's okay and everything like that So I did want to talk about it and just do like a current update on all that stuff So first off just really quick background. It's been a long journey with his ear issues But basically when I adopted them from the Humane Society They told me that when Andy and Mike were rescued because they were like found abandoned and rescued They had ear mites so bad to the point where their foster mom actually didn't think they were going to Make it she thought that they were gonna have to put them down because their ear mites were just so bad Which obviously they didn't happen and they pulled through since I have them But it has left them with some lasting damage and issues with their ears So Andy's isn't really that bad He has one ear that is like kind of deformed if you look at it And the vet thinks that he can't hear out of one ear probably because it's just has a lot of scar tissue And that sort of thing But with Mikey it didn't seem like Mikey had any Visible lasting damage if that makes sense like maybe there's some stuff going on inside his ear But when we adopted him he didn't really have any issues at that point. So I adopted them in August of 2018 I think I think August of 2018 and Yes, and in October of 2018 I was actually traveling for work and Pig dad told me that Mikey seemed like he wasn't Feeling very well. He was being like Really tired. He didn't want to eat that much. He was a little like off balance and just didn't really seem himself And he's definitely like a mama's bun is what we call him because he's like very attached to me And whenever I am traveling he does pout He's too smart for his own good. Sometimes he's sitting right over here. That's what I keep looking at. So I think he just like Got upset and was pouting that I was out of town and because of that it Kind of enabled an ear infection to take hold. So he did have an ear infection at that point He had we took him to the vet. He had a yeast infection. We treated it We gave him ear drops and antibiotics and all the things that you do for an ear infection to try to get rid of it And it worked He he did have a head till I forgot to mention that he had a head till at this point because that is a symptom of an ear Infection it throws their balance off. It can give them a head tilt. So he was like off balance He was tilting we did all the treatment and he was back to normal for about a week at that point And then he tilted the other way So we were like, okay, it just moved from ear to ear. We'll treat it the same way. Whatever Nothing worked. Nothing that we had tried before worked. We treated him for e-cuniculi just in case which is like a parasite We treated him for mites. We gave him antibiotics. We tried all these different things My vet at the time was like, I don't have anything else to try She had done all this research and stuff and she didn't really have anything else that she knew to try So she referred us to a specialist We actually went to a more specialized vet, but it wasn't actually like a rabbit specialist We have another vet that's about two hours from us that does all of our like surgeries She's very like certified in small companion mammals. So she does all our guinea pig surgeries She does all of our like more Extreme things. So I took him up to her He did Medication again, he did mechanical massage therapy. He did cold laser therapy. He did acupuncture Like they tried all these different things and it just really became Too much for us to drive up there because it was two hours away It became too much for us to drive up there every two weeks for this stuff And it really wasn't having any effect like nothing was changing. He wasn't acting any different like he sold his head tilt so All of that happened and in between these we were giving him breaks from being on the medication Because it just is hard on him to just constantly be on medication It's hard on his stomach to constantly be on antibiotics that sort of thing So in between these we were giving him like two to three months of a break before we would take him to the vet again So took him to the first vet Gave him a little bit of a break took him to the second vet Well, then we gave him a little bit of a break and we were planning on taking him to a third vet and then the pandemic hit So you guys can tell this has been an ongoing thing since the end of 2018 So me just being you know a pet owner I just felt terrible the whole time because I'm like I don't know if like This is an active ear infection that won't go away Like I felt terrible that if he was in pain we couldn't figure out what it was He was on pain medication for quite a while, but they can't just be on pain meds, you know Indefinitely, so we were doing I mean we're doing everything that we could everything that was reasonable and made sense to try for him and Then the pandemic hit nothing really like vets offices were open, but For a while it was mostly for emergencies and I will say through this entire thing He's never acted different like after the initial dizziness and in the not eating and everything in October of 2018 Once we cleared that up all that he's had is a head tilt. He doesn't have any other symptoms. He eats fine He runs around he jumps he binkies he Everything is fine like his poops are normal everything about him as normal except he has a head tilt So we took him This past month Everything is more open. We we still can't go in a vets office, but we've taken him to a new vet I got all his old vet records I wrote out step-by-step exactly how I take care of them what they eat all of that stuff I wrote that out and I sent it to her ahead of time She had all the old x-rays all the old test results the list of all the medication we'd been on and She looked at them Thought they had a yeast infection in their ears both of them actually So we put them on Fin Bendazole, which is a like anti parasite antifungal Which Mikey actually had been on before because that's what we used to treat for e-cuniculi so we put him on that for 30 days and they also both got Solomectin, I believe it's called But it's basically like The stuff that you put on it's basically like revolution or Ivermectin I don't know what the active ingredient is of Solomectin But it's that it's for like fleas tics mites all that stuff in dogs and cats So the vet gave us the correct dose for them as them their bunnies So we got the correct dose they are getting the second dose of that actually today this weekend So that was really to make sure they didn't have any mites or parasites or anything like that And the Fin Bendazole was like more of an internal treatment, you know, so we've done that They went back to the vet last weekend actually for their follow-up appointment and she said their ears looked clear They didn't have any signs of ear infections in their ears anymore We finished out the medication just to be sure that anything that was left would get cleared up Like I said, we're doing the second dose of the topical medication today because it was The first dose and then you gave the second dose after 28 days, so we're doing that But other than that from everything that she can see on them They don't he doesn't have an ear infection Mikey doesn't have an ear infection Andy doesn't have an ear infection So as far as she can tell as far as things are showing to her He doesn't have an active ear infection anymore. He's fine He still has a head tilt which at this point we expected I'm not so much worried about getting rid of his head till I just wanted to make sure that he wasn't in pain and had an active infection So at this point, we're done with this problem Which is crazy to me because I've just been dealing with this for like three years that I just Didn't know if there was going to be an end to it But as far as she can tell she's confident that everything's been cleared up or will be cleared up when we finish the medication and That he doesn't have an active ear infection He's not in any pain and that his head tilt at this point is just permanent because there's just been damage to the inside of his ears and Like I said, they did have those ear mites that caused lasting damage. So it could have been Just the ear infection caused more scar tissue or inflammation to the point where it just Put it right over that edge to give him a permanent head tilt. But like I said, he acts perfectly normal He's a happy bun. He has a great quality of life. The head tilt really doesn't affect him anymore I'm just excited to have this no longer be an issue not have to worry about him having an Infection or being in pain. So that is an update on Mikey I really just wanted to share that with you guys since a lot of people that are new to my channel Wanted to know why he had a head tilt and what was going on with that So there's just a there was probably a little bit long but that could have been way more in-depth and there was kind of the quick summary overview of Mikey's ear issues for the past three years. So I just wanted to give you guys a quick update on that today I did want to talk a little bit in this video about My animal rescue plans status update, I guess I did mention in my last kind of like chatty update video that my life goal is to run an animal rescue and I've kind of come to the point in my life where I want to start taking steps to make that a reality Obviously that is a huge undertaking. So that's gonna be something that takes Years and probably like probably years and years to get started because it takes a ton of money and resources and time and all of that But I figured if I don't start now that I don't know when I'm really going to start So the first thing that I've done at this point is start this YouTube channel I want to do some more vlogs and that sort of thing to kind of keep you guys in the loop and updated on What I'm actually doing to get the rescue started Again, it's gonna be a years and years journey, but I figured starting now I can chronicle the very base steps that I'm taking So what I've done at this point started this YouTube channel. It's almost monetized We're so close you guys last time I checked I needed like 60 more watch hours and like I think I'd 942 subscribers So if you're unfamiliar with how to get monetized on YouTube you need 1,000 hours and no you need 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch time hours within the past year and I am really really close to hitting that once I get this channel monetized The money from that is going to go to taking care of my pets as well as helping me build the foundation and all of that to Start my actual rescue. So this is definitely going to be a big part of making that happen So I really appreciate that you guys watch my videos and comment and all of that The other thing I've done at this point. So I pretty much have only done two very basic foundation things is I actually purchased the website domain that I'm going to be using for my animal rescue website and Obviously, I'm not going to build the website or anything at this point because we don't actually exist as a rescue but I wanted to get the name that I wanted for the website and You have to pay for a domain on a yearly basis So it's kind of one of those things that every year when that amount comes due It's just gonna be that little bit of you know, like not pressure But like that little bit of a reminder of like what progress have I made? Can I be doing more to make this happen? So it's kind of just like a motivational thing for me and it only cost $12 a year so it's not like it was a huge investment, but That's something exciting that I did that I just decided to jump right in So those are just the two exciting things that I've done so far started my YouTube channel and it bought that domain name so Hopefully I can make this happen in the next few years and I'm just gonna chronicle the whole process here on this channel So make sure to subscribe if that sounds interesting and if you haven't already I really appreciate I really really Appreciate that all you guys watch my videos and comment and tell me about your own pets So I have really enjoyed having the channel so far. So please if you do enjoy keep doing that I love talking to you guys something else I did want to talk to you guys about in this video is just my uploading schedule So you guys probably know if you are familiar with my channel that I usually upload new videos every Friday I'm going to continue doing that. Let me know if that works for you guys I thought about moving it to Monday, but I'm not positive yet So as of now it's going to be uploads on Fridays I am for the foreseeable future going to try to upload a second video on Tuesdays and the Tuesday video is going to be like a vlog video like this like a vlog or cleaning cages or Just something a little bit more casual and then Friday is going to be my you know sit down and Do something educational or show you guys something My more like high production videos. So let me know what you guys think about that I'm not gonna promise a second video every single week because I have a really busy job And I'm going into the busiest time of year So I'm gonna do what I can but just wanted to make you guys aware of that That is kind of what my upload schedule is going to be for the rest of this cup But the next couple months at least hopefully the rest of this year