Mr Bigglesworth — the famous hairless rabbit — has sadly passed away on Saturday afternoon, after fighting for his life at a local animal hospital.
Mr Bigglesworth won the hearts of people around the world, with over 140k followers on Instagram due to his heart-warming story. The hairless rabbit was born in 2017 with a very rare gene disorder that caused him to lose all his hair. It’s a disorder that sees most rabbits not live to more than a year.
However, thanks to the loving support and care from his owner Cassandra Hall in Melbourne — he surprisingly lived to the normal age for a rabbit.
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Hall first came across Mr Bigglesworth (who Hall named after Dr Evil’s cat in Austen Powers) and his siblings on Facebook, with a note that read “hairless not for sale”. She asked the breeder to send more photos as she hadn’t seen a rabbit like this before. He then said she could have Mr Bigglesworth for free, as he put down the last one.
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At the time, Hall didn’t know much about Mr Bigglesworth’s condition and that’s when she decided to start posting about him online, to see if she could find anyone who did.
Six year’s later and Mr Bigglesworth has become a beacon of hope for many, showing that despite our differences we are all worthy love.
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A lot of people online have connected to his “underdog” story and love him for his cheeky demeanour. Hall has also brought Mr Bigglesworth to schools, to teach a story of acceptance.
Sadly, five days ago our fighting rabbit was taken into The Rabbit Doctors Melbourne as he “wasn’t eating or drinking… was panting, lethargic and pale.”
Vet doctors immediately began running tests and found that Mr Bigglesworth had a condition known as cardiomyopathy — which means that his heart muscles had grown too big and couldn’t contract properly.
“This means that it’s very hard for his heart to efficiently pump the right amount of blood around his body for all his needs,” Cassandra Hall wrote in an Instagram post.
“This makes it hard for him to breathe properly, and he will get tired very easily. Sadly this medical condition cannot be cured. We are managing it with medication to make his heart beat more effectively, and to reduce the amount of fluid building up in his lungs.
“He has responded well to treatment so far, but we do not know how long he will have until his heart fails completely. Until then his vets and family will do everything they can to keep him happy and comfortable and pain free.”
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Rest in peace beautiful Mr Bigglesworth, you will be dearly missed.
