doodlebugger
Well-Known Member
We have been gone off and on for some of the day. When I last checked on her, about four or five hours ago, she was doing fine. She is indoors, in a very large cage (and she does get out almost every other day to get exercise), and our house is air conditioned. But, someone in the house turned the thermostat higher than usual, and when we got home, she wasn't acting right. She won't eat greens, but I did catch her nibbling on some hay. She keeps laying down, and she won't let me hardly touch her. She is my college daughter's rabbit, but my daughter is away for the week for work. I tried to play with her like I sometimes do, because she is a rescue bunny and sometimes I have to sort of break the ice with her, let her know that I'm here to help her and love her, and I always tell her that I'm going to pet her and she will bow to me. But this time, she swatted me and nipped me (didn't draw blood though). Our thermostat says it's 72, but we were pretty hot in the house, and she is in our big living room with high ceilings, so I am thinking she might be overheated? How can I know? She is such a tiny thing, and I took a few precautions. I dampened her ears with cool (not cold) water. I turned on a small fan. Then she proceeded to go to where the fan is blowing, and lay under it. She is slowly perking up, but still not eating her nightly greens or drinking water. She still wants nothing to do with me. I can't tell if she is stress breathing because she kind of freezes up when I get near her. What I can see from far away, doesn't look like stress breathing. She doesn't look like she is panting or anything like that. She is moving her ears a bit more than she was, and she is looking around a bit more than she was. I cannot give her ice packs or bottles to lay against because she is a chewer (she chewed a ceramic bowl!!!). What can I do for her? I have turned off the lights to give her some privacy, and we have the air conditioner turned up, she has a small fan pointed on one side of her cage (which she is laying under), and she has fresh water, greens, and hay. Should I be worried about anything else that could be going on? If she has poos, and she just got done peeing in her litter box, and she has nibbled some hay....how long should I wait before calling the vet? I'm worried something is wrong and I will have to call our vet tomorrow which is a holiday here in the US.