Audible breathing?

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Skip&Piper

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Hi all, starting a couple days ago, Piper’s breaths have become audible. She could be pregnant and due any day now. Could that be the cause? She has also been sneezing but that seems to happen mostly after the digs in the straw in her nest box. This did seem to start around the same time as we put the nest box in.

She is happy and eating like crazy and drinking normally, no watery eyes or nose discharge, ears look great. I will try attach a video of her breathing:
 
When does she breathe like this?
Is it 24/7 or only when she does something specific?
To me that video looks/sounds like shes just inhaling food and forgetting to breathe while she vacuums up her food with her nose smushed into the bowl.
 
It’s pretty much all the time. It’s most noticeable when she’s eating, or when she’s out playing and she periscopes. When she is resting you can’t really hear it. She does these little sniff/sneeze things pretty often too. I’m wondering if maybe she’s just super pregnant and breathing is hard? But I don’t want to wait it out if it could get worse.
 
She definitely has something going on, you can see the moisture around her nose, and the breathing sounds congested. It could be an upper respiratory infection or possibly allergies, but I would lean more towards a respiratory infection. You could try changing out the straw to something else you know she is ok with like her grass hay, and remove anything else that is new that could be the trigger especially if it's dusty, and see if that helps at all. I would suggest booking an appt. with the vet right away. I would try and get her in today if at all possible, but by tomorrow at the latest, (sooner if she shows signs of worsening, you believe it could be lower respiratory, and/or you see mouth breathing). If you don't already have a good rabbit vet picked out you can try this list.
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Respiratory/Bacterial/URI.htm
 
Hmm yes I didn’t really notice the moisture around the nose but now that you mention it I see it, it’s a bit yellowish.

I’m wondering what can be done if she’s pregnant .. does that affect if she can have antibiotics at all?
Would it be ok to use hay in the nest box instead of straw? I would have done that straight away because we have bales of Timothy hay but I figured she would just pee and poop in there then, which I figured was not good for making a nest out of!

I am in Canada so the vet list doesn’t help but I do have a vet who did Skipper’s neuter and he was awesome. I think I’ll just give a call and see what they think. Thank you!
 
Ok I have called the vet and he says to keep a close eye on her and since she’s still got a ton of energy and is eating and drinking like normal we will try wait to see if she has babies this weekend. If she seems uncomfortable I can bring her in at any point during the weekend. I’m worried it might get bad fast but I also agree with not wanting to pump a ton of antibiotics in her if she is indeed pregnant.
 
Yes, timothy hay is fine. It's what I used in mine and I think is actually better as the babies can start eating it more easily when they start ingesting solid food. She may pee in there but she would have likely done the same with straw. And usually once the babies are in there she shouldn't do it anymore. You could always line the bottom with something absorbent like newspaper. Or you could just leave the nestbox empty and continue to provide her with lots of hay to eat in her usual place. When she is ready to have the babies, she will start to gather the hay and take it, hopefully to the nestbox to build her nest.

There are actually vet listings at the end of the list for Canada. But that's good you already have a vet you like. If your bun has gotten this bad in just two days, I'm not sure that I agree with the vets assessment, but I guess just keep a very close eye on her for any changes like reduced appetite/thirst, lethargy, increased respiratory rate, labored breathing, mouth breathing, coughing, increased mucous discharge. If you see signs of respiratory distress, it's an emergency and you need to get your bun to the vet immediately.

See what removing the straw does. I would also thoroughly sanitize the nest box as well to remove any straw residue just in case it was some sort of odd allergy to the straw, and keep her environment as dust free as possible. Maybe it will just end up being an allergy to the straw and it will clear up once you've removed it and cleaned any residue from her environment.
 
I appreciate your thorough responses Jbun, thank you! I guess I didn’t scroll down far enough to see the Canadian vets, I’m going to look again because I should have a back up vet in place - we live in a very small town and our vet is amazing, but he is sometimes out of town at his other clinic.

When I first put the nestbox and straw in, she was super excited and dug around in it a ton, making nests and breaking them down and making more... but she’s pretty much stopped doing anything in there the last couple days. Yesterday I replaced the straw with fresh stuff, to see if she’d be more interested again, but she pretty much ignores it now. She does seem like she sleeps/lays down a fair bit, but I guess that’s not abnormal during the day. She runs around and binkies like crazy when I let her out, and she is eating hay CONSTANTLY, so I think those are good signs.

I had my hubby set up a bunny cam, so I could see her from work in case she had the babies while I was out - feel free to take a look and let me know what you think about her behaviour. There’s no sound but you can see her sneeze from time to time:



I’m going to head down and clean out the nest box right away, I hope that’s all it is!
 
Behavior wise she seems to be acting like a normal bun, so that's always a good sign. I don't see anything that would be an immediate red flag to me.
 
I brought her in today just to be on the safe side. The vet thinks there might be something stuck in her nose or throat? He flushed her nose with saline and when she sneezed there was no discharge at all, so he doesn’t think it’s an infection. He says to wait a couple days and hopefully the flushing of the nose will get this thing to move into the throat and through her system.

Also she weighs less than her brother so I’m thinking she might not be pregnant after all?

I’ll keep you posted! Thanks for the advice yesterday!
 
Did he try looking up her nasal passages with an otoscope to look for a foreign body or for white discharge? With no discharge after flushing, it could be there isn't an infection and maybe the nasal passages are just inflamed. Since the straw has been removed, if you don't see a reduction of symptoms in the next few days, then it might be helpful to ask your vet about trying some meloxicam(anti inflammatory) to see if it helps at all. If there is inflammation like from an allergy or irritation to the nasal passage, it should help at least some. Another thing that could help is an allergy med. Ones used in rabbits that I know of, are chlorphenamine and diphenhydramine(benedryl). So maybe something to ask your vet about if she is still having noisy breathing next week.

So she's what, 33 days from her last contact with your boy bun? It would be unusual for her to have babies after this, but not impossible. I would say another 2-3 days and you can be certain there are no babies coming. You can try gently putting your hand on her belly to see if you feel any movement. I could with my doe, I could also see movement.
 
There were two instances they were together. The very first time would have been 31 days on Feb 13. Then, we separated them, but I mistakenly put a hidey house next to the wall that divided them, and lo and behold, the boy jumped the wall and they were together overnight, then we thought we fixed it, and went off to work, and they were together again all day. This was 4 days after the first encounter, which has today as day 30. So by Wednesday I should know for sure.
I did feel her tummy a few days ago and I swear I felt movement, but I have not been able to feel it again, so I am completely stumped on whether she is or isn’t pregnant.

He didn’t look up her nose at all, just did the flushing. If there’s no improvement in 2 days, I’ll bring her back. If she’s not pregnant then I can get her spayed sooner, which is a bonus, but I don’t think the vet (or I!) would want her under anaesthetic until her breathing is clear.

Since she’s been home, her breathing and sneezing sound different, which I think makes sense,it’s probably super wet in there now. I just hope that whatever is in there is moving down and out!
 
Great news today! Piper is no longer wheezing! She had a huge sneezing fit this morning and then she was chewing on something which is maybe gross, but I think whatever was stuck has moved on! She still has little sneezes but they are not as often. I’m super happy about this progress! She seems to be more active today as well. Not sure if activity level has anything to do with whether or not babies are coming, but I’m just glad she’s feeling better.
 

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