I value everyone's support and advice SO much! I was all set to return the baby to her breeder tonight and had canceled her vet appointment, but something made me take the baby out of the small travel cage to see what she'd do. When I put her on the floor, she immediately started running around and the living room and exploring! Within a minute or so she was even doing binkies. So, I watched her running around the room, getting into everything and binkying, and couldn't help but think this wasn't the behavior of a stressed out bunny. I e-mailed her breeder back and asked her if it would be okay if I took her to the vet after all, and she said it was fine with her. So, I rescheduled the appointment (after explaining to the vet what was going on, and she thought it was worth bringing the baby in) and off we went at 4 pm.
Well, guess what happened at the vet's office! This vet, by the way, is a very good one and has been caring for bunnies for 20 or 30 years. She's the vet I've been taking my pets to for the past 6 years and is a cautious, well informed woman who loves animals. Okay, on to the point: She weighed the baby, listened to her intestines, heart and lungs, examined her ears and teeth, palpated her stomach, took her temperature, examined her poop, examined her eyes and nose and did a couple more things. She said the bunny is absolutely perfect! She believes the runny nose and eyes were not caused from stress, but because of the dryness of being indoors. The baby had lived outside her entire life where there's much more moisture, and wasn't brought into the house until an hour or so before we went to pick her up... Which is also when the runny nose and eyes started. Today, her eyes have not run at all (and the eyelids are normal colored) and her nose is just a tiny bit. The vet believes the nose thing is still because of the dryness and the bunny appears to be completely healthy. She's been acting great too and even in the car was nibbling hay and flopping. The vet said she had no reason to think the baby won't do well on the flight and filled out a health certificate for her. She said that if she'd had any doubts, she wouldn't have done it, but she's confident the baby is fine!
I am so glad I trusted my instincts and took her to the vet anyway. Apparently I was just overreacting before. Two years ago right around this time, my bird didn't seem quite right to me but everyone else thought he was fine... he died when I was out of town a few days later. Because of that, I am hyper aware of anything that happens to my pets and I guess am prone to overreacting!
I hope everyone doesn't think I'm a horrible bunny mom for doing this anyway. I was completely prepared to return her to her breeder if she was not 100%, but I wanted the professional opinion of someone who could actually handle her and examine her.
