Freya seems off

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Space Monkey

Space Monkey

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She's a bunny that likes to poop absolutely everywhere in her room. She's only 5 months old and we haven't even had her a month yet. Today I changed her litter box that she primarily uses for peeing and cleaned up all the droppings in the room. This was 4 hours ago. There isn't a single dropping on the floor in her room. If she wasn't a rabbit and GI issues weren't a huge concern, I would be extremely proud and not concerned at all. But she is a rabbit. There isn't even a single dropping on her fresh towel in her cage which she has constant access to all day. HOWEVER, there is a pile of poop in her litter box. Fairly substantial for being 4 hours old. This gives me some relief, but I'm still worried and not entirely buying that she's suddenly a good girl with her poops completely out of the blue. She is eating like a little piggie still. But she isn't honking or purring at all since yesterday and she's always honking and purring. I placed my ear on her body and hear gurgles, but I can't hear them unless I do so. I could be overly paranoid, but what do you think?
 
I am no expert but I understand the feeling of paranoia when something seems off about your rabbit. My hunch turned out to be right when our rabbit got GI bloat, and it ended up saving him. So it's understandable to take any changes very seriously.

I cannot give medical advice, but something I've found helpful to ease anxiety is that usually a vet's office will be able to give you advice even if you don't make an appointment.
I am assuming you have an exotic vet that you'll be taking your bunny to. (If not, it would be wise to find one. Preferably one that specializes in rabbits or at least works with rabbits a lot.)

If your vet is still open, try to give them a call and tell them what is going on. They may be able to tell you whether you need to bring your rabbit in so they can evaluate them, or give you advice without having to come in. Or just say "I think your rabbit is fine, that behavior is normal."
Our vet has sometimes even been able to prescribe or suggest medication just over the phone, though this was for a rabbit who had been seen in their office before, and was during the height of the pandemic, so it might depend on the vet and the situation.

I understand that not every vet is going to be like ours. But in the past, the exotic vets that we have worked with have all been very good about this. They did not suggest to bring our rabbits in if they did not think it was needed, and if they were not sure, they would give us options. "You can try this home remedy and see if he feels better, but if not you may want to bring him in. Or you can just make an appointment if you want to be safe." That sort of thing. This really helped when we were having a lot of financial troubles last year.

Unfortunately some vets may just be out for money and may just demand that you bring your rabbit in every time you ask for advice. If you suspect this is the case, it is up to you whether you want to be safe and bring them in anyway, or maybe call a different vet (if possible) to ask for their opinion. I've really never had trouble with this before though, usually they're very good about explaining what might be wrong and being real about what your options are.

In the case that the vet is not open and you really think something is very wrong with your rabbit, call the nearest 24 hour emergency exotic vet. If you can't find one, call the nearest 24 hour emergency (regular) vet and ask if they know of the closest exotic one to you. For us it was two and a half hours away, but they were still able to give us the number for that vet.
If you are able to get ahold of one, you can tell them what's going on, and they will let you know if your rabbit needs to be seen right away. Doing this saved my rabbit's life when we weren't sure what was wrong with him, the emergency vet suspected it was bloat and was correct.

There is a chance you do not have this option where you live, in this case I believe there are 24 hour vet hotlines but I have never used one so I have no idea how helpful they are. If anyone else has used them, I would definitely be interested in knowing how it went.

I don't want to panic you, your rabbit may be just fine, but it is probably best to ask a vet if you're really not sure. I just want to give you options to help ease some of your anxiety because I know what it's like to feel paranoid about your rabbit's health.
 
If she's eating eagerly, especially her veggies and special treats, then that's a first indication things are most likely normal. But do continue to monitor the pooping. If the fecal balls start consistently decreasing in size, her appetite starts decreasing, and there are other unusual behavior changes like abnormal lethargy or signs of pain, then it is something to be concerned about. It's taking into account all the changes combined, that signal something being wrong usually.

If she's eating everything but not eagerly like normal and is more subdued, she's not zooming around like she normally would be, and any other unusual changes of behavior, then she could have a bit of a stomach upset(or possibly something else), and I will usually just monitor their behavior to see if it returns to normal by the next day. If it worsens then it's time for the vet.
 
I woke up this morning and was panicked to see no poop in her litter box. But then I noticed a dozen or more droppings on her towel, and moved some hay aside in her litter box to find buried poop. I also noticed that she ate a lot of hay last night. I fed her breakfast (1 cup leafy greens and 1 tablespoon pellets) and checked awhile later to find a fresh pile of poop in the litter box. I let her out into the room to free roam and she seems fine. She jumped up into the trashcan and pulled out a latex glove. I tried to take it from her and she made me chase her all around the room until I finally got hold of it. Then she made me play tug of war until I was able to free it from her mouth. Maybe she just decided she was done marking up her territory.
 
JBun said:
I'd say she's feeling just fine 🤣 🤣 🤣 What a little character!

Don't you just love that heart dropping moment when you think somethings wrong, then the relief when you find the poop and realize everything's ok.
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I don't know if she loves or hates those gloves. I use them to clean up her poop around the room and to freshen her litter box. When she's free roaming and I'm on my hands and knees cleaning up the poop she literally chases my hands and tries to nip at the gloves. She only does that when the gloves are on. I've experimented with just my bare hands and she couldn't care less. I think it's because they look different and she can't smell that it's me taking her poop away; just this strange creature with 5 legs. And then today sniffing them out in the trashcan, jumping up into it to grab one, and then mauling it and refusing to let me have it.
 
It could be the odd smell they emit. Or maybe she just likes that they're elastic and stretchy :p
 
We're taking her in at 9am tomorrow. She seems weird. She recently ate a handful of hay and didn't poop while she was doing it or since. My son and fiance caught her having some sort of sneezing or coughing fit for about 15-30 seconds. She's not her lively self. She'll have moments of mischief and curiosity, but she's slow moving and lays around a lot more.
 
She could have some stomach upset from something she ate or from ingested fur if she's molting. If that's what it is, gut motility meds from the vet, will help get the gut moving better and stimulate appetite.

Until your appointment, I will usually try some baby gas drops if there's a potential for it being upset from gas. Also I will often stop pellets and veggies and free feed only their grass hay, provided they're eating the hay well. The extra fiber from the increased hay consumption, will stimulate better gut motility.

Also check all of her food. Make sure the hay and pellets haven't gone bad(sour or musty smell, mold spots). Also check the veggies you normally feed her to see if any are off. Veggies that have started to go bad can cause digestive upset in rabbits. They're very sensitive to that.
 
I've noticed my buns go through "moods" sometimes. Occasionally, all they will want to do is hang around in their houses. Appetite and poops are fine, and they respond as normal, they'd just rather be lazy than come out to play. It used to scare me to death, but over time, I've gotten to know their personalities, and I've gotten pretty good at distinguishing between moods and trouble.

It's just going to take time to get to know her!
 
In the month(ish) that we've had her I've gotten to know her very well, and I'm glad that I followed my instincts on this one. Her blood work came back excellent and her x-rays showed not true obstruction, but it did reveal a lot of food residue and she's got a slow moving gut. The doctor has had her for a couple hours now and she's produced only a couple poops. She was fed 1/8 cup pellets and her greens right before we left, so she should have definitely had more. The poops were smaller than they should have been. Vet is giving fluids and then the first dose of her medicine we need to give 3x a day for the next 5 days.
 
SirLawrence said:
Judging from that list, I'm guessing Freya won't be alone much longer... 😂 😂 😂
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Ha, probably not. We were at Petland today to see if they had some hay mats to create a hay flooring of sorts to make absolutely sure she never ingests carpet to avoid such problems in the future and we almost bought an Australian Shepherd until they said $8,000 (they're insane)!
 
The vet said they were picking up and handling Freya with ease. Of course I know this to be unusual because while she loves to be pet, loves to groom us, and flops on her side and back next to us for rubs, she's like most rabbits and doesn't like to be picked up. I asked the vet, "was she running from you when you tried to pick her up?!?!?!?" And she laughed and said the sedation definitely helped but that they also deal with a lot of difficult rabbits and Freya was on the easier side and is a sweetheart. I was extremely nervous being left to give medication on our own 3x per day, but her first home dose came up and my son was able to hold her and she took the syringe like a champ.
 
Some rabbits will completely freak out at the vet and be hard to handle. Others will be much calmer about being handled at the vet than they would at home, because they're in an unfamiliar environment.

I'm glad she's taking her meds without a fuss. I have a few that hate being syringed meds with a passion, and others that are crawling all over each other to get to the syringe because it's like their favorite 'treat'.
 
Clearly the sedation was still in effect and helpful for us to administer medicine on our own at home. This morning she was full of energy and ran from us and thumped her leg off as we were trying to pick her up to hold her to give her medicine. I finally got hold of her and she nipped me pretty hard. Then I tried to give her the syringe and she bit it, took it from me, and threw it. She did that a few times before I was able to start squeezing meds into her mouth. She was not happy at all.

Lots of poops happened last night in and out of the litter box.
 
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