my rabbit is jerking his head and looks sad.

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cyb3rm1lk

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i have a rabbit who is almost 2, but recently he has been acting weird. he keeps jerking his head when he flops. its not every time he flops but im growing concerned. can someone look at this video and try to help me with this ?? also , i only see him jerk his head when he is flopped by the basket, if that helps. thank u '

video v
 
Two possibilities of what it looks like it could be to me. But because the video is short, and without you describing any other noticeable symptoms to narrow it down, these would be my best guess. First is it can be a case of hiccups. They will do a slight head and body jerking when they have them, and then eventually it clears up. But there should be no signs of increased respiratory effort accompanying the slight body and head jerking if it is just hiccups.

The other possibility is if it looks more like a breathing issue with increased respiratory effort(faster, possibly more labored or more shallow breathing), it could be a possible heart problem or thymoma. Larger breed rabbits can be particularly prone to these problems because of their larger body size.

An enlarged heart or a mass in the chest, can sometimes cause increased respiratory effort when a rabbit is laying down, because this can increase the pressure that is put on the chest. So I can't tell from the video if your rabbit is just jerking from hiccups or if the jerking is from increased respiratory effort. If it looks to you that it's a respiratory problem and your rabbit seems to be having more difficulty breathing, I would get your bun seen by a knowledgeable rabbit vet right away.

Medirabbit (congestive heart failure in rabbits)

https://rabbit.org/thymomas-in-rabbits/
https://rabbit.org/vet-listings/
 

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