question about panic attacks

[stavroula]

I have a bunny who is almost 4 months old. she has never had a panic attack until today. she was sitting in her cage and I was in my room and I was sitting in bed and all of a sudden I see my bunny running around her cage slipping and falling on her back. this was about 10 seconds and I ran to her cage to pet her and she calmed down and acted normal again. does anyone know what happened and if that was a panic attack? also there werent loud noises in the house everything was calm

 

[Preitler]

Never seen loud noises bother them much, nor something else when not "attacked" directly - like when I had to catch them outsides back when I had less experience.

Anyway, I've heard of rabbits freaking out because of some kind of seizure. or something of that kind - don't know much about such issues though.

 

[JBun]

Strange smells or sounds, sometimes ones that we can't even smell or hear, can cause a rabbit to panic and run in fear. Something else that can also cause the same response could be certain acute health issues like a choking episode. Though when this happens you will usually see the rabbit making strange head and mouth motions, and you may see drool or green discharge coming out of the nose or mouth. There are a few other health conditions resulting in sudden sharp pain, that could also cause a panicked response.

If there wasn't anything else more specific that you noticed during the episode, there's really no way to know for sure if it was a sudden fright response or a health issue. Though most often it will be that the rabbit is suddenly startled by something.

 

[SirLawrence]

It's hard to say. @JBun covered the "things we can't perceive" argument. When my boy Lucas first came home, he was prone to bouts of panic. He would run circles in his pen, literally running along the walls! I was frightened when it would happen, as I could never find a reason he was doing it. As he acclimated, he calmed down, and now he just runs the Bunny 500 around the living room! I assume it was something he was perceiving as a threat that I couldn't see, hear or smell.

Barring a legitimate medical issue, I think you did what's best in these situations: calm her and reassure her, and as time goes on she'll learn she doesn't have to be scared of whatever it is that set her off!

Or it's ghosts and you're haunted.