rabbit choking

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Victoria

Victoria

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2009
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Location
Sydney, , Australia
Hi

We had a scary experience with our 2 year old rabbit Red. I gave him his meal of pellets for the night and soon after I noticed he was darting around his cage looking up and looking frightened. We took him out from his cage. He started frothing from his nose and he was very weak sitting on the floor, looking up. I called an emergency vet but they had no vet nearby and the nearest vet was over 1 hour travel time plus we dont have a car.

My fiance then pried open his mouth and removed somebrown junk from his throat and he also was snorting up brown froth. Then the rabbit slowlyreturned to normal. He now eats and behaves more or less his usual self but looks like he has a bit of a sore throat.

Was he choking on something or what else could this be?
 
Sorry no one has replied to this yet. It sounds like he somehow got some food caught in his throat. I would keep an eye on him and get him to a vet if he has any other symptoms.

Hopefully, someone with more experience will come along and reply.
 
Thank you for your reply. My initial thought that he choked but I never saw my rabbits do this before so I started thinking he must have something else that made him choke on his food. He recently was peeing more than normal and also lost some weight. The other bunny had similar symptoms plus an infection at the back of his throat - all this caused by E cuniculi. The other bunny was seen by the vet and took Panacur but Red did not yet as we could not afford it . As soon as we can we take him to the vet
 
Correction to my last post : it is not likely been caused by E cuniculi as we did not get a definitive answer about the condition and one of the vets said may be and the other said not likely. So it could be some other infection in the throat, my rabbits like to drink their pee this probably burns their throats.
 
I have heard of bunnies choking before. As you may know, it's very rare for a rabbit to throw up--they just don't really have the muscles. It happens once in a while, but that's very rare. It sounds to me like he had some pellets stuck in his throat, which could happen if the throat is swollen due to infection or general irritation.

I worry about some other things you've said. E cuniculi is a parasite, and it usually shows up as 1) urinary irregularities 2) hind leg weakness 3) loss of overall body tone/weight 4) neurological issues, such as secondary infection of the ears, brainstem, eye issues, etc. I have heard of infections in the throat, but they were not due to EC, but usually tooth problems or untreated upper respiratory infections. A large abscess (pocket of fluid/pus surrounding an infected wound) could definitely block off the airway some, but that would not be related to EC.

I don't know why your rabbits are drinking their pee--that's strange. Rabbit urine is really basic (the opposite of acidic) and it could burn or irritate the throat.

I think it would be good if you could get a vet to take a look at the throat in case there are abscesses in the airway. They might have to sedate him for that. However, those abscesses can get bigger and at that point it's often too late to have them removed, and it can be really dire. I've read too many Rainbow Bridge posts where the owner had no indication that there was an abscess in the throat until it was too late to help. :(

Another option that's cheaper, perhaps until you can afford the throat-look, is to figure out why they're drinking their own urine. Do they have litter in their litterboxes? That may help, to absorb the pee so they don't drink it. Also, they may need more water options--do they have a bowl and bottle available? Some bunnies prefer one, and some prefer the other. Tony likes a bottle, and Muffin likes a bowl. If these things don't help, you can consider spiking the water with something tasty so that they drink it instead. A common trick is a few drops of vanilla. I have also heard good things about cranberry, apple, and cucumber juice, diluted at least 1:3, and also grenadine (a few drops).

EC is spread by urine, so it may be good to get Red a course of Panacur just in case. A member here who has a lot of experience with EC doesn't think Panacur and other drugs like it are very good at treating it. He prefers a horse drug called Marquis, which may not be available in Australia. However, if Panacur helped the other bunny, and Red drank that bunny's urine, it may be good to put Red on a course of Panacur just as a preventative.
 
I'm glad your bun is okay! I lost my Pidge to a chocking incident a little over a month ago. We don't know exactly what happen he was eating his treats and all the sudden the same thing happened to him, it was all coming out his nose and he was trying to cough it up. Sadly with pidge It went into his lungs, the poor guy couldn't breath and had to be put on oxygen. The vet said that he could have had a paralysis of the larynx which made it literally go down the wrong pipe. Pidge did have other issues so we are really not sure why he was choking, we lost him because he began having seizures.
 
Thank you for your answers. the rabbit seems a bit slow, but he is back to rattling his cage when he wants something, and he's eating is normal, however I don't think he is drinking. Last night I gave him fresh water in his bowl (he doesn't like the bottle) but this afternoon it seems as if he hasn't touched it. I gave him greens (coriander, mint and parsley) and also a piece of apple so he will have some moisture in him. I am not sure why he is not drinking though.
He may still be in shock from the incident.
 
the rabbit is still not drinking it is already 24 hours. He ate greens and slice of an apple and some apple juice I squeezed. I tried mixing the apple juice with water but he only drinks very little of it. May be I will add a little sugar to it. He is still slow and mostly just sitting around but he eats ok.
 
Here is another question - he sniffs as if something is stuck in his nose. We looked into his nose but cannot see anything. (This happened after the food he choked on was coming out of his nose during the choking episode).
How do I clean his nose out? Or should I leave it as it is and it will come out by itself eg by sneezing?
 
Sorry I didn't come back on last night to help. I don't know about the nose thing. I would think that you could use one of those rubber bulbs that they use to clean out babies' nostrils, but I wouldn't be comfortable doing that myself. I bet a vet could do that...

I also worry if his throat is too swollen and/or painful from the irritation. It may be good to get him some pain medicine/anti-inflammatory medicine. However you can only get that from a vet, and he has to be well-hydrated to take that medicine.

I wouldn't add sugar to the water, since sugar can slow down the gut. The reason we don't recommend to give undiluted juice is because it is so sugary. Another thing you can try to get him to drink is unsweetened (if possible) Pedialyte. I know in the UK it's sold as Dioralyte. It's a rehydration drink for children who have diarrhea. Don't give Gatorade, it's too sugary.

Good luck--
 
I found this:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/pet-rabbit-gagging-Rabbit.htm (not sure about it--sounds risky)
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/2009/2/Unexplainable-Sneezing-Rabbit.htm

And several veterinary textbooks I found online discuss flushing the nasal cavity, but say it can be very difficult because it's easy to get the water into the lungs, which of course could cause pneumonia. I think the best thing to do is take him to a vet, where they can give him some sub-cutaneous fluids (and perhaps show you how), do a nasal lavage, and perhaps give you pain medicine/antiinflammatory drugs (Metacam/meloxicam is a good choice, as long as he is well-hydrated). At this point I think you've done all you can for him at home.
 
thanks. Red is more active now and does not sniff as loudly but still does not drink (apart from apple juice). We would have taken him to the vet but it is very expensive (eg last time we took Black the treatment consultation and blood test were over $300 but then he asked us to come back for another blood test! We also have rats and they went as well (but despite the treatment one died, then we the humans also got sick - all of this happened within months) We will go to the vet if we can see nothing else helps. I looked and touched his throat from the outside and did not see anything wrong with it plus he eats (including dry food which we give one by one pellet at the moment)so i still cant figure out why he does not drink thinking he wouldnt be able to eat if it was swollen. He eats greens and they have water so he is hydrated. I will also look for those things you mentioned (Pedialyte)
 
Plus he pees and his gut is ok too. I remember once I gave the rabbits their water with the dewormer and the other rabbit drank it but Red did not drink for a long time until I changed the water (without dewormer). He always was fussy with his water. I just noticed tht I accidentally gave Red Blacks bowl and vice versa couple of days ago, it is unlikely but I try to exchange the bowls.He is going to the vet if he does not drink in the next couple of hours.
 
The rabbit just drank after I exchanged the bowls, i did not think he would feel any difference just because it is not his bowl!
 
Ha! He is pretty serious about his bowl being right. If he seems fine now, he may have sneezed out any other stuff by now. That vet sounds ridiculously expensive. For mine, it's about $30 for an office visit.
 
We are in Sydney, Australia and all our vets are like this here, so there are no other options. When you add other expenses in (like doctors) it is impossible to keep going to the vet at times unless it is a life and death problem.
It is cheaper sometimes to go to a human doctor for us than the vet for our pets, the prices for veterenary treatment are not regulated by the laws in our state and they can charge as much I think as they want, which is a lot!
When I listen carefully I can still hear little sniffs from his nose and some mucus came out last night.
He and the other rabbit are enemies as Black tried to kill Red and they never are let out together since then. May be due to the smell of the other rabbit and fear he was not drinking.
 
That's a good thought. Bunnies can be really sensitive to the environment and stop eating or drinking because of stress. That's really too bad about the vets. I think if he's breathing ok now, mostly, the danger is probably over and he's gotten it out.
 
Red always smells Black their cages are close together and they sometimes sniff each other throughthe cage wire - Red is usualy the one who approaches Black and often gets bitten on the nose, but then does the same thing the next day - he is a friendly bunny. When I gave him the wrong bowl it actually belongs to Black and must have his smell in the bowl from long use, I think. May be he thought that if he drinks "Black's" water he will be attacked. I dont know how they think but he definetely does not touch Blacks bowl.
 
http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=25443&forum_id=66

You have to go into the reply thing, not just use the Quick Reply. You can also paste the one from Photobucket that says "IMG Code" and starts with "http:......" without using the picture button--you could past that into the quick reply box.

Yeah, smell can be powerful with bunnies. My two (Tony and Muffin) hate my bf's two (Frida and Ben), and when we bring out the bf's bunnies to play on the couch, my guys get really interested and want to get up there. Even after we put the bf's bunnies back in their part of the apartment, my guys get up on the couch and pee on it to mark it.
 
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