Rabbit thumping, unknown danger, seems very stressed!

[Floyd2019]

Hi guys.
My rabbit doesn't thump very often and if he does i usually watch his body language to see if it's from fear or attention seeking etc.

This morning i woke up to floyd thumping like crazy. He was hiding under my bed and then running around my room like a wild rabbit listening for danger and sniffing the air. He seems very scared of the hallways despite walking through it every single day...

My boyfriend and his dogs are visiting but he is upstairs with them blocked off and i have been careful to keep myself dog free when interacting with my rabbit. Not sure if the dogs are the percieved danger? They haven't left the bedroom all night i can't even smell dog right now. Also he has been super close to them and even sniffed them before with no fear. Worried that he will be in a state of stress for the next 3 days and we can't have that!

I read that thumping can lead to death and you have to remove the rabbit immediately and it freaked me out. How can i remove him from a situation that isn't even dangerous? Especially when the basement is his home and his safe place... anywhere else would spook him more!

I tried calming him by sitting by him. He ate a little hay then went back under the bed. He won't go in the hallway to get to his running and binkying room which concerns me.

HELP!!

 

[Preitler]

I read that thumping can lead to death and you have to remove the rabbit immediately and it freaked me out.

No, wrong. There's such a thing like reading to much on the internet

When they freak out, full panic mode, like bolting for their life, screaming and struggling to get away from a predator, they can overstress their heart and can die from shock hours later (my first buck was attacked by a fox, although not injured he was dead 3 hours later)

When they thump they are not freaked out. They can be scared, worried, angered, alert, confused. My buck thumped sometimes in the middle of the night because he had some gas, a belly massage and some Simethicone took care of that.

My other rabbits thump when they see a cat, or even mice at their hutches. They do not care about smell the least, be it dog, cat, or whatever.

But I suspect it's the noise the dogs make when moving around, my rabbits don't mind chainsaws or fireworks, but small sounds of moving animals can worry them. One of the rabbits slipping on a ramp and a few fast paces can send all others into hiding and stomping.
He doesn't know that this are the dogs he met, there just are sounds from the hallway that are new, and in his opinion, shouldn't be there.

They take clues from our behaviour, when we act nervous they pick that up, so don't create a feedback loop by hovering worried over him . I would sit in the hallway, so that he can see you, eat something (imho that get's across that I'm not worried), simulate bunny grooming me, and not paying attention to him being nervous.

Patience.