Repeated concering personality changes

[Spring]

Hi! I was just posting because I'm getting pretty concerned about my rabbit as she keeps going through these stages after something stressful happens like weather changes or new machinery working or even medium, not loud not quiet sounds are going on for more then half an hour.

The first time I saw this behaviour was around thanksgiving when (I suspect a hair blockage) and had to be seen by a vet twice. After that, she's shown signs of the hair blockage (choosy eating, lethergy and weird posture, constant repositioning, then the second day no eating little drinking, third day starts to eat a bit and starts to get a little more active and then anywhere from a few days to a week after returns to normal). After the hair block time, it's happened four times and I just noticed the symptoms of the first day weird position, lethargic, not eating her favourite vegetables and not coming to see me when I open the door.

My brother was doing some grinding in the garage an hour or so ago and she was fine while he was doing it and then I went down to check her again and she had her eyes half closed and weird position laying flat out and just looked abnormal to me and didn't take any food when I offered it to her. It's really stressing me out as I get so emotional every time this happens.

I am at a dead end road now I don't know what to do. It can't be her diet that's affecting her as she's on limited timothy pellets, timothy hay that she eats probably a cup of in a day, and fresh cilantro, celery, and sometimes baby carrots. Any suggestions? I get so emotional every time I see a mood change in her.

I apologize for the long post, just I couldn't find a way to shorten my thoughts and concerns! Thanks!

 

[naturestee]

All I can really suggest is to try to minimize her stress. Does she have a box or hidey-hole she can retreat into? Maybe that would make her feel more safe. Try moving her cage into a more quiet location, and try not to pick her up or clean the cage while she is in there- let her out first. It will feel more like a safe place to her then.

 

[Spring]

She has a large cardboard box in the lower half of her cage that she goes in there when I vacuum or if I try to get her out at a bad day goes there. The cage was constructed inside the "shoe room" ( a large room that connects to the garage) and can't fit through the door. I've tried tell my brothers about keeping the nosie to a minimum and for short periods of time but they just wave it off as it's not a big deal.

She doesn't mind me cleaning her cage when she's in it. She digs through the bedding pile when I first put it in there and runs up and down her ramp seeing what momma's doing next. It's pretty cute to watch .

 

[JimD]

Hi Spring !

I have 8 bunnies. Only one of them is VERY sensitive to her surroundings. Inside noises, outside noises, smells, moving furniture, new bunnies, new dog, unfamiliar visitors, etc.....all will set her off into GI issues. I have to be careful about what changes go on around her. No other choices so I bend to her needs as much as I can. All of the buns react to these to some extent, but not like her.

You should hear the thumping that goes on in the summer when the windows are open and someone decides to have a BBQ.

~Jim

 

[Pipp]

How soon after she eats does this happen?Does it come on very suddenly? How do you give her the celery? I've had this happen to one of my bunnies after feeding him a longer piece of celery that I guess I didn't cut up well enough, even though I did de-string it. I suspect the strings either got caught in his teeth or somewhere in his digestive tract. That in turn seemed to stress him out and make him uncomfortable, he did the weird re-postitioning thing and wouldn't eat even his favourite treats. I was ready to rush him to the vet when he finally snapped out of it.

sas

 

[JimD]

When MrsD vacums, it drives the bunnies nuts. I usually try to make sure the door to the bunnie room is closed when she does this. However, even closing the door makes some of the buns uneasy.:?

Forbid I should shake out a blanket whilst in the bunnie room. This would be followed by a mirade of thumping!!

Last month when we took Benji to the vet, he started to have GI issues before we even got home. Before we left the office, the vet and I both noticed that Benji had left3 or 4 VERY small hard poops. The first thing that vet said was to keep an eye on him and call her if he got worse. Benji was fine by morning, but what a scare.:shock:

I knowone member that has the same problem. Their bunnies are very sensitive to unfamilar visitors. If you try to pick up their bunnies, it's almost guanteed that the buns will have GI issues for the next couple of days. They have to keep the cages locked when they have visitors, in order to avoid any problems.Sad, but necessary.

~Jim

 

[Spring]

Ok thanks for the replies. I dont think it could be from the celery as she chews good and usually takes bites of it instead of eating it all at once so she breaks up the strands herself.

Same, I try not to vacuum and thank goodness the floor she's in is tile so I can just quickly sweep instead of hauling out the vacuum! I haven't had an issue with it for awhile so that's good!

 

[Pipp]

Spring wrote:

I dont' think it could be from the celery as she chews good and usually takes bites of it innstead of eating it all at once so she breaks up the strands herself.

I didn't think it was the celery either for a long time, my bunny chewed his food really well, too, and I had been pulling the strings off. But then I started noticing that even after peeling the strings, there always seemed to be more when I'd tear the stalk. And I noticed it washard for myrabbitsto sever the strings. Now I've run across too many similar situations with other bunniesto ignore it.

Something to keep an eye on, anyway. (Or cut the celery across into tiny pieces before hand just to make sure).

sas and pipp :bunnydance: