Chicken Lips
New Member
Hi all,
New here, but ran into a uniquely (at least it seems to me it would be) harrowing experience the day before yesterday, and thought I'd share it.
First, a general request: someone knowledgeable should make a page searchable through the search engines on "how to get something out of a rabbit's mouth" or something along those lines. We searched and, though it might have been our failure of wording/search terms and haste, found nothing.
Anyway, we have a young, 4.5-month-old Holland Lop who's a curious and loving little guy. A week or two ago, he found something on the living room floor and was chewing on it, and it seemed really hard and made loud noises. I was very alarmed, but didn't know how to get it out, and after a while the problem seemed to "go away," as it were, and, given that nothing else came of it, it was a relief.
Well, day before yesterday he did it again. He got onto a table and picked something out of a glass tray that my visiting mother had put a few things in, and none of them could have been good. He had it in his mouth and was trying to chew it, making loud metallic-seeming crunching noises.
This time, despite the stress it would cause him, I wasn't going to let it go. So I picked him up, and, for the next 20 minutes, my wife and I did everything we could to get whatever it was out of his mouth. It never seemed to go down, and when we were messing with his mouth he'd stop chewing, but as soon as we stopped for, say, 10 seconds or so, he'd resume chewing, and maybe try to get away.
Anyway, we kept at it, and discussed the possibility of just letting it go and hoping for the best, as it was possibly just a small eraser or piece of pistachio shell or something that would pass. Fortunately, though, we didn't follow through on abandoning it, because...
After another 5 minutes or so of putting our fingers in his mouth to try and feel around and grab anything in there, and putting pressure on his jaw muscles as gently as we could (poor little guy was hurting as we squeezed them -- I could feel his jaw quivering) to make closing his mouth and chewing uncomfortable, my wife finally saw what it was.
And what it was, was a straight-pin needle, sharp-end pointing, thankfully, out of his mouth. He had that thing far enough down his esophagus that, for the preceding 25 or so minutes, we could not see what was in his mouth, but he was chewing on the end of it.
It takes a lot these days to make my jaw drop, but that was pretty shocking. Our rabbit was eating a needle. And what was more amazing was that he survived it. I have no idea how we managed to get that out of there, given that we are new to rabbits and had no idea what we were doing, and I shudder at thinking how close we were to giving up and hoping for the best.
He might just be really resilient or a good pain-hider, but it doesn't even appear to have harmed him. We hugged him for a while before letting him go, and I think -- it appears -- he actually intuited some of our emotion or what was going on, because he settled down for it, and despite his mighty wrangling and fighting earlier, as soon as I let him go, he stayed on me and licked my nose. I'd almost think the little guy knew what happened and was appreciative. Kinda served as a bonding experience, almost.
He was eating and acting normally right after the whole ordeal, and we were the only ones shaken for the rest of the night.
But anyway, yes, we have a sword-swallowing rabbit who lived to tell the tale.
A needle?? I'm still amazed.
New here, but ran into a uniquely (at least it seems to me it would be) harrowing experience the day before yesterday, and thought I'd share it.
First, a general request: someone knowledgeable should make a page searchable through the search engines on "how to get something out of a rabbit's mouth" or something along those lines. We searched and, though it might have been our failure of wording/search terms and haste, found nothing.
Anyway, we have a young, 4.5-month-old Holland Lop who's a curious and loving little guy. A week or two ago, he found something on the living room floor and was chewing on it, and it seemed really hard and made loud noises. I was very alarmed, but didn't know how to get it out, and after a while the problem seemed to "go away," as it were, and, given that nothing else came of it, it was a relief.
Well, day before yesterday he did it again. He got onto a table and picked something out of a glass tray that my visiting mother had put a few things in, and none of them could have been good. He had it in his mouth and was trying to chew it, making loud metallic-seeming crunching noises.
This time, despite the stress it would cause him, I wasn't going to let it go. So I picked him up, and, for the next 20 minutes, my wife and I did everything we could to get whatever it was out of his mouth. It never seemed to go down, and when we were messing with his mouth he'd stop chewing, but as soon as we stopped for, say, 10 seconds or so, he'd resume chewing, and maybe try to get away.
Anyway, we kept at it, and discussed the possibility of just letting it go and hoping for the best, as it was possibly just a small eraser or piece of pistachio shell or something that would pass. Fortunately, though, we didn't follow through on abandoning it, because...
After another 5 minutes or so of putting our fingers in his mouth to try and feel around and grab anything in there, and putting pressure on his jaw muscles as gently as we could (poor little guy was hurting as we squeezed them -- I could feel his jaw quivering) to make closing his mouth and chewing uncomfortable, my wife finally saw what it was.
And what it was, was a straight-pin needle, sharp-end pointing, thankfully, out of his mouth. He had that thing far enough down his esophagus that, for the preceding 25 or so minutes, we could not see what was in his mouth, but he was chewing on the end of it.
It takes a lot these days to make my jaw drop, but that was pretty shocking. Our rabbit was eating a needle. And what was more amazing was that he survived it. I have no idea how we managed to get that out of there, given that we are new to rabbits and had no idea what we were doing, and I shudder at thinking how close we were to giving up and hoping for the best.
He might just be really resilient or a good pain-hider, but it doesn't even appear to have harmed him. We hugged him for a while before letting him go, and I think -- it appears -- he actually intuited some of our emotion or what was going on, because he settled down for it, and despite his mighty wrangling and fighting earlier, as soon as I let him go, he stayed on me and licked my nose. I'd almost think the little guy knew what happened and was appreciative. Kinda served as a bonding experience, almost.
He was eating and acting normally right after the whole ordeal, and we were the only ones shaken for the rest of the night.
But anyway, yes, we have a sword-swallowing rabbit who lived to tell the tale.
A needle?? I'm still amazed.
