Weird and random coughing?

[namehere]

Hi everyone! I’m a first time rabbit owner and have had by boy for a few months. I was in my bed about to go to sleep when I suddenly heard this weird noise. It sounded like anything between sneezing/coughing/gagging/when a cat is trying to cough up a hairball. I know that’s not very specific, but it sounded like any of those. I didn’t want to startle him if he was coughing something up and worsen it, so I stayed still for a few moments and then rolled over to get a look at him. He stopped the coughing noise, and then it looked like he bent his head down into some of his pellets that he had gotten onto the floor (he’s messy, this isn’t unusual). Then he made the noise again, but very briefly and then completely stopped.

After, he just grabbed a few bites then hopped away to sleep. I was obviously concerned and googled what this could be, and was met with multiple worse case scenarios. I started panicking thinking he immediately needed to go to the vet, and kept reading what I could find. Everything I found kept saying the cough like noise had been persistant or there were other illness related symptoms. This is the first time he’s ever done this and has no other symptoms nor has he been acting odd what so ever. I eventually went to youtube and found a lady saying it could be anything from a sickness, to dust from food causing them to sneeze. As of right now, he’s already back nibbling and eating some food, and hasn’t made the noise again.

I don’t want to go to bed if something is wrong, but at the same time he seems genuinely fine and I do not want to panic. Could he possibly have just accidentally breathed in some dust from his pellets? Or is this cause for a greater concern? The main thing that worries me in the chain reaction of the noise that didn’t stop until a few seconds when it happened. Please just let me know what I need to do, thank you so much for any help!

 

[JBun]

If it's not a persistent ongoing thing, but was just that one occurrence so far, it sounds to me like he could have had a pellet stuck in his throat causing an obstruction or partial obstruction, and causing him to choke on it. If this is what happened, he luckily was able to clear it, but just be aware that there have been serious instances of rabbits choking on their pellets.

Some things that can help to prevent this are scatter feeding the pellets so bun slows down consuming them. But sometimes it's the size of the pellets themselves. I remember reading of multiple owner accounts of rabbits having choking incidents with a specific brand of pellets. So if this is a concern, switching pellet types might be something to consider.

There is also an emergency technique for clearing an airway obstruction in small animals, but due to the dangers to the animal of using this technique, it should be something best discussed with an experienced rabbit vet.

Also, if your rabbit ever has a serious case of choking and is able to get the obstruction cleared, but may have aspirated any of the food/fluid, especially if you see any food or liquid coming out of the nose or mouth, it's important to have your rabbit examined by a knowledgeable rabbit vet, as there is a very high risk of aspiration pneumonia occurring, which very often can prove fatal.

https://rabbit.org/veterinarians/
(CAUTION: IT'S ADVISABLE TO FIRST CONSULT WITH A KNOWLEDGEABLE RABBIT VET ON THE PROPER WAY TO CLEAR AN AIRWAY OBSTRUCTION BEFORE ANY SUCH EMERGENCY OCCURS, AS SERIOUS BODILY INJURY COULD OCCUR IF DONE IMPROPERLY)

https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/First_aid_for_rabbits