What's wrong with my bunny?

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BKW

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Hi everyone

I hope someone can shed some light on some recent behaviour I've noticed in my bunny. She is a mini lop and is 3 years old.

There are no serious differences in her behaviour but I've noticed in the last couple of days that she can't seem to jump off the couch. It isn't very high and she's jumped off there a million times before. She goes to the edge and looks down and kind of gets scared and backs away. She'll try a few more times and then once while I was there she kind of just toppled off and I had to catch her and break her fall. It seems like she has some sort of problem with depth perception or something. Other than that she seems completely fine.

Any ideas on what might be wrong?
 
It's possible thhat she fell at some point or something scared her recently and now she's really hesitant about it.
 
I agree with the above. If you want her to be able to be on the couch you could see about putting up a temporary ramp. It could even be made out of cardboard. If you need it to be sturdy you could zip tie more than one piece of cardboard together.
 
What's the surface she's jumping onto like? If its too slippery she may need a rug to land on. It's also possible that her vision or her balance are off. Does she have a head tilt that might indicate vestibular disease?
I'd make sure she has good traction and offer some kind of step or ramp but a vet check may be in order to cover all your bases.
 
Thanks for all of your replies.

She doesn't have head tilt so I don't think it's that... As some others said I think it might just be a nervousness but I haven't witnessed anything that would make her feel that way.

The floor is wood and slightly slippery so that's also a good point. I will put down a rug and see if that helps her. It's just she never had any issues before so it seems weird that it's all of a sudden. Also her brother has no issues jumping around the place from all sorts of furniture so it didn't occur to me that it might be an issue with the floor. I'll see if it helps.

One reason I was so worried about her is that in the last couple of months she has also experience 2 or 3 'fits' where she collapses and then her head sways around and she can't seem to stand. A few minutes later after comforting her she is back to normal like nothing ever happened. We took her to the vet and they did tests (for EC?) and they came back negative. The last fit was a couple of months ago and she has been fine since. We did notice that she seemed to have the fits after having a commotion with her brother so I've put it down to her working herself up with adrenaline or something and her little heart can't take it. See she tries to mount her brother all the time and he does not like it one bit and will bite and chase her. So since she had those couple of fits we monitor them very closely and break up a fight before it happens and she hasn't had anymore fits. Each time she had one, it was when they had a fight so it must be related. Anyway I thought maybe the fits had some affect on her neurologically or something.
 
Oh and I guess another thing that struck me as strange was that she didn't just seem nervous to jump down, but that when she finally goes to jump she just seems to topple off like her legs aren't working properly or something. Very strange...
 
It does sound like it could be a neurological issue. If she has one of these fits again, try to videotape it. That may help your vet with a diagnosis.

Do try a rug. I know having that traction can really boost their confidence.
 
I don't think it's a foot injury. She doesn't seem to flinch when they're touched plus their house has a ramp inside which she runs up and down in fine. Their house doesn't have wire floors or anything, it's just plastic material with shavings and hay in it to cushion.
 
sounds like a neurological issue. The seizures probably messed up something in her balance center.

I'd get her some ramps to use to get off and on the furniture.

I would put sides on the ramp just to ensure her safety in going up and down.
 
I would agree with neurological/balance issues, possibly to do with depth perception since you said she's fine running along other things. I agree in either giving her a ramp to access the couch, or even a box that's the height of halfway between the couch and the floor.

It's also good that you know what triggers the attacks, so you can try to avoid them in future. Are they likely to fight often? If so, it might be worth keeping them separated for her sake.
 
The fits sound a lot like classic "rolling" episodes seen with vestibular disease, usually caused by inner ear infection. Not all bunnies with an inner ear infection will tilt to one side all the time. The infection could be bilateral, ie in both ears, so they can't simultaneously be tilting to both at once. The damage to the inner ear could also be slight enough to only bother her when she's stressed out. These fits are a serious concern, either stress is causing her to lose balance totally due to an already compromised vestibular system, or she's having seizures. I would make an appointment with the vet asap, and personally I would not allow her into high spaces because she could fall and injure her spine, since her balance seems already to be poor.
Here's some info on inner ear infections:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Otit/otitis.htm
And more info on seizures to see if these episodes sound more like seizures or "rolling" episodes:
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/seizure.htm
 
Thanks everyone. I will definitely change things around so she doesn't hurt herself. To be honest, she doesn't even go up on the couch often - only when we're watching tv and giving her some scratches. She doesn't usually jump up that often. Today I had her up on the couch again just patting her and she urinated on the couch! She has never done that before but I was wondering if it had something to do with her not feeling comfortable on the couch. Anyway I'm not going to put her up there anymore, but as I said, she has been up on the couch daily for the past year or so. Very unusual change in behaviour.

I know it's possible but I don't think she has an inner ear infection. She's completely fine and balanced at all times, just not when she tries to jump down from a small height. Her ramp up and down in her cage is probably higher than the couch and she goes up and down that just fine with no issues. We only just took her to the vet about a month or so ago when she had the fits and they did various tests and said she was perfectly healthy.

The bunnies don't fight often - mostly they are very loving and always sitting side by side. It's just when she gets into a mood trying to dominate him that they have a fight.

Anyway I will continue to monitor her and make sure she doesn't get up anywhere too high.
 
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