My pet rabbit is VERY lethargic.

Question
I haven't had a pet rabbit in almost 15 years, and so I'm taking every precaution I can, observing my new bunny's every move. He's about 3 months old. Holland Lop.

When I first brought him home, he was very active, hopping around, and never being able to sit still. After I brought him out to meet my bestfriend two days ago, he's been listless, and can't do anything else except sit still.

Here are some other observations, and hopefully you can ease my worries before I take him to the vet tomorrow.

Eating favourite treat, not very enthusiastic about hay, drinking very much less water (100ml a day), almost no urine, doesn't move much, sits in a corner for hours, listless, poo normal and not clumping together, cage clean, bunny clean, water clean, food clean, area around rabbit is clean.

So besides "taking the rabbit to the vet", is there anything you can tell me and ensure me about my rabbit? Are there any other pointers for observing if he is sick or not?

Thank you very much

Answer
Hi Krystal,

I really can't tell you anything other than I am not sure what you mean by your 'best friend' - I don't know if this even is a person or another animal.  Regardleses, something happened between him and the 'best friend' that either hurt him and/or scared him.  Maybe he got whacked on the nose or was hit or something.  Perhaps 'best friend' smells funny to your rabbit (smoke, dog/cat smells on them (predator smells)).  Rabbits basically REACT to things, so SOMETHING occurred that is causing your rabbit to react this way.  They won't just act way different than normal on their own, SOMETHING has to happen to cause them to change their behavior.  They are creatures of habit.  They won't break habit unless something occurs to force or cause them to break habit.  Some kind of stress event happened in the last two days, and from your writing, this is the only thing you mentioned out of the ordinary.  Something about 'best friend' appears to be the key here.

If you had not mentioned your 'best friend', I'd say he's clearly sick, you must take him to a good rabbit vet for proper and prompt diagnosis, so that effective treatment can be given.

I would still recommend taking him to a good rabbit vet to make sure he is not injured or having gi tract issues.  He is not normal, and because he's off his normal eating habits, I would definitely take him in because of this.  I would also want to make sure he can walk and move without pain, and that everything else checks out normal.  Talk to the vet about the 'best friend' visit and see what the vet says.  Maybe you can go into it with more detail with the rabbit vet and get additional insight as to what it might have been that triggered this scared/stress reaction from your rabbit.

Whatever caused it, it is unhealthy for your rabbit to not be eating normally and not moving around normal and relaxed.  This is not good.  He will not do well under stress and will get worse if actions are not taken to resolve whatever is causing it.

Don't ever just sit around and wait with rabbits.  If they're off routine and food and not acting normal, there is a real problem that you have to start figuring out.  Often by the time we see they aren't their normal selves, the problem has gotten to the point they can no longer 'mask' it from us (prey species hide when they are sick/injured).  So by the time you see a problem it's gotten a good foothold in them and you ought to consider such a problem much more seriously than one in a dog or cat (who don't mask their injuries/problems).  You cannot wait days like with dogs and cats.  Things that dogs and cats can handle without risking dying, will kill rabbits just because of their prey mentality and their physiology.

If you don't have a good rabbit vet (not all are), go to:

www.rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

and find a House Rabbit Society recommended vet near you.

Feel free to write back with more info if you want.  But get to a vet whatver you do to make sure he's okay physically and talk to the vet about the 'best friend' thing.  Lee