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Collapsed rabbit

22 10:49:18

Question
Hi, My Dutch rabbit is a year old now. 6 months ago he collapsed twice within 3 weeks. He was extremely floppy and very docile, usually he can be nasty and highly strung. Each time he was treated by the vet with an anti-inflammatory injection and I hand fed him with a recovery feed. After a couple of days he recovered enough to feed himself and after 4 days he was back to normal. Today, I am treating him again after his second attack in just over a week. It follows the same pattern, I find him collapsed in his cage, he has an anti-inflammatory then I hand feed him for 3 days and nights. Myself and the vet are no closer to discovering what is triggering these attacks and I was wondering if you can give me some ideas of things I can look into. Thanks, Karen

Answer
Dear Karen,

When a rabbit is lethargic and listless like this, the *first* thing to do is take his temperature.  I'm not sure why the vet gave him an anti-inflammatory injection, but if it was simply an NSAID such as Banamine or metacam, then just the pain relief might have helped the bunny turn around from something that was causing him pain.  In some very sensitive rabbits, even *gas* can cause enough pain to make them spiral into a hypothermic lethargy.

If you don't yet have a vet who is very familiar with rabbit medicine, then please find one here who knows that the first thing to do in a case like this is take the temperature and get the body up to normal (101-103 Farenheit).  You can find one here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

Please also read:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/sickbun.html

and

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

Without more diagnostic work by the vet, there is no way you're going to get to the bottom of this. The vet needs to listen for gut sounds (if the gut is silent, the bunny is suffering from ileus, which can make a bunny lethargic and can even be life-threatening if not treated aggressively, as described above), listen to the chest (lungs and heart), take the temperature, and even take blood for complete blood chemistry and blood count to see what could be going on.

If the vet never did any of these things any of the times you brought your bunny, I would try to find another vet.

I hope this helps.

Dana