seisures?

Question
I brought my doe rabbit inside for about 15 minutes because it was cold out and I don't know how old she is because I won her at the county fair this past september. Anyways I fed her a little bit of celery and she started running around crazily and this isn't the first time she ran around crazily so I didn't think anything of it. But then she just all of a sudden stopped and started to stand on her hind-legs and shake uncontroably she then passed droppings and ran away. I thought she was fine but she started doing it again and she started to go on her side and spit up saliva so I held her up so she wouldn't choke on it but then she was fine. Now she won't eat or drink nor come out from her space where she sleeps in her hutch... what should I do?

Answer
Hi Chelsea,

some of this behavior is normal behavior.  The happy running around, dropping pellets.  I am not sure what the 'uncontrollable' shaking was, but some of their normal behavior they do zig-zags and stuff.  The spitting up saliva is unusual as rabbits don't vomit - she may have moved around too fast before she actually got it all down and may have been choking.  

My advice would be to take her to the vet tomorrow, as soon as possible, to have a once-over and describe to the vet what occurred.  Perhaps she cannot tolerate celery - rabbits can have food allergies and sometimes are not able to tolerate what normally is a 'safe' food for them.  Your particular girl may not be able to handle that.

The other thing is she could have just been warming up and getting over the shock of going from cold to warm so quickly.  They can't handle very fast temperature changes, and especially going from cold to hot (as heat is harder for them to deal with than cold).  So the big temperature difference plus the celery may have just been the wrong combo at that time.

I should say by her behavior (the happy hops and 'crazy' running - they do this when they are happy.  The 'crazy' running is actually them training to avoid imaginary predators that may be chasing them - they do zig-zags and mid-air turns and half-turns to hone their escape skills.  Perhaps she was happy that you brought her in from the cold, and that she had space to stretch her legs and run a bit.  I do know that a lot of people who have hutch bunnies will bring them inside during winter when it is the coldest out.

Just bring her in to your good rabbit vet tomorrow.  Make sure she's got unfrozen water tonight so at least she can drink, and her normal food plus her timothy hay.  She'll probably eat later on during the night.

Lee