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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New bun sneezing like crazy

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    • Miles and Me
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        I brought home a new bunny Saturday afternoon and love him to pieces.  Miles is a 7 week old mini lop who came from a local pet shop that I *really* trust (got my first bunny there, as well as several fancy rats – they are very conscientious and concerned about the animals’ health and wellbeing). He’s very social, seems to be picking up on the litter training idea, and basically cannot do anything without being the epitome of adorable.  I went a little nuts and make a Youtube channel so I could share all the stupid videos I’m taking of him: http://www.youtube.com/user/milesthebunny … Only problem is he’s sneezing a lot.

         

        Miles is the third bunny I’ve owned, but I haven’t had a bunny for a while.  I had two for a long, long time and after my mini rex passed away about two years ago, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go down the rabbit hole again, but here I am!  What I’m getting at is that I know rabbit care, my two lived for 7 and 10 years, but it’s been a while since I’ve had to think in terms of bunnies so I feel like a newbie.

         

        He has [url=http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2753290]this[/url] cage, which measures 40½”L x 18″W x 20½”H and is in my carpeted bedroom.  I’ve used wood pellets for bedding throughout the cage.  He has a litterbox in the corner with Tidy Cats non-clumping litter.  I have a hay rack that attaches outside the cage so he can pull hay in when he wants it.  As for hay, he’s got a flake of  timothy hay (from a Kaytee “mini bale”) that he’s been working on, and I added a handful of alfalfa hay in there (Oxbow brand).  Food dish is sort of buried in the wood pellet bedding a bit because he’s almost too small to get into it.  His pellets are Kaytee Forti-Diet.  In addition to all of that, I fashioned a hiding place out of two small cardboard boxes that he can go through or sit on top of – top of the box is his favorite hangout.  Since I brought him home, he’s spent a good deal of (closely-monitored) time outside of his cage.

         

        He’s been very playful, binkying and running around like any happy bunny, eating his pellets and hay regularly, ate cecotropes last night, drinking water, poops are normal and firm.  He sneezes every so often – several times an hour.  He seems to sneeze more when he’s in his cage rather than out, but he has sneezed a few times in the litterbox outside of his cage which has the same Tidy Cat litter and also some Alfalfa hay that he’s been loving.  His nose is wet, but the discharge is clear.  His paws are clean and don’t have any dried discharge built up on the them.  He let me wipe some of the dried discharge from his nose with a lukewarm, damp washcloth (I rung out most of the water!).  Sometimes it sounds like he’s wheezing a teeny bit, but it could just be due to the mucus in his nose.

         

        I have some ideas, but I’m interested in hearing what more experienced bunny parents think about Miles’ sneezing.  I’m prepared to systematically try new bedding and hay, obsessively clean my room, buy an air purifier, take him to the vet… Whatever it takes to keep my little guy healthy and happy!

         


      • Miles and Me
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          I want to add that when I cleaned his nose, I swept away some fuzzy fur that had gotten stuck there, probably from grooming himself?


        • Monkeybun
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            I would take out the wood pellets as bedding, and use them as litter in the box instead. Cat litter isn’t usually good for buns, its too dusty. But woodstove pellets make good litter. You don’t want bedding and litter anyway, it will confuse him as he litter trains

            Changing the litter may help his sneezing, wouldn’t hurt to try


          • Miles and Me
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              The more I think about it, the more I want to say it’s the wood pellets.  They’re just run-of-the-mill wood stove pellets and I think they’re probably dusty (I didn’t notice any, but he’s much closer to them than I) and the dust gets on his paws, and then he grooms and it gets in his nose.  I was thinking about getting CareFresh tomorrow to try… Should I go without any bedding?  I feel like he would have something with the plastic bottom of that cage being so hardy and.. plasticky…  I like the idea of the pellets as litter.  I’ll probably get rid of this stuff entirely and get better pellets, though.

              Definitely can’t hurt to try!

              How many days should I wait before heading to the vet?  Or maybe I should try some different changes first?


            • Miles and Me
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                Also, thank you!


              • Monkeybun
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                  Honestly, alot of bunnies prefer nothing on their floor in cages I use carefresh as litter in my litter boxes, but they have nothing as bedding. Or didn’t, when they had cages. Moose was always clearing stuff off the floor to flop on the plastic, so why bother?


                • LoveChaCha
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                    Go without bedding. It confuses bunny as to where the toilet is if you keep bedding around. Bedding is only another thing to buy, and rabbits enjoy flopping around without it.

                    I use wood stove pellets as litter and it is cheap and comes in 40 lb bags.


                  • LizzieKnittyBun
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                      I find that old soft towels work much better than any kind of bedding you’ll find at a petstore. Also, I would get a specifically non-dusty litter for him, like Yesterday’s News.

                      When I first brought home Remy from a petstore, he was sneezing often too. I took him in and found out that he had a touch of the Snuffles, also known as an upper respiratory infection. It’s very common for petstore pets to come home with these kinds of things, even if the petstore owner is responsible.

                      I would go ahead and take him in for a check up, especially since he’s new. Not only can you check out the runny nose and sneezing, but you can give him a good once-over and make sure he’s healthy in general. You’ll need to find a vet that specializes in “exotic” animals, instead of just dogs and cats.

                      Congratulations on your new friend! I hope we get to see some pictures soon = D


                    • Beka27
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                        First step is to get rid of the cat litter, and put the safe rabbit litter ONLY in the litterbox. If you think the WSP are the issue, you could get a different litter, even if you still use WSP, but sprinkle a layer of something else over the top, or sprinkle with hay.

                        Have you found an experienced rabbit vet yet? If not, that is the second step. He needs to have a full baseline exam to assess his health.


                      • KatnipCrzy
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                          I would take your bunny to the vet ASAP due to the sneezing. I would have to imagine that the bunny is pretty small at 7 weeks- bunnies should stay with mom until 8 weeks. So if your bunny is sick- it has no reserves and a not fully developed strong immune system- immediate treatment for an illness can be life or death in young animals. I would recommend getting a stool sample checked when you are at the vet also- to make sure the bunny does not have any intestinal parasites along with a respiratory infection (from what it sounds like).


                        • KatnipCrzy
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                            You will find a lot of great house bunny info page that you can access at the top of this page under the tab “Bunny Info”. I would recommend reading that and then asking specific questions that might come up from the basic info supplied there.


                          • Miles and Me
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                              Everyone – Thank you so much for your input.

                              Removed all cat litter first and foremost, then put the wood pellets in his litter boxes. Removed the wood pellets from the rest of his cage, and now there’s a crappy old beach towel in there. He’s munching some hay in a litter box outside of the cage right now and hasn’t sneezed in a couple hours. An improvement!

                              I have a really good rabbit vet about 20 minutes from me. She came recommended on the HRS site, so I’m confident in that, at least. I’m calling as soon as they open! Bring on the health!

                              Here’s a picture of him from yesterday … I’m a very proud mom and took a million pics right away!  I had to wait til he was all tuckered out from playing, though


                            • LittlePuffyTail
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                                What an adorable little lop. I had a bunny that could have been his twin and he was such a doll. Congrats!


                              • Emmie
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                                  Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 04/18/2011 04:26 AM
                                  What an adorable little lop. I had a bunny that could have been his twin and he was such a doll. Congrats!

                                  Oh. My. God.

                                  The cute has killed me a little bit. Congrats!


                                • Miles and Me
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                                    Thank you, thank you! I’m really happy with him, he’s a total lovebug.

                                    Vet didn’t have an opening until NEXT WEDNESDAY! I took the first available appointment after explaining his symptoms and the steps I took to try to make it better for him. They didn’t seem to think it was urgent… Let’s hope so.

                                    Presently Miles is back in his cage, snuggled up with some fleece inside a cardboard box cave. I put a fan on the cage after removing the wood pellets and then putting everything back in with the beach towel. I started sneezing while I was taking the pellets out! It’s better, not 100% perfect. If I didn’t have an appointment this morning, I’d stay and make sure it was. You can probably guess what I’ll be doing afterwards


                                  • LoveChaCha
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                                      My vet is the same. It is hard to get an appointment, BUT call and suggest if any appointments are cancelled, to call you and to get you in. It is better than waiting.


                                    • Miles and Me
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                                        I had them refer me to another local vet who is well-versed in rabbits. I’m taking my poor little guy to see him in the morning tomorrow. He’s sneezing less frequently, but has bouts of sneezing one after the other when he does, and his front paws are starting to get a little crusty. I took a washcloth and ran some warm water over it along with some Dr. Bronner’s organic peppermint oil soap (safe for animals and people!) and tried to clean him up a little bit. Wrapped him up in a dry towel and he was very patient, almost seemed to appreciate it. I hope the peppermint will clear up his nasal passageway at least a little bit to make breathing easier until we can get into the vet


                                      • KatnipCrzy
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                                          Sounds like you are doing the right thing to get him in right away. If his paws are getting crusty it is less likely an irritant like dust that is making him sneeize. Sounds more like an upper resp infection that needs treatment. Please keep us updated!!


                                        • LizzieKnittyBun
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                                            What a beautiful, ADORABLE little bunbun!! You sound like you are going to make a wonderful mom, and I’m so happy for you!

                                            Please let us know what the vet says. = D


                                          • Miles and Me
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                                              I have my fingers crossed.  I haven’t been to this vet before, but he sounded very kind and knowledgable over the phone.

                                               

                                              In the meantime, check out Miles’ new addition:

                                                       


                                            • LizzieKnittyBun
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                                                guh! Look at that face!

                                                ::falls over::


                                              • Emmie
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                                                  ARGH! So adorable!

                                                  How are you getting on with litter training him?


                                                • LittlePuffyTail
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                                                    OMG, he’s so cute! I just want to eat his little ears!


                                                  • Miles and Me
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                                                      He’s only had one wet accident outside his box, and I think that time was because he got himself into a tight spot where he wasn’t supposed to be and got scared when I came to pull him out… Pooping is another story. He spends a lot of time eating hay in his litter box outside the cage and so he poops in there for the most part, but he poops everywhere in his cage. I’m hoping that if I’m really good about catching him outside and he develops good habits that way, then they’ll transfer in?

                                                      If anyone is in northern/northeastern Connecticut I have to recommend taking your bunnies to see Dr. Colletti at Mountainview Animal Hospital in Avon. That’s where Miles and I went this morning, and this guy is the real deal. I liked him right away when he took the top half of the carrier off rather than drag Miles out. He took a flashlight to his nose and said immediately that he has an upper respiratory infection. The vet said it’s not advanced because he’s still very alert and is eating, drinking, and playing. He listened to his lungs and basically did a full physical. He gave me the option of doing $150 culture testing but said if it was his bunny, he would start antibiotics right away and then try a different antibiotic if he doesn’t show improvement with this one in three days, so that’s what I did. I forget what he called it, and I can’t read his handwriting, but it’s not Amoxicillin

                                                      Miles is on the road to recovery!


                                                    • Emmie
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                                                        YAY!
                                                        This is fantastic to hear! Hoping my vet visit goes as well tomorrow!

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                                                    Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New bun sneezing like crazy