Posting this in hopes of preventing any tragedies or near-tragedies. Last week, I had been cleaning the gas stove in my apartment where I’ve only been a few months. Apparently the pilot light went out somehow. I smelled a little gas and I should have followed up on it more seriously. This was one evening. The next afternoon, I was talking to my friend on the phone – and I’d mentioned about smelling the gas. Watching my bunny Miss Frosty playing in her cage while I talked.
I was saying how active and lively Frosty was being. As I watched, she became more and more hyper, but it still seemed like just playful exuberance. Then her movements became sort of uncoordinated – and it dawned on me and my friend at just about the same time that she might be being affected by carbon monoxide. I hung up the phone, grabbed her, and rushed outdoors. Sat on the porch, she was writhing, sort of foaming at the mouth, blew out some saliva or mucus through nose and mouth, and her eyes, normally ruby red, were going dark and bluish.
I was praying and begging her to stay with me, and this was all happening really fast but eventually she started to be able to breathe again so I ran and put her in my van on the seat – she was weak – told her stay right there, Mommy will be back. Hurried in to get my other bunny, Shamrock. He was fine.
Got Frosty in her carrier which I’d grabbed when evacuating Shamrock, and we sat in the van while I called the management and the gas company. The gas man came out and confirmed the problem was with the oven pilot light. I know this all makes me sound like a total idiot but I have never dealt with gas stoves my entire life until now.
Anyway, Frosty was completely back to her normal self by the time we all returned indoors for the night (I’d opened lots of windows earlier and the gas man shut off the gas to the stove for the time being until our maintenance guy could turn it on – apparently the gas company employees aren’t allowed to do that – probably a liability thing). Frosty just acted like she’d been on a little pleasant outing, she ate, drank, pooped, peed and everything else that a bunny does.
I’ve been doing online research, and thus far I’ve found out that there are home Natural Gas detectors available at stores – I’d wondered why the Carbon Monoxide one never went off. So I want to get one of those for the bunnies. They say that the symptom of CO poisoning is cherry red mucus membranes, and Frosty’s were deathly pale, which didn’t add up. Natural Gas contains a lot of methane, so I’m thinking that was the problem - I’m no expert, so anyone who knows more about this feel free to correct me. I’ve done my best if I simply alert bunparents to this potential hazard.
I’m soooooooo relieved my sweet Frosty girl is okay. I’m a bit of a hovering “helicopter” bunnymom at the moment, whenever she gets to jumping around I’m like “Are you okay? Just playing? Not feeling agitated, are you?” etc. But can you blame me?