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Forum DIET & CARE Natural Gas Leak – bunny nearly died!

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    • BunnymomKS
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        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?


      • Pandorachik
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          Phew. I am extremely glad Frostys O.K. And no I can’t blame you. I would be the same way lol. Now I am getting one of those alarms(Alert things, whatever)! Thanks for sharing- I am sure bunparents find this very handy–including me!


        • Huckleberry
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            Wow! That is terrifying. It’s so good that you were there and knew Frosty was acting a bit funny. It’s great that you shared this, a good heads up for anyone with gas equipment in their home. Thanks for sharing! So happy everyone is ok!


          • LBJ10
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              Did you have a vet check her over just to be sure? It seems odd that one bun was affected while the other was not.


            • KytKattin
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                Good that YOU are okay as well! Imagine if you were a smoker (well, maybe you are, but you obviously don’t in the house!), or decided to cook something on the stove or in the oven?


              • peppypoo
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                  So glad that everyone (and everybun) is ok…that must be so frightening . I agree that Frosty’s symptoms don’t sound like carbon monoxide poisoning. However, it doesn’t sound like methane toxicity either…hyperactivity and foaming at the mouth sounds really unusual and I can’t off the top of my head think of what could have done that. As long as your buns are okay now, it might be worth a mention to your vet the next time you are around. In any case though detectors are definitely a good safety idea for both humans and bunnies, and thanks for sharing your story for other bun parents .


                • Sam and Lady's Human
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                    You need to take Frosty to the vet, thats not normal :/

                    Leaks are fairly common with gas, most leak a tiny bit. I’ve lived in a apartment where I could smell it, and had to have the gas guy come out and fix it. It gave me headaches for the most part, noone else could smell it though.


                  • Beka27
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                      What a frightening situation. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about gas leaks, and it makes sense that you wouldn’t necessarily know what to do if you’ve never had to deal with that before. I don’t know if that is in fact what was wrong with her, but it would seem that both buns would be acting off. Either way, thank goodness nothing happened to them and you.


                    • LittlePuffyTail
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                        That must have been so scary! Glad that Frosty is better now.


                      • BunnymomKS
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                          I think the reason Frosty was the only one affected was that I had turned on the ceiling fan thinking I was venting the air, but I realized I was actually pushing the gas down toward her cage  and Shamrock’s cage had a bag of hay in front of it which might have blocked the gas from reaching him. But I’m still putting all the pieces together. Frosty acts perfectly healthy, hasn’t looked back since the episode.


                        • Sam and Lady's Human
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                            Does Frosty go outside often? I’m wondering if the reason she was freaking out was just because of being outside.


                          • Kokaneeandkahlua
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                              THANK goodness it didn’t continue until you had a headache and laid down or something!!
                              We have three combo gas/CO monitors in our house-Dave thinks I’m crazy…but it happens! I think you were really fast and on the ball and did great!!!

                              People and animals have different tolerances to things, so perhaps it’s just her makeup; or that she was already being active and was using more O2 that made her more susceptible. Either way you did great

                              So now my dumb question-the pilot light went out-but was the oven turned on? I would think there should be, like in a furnace, a safety mechanism that turns off the gas if the pilot is out?


                            • BunnymomKS
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                                Frosty and Shamrock both love to go outdoors to play – and the weird symptoms were the reason I took her outdoors – that and the fact that my friend and I both figured out the gas might be the source of the problem. She also lets me hold her like a baby and is quite calm with that under normal circumstances. And her foaming and snotting and pale mucous membranes were definitely not normal.

                                It was by the grace of God that she and Shammie and I all didn’t get sick and/or die. I think another few minutes if I hadn’t been in the room, I’d have walked in to find her dead.  


                              • Rei
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                                  So happy everything is ok now! That must have been so scary seeing your bunny like that!! Glad YOU are ok too! That stuff can be really dangerous! I have had gas stoves my entire life and anytime I smell gas I freak out immediately lol


                                • joell
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                                    I am so glad that you, Frosty and Shamrock made it out OK!   
                                    It is good that it happened during the day, since at night gas leaks like that
                                    can be fatal because the people are asleep!

                                    I actually found binkbunny.com after I looked at a news
                                    article about a rabbit that saved it’s family from a gas leak!

                                    Take a look at


                                    http://www.skewnews.com/story/11065857/rabbit_saves_couple_from_deadly_gas_leak.htm

                                    I was just wondering if something like that had ever happened
                                    before, with a bunny saving her family!

                                    My friend Liz has a few rabbits that she says are very smart,
                                    but they haven’t rescued her from anything yet!

                                     


                                  • BunnymomKS
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                                      Thank you for that, joell! I forwarded it to some bunny friends. It had occurred to me that had the episode with Frosty happened after I’d gone to bed for the night, she and Shamrock and I might all have had worse problems or died. But I felt bad that Frosty had to be the “canary in the coal mine” at all. I still haven’t had them turn that gas stove on, and I know that’s a bit extreme, but I’ve heard from some people that it should be equipped with a thermocouple that would turn the gas off if the pilot light went out. My landlady poo-poohed that idea, so I just let it drop. I have a microwave, toaster oven, crockpot, and other means of cooking and haven’t starved to death yet.

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                                  Forum DIET & CARE Natural Gas Leak – bunny nearly died!