Rabbit acting abnormally

[Jilless]

We have a M/F bonded pair, a small Polish and a Rex. They have their own room with an AC unit. Tonight, I was coming in to check on them (the AC was on but the door was open and there was a fan in the adjacent room, and somehow startled them pretty badly. They like to sit together on a cozy bed on top of a box with a ramp–the Rex jumped off into the x-pen, shaking it, and the Polish jumped halfway across the room into their litter box. They must not have heard me coming and it really surprised them.

The Polish was shaking and breathing hard, so I immediately went to pet her–she calmed down quickly and they both resumed hopping around. About 10 minutes later, my boyfriend got home and I told him what happened. He went in to check on them and the Polish was sitting in the cozy spot but she was breathing hard and kind of moving her head back and forth, kind of like shaking her head “no”. Since then, she has been acting a little strangely–hiding in a box that she normally doesn’t go in. She is hopping as normal and is letting us pet/touch her all over, but she usually BEGS to be touched and she has run away a few times during petting, she also LOVES pellets so we fed her some but she ran off in mid-treat. Normally she is scuffling to find every last one.

This just happened within the hour, but I’m worried.

Could she have hit her head or gotten injured in that big jump? She is not expressing discomfort when we are touching her all over, could she have hurt her head? How could we tell?

Thank you for any help or insight.

[Bam]

How is she doing now?

[Jilless]

Update: she pretty much stayed in one spot all night and had no appetite this morning (usually she rushes over and chows down with her brother!), so we made an appointment with an exotics/rabbit specialist and took her in. She began acting more normal about an hour before the appointment but we went anyway. Even though she just had a check-up and we were told she was all good, the rabbit vet found that she had a lot of swelling in her ear from an infection. No redness, irritation or pus, just swelling. She said that if she hit her head at all during that big jump that it may have caused vertigo, which would have made her dazed/head shake.

Since she was acting much more herself this morning I was relieve. We ended up doing body X-rays anyway, which turned out to be normal. She probably has a little bruising but not broken/loose teeth so that’s why she is hesitant to eat, though she is eating some greens now (just not with her normal vigor).

I cannot tell you how scared I was last night–so glad she is ok!

[JackRabbit]

Glad she’s ok. Bunnies do have a way of scaring their parents! Two of mine startle easily when anyone enters their room (one of my bunnies is almost completely deaf), so we try to always announce ourselves (for Marlee) and turn the light on (for Moshi) even during the day.

[LBJ10]

How is the vet treating the ear infection?

It does sound like she was startled and then experienced vertigo for one reason or another. Glad she seems better.

[Jilless]

JackRabbit–I am thinking if she had an ear infection her hearing may be off, which resulted in the AC unit making it harder for her to hear me come in? We’ve started saying their names before we enter, it’s been working (even tapping on the door like they’re teenagers who need their privacy!)

LBJ10, she’s on 3 meds twice a day; Baytril ear drops, Metacam by mouth, and Gentocin eye drops (she has some drainage from her eye probably related to her ear infection, etc.)

She’s already been out and about and MUCH more herself today, so relieved!

[LBJ10]

Oh good, they are tackling it from multiple angles.

[Bam]

Great to hear this!

[Author]

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