Thank you! It’s good know what to do in such a situation.
I’ve never thought of this problem with bunnies, but I once had to make a Heimlich on my dog when she choked on a bone. Way easier though because she’s not fragile like a bunny.

This is great info, and I think similar to the heimlich for human babies?

Zeus was choking on a piece of hay once, he was wheezing and coughing and it was very scary. I was able to pull out the strand, but honestly I think when I grabbed him to hold him still I was so scared I squeezed and kinda dislodged it!!!

Thank you so much, such great information to have!

EDIT – Just read my previous post and I realized as much as I was posting about being scared (terrified), it was more about a human than a bunny ! & I don’t want to distract from the importance of the ‘Bunny’ Heimlich Manoeuvre, so have overwritten this and am encouraging everyone to be aware – it happens to bunnies toooooo!

Hi everyone, I know I haven’t posted on here in years. But I wanted to reply to this thread so it becomes active again. Today Mr. Bun-Bun started choking on pellets. Although I was completely panicking, I had literally just read the original Bunspace post on how to do the Heimlich on rabbits, thinking I’d never need it. I’m not sure if the Heimlich maneuver itself actually saved him (I didn’t see any big chunk fly out) or if he would have dislodged it eventually – but he wasn’t breathing when it first happened, was making gagging noises and greenish partially digested foamy food was coming out of his mouth and nose. After doing the Heimlich as shown in the photos a few times (somehow without hurting him, the maneuver itself must be very stressful to rabbits) – and also opening his mouth and sticking my fingers to try to scoop anything out, he was able to breathe, although was breathing very raspily. So PLEASE look over the info, you never know when you’ll need it! I took him to the emergency vet to make sure there was nothing still stuck in his airway, and apparently he’s fine (although he still looks pretty stressed and hasn’t eaten anything yet.) Phew, what a scare! I’m still in shock. He has been in perfect health this whole time (he’s going to be 5 this summer) – although the emergency vet did say he has some tooth issues which I haven’t noticed, they may need to be filed down later. Hope everyone else’s bunnies are doing great!!

Oh Maya, how scary! So glad you were there and able to help him. Happy to hear the beautiful Mr Bun-Bun is ok.

It’s so good the E-vet picked up on possible teeth problems. Not good that he might have them, but just that it was checked out. Teeth are so often the culprit.

Thank you! And thanks for posting great information like this. Mr. Bun-Bun barely ate any hay for 3 days, but he was eating his greens and treats like banana and raisins (this happened last Wednesday and I couldn’t get a follow-up visit until Monday). He was picking at his food and it would take him half the night to eat his bowl of greens instead of 10 minutes – probably because his throat still hurt. It was a really traumatic and horrible experience that would surely have been worse if I wasn’t prepared for it. He is 100% back to normal now though, and we went to the vet to get his teeth filed down (first time he’s had that done.) Other than that the vet said he looks great, phew what a relief!! And I’m breaking up the pellets into smaller pieces (I had noticed this batch had some longer pieces) and spreading them out so he can no longer inhale them!

I saved this in my favorites so I know how to f ind it quickly if I forget what to do