For the past year or so, one of my bunnies has been breathing really loudly. He only does it when he’s relaxed – either when he’s asleep, lying down, or twisting to groom himself. I’ve shown videos to two different vets, and both said it basically sounds like snoring to them. It’s gotten progressively worse, to the point where he regularly wakes himself up when it gets particularly loud.

It started last year when I moved across the country, which made me think it might be allergies. My vet agreed, and she prescribed him an antihistamine (2mg chlorpheniramine once daily). As far as I can tell, it hasn’t made much of a difference.

I’m not sure how to post a video on here, and I don’t think my videos really accurately capture the sound or how loud it is, anyway. Honestly, it makes me think of sleep apnea snoring. It sounds kind of like a rough honk, usually at a steady relaxed breathing rate but sometimes accelerating (which is usually when he wakes himself up and stops). When it gets faster, it becomes more of a high pitched whimpering sound. Also, it’s loud enough that I can easily hear it from another room with the door closed. It’s REALLY loud.

My vet said that she’s not too concerned now because he doesn’t have any symptoms of infection (no discharge or sneezing, lungs sound clear). Of course his breathing is totally normal at the vet (probably because he’s not relaxed there). She said that two things would make her want to pursue it: either if it seems like he’s in distress, or if it becomes so bad that he can’t get any sleep. He doesn’t SEEM like he’s in distress to me because it stops as soon as he wakes up, but it doesn’t sound comfortable and it doesn’t sound right. If anything, I’m the one who’s distressed! There have been a few times when I was worried enough to almost take him to the emergency vet, but he always snaps out of it when I wake him up.

The vet said she could think of two options to figure out what’s going on. She said they might be able to scope him, although his nose is small enough that the scope might not fit so that may not be possible. The other option is a CT scan. Both would require anesthesia. They’d be expensive (she gave me a very rough estimate of $700 for the CT), which I’d be willing to pay if I thought it would make a difference, but what could they really find that would actually be treatable? I don’t want to risk anesthesia just to satisfy my curiosity.

Anyway, sorry for the huge amount of text. I’d appreciate any input at all! Whether you’ve heard anything like this before or if you have any guesses at what could be causing it. I hope it’s just harmless snoring, but it’s definitely getting worse. Thanks in advance!