My bun was noisy breathing?

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This topic has 5sd replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 8 months ago by Sidthebunny.

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- 02/11/2021 at 1:47 PM
  Sidthebunny
  Participant
  23 posts
  Hi everyone,
  
  I woke up this morning and went to check on my bun. He stays in an indoor cage in the garage overnight, and I take him out to play indoors everyday for a minimum of 4/5 hours. This morning he was breathing noisily for a very short amount of time. The breathing wasn’t fast, it was rather slow, like one breath per second. I brought him inside to keep an eye on him, as in winter the garage gets quite cold sometimes. he never made a sound again once he was in the house. I did see 2 runny poops but after that he did around 50 normal poops and I restricted his diet to just hay and a bowl of greens, just to be on the safe side 😉 he’s still scratching from his ear mites, even though it’s been 4 weeks 🙁 it made me wonder whether the breathing had anything to do with a secondary bacterial infection from the mites? Or was it because it was cold in the garage? I looked up a few videos of rabbits with pneumonia and my bun sounded similar to that, just less rapid and it only happened for a few seconds, then never again.
  It sounded something like this, just slightly slower breathing:
  
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=R8f25eWO7oQ
  
  Throughout the day he has been WOLFING down his hay and veggies, he drank water, ran around like crazy and probably pooped like 100 dry poops, so I’m not sure how worried i should be… is it possibly from an ear infection or was the garage just colder than he’s used to at night? Outside it was -3 degrees Celsius, so it must’ve been around 2 degrees in the garage… I could’ve sworn he made that sound one other time whilst in the cage, but he has NEVER made it indoors throughout the day. Thoughts?
- 02/11/2021 at 1:55 PM
  Wick & Fable
  Moderator
  5813 posts
  For the immediate future, can you house your rabbit indoors overnight? That is definitely on the low side of what a rabbit can tolerate for temperature, especially for overnight periods. Is his cage well insulated?
  
  I would recommend a vet visit as soon as you can to assess the ear mite situation actually. If it was not properly treated and something has developed, you want the proper medication.
  
  The breathing seems labored. If it was just a short time, it might have been from stress or being tired. Cold can definitely contribute. Feeling cold is something that stresses the body (just like in humans), and that makes the immune system weaker. When the immune system is weaker, it makes any infection easier to catch. Also, remember that rabbits don’t catch colds like humans. If we catch a cold, we can get over it. When rabbits “catch a cold”, they do need veterinary intervention or it will only get worse.
  
  Re: the restricted diet, were you restricting pellets? At this point, I would not do that as I don’t think that’s related to the breathing. The runny poop is concerning, but if it was only two instances I wonder if it might have just been cecotrope juice or a weird upset stomach and it has now passed? As a rabbit who is being exposed to very cold temperatures, you really want to make sure the rabbit is getting the full range of nutrition, which pellets really help with.
  
  The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 02/11/2021 at 2:20 PM
  Sidthebunny
  Participant
  23 posts
  @Wick thanks for the quick reply! His cage has a lot of hay bedding for him and has cardboard around the exposed edges to maybe retain some sort of heat, I’m worried that this is not enough… I can always move the cage inside, I moved it inside a couple of times in December when my other bunny had GI Stasis, so it’s definitely easy to do so.
  
  I 100% agree with you, his next spot on treatment of Ivictemin is due this Saturday. This will be his last one though, and if I feel he hasn’t improved he will definitely go the vet. In the meantime I want to keep a close eye on his symptoms and make sure they do not get any more worrysome.
  
  Yeah I thought it was laboured too since it was quite slow breathing. My gut feeling is telling me it was the cold that caused this, he’s never made the noise indoors and only made it in the garage, which is persuading me even more to move his cage in a heated room rather than one like the garage… I’m rather worried about the possibility of an upper respiratory infection. I occasionally pressed my finger on his nose throughout the day and it was dry, but do you still think this could be a possibility?
  
  I restricted the amount of greens he was having throughout the day, then gave pellets later on. I also gave him two bowls of leafy greens after a couple hours, because the 2 wet poops weren’t really a worry to me at that point ☺️
- 02/11/2021 at 11:01 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9054 posts
  I agree with Wick, I think bring him inside and having him looked over is a good move.
  
  Also, I can’t quite tell from the video, but it looks like you are holding him on his back? It might just be a weird perspective, but if that’s the case, I just wanted to mention that rabbit welfare groups do not recommend holding rabbits this way. There are cases where the rabbit’s heart rate can drop dangerously, and there have been studies that show it is quite stressful for the rabbit. It’s a bit of a debated topic (and might be warranted in certain circumstances), but I wanted to mention it here because if the bunny is having trouble breathing or has gotten too cold, holding it that way could compound his issues. Also apologies if I’ve seen it wrong!
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 02/16/2021 at 12:28 PM
  Hazel
  Participant
  2587 posts
  Rabbits can handle temperature differences of 10 degrees Celsius/18 degrees Fahrenheit between inside and outside. If the difference is larger than that you will end up with respiratory problems, even pneumonia. I’m guessing your house is warmer than 12 degrees Celsius so taking him back and forth between the house and a garage that’s barely above freezing is a no-no. He needs to stay in one place, and since the garage is too cold for him to begin with, you have to keep him in the house permanently, or he will get seriously sick.
- 02/19/2021 at 11:08 AM
  Sidthebunny
  Participant
  23 posts
  @Hazel hi! I totally agree with you! After some research I did find this out and I kept my bun inside for a week. It’s now 11 degrees Celsius outside and around 13 in the garage, so I decided to move him back in the garage, as it’s more comfortable for him now. The plan for the future is to convert the garage into a playroom with better insulation for him, so then we wouldn’t have to keep transferring him room to room. But for now, we are transferring him from a 13 degree garage to an 18 degree room. He hasn’t breathed like that since, so I do believe the cold and temperature difference was the problem! I will definitely try and find an indoor setup for future winters! Thanks so much for the reply😊😊
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