Agression problem – long

[DaisyAndRoo]

So I’ve had my girl Daisy for almsot 4 years now.  She was the sweetest bun ever for the first 2 years.  She would follow me everywhere I went, always wanted to be with me, she as free range and did so well with it.  She was always friendly and greeted everyone, she loved attention and to be pet. 

Then I adopted my boy Roo for my other girl peach, after about a month they started to fight so I seperated them and put Roo in a pen in Daisy’s room.  I went to work and they knocked the pen over, I came home they were cuddling.

Well last year I got her spayed (it took so long becasue I couldn’t find a vet I trusted, we went through 5 vets.)

 

She had a bronchial spasm while under anesthesia and stopped breathing for almost 2 minutes.
She came home a week later and she seemed fine, tired, eager to be with me and get head pats and love.  Then over about a month I watched her go downhill in sorts.  She became agressive and startled easily.  She would attack anything that moved.  She would protect everything that was ‘hers’. 

She would get so defensive of everything that she’d go running at someone or something and poor roo would be sitting there minding his buisness and she’d literally run him over.  he’d go tumbling, get back up shake it off and continue whatever he was doing.

But it got to the point that one day she was laying down, all is well, shes relaxing…I sneezed.  She got up and ran over and bit me.  Why?  What is she thinking?

 

 

I”ve started to do that bunny massage on her, that helped her relax.  I do everything I can to keep her at ease.  Shes gotten better, but I’m still very leary about her around people.  She gets nervous around new people now.  She hides when there are crowds when she used to be running to everyone trying to sneak a treat or head pat.  She’ll run to you for something then grunt.  If you pet her she growls then lays her head down and starts purring and enjoying it.  If you call her for a treat she runs over, nips you growls then takes the treat.  If you’re laying down and she wants to cuddle, she runs over to you growls and boxes then snuggles right up to you.  This is now, I take what I can get from her.

But I’m always looknig for new ways to help her and help myself with her.  I’ve never done anythnig to make her feel she needs to defend herself, shes never had to fight for anythnig, shes never had to protect herself.  There was always food and love and attention. 

She has a big pen in our new home she shares with roo, but since we’ve movevd in with my bf she ignores roo and i and follows ron everywhere.  She adores my bf and will do anythnig to be with him. 

But shes still a mean bunny.  Not as bad as she used to be thankfully, but people are afraid of her becsue any sudden movement, even if its not sudden or you talk to her when you move she still feels the need to bite.  
She still attacks if you go near absolutely anythnig thats “hers”.

 

Any ideas as to what could have happened?  I’ve recieved a million answers from people but its just so unusual. 
Shes still my baby girl and I adore her and do everything I can to keep her happy.  She lays on the bed with us, she gets cuddles and a healthy diet and goes to the vet every 2 months for a check up and to haev her teeth filed (molar spurs), I just don’t know what to do.

I’m so willing to wrok with her, and shes made a ton of progression over the past year and a half, but she ahs her days where shes intollerable to most and I’ll go to work looknig like I was attacked my a cougar.

 

 

Thanks for anything you guys have to say.

[bunnytowne]

sounds like she may have a little brain damage from not breathing for 2 minutes.  That happened to a dog someone gave me.  It was weird like that.  It would attack you then show it’s belly.  Well being a dog it had to be put down cause of it’s attacking and drawing blood.

Anyhoo… Could it be she is blind? or partially blind?  from that incident as well?  That is a big personality change for a once sweet little bun.

Have you talked to a vet about this? Well those are my best guesses.  I hope it is not so drastic a problem to have her like this. Poor girl. Seems that spay/neuter would calm them down.  Not so in her case.

I hope it all gets better for y’all

[MarkBun]

bunnyt hit the two I thought of as well. It is definitely something strange. I wish I could help you out with it but it is nothing like I have ever heard of. My immediate thought, especially mentioning the stopped breathing is that there was some kind of brain damage but this is such a wierd thing.  If it is brain damage, it might not get much better but then again it could.  Brains (even bun brains) are really mysterious things that do some amazing things – even things that doctors think are impossible.

My suggestion would be to send this information to Dr. Harvey at the Chabot Medical Clinic in Chabot, CA. I don’t have her email addy handy but I know it is floating around these boards. She’s one of the top 3 rabbit doctors in the US and if anything like this has happened before, she’ll know about it.

Edit:  Dr. harvey’s email at the clinic is charveyCVC@aol.com

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

^^ Ditto that, Dr. Harvey is fantastic and could certainly provide some insight

[Beka27]

welcome daisyandroo! i am really sorry that this has been your experience. that’s a tough thing. as you know, spaying is such an important thing for female bunnies due to the high rates of reproductive cancers. but i’m sure that doesn’t make you feel any better at this point. i don’t have experience with this, so i can’t really offer any advice. i hope you can figure out what’s wrong, or at least find a good way to deal with it. even if she’s never the same again, you have done right by her when many people would have given up. (((hugs!)))

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hi DaisyandRoo!  I am very sorry to hear about your situation.  The brain damage thought did occur to me as well, but what I want to ask you is what do you do when she attacks to let her know this is not acceptable behavior for a bunny and if you do, does she have any cognitive understanding of it?  Has any other behavior been affected by this like knowing a certain rattle or clink is a treat forthcoming?  How long was she at the vets and did any other bunny get to run in her space while she was at the vets? Are there any of your boyfriends firends that come over and maybe antagonize Daisy.  How soon did this happen before you moving into your boyfreinds?  What was going on in the environment around you?  Has her schedule changed at all?  Have you changed jobs, been under a lot of stress etc.?  Bunnies can really pick up on our emotions and what we are feeling and I am wondering if perhaps she couldn’t be jealous of your boyfriend and the attention he gets from you. 

I would send Dr. Harvey an e-mail and also Dana Krempels. You can e-mail her here: http://www.allexperts.com/el/703-9/Rabbits/ Scroll down to her profile and clcik on “Ask A Question” She is currently available to answer questions and please let us know what you find out!

 

[DaisyAndRoo]

thanks for the responses guys!

I’ll definitely send out those emails asap.

 

I thought about it being brain damage, but I don’t have experience with that nor have I ever even talked to someone else who has experienced this with a rabbit.  I do what I can to keep her calm, shes my darling little girl still and I absolutely cherish her good days where shes loving and not cranky.   Todays a good day and its great.  Shes laying on the bed napping currently. 

Again, thanks for the responses!

 

 

 

[DaisyAndRoo]

Posted By Scarlet_Rose on 09/15/2008 6:32 PM

Hi DaisyandRoo!  I am very sorry to hear about your situation.  The brain damage thought did occur to me as well, but what I want to ask you is what do you do when she attacks to let her know this is not acceptable behavior for a bunny and if you do, does she have any cognitive understanding of it?  Has any other behavior been affected by this like knowing a certain rattle or clink is a treat forthcoming?  How long was she at the vets and did any other bunny get to run in her space while she was at the vets? Are there any of your boyfriends firends that come over and maybe antagonize Daisy.  How soon did this happen before you moving into your boyfreinds?  What was going on in the environment around you?  Has her schedule changed at all?  Have you changed jobs, been under a lot of stress etc.?  Bunnies can really pick up on our emotions and what we are feeling and I am wondering if perhaps she couldn’t be jealous of your boyfriend and the attention he gets from you. 

I would send Dr. Harvey an e-mail and also Dana Krempels. You can e-mail her here: http://www.allexperts.com/el/703-9/Rabbits/ Scroll down to her profile and clcik on “Ask A Question” She is currently available to answer questions and please let us know what you find out!

 

Hi Scarlet Rose, thanks for your response.  When Dais attacks I usually try to calm her and talk softly to her and pet her to calm her, if its bad I’ll do the eek thing to let her know it really hurt.  Now adays its usually just a tough nip so it doesn’t hurt but I’ll tell her that it hurt and she can’t do that, if she doesn’tstop I put her in her pen and she loses some of her run around th house time.  I don’t really know if she understands shes doing wrong, becasue most things she does wrong she knows is wrong like digging the carpet or chewing the doors and bed skirt.  I’ll say Dais in a firm voice and tell her she needs to stop, and she usually hops off and does something else.

Its hard to let her know becasue she bites then within seconds shes licking you, as if she feels bad.  Its hard to let a bun know shes done wrong when shes busy grooming you lol.

Shes a little piglet and anything that sounds like theres possibly food near by she comes running.  I take my medication in the morning and she comes running to see if I have something she can have. 

She was at teh vets for about a week because she refused to eat afterwards and had to be handfed everyday.  The only other bun that came near her was Roo, I paid to have him boarded there so he could stay with her.  She gets frightened when shes without me or at the vets, so I wanted roo to be with her to keep her company. 

Theres no friends of ron’s that come over and tease her, no one is allowed near her without me around unless they’ve known daisy long enough to know when shes going to bite and how to handle that situation.  His friends know that rule when they’re hear.  I work 8-4 4 days a week and he works 7-5 6 days a week, so no one is ever here without me being here.

This all started last year before we moved in with Ron. Her enviroment was good, nothing had changed from teh time she was a baby.  I hadn’t changed jobs, the semester was over so I was home quite often with her. 
At the time there was no stress, everything was good.  Shes pretty good at picking up on my emotions, shes usually pretty extra loving when she knows I’m sad.

She is a jealous bunny, always has been.  Shes always wanted all of my attention all of the time.  But this started before Ron and I became serious so we didn’t spend so much time togther.  She got all of my attention still and she still gets as much as possible from me.  Since we’ve moved shes started to ignore me now and she follows ron around and always lays with him and trys to be with him.  So I don’t thik shes jealous lol

 

I will send those emails asap, I’m fne witht he situation, I’m more than happy to work with her.  I just want to know what happened, thats something that sits in my mind.  Again, thanks for your response! I really do appreciate it.

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