Attitude problem

[JMJimmy]

We’ve got a 1 1/2 year old holland lop named Inara and we’re a bit worried about her.  Over the past several months she’s developed a serious attitude problem and has stopped binkying/tearing around the house.

It’s hard to describe her attitude but it’s very distinct and very different from her past happy go lucky self.  It started with food aggression, we would give her daily treats (spinach, romane lettuce, basil, mint, and less often banana, kiwi, strawberry, broccoli etc) this resulted in her associating the noise of the fridge opening with treats… she’d run to the door and start trying to climb into the vegtable drawer and when she couldn’t she’d park herself so you coudln’t close the fridge – and wouldn’t move even when you slowly closed it on her! 

I was always stronger at resisting her than my girlfriend so she’d try another tactic with me, she’d come and pay hommage (licking my feet and legs) while I was on the couch until she’d get what she wanted.  After 30 minutes of trying to bribe me with kisses she’d jump up on the couch, glare at me and poop 3 pellets and slink off into the kitchen and act all sullen for the rest of the night.

Now this has escalated.  We started trying to train her to help her with her boredom, to get her treats she’d have to do something… jump up on the bed or over her carrying case or spin… something.  She took to the bed very easily and began hopping up on her own scouring the bed for treats.  Low and behold, if you’re near the bed and she jumps up and finds nothing there – she’ll pee!

On top of this she’s taken to staying inside her pen almost all the time and just eating/sleeping/pooping/peeing (all of the sudden outside her litterbox though she’d been trained since day 1).  Her pen stays open at all times except at night and if we’re both leaving the house, she’s got lots of toys, cardboard, phone book, etc but never pays attetion to any of it.  At most she’ll hop in a cardboard box and soil it.

Her past behaviour was to have 2 binky/run around sessions every day.  Her weight is good (just slightly overweight but we’ve reduced her pellets/sweets to counter this).  She has’t been spayed yet.

Any ideas on how we might help her?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Welcome!!!

The first thing-with any ANY animal who has a change in behavior you have to see a vet. Has she had a checkup lately? Most medical problems with animals show up as behaviors first. So the first thing you have to do is rule out a medical cause. It would be sad to try to train an animal who really has a urinary tract infection and is in pain. So vet first.

Next-spay. Female rabbits=male humans. They are the defenders. This means that aggressive behaviors you may see in a male in another species (re: humans) would show up in a female in rabbits. It’s absolutely imperative that you spay. Certainly for behavior but also because statistically a female rabbit has an 80% chance of cancer by age four (And it only increases from there) if they aren’t spayed. Cancer is by far more expensive then spaying, and spaying does all kind of great things from improving behavior, mood and toilet habits. So definitely she needs to be spayed-for her health and for your sanity.

And lastly after a checkup and spay and healing we can talk how to make her into a perfect housebun
Welcome! We’d love to see pictures!

[JMJimmy]

We’ve been avoiding taking her for a checkup because we had a really horrible experience with what should have been a quality vet.

The first week we had her she developed diarrhea and took her to the vet, they didn’t give the poor thing a chance to get used to her surroundings after we opened the cage. We informed them she didn’t like to be held and they manhandled the crap out of her including putting her on her back and stuck her with sub-dermal hydration without our permission. When they brought her back from the back room they put her on the exam table which had a slippery surface and the poor thing scrambled & huddled as hard as she could against my girlfriend. The poor thing hasn’t been able to walk on a smooth surface since. We had to buy throw rugs for the entire apartment which was 100% tile floor. As they’re the only exotic vet in our area we don’t have much choice but to go there or drive a few hundred kilometres to the next one.

Later we learned that her diarrhea was most likely just too quick of a change from her old diet (we didn’t know to ask the breeder for some of their feed and mix the new and the old) – all it took was switching her hay and she was fine – $150 vet bill and a terrified bunny later…

[BinkyBunny]

 I think KK’s advice is spot on. Because your bunny’s  behavior has changed and aggression and/or seclusion can be a behaviorial manifestation of something physically wrong, (especially if a bunny is dealing with  pain — even if it’s a low grade pain), I agree that it is important to rule that out first.  

I am so sorry about your experience at the vets.  But don’t let that scare you away from vets in general. It would be a good idea to get established with a rabbit-savvy vet anyway since it would be rare that a bunny wouldn’t need to visit one at  least once in their lifetime. (All you have to do is hang around this forum and you’ll see how many members have to deal with health issues that need vet care). 

Also, sometimes vet staff may not represent properly the vet, (the vet may not even be aware), so you would want to report any mishandlings to the vet.  Now if the vet was involved that is another story. 

I would start looking for a qualified vet.   Some resources that offer vet referrals: 

http://rabbit.org/vets/vets.html

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/PB_vets.html

http://www.bunspace.com/vets/search

This next article helps you find a vet on your own and also provides you with screening questions to ask the vets (even the ones that are on the referral list as those referral lists can change) 

http://www.bunspace.com/vets/search

 

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