Bun got sprayed!

[Pyro]

My grandmother agreed to watch my mother’s friend’s kid, and while I was eating breakfast he went into my room, somehow got ahold of Pledge Wood polish with natual orange oil and sprayed my rabbit Bun. It was all over her, and I tried by best to get it off of her with a damp rag, baby wipes and dry shampoo (from lush because petsmart didn’t have any for pets and neither did target) and she seems to be orange oil free. But, when I discovered it she was already trying to groom herself and most likely ingested some. I wanted to take her to a vet immediately but I have no money to pay for it. I still want to take her to a vet because she’s been really lethargic, she’s usually teasing my dog Basel by now but she’s currently being a Bun-loaf… Before I go into debt to make sure my rabbit lives do you have any advise or home-remedies for her? Please Help! I dont know what I would do if she died 

[LBJ10]

This may be one of those rare cases where an actual bath would be appropriate. I would be worried if she ingested any. It contains petroleum distillates, which can have neurological effects if ingested. Does your city have a poison control hotline for pets? Or you could call an emergency vet clinic for advice.

[Bam]

I think you need to call a pet poisoning hotline or your vet.

She may need breathing-support. Hydrocarbons also affect the heart.
That she’s lethargic is not good. I’m glad you got the oil out, I would’ve liked to give her a bath to get all of it off, but then there’s this about the heart, the heart is sensitized by hydrocarbons that release catecholamines esp adrenaline, arrhythmias can follow.

Medline Plus says to give water. It only has info for humans, but the general principles would be the same, breathing and heart and all. Do not try to make her throw up.

https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002788.htm

[Pyro]

She’s been grooming herself so i think she ingested some but idk how much she ate…but she is drinking water.

[Bam]

It’s good that’s she’s drinking.
Keep monitoring her, if she gets difficulty breathing you must seek help.

As for the hydrocarbons: Alkanes are less hazardous than aromatics, the orange- Pledge contains mostly alkanes and only very little aromatic hydrocarbons. That’s good.

(Here’s the fact sheet on the Pledge with orange oil: http://www.scjohnson.ca/msds/Pledge_OrangeOil_E.pdf)

[Avantika]

Update us on your bun.

I am not sure if I am giving the right suggestion, but I read that we can squirt a Vitamin E gel capsule inside the bun’s mouth in case he/she ingest something toxic. Bam, LBJ10 and others, please comment on this.

[Bam]

Avantika, I found an old BB thread on this subject: https://binkybunny.com/FORUM/tabid/54/aft/106077/Default.aspx

It seems vitamin E is sometimes recommended. I also found a paper on vitamins and rabbits where it says that “toxicity of vitamin E has never been described” (as opposed to vitamines A and D toxicity). So it seems safe to give vitamin E. http://www.wrs.upv.es/files/journals/vol%208_4_lebas.pdf (it’s just about vitamins and bunnies but since I quoted it, I think it’s appropriate to give the source.)

Pyro, how is your bun doing now?

[Pyro]

Bun is eating, and drinking better than she was yesterday. Would i just get those vitamins from the store? And I think I forgot to mention this but the skin on her ears is red and irritated, so what can I do about that??
In all she is doing better, and is a little more active than yesterday.

[Pyro]

An update on Bun, she is eating and drinking and earlier she was even demanding pets as usual DD
She’s still not as active as before but shes doing much much better

[Vienna Blue in France]

For goodness sake, what did the boy think he was doing? Spraying poor Bun with wood polish??!! For fun? Sounds a great kid !
I spose if he was very young, really not knowing what he was doing, then we should be grateful he didn’t spray it down his own mouth….

So glad she seems to be doing better ! :o)

[Bam]

I’m glad she’s doing so much better! If there’s irritation on her ears I think perhaps you should try and rinse them with water, f ex with a sponge (lukewarm water) if a baby napkin isn’t enough. Then you could put some bag balm on the irritated parts (after patting the ears dry). The skin on the ears is delicate, so the Pledge was probably toughest on them. Are her eyes ok?
Vitamin E capsules (pills are of course useless) should be available in most stores.

[Pyro]

The kid is 2, and they have a bird at home in which they spritz it with water when it’s being too noisy. So, Eli (the kid) associated spray bottle=spray the fluffy animal making noise in the cage.
She really wont let me near them with a baby wipe, she just shys away. I can try to wipe of her ears when she’s not as active.

[Bam]

Try to wipe her ears in case there’s some left of the pledge. She may be sore and that’s why she won’t let you touch the ears. If there’s a lot of irritation/sores, try to get some neosporin cream (plain, not the type with a pain-killer added to it) and treat the ears with that once a day for a few days.

A 2 year old kid of course can’t understand.

[Pyro]

An update on bun: she’s doing a lot better, currently she’s running around my room binky-ing all over the place and occasionally demanding I pet her via nibbles and head bumps. Thank you for your advise and concerns

[LBJ10]

Glad to hear she is better. There have been some really sad cases where a bunny accidentally gets a harmful chemical on them, so I’m relieved to see this was a happy ending. I would still keep an eye, but the chances of there being side effects at this point is probably low.

[blubudgie]

Ohmygosh! So glad your bun is doing okay! She’s a tough bun

On another note, that family should not be spraying their bird because it is being noisy. Birds are by nature noisy. Telling a bird to never chirp/scream is like telling a human to never talk. There are ways to reduce noise (simply ignoring the bird when it is yelling), but punishment methods do not work on birds (or any animals really).
What can happen if they continue to spray their bird with water when it makes noise:
> The bird may like the water/attention and associate it as a reward for screaming and thus scream more
> The bird will get too cold and get sick
> The bird will be even more stressed, scream more, or develop other behavioral problems related to stress. 

> Their child could one day do the same thing to his bird as he did to your bunny. The bird will possibly die because they are so so so sensitive to aerosols.
I’m sorry this is kind of off topic but I hate it when people get birds expecting them to be quiet, it just makes no sense. And spraying them with water (unless occasionally for a bath) is just wrong.

[Author]

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