Bunnies have the WORST timing! ARGH

[cainan]

4:45 am – awoken from a dead sleep to sounds from the bunny room.  Investigate.  Don’t see any bunnies; assume Banner is in the tunnel and Merry in the box.  Close the door from bunny room to hallway.

6am-ish-7 – more noise from bunny room.  Put pillow over head and ignore

7:05am – wake up, walk to kitchen to cut banana for Merry, peer into dining room – and see BANNER!  Herd him back through 2d door of bunny room and see that his 36″ high xpen is still locked up nice and tight.

Ugh.

Put him back in pen, let Merry out into dining room for banana and morning run.

How in the WORLD did this little guy escape?  I knew that he could jump, but I never in a million years thought he had enough room to run and clear the pen!

So I checked him out; he doesn’t seem to have any physical injury that I can determine – oh wait, there’s what looks like a bite mark on his noise.  *sigh*  Merry nipped him once before when he got too close so I have to assume that’s what this is (or his fur just got that missing look from what? jumping out of the cage?)  He doesn’t show any distress when I touch it, and when Merry comes by he eagerly runs over to her.

So the problems presented:

1.  I want to take him to the vet just to make sure he’s not hiding any injury – but I have to go to NYC for a huge work thing today (already I should be on the road) AND it’s dress rehearsal week for the play I’m in, so when can I find the time?  (oh wait I think I have Friday off but can I wait that long?)

2.  How do I prevent him from jumping out again?  I don’t have a top for the pen, or even a sheet handy to put over it… guess I’ll put him in his cage today… or let Merry hang in the dining room and leave him in bunny room with his pen open.  He (ha) can’t get into anything if I close her pen up so I’m not too worried.

Meh, bunnies have the worst timing!  Any advice for the bunmom of the bunny-jumping bean?

[LittlePuffyTail]

Sorry I don’t have any advice for you but I can totally relate!!! Sunday is my only day to sleep in (well if 8:00 a.m. is sleeping in but it’s better than 5:30) but Bindi felt it necessary to wake me up at 7:00 yesterday and keep making noise until I got up and fed him! The stinker. And today I wake up to find him over by Stormy’s cage digging up the carpet!! I don’t know how he got out, he managed to unclip his cage somehow.

I find my bunnies are most active/bratty in the morning!

[cainan]

at least the cage was unclipped – banner’s was still locked which leads me to believe he jumped OVER it. I really really hope he’s okay – he’s acting scared or shy right now :/

[jagx30]

We have (cat-sized) mini lops, they are in custom cages that are three feet high and three of them have been able to clear them with no problem. We keep a fitted single bed sheet over the top so we can easily access the cage, but more than once I have had the sheet off to put in food or take something out and I have watched them clear it from a standing jump, no running necessary, and no harm done to them. So you may not need to worry so much about him having been hurt jumping out. Our Molly is even so curious about what is in the tall trashbin that she has more than once jumped into it from standing next to it, which always scares her to death when she lands in the bottom of the bin. We get her out and she does it again.

[Otti]

I would tempt him with treats and see if he runs around chasing you for them.. This way you can see if he’s moving normally….

[cainan]

Good idea about the treats and the fitted sheet
thanks guys!

[Tate]

Can you hold him? I would definitely check his front legs first, go over them like your looking for a broken bone and feel around on his chest as well. Go over his back legs the same way, as well as his rib cage and hips. Buns are notoriously amazing at hiding pain, so it’s up to you to find something. My bunny broke his leg after having him for three days (so I didn’t really know him or his mannerisms very well). I was in the other room and walked out and knew instantly something was wrong. He wasn’t running away from me and he pooped A LOT (I’m sure he did this right when he broke his leg). Anyways, look for any little change in behavior that may indicate he is hurt. If he’s walking fine and able to run and he’s eating and drinking, my bet is that he is ok. Sometimes these things lead to injury, but then again, if a bunny weren’t meant to make that landing ok, they wouldn’t be able to jump that high.

[cainan]

LOL he seems to be okay from the jump – running & jumping (lucky me ) no problem.

It’s the possible bite on his nose that I’m worried about too – doesn’t seem to have broken the skin, but there’s definitely fur damage.

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