Bunny May Have Gotten Chocolate?

[CinnamonPearl]

Hello, me again! I have a quick question.

So earlier tonight I left a chocolate chip muffin out on the sofa in my room, about half eaten, and I’m worried my bunny may’ve taken some bites out of it. I’m usually really careful with this stuff, but Clover has only recently started really hopping up onto the couch and shelves and stuff, like within the past few days, and I’m still not used to it. >.< Anyway, the muffin didn't seem to be bitten that much, but I'm worried he may've gotten to it cause it seemed to be in a different spot from where I left it? And turned over. So I'm worried he may've gotten some chocolate. What should I do about it? Does he need to see a vet?

[kurottabun]

Chocolate is very bad for rabbits. Some buns have died from ingesting it but others have been able to pull through, so it also depends on the individual bun.

Pay close attention to his behaviour and poop – if anything is abnormal then he needs to see the vet.

[CinnamonPearl]

I’ll pay close attention. Oh gosh, I’m so worried. >.< How long would it take to start seeing symptoms, and how long until he could take a turn for the worst? I wanna be able to know when he's in the clear.

[kurottabun]

Make sure he’s eating lots of hay and drinking lots of water as these will help the chocolate move through his guts faster. If there are issues, you should be able to know from within the next few hours to a day or two.

[Bam]

How is your bun doing now? For acute poisonings you’d as a rule see symptoms within 6-12 hours. If the amount of chocolate ingested was minute, he should be fine. The worst kind of chocolate is the really dark varieties (plus cocoa powder). The toxic component in chocolate is called theobromine. Milk chocolate has less theobromine than dark chocolate and white chocolate has an insignificant amount.

Here’s more info, rather scientific, but there’s a link to a chocolate toxicity calculator on the page where you can put in your bun’s weight, type of chocolate and estimated amount ingested and get a quick answer if treatment is needed. http://www.msdvetmanual.com/toxicology/food-hazards/chocolate

[CinnamonPearl]

Twenty four hours later, and he’s doing fine! I’m slightly worried cause he seems to have peed less than usual today? Hard to tell, though. He usually pees in two corners of his litter box but only used one today, but I don’t have a way of telling if he peed double in the one corner. And he also maaaaay have eaten less hay, but again, hard to tell with him, his eating habits vary a good amount. But other than that, he’s acting normal. I scruffed him and felt his belly (Clover hates people touching his belly, haha), and while he shook me off kinda fast, it did feel normal at least. Soft and squishy. I got grunted at in return. XD Other than that, his energy level is normal, his body seems fine, he’s not acting sick. I think we might be in the clear! The chocolate he did get was definitely milk chocolate, nothing dark, and it would have been a few chocolate chips at most. I’m not sure how good the actual muffin was for him, if he did eat any at all. I just hope he didn’t eat any of the muffin wrapping, there did seem to be less than there should’ve been.

[Sr. Melangell]

Bam, this comes up quite a lot about bunnies and chocolate, I was just thinking is it possible you or another Admin/Moderator could put a topic in the forums about this as a read only explaining what to do? Like ring a vet and what to look out for, Bunnies love sweet human food but it’s not for them.

[CinnamonPearl]

A few days later and he seems to be in the clear! The only thing I’m worried about is he seems to be drinking less water? His usual is to go through almost a whole bowl of water in 24 hours, but since this happened, he’s only been drinking half. Should I be worried?

[Bam]

I don’t think drinking less water is a sign of sth bad. Drinking more water is an observandum, but the opposite rings no bells. Has he been getting extra greens? Strawberries? Fresh grass? Greens can be juicier this time of year. That means the bun will need to drink less but it will still pee a normal amount.

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