Does your bunny get depressed?

[dewey]

I work from home, which means I am with my bunnies every day.  This fall, husband & I went away for two weeks.  After five days, the older bunny got sick.  Vet thought that rabbit got depressed while we were away.  Just went away for the first time since then.  We only went for four days.  Asked the pet sitter to give older bunny more attention and petting.  

When we got back, he looked awful. None of his usual energy and no excited behavior for his veggies. I was worried b/c he does get ill. I spent a lot of time with him.  He wanted a lot of love.  Today he is back to his usual spunky self.

Does this happen to anyone else?  Is it just an older bunny? How do you go away for vacations?

[lws84]

Hi Dewey – I went away for about 6 days when I had my first bun, Solzhenitsyn, and he seemed okay.  He was more of a stand-offish sort however.  He liked to be let out and liked to run around as much as the next bunny, but he only wanted affection on his terms (meaning, he liked getting pet but when he decided that was enough over he’d nip me gently and that was that – or he’d run off).  My second rabbit, Pasternak, is much more of lovey rabbit, who licks me and likes to run up to me and flop over to get petted.  He’s about 6 months old now.  My boyfriend and I did go away for a couple of days and he seemed okay, but again we were only gone a couple days.

I don’t see why rabbits would not get depressed…? Although it may just be because he is older and any change in his routine upsets him more than it would a younger rabbit.

[Cottontail]

I know my Pete gets depressed when Zoey (cat) has anxiety attacks and goes into hiding or secludes herself from him. He’ll go from being his happy klutzy bouncy self to just sitting on his feet and only eating about half his food, if that. Now that we have Zoey on her anxiety medicine she’s perkier, and in turn, so is he. For reference, Pete is only just turning a year old come April 1st, so it’s not necessarily an age thing… I think it has more to do with who they are emotionally dependent upon.

I’m curious if for long trips you couldn’t fake a visit with him mid-week? Like by phone or skype if he normally responds to your voice. It works for my friends dogs, but not sure how bunny brains would interpret it.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Call your petsitter and ask how he ate and behaved while you were gone. I mean, animals can get depressed, but I’m thinking it’s more likely the change in routine caused stress which in turn can bring on illness. You described the behaviour but what in particular makes you say he looked awful? Was his coat a mess or had he lost weight?
What were his symptoms that caused you to bring him to the vet after your first trip?

[dewey]

When we adopted my bunny, he was really nervous and breathed really fast. We had him for about a month and he developed head tilt. Foster mom thought he it might be stress of new environment. Vet remarked how fast he was breathing.

2nd time my bunny got sick, we were renovating the room and had to move the to the basement. We tried to keep everything the same. He developed GI Stasis. We also learned he had chronic kidney disease. Since then, he has had a few bouts of stasis.

This fall, our pet sitter called as soon as he did not eat his full plate of food. His ear was drooping. Ear infection lead to head tilt. We are in constant contact with pet sitter via phone and email. They have rabbits and know how quickly my bunny (or any bunny) can go downhill from illness. This last time the vet thought he was missing us. He had just been checked by the doctor about 2 weeks before b/c he had GI Stasis. I told the vet about our vacation, they thought things would be o.k. but had our contact info just in case.

When I came home this time, he was listless. His ears were not up. He did not hop and run about. He usually runs and hops about when I feed him pellet or veggie, but he didn’t do any of that. He just sat there in his cage and was not excited about anything.

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