In need of some help – Could this be Congestive heart failure related?

[Mr. Bun Bun]

Hello everyone, I need some help as I’m completely unsure what is going on with my little boy who is about 9 years old.

About a week and a half ago my little guy had a strange episode or fit that lasted about 5 minutes. During this episode he seemed panicked and disorientated while his posture changed to being almost completely on the floor, breathing rapidly with his eyes wide open and a bit bulging out. (I’m including a link to a video below as it unfortunately happened again and this time I recorded it). At the time I assumed he was just choking as he had eaten just before it happened. After trying to help him and recovering from the stress of the episode, he was quite normal for about 2 days and then his eating started to change. So I took him to the vet on Friday as he was no longer eating his pellets, the vet did a regular physical and found nothing and just concluded that he was experiencing stress-induced gi stasis.

Then we started treatment (critical care and a bunch of motility meds as well as his metacam which he is on anyway for his arthritis) and then he got a bit better until last night when he had another one of the same episodes and this time he did not eat or drink immediately before it. I recorded it this time and it can be viewed via the following unlisted YouTube link: https://youtu.be/GZPsvSLEhFA?si=d2KzflaWOuHv5xmf

It took him quite a while to calm down after the episode and of course he stopped eating until about noon today. So far he is doing quite well, pretty much the same as yesterday before he had the episode.

So yeah, I was wondering if any of you have seen anything like this before or have any idea what it could be? I have already booked an appointment with the vet for tomorrow as I am especially worried that this might be congestive heart failure related. Tomorrow at the vet, we will hopefully do an x-ray to find out more on how things look on his inside. However, I have had mixed experiences with vets where I live. So any help or insight would be greatly appreciated. I’ve already spent a lot of time on Medirabbit and some other online resources researching what it could be and how things like congestive heart failure are diagnosed and treated. But again, if any of you have any ideas or experiences with this sort of thing, any insight would be greatly appreciated so that I can go to the vet tomorrow well informed and ask all the necessary questions to establish what is going on. Thank you all in advance for taking the time to read my post and any of your help. One last possible thing that might be relevant to this case is that on Friday when I took him to the vet he was much more stressed than usual. Also after I got home with him and he had calmed down, he got up out of nowhere and seemed a bit panicked and disoriented with a fast heartbeat. At the time I thought this was probably due to the pain from the gas in his tummy as it was different from the other episode because he was still walking normally and his eyes were not bulging or wide open.

(YT link checked by Bam)

[DanaNM]

Poor little guy 🙁

I don’t have any experience with congestive heart failure in buns, but I think getting some imaging is the correct next step. Some of the other moderators may have more insight.

. . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.  

[Wick & Fable]

Considering the initial vet visit only included a general physical, I do not think you need to worry about CHF at this time– The signs of CHF in rabbits (as noted on MediRabbit) are quite vague, so unless your rabbit has shown poor cardiac health in the past, I think it’s more likely to exercise other causes first, such as a choking episode that is now causing some respiratory/GI distress or perhaps your rabbit has become spooked by something you cannot perceive, causing sudden “oh my goodness I am SO FRIGHTENED”. Both bloodwork and an xray will hopefully give more specified symptoms on what exactly is going on. Anecdotally, my oldest rabbit Galaxy has had two random episodes during the night of suddenly going absolutely ballistic in her enclosure for seemingly no apparent reason at some sort of fright, causing her to literally crash into the pen walls enough to open the latches from the shakes.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Love my bun]

Did the vet ever diagnose your Bun? I have a senior rabbit so reading up in case this ever happens to him. Hope it turned out to be nothing and he is fine!

[LBJ10]

There is a type of seizure similar to this where they are “frozen” and their eyes are wide open. They do not lose consciousness during they type of seizure. Here is something from Medirabbit that explains the differences: http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Neurology/Metabolic/Seizures_en.pdf

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