Rabbit continuously laying down, dragging with front paws?

[plpnt]

Hello,
I’m new to the forum and registered due to a behavior my rabbit is now exhibiting and has not before.
I let her out from her enclosure to run about the house, and it’s been around 2/3 hours. I went to check on her and noticed that she was laying down strangely.
She would flop and stetch out as normal, but then she would get up, and lay in a different direction and stretch even more. I thought it was alright as she likes to switch her position once or twice anyways, until she didn’t leave her spot, and started to shift position by dragging herself with her front paws. It made me think she was feeling uncomfortable. She’s stopped by the time I’m typing this around 20 minutes later, but I’m still wondering what it might’ve been.

She’s been eating well, drinking water, her poop seems to be normal, and I don’t see anything that could be wrong externally (no runny eyes or nose, no injury, nothing looks oddly distended or inflated, her fur is clean and well-groomed, etc.) But it’s just this one behavior that I’m worried about. I already know of the dangers of bloating and similar ailments, but she’s never shown anything like this before nor has she ever been ill. I’m hoping it’s nothing serious and just something she’s decided to do today, but am still a little cautious of.

Extra info on her: She’s a 5-6 year old female mini-rex. I don’t believe she’s been spayed. She’s a bit on the lazy side, but really gets active if she wants to. She’s never been ill or sustained serious injury and is oddly intolerant to strawberries, as they give her diarrhea, but I stopped feeding them to her years ago.

[Mikey]

A few things come to mind, but ultimately I recommend a vet visit asap to ensure shes ok.

It could be tummy pain from gas or a blockage. If shes not spayed, it could be be a sign of uterine problems. Hind leg paralysis (which would need to be seen by a vet ASAP as its very life threatening). Arthritis. Parasite.

[plpnt]

Sorry for the late response! I haven’t been able to access the internet for awhile.
Ahh I was worried it could be uterine infection as I’ve heard it occurs in unspayed females, but I’ll hope it’s nothing too terrible.
I’ll have to see see if I can get her to a vet soon as I know a few around here.
Another concern of mine is that she often liked to chew and eat her plastic litterbox, to the point where I removed it entirely after she removed a sizeable portion. I feel like her doing that might have done something as well.

[sarahthegemini]

Have you not taken her to a vet yet? It’s been over a week?

[plpnt]

No, I was not able to take her to a vet as I’ve not had time to do so.

I’ll be taking her this week as soon as I can allot a time to, hopefully before Friday.

[joea64]

Not meaning to jump on you or anything but, please, make the time to take her to the vet, even if you have to take time off work or school or whatever. I worry that leaving it off that long might have worsened whatever the problem is. If it had been GI stasis, for example, a delay that long could well have been fatal – digestive-system issues need to be treated ASAP when they’re detected, like it says at the top of the page.

[Deleted User]

She really needs to see a vet. If you lost function of your legs and had to drag yourself with your arms, wouldn’t you be so alarmed that you go to the ER immediately? Even if the issue seemed to resolve itself, she needs a vet ASAP

[sarahthegemini]

Have you made an appointment? If so, what did the vet say?

[Author]

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