Rabbit spitting out food? Choking??

[Louiethebunny]

Hi everyone, I haven’t checked the forum in a few days however I got back on tonight and something strange happened tonight during Lola’s dinner. She ate her veggies like normal (she loves them now that it’s been nearly 2 weeks) and when I gave her some pellets, she ate them up but I also noticed her “spitting” some out. I know rabbits do not have the reflex to spit food out so I was concerned, little wet bits of pellets were seemingly falling out of her mouth. She then ran a few inches away from her food bowl. This exact same thing happened last night with Louie. Is this choking? I’ve seen a post going around about a rabbit who choked and how to help a choking rabbit. The post also said Oxbow pellets might be part of the problem as they are the smallest brand, but I feed Oxbow pellets and have never noticed this until now. Both Louie and Lola sat in the spot they ran to for a few seconds, then ran into their enclosures, then returned to eat more. (I let them out of their enclosures when I feed them for some extra separate free time). Should I be concerned?

[Hazel]

It sounds like she could have been choking. Oscar used to eat too fast and choke on his pellets. He would be eating and then suddenly start running around the room until he managed to dislodge the food. Then he would spit it out like Lola did. I bought a treat ball for him to put his food in which forces him eat slowly (scattering his food around the floor works too) and he hasn’t had a choking incident since then.

[Bam]

I agree it could’ve been choking. Small pellets are worse than bigger pellets. The recommended preventative measure is to serve pellets in a treat ball or just scattering the pellets so the buns can’t gobble them up in one go.

Its very good to look into how to deal with a choking incident, should one occur. Its called a bunny Heimlich but it is actually rather a centrifugal swing. You never know if one day you’ll need to perform one, it’s in any case good knowledge to have!

http://vgr1.com/choking/

[Louiethebunny]

Thank you! I will look into a treat ball or even one of those “foraging” bowls.

[HipHopBunny]

Hmm, my rabbit OB did something like that with certain veggies she didn’t like, she would eat them, then it would fall out of her mouth. She most definitely did not look like the rabbit in the video. Maybe she didn’t like the veggies? Or was she eating so fast that it was choking?

[ergodic]

I would definitely watch, her. Snickerdoodle would have choking episodes and it baffled the vets for a long time. It turns out Snickerdoodle has laryngeal paralysis (confirmed by endoscopy). Apparently he is not the only one the vet told me they have had at least one other rabbit come in with the same problem. As long as it is a one off, I would not worry too much. Though I would keep an eye out on breathing issues in case she aspirated on something.

 

Good Luck.

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