Vet visit resulted in broken bond and rubbish week

[Flakie]

Well a very eventful week for us here. Thursday the 17th of January was a year since my wonderful 10 year old Flakie went over the rainbow bridge so quite an upsetting day for us all.

My central heating broke down twice having not been fixed properly the first time so absolutely freezing in the house.

Work colleague called in sick the whole week making work extremely busy nightmare.

Alas to top it off my Basil stopped eating on Friday the 18th and had to go into the emergency vet very late on the evening. I knew the signs of gut stasis tried Infacol no result so had to call the out of hours surgery.

He ended up being admitted and was kept in till today. His temperature was low so he was on a drip and in an incubator and put on Metacam and ranitidine. He quickly recovered from the sudden episode. He was in the best place top rabbit savvy vets in Scotland so was in the best hands. It was mild and caught extremely quickly.

Holly was with him although kept in a pen beside him so they could monitor his pooh and wee. So they could smell and see and nose each other.

They returned home in their carrier with no problems then we open it once we were home. They both started scent marking everything and about 10 mins later all hell broke loose chasing and fur pulling and circling ??.

Can’t belive this has happened the whole reason she has to stay was to prevent this happening.

We started re bonding them later on in the day again starting from scratch. Some circling , some grooming and they both did the death flop.

Anyone had experience of this happening? Don’t want to stress Basil either .

[Bunny House]

I haven’t had this experience but I know that even if you have both of them close to eachother at the vet, they could be stressed and obviously smell like the vet and when they get home, they smell the vet on eachother and start fighting. You would think even if they were side by side at the vet it wouldn’t happen but there were a few cases recently of this on here of the same situation and that’s what we think happened.

But I’m glad Basil made it out of stasis, we all know how scary it is!

I’m sorry you’ve had a rough month, hopefully February will be better for everyone In your house.

[DanaNM]

So sorry this happened, and so sorry for your loss

This recently happened with Sirius&Luna’s trio, even though all three were kept at the vets together in the same pen. It’s hard to say whether it’s the illness of one bun itself or all the weird smells that sets it off. But, she found that her three snapped back to being bonded after just a couple of weeks of working with them. In her case, I believe she waited until Atlas (the poorly bun) was 100% better before working on sessions. She did keep them all next to each other though.

My vet also doesn’t allow the pair to stay the night together (as they need to monitor poop), but they said that in the rare case that the bond is affected, they usually go back to being bonded pretty easily. And I’m hearing more and more that staying together is not a guarantee.

Anyway, sorry you’ve been having such a rough time, hopefully this week is better and they go back together without too much issue!

. . . 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.  

[Flakie]

Thanks for the info everyone. Hopefully bonding won’t take too long. Basil is doing great and is happy and eating well jumping about and most importantly eating lots of hay which he does anyway.

They have the vets again to get Holly her vaccinations for myxomatosis and the RhD 1 and 2 at end January Basil got his in December so maybe a wee trip n the car in the same carry case will help.

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi,

Yes, my buns bond broke after a vet visit where they stayed together.

Rebonding them was significantly easier than originally bonding them. Luckily we had moved house relatively recently so I had some nice neutral rooms. I spend a few days in the bathroom with them for an hour or so at a time, and after about a week of hour long sessions, they suddenly were just acting bonded again. In my case, it was one bunny in particular that was the problem, so I focused on her – do you know who’s causing the problems?

[Flakie]

Sirius and Luna hope my two bond again as quick as yours did.

The day we came back from the vets it was Holly who was aggressive then Basil went for her in retaliation. It all happened so quickly luckily I managed to grab Holly mid flight when she jumped and got them separated.

We did a small bonding session later in the evening and she sat not moving like a big lump of rock! Basil was going up to her and licking her mouth and going under her face but she wouldn’t lick him or acknowledge him at all.

Yesterday we did another session and it was both of them in turn trying to go under the face for licks both giving a small lick. When Holly lay stretched out Basil kept going to nip her bottom.

They shared their dinner and hay with no problems. Neither seemed to be the dominant bunny before maybe as Holly was just very young and now they are sorting it out.

So sad not seeing them together. Rubbish thing is Holly is due her booster vaccinations so we will be back at the vets again ??

Basil is back to normal after his sudden stasis episode eating loads of hay, poops getting bigger and zooming and binkying about.

[Flakie]

Should have put the post in bonding section soz.

That’s a week now we have been doing bonding sessions again. Neither seems to be dominant both shoving faces under each other and getting short grooms. They will eat together and use the same litter tray in the bonding pen, will flop next to each other too.

No circling or fur pulling only occasionally does Holly try to hump Basil.

Thought about putting them back together in a section of their home but a bit scared to try lol.

It’s hard when you have to go to work as I can’t risk leaving them. Last time when we bonded them was Easter and I was off work for two weeks so I might postpone putting them together and continue the bonding till I’m off work for a week for the school holiday.

Who would have thought a vet stay would end up like this ☹️

[DanaNM]

Sounds like they are doing pretty well, so that’s good! Def doesn’t sound like starting from zero. I totally understand the fear of leaving them. :/

. . . 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.  

[Flakie]

Thanks DanaNM. Did a marathon bonding session today for 2.5 hours. They ate, shared litter tray and a little grooming each. They were never big groomers anyway.

No animosity at all. Took a little video of them they were so so cute

[Author]

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