winston had a close call with heat stroke

[dlscanne]

its been pretty hot where I am in northern Vermont at the moment.  not many people in my area have AC since it is actually a sub-arctic climate.  there was one day it got to 90 degrees and was very humid.  I had a fan blowing on high all day in the bunny room, put frozen waterbottles and cool damp blankets around, and lots of veggies.  i also kept the windows open.

they were doing fine all day, and i let Winston out of his pen as usual in the evening.  he was binkying all over and running around. then he got tired and laid down under the bed. i came later that night to let him back in his pen.  he is usually waiting by the gate to go back in, but he was still under the bed.  i shook his favorite treat jar and he still didn’t come.  this was extremely unusual.  he finally came out and just laid down in his cage.  he still wouldn’t take any treats or eat his dinner, at which point i knew something was wrong. 

i wrapped his ears in a cool washcloth and dampened his fur.  i held him like that for awhile. then he just sat in his cage and didn’t even try to groom himself.  by this point is was about midnight so i wasn’t able to call anyone.  i was so worried.  after about 45 minutes he began nibbling some parsely and moving around.

my boyfriend used to be the head wrangler at the ranch we worked at, and he said a lot of times the horses wouldn’t leave a cool area to get water so they could get heatstroke that way.  i think this is what happened with winston.  he got hot and wouldn’t leave from under the bed.  now i’m going to leave a lot more water dishes out in their hiding spots on hot days.  maybe this is common knowledge, but i haven’t heard it mentioned before.  i was hoping that this might help people in the future. 

[bunnytowne]

that is certainly a good idea.  Placing extra waterbowls in their cool spots.  Glad he is ok now. The cool towel on his ears is a great idea to quickly cool him down.

[Furface]

Yes, extra water bowls, that’s a great tip. Thanks
I’m happy things turned out OK for you & your bun.

I’ve been avoiding putting the AC in the window, trying to save cash for the nebies spay but, I had to put it in when 2 buns started showing heat distress. I was putting up with sleeping in the puddle of sweat myself so the buns could have all the fans but, they were just moving heat around. LOL Everybun is comfy cool now. LOL

[MooBunnay]

That is a very good idea – I will see if binkybunny can add it to her page on heat and bunnies. My mom also has horses and I’ve found that bunnies and horses have a lot in common. I’m glad that Winston is feeling better now!

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