i almost had a heart attack….

[Minhua Xu]

so 2 am this morning, I heard some strange noises from the bunnies room. 2 seconds later, I realized it was screaming!

My husband and I jumped off bed, ran there, and saw Miumiu was OUTSIDE OF THE KENNEL. One of my dog had a paw on her. Both of my dogs were licking her. She was SCREAMING!

The dogs left after we yelled leave it. (Dogs and bunnies know each other. They kiss through the kennel all the time. But we never tried loose dogs + loose bunnies.) I checked Miumiu all over. She broke one of her incisors. I did not see any bite wounds, but she was wet.

We are going to take her to vet later today. She eats, drinks, poops fine, but she seems “off” to me. She is a young bunny, so usually she is very active. But she is kinda quite now. She also moves slow. 

Is there any specific exams we should ask the vet to do? She just had her spay done on July 6th. Would the incision rip open inside? It looks fine on the skin level. I dont know if the screaming was from fear or pain. It made me feel awful. 

 

Just a reminder to other bunny parents, bunnies jump high! Our kennel is 4 ft. I thought it was high enough. Apparently, I was wrong. 

[Sarita]

It could be from both – I would let the vet know the circumstances and the vet will know what to examine. Of course mention the tooth but the vet will do a physical exam to see if there are any problems.

I hope she will be okay.

[Bam]

Poor Miumiu! I’d take Saritas advice. I’ve only heard bunnies scream with fear. My bunny Yohio screamed when I caught him the day I found him. No pain involved. When I found my Bam, there was another rabbit too, a baby girl, she also screamed when I caught her. Both those bunnies did fine after their initial scares.

I so hope she’ll be ok. How do you reckon she broke her tooth?

[RabbitPam]

I agree with Sarita. Just tell your vet exactly what you told us. Screaming can be either pain, fear or both. Also, be aware that bunnies have been known to have heart trouble from fear, so I am relieved to hear you will be getting her examined asap.

It’s an important post for others to read who have dogs and bunnies. As much as you love them all, as sweet as they can be 99% of the time, yours is a good example of how an unsupervised dog and bunny can go terribly wrong. Screaming in fear, while really the bunny’s perception rather than an injury, can preceed a serious condition or a trauma. Your bunny may never relate to your dogs the same way again. Hopefully, she will recover. But caution from now on is advisable.

I ask our other members to bear this in mind before you have your own story to tell. It just takes a little extra effort to insure the safety of your bunny and dog in a shared household. Many of our members have theirs living in harmony, but they are not companionable species by nature, and it’s important to be mindful of that.

Wishing Miumiu a swift recovery and many pets and treats so she feels better. I hope the tooth is a minor problem. Sending {{{{{{{{{{{{{Healing vibes}}}}}}}}}}.

[Minhua Xu]

Bam,there was small amount of blood on her lip. I checked and found one tooth was broken close to the root.

[Deleted User]

I’d like to furvently echo Rabbit Pam. Prada your dogs sound a lot like my Shepherd, and the Labrador I had for years. Neither would choose (or have chosen) to hurt any little creature. My Lab mother henned my last rabbit, frequently checking on him, and coming over to sniff and visit when he was in my lap. I’ve watched my Shepherd interact very nicely with these two, but never would I choose to leave them alone. It isn’t that I don’t trust my dogs, I do, completely, but just because they didn’t intend harm doesn’t mean that accidents (he jumps or steps on someone when playing) or misunderstandings of intention (rabbit get scared thinking something is wrong) can’t happen. I love other members stories of how they cuddle together etc., but I cringe every time I read someone’s confident statement that they are fine together and are regularly left unsupervised! I wouldn’t leave mine with my cat either, and at least they are essentially the same size, and I think they are excellent friends (the way she rushes to check the rabbits over after their nails were clipped is just precious), but again, it just takes that minute of the rabbit thinking it is under attack for you to have a very different situation. Animal harmony in the home is important, but thinking they can all live together in constant perfect harmony, … they may, it may work, but it just takes that one time, those few moments when it didn’t go the way you thought it should for Everything to fall apart. I think to anyone who really loves their rabbit the precautions aren’t any trouble, and it simply isn’t worth the risk!

Prada, sending you all positive thoughts, … hope your little one is a happy bundle of hopping delight again in no time, … that she only had a bad scare.

[Minhua Xu]

Just got back from the vet.
The doctor said everything looked fine. He checked Miumiu’s heart, eyes, mouth, spine, legs etc. He also let Miumiu walk around and watched her. He said he did not think there was any major problem.
He gave us some Metacam (0.5 ml per day for 5 days)
He told us to keep an eye on Miumiu. If she does not get back to normal activity level after couple of days or if she gets worse, he will do an xray.
Miumiu seems OK with the dogs. She still stick her nose out when the dogs walk by…She is such a sweet girl! We will install a kennel top today or tomorrow!

[Deleted User]

So happy all seems well, … hope everything is back to normal very quickly.

What did the vet suggest re her tooth?

I figure she was just terified, expect it was a bit of a shock too for the dogs, to find their rabbit friend tumbling in quite literally out of the blue. Expect everyone just got scared and their trying to help her feel better (licking) would have scared her even more at the time. But since she isn’t showing any fear of them now she probably understood what they meant, once she was away from them and could calm down. Panicking is natural, humans demonstrate that regularly.

Best of luck!

[Minhua Xu]

He said the tooth would grow back.

I am so happy she is alright.

I did not sleep much last night, and did nothing at work today. lol

[Waldo]

Prada,

That is quite a story.  I felt so bad reading it and simply could not imagine how you must have felt.  I’m happy that she checked out okay!  I hope she can get back on the right track to her normal self.  Good luck and best wishes to you and all of your pets! 

[Monkeybun]

I would make sure the dogs can not get into the bunny room at night, or any other time, without supervision now. Your bun is likely to be very scared of them for awhile now.

[Bam]

Great news! I hope she’ll fully recover soon! Is she still eating and pooping like she should?

I was just wondering about the tooth, how come it broke. If she perhaps bit one of the dogs or so. Your dogs seem sweet, as GreyDove says, licking is what dogs do to soothe and be friendly, but to a bunny who isn’t used to being licked by dogs it’s of course terrifying.

[hannaroo]

I’m glad you could share this with us and that your bunny seems to have made a full recovery. I agree with monkey bun and would keep them in separate rooms at night

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’m glad that your bunny is okay.

That must have been very scary for you (and her). Here on BB, we hear of cases once in a while of dogs frightening rabbits to death, which is so very sad. Even if the dogs don’t try to hurt them, the fright alone can scare a bunny to death. It’s important to always keep in mind that a bunny is a prey animal and has instincts as such.

[Minhua Xu]

Posted By bam on 07/18/2013 12:50 AM

Great news! I hope she’ll fully recover soon! Is she still eating and pooping like she should?

I was just wondering about the tooth, how come it broke. If she perhaps bit one of the dogs or so. Your dogs seem sweet, as GreyDove says, licking is what dogs do to soothe and be friendly, but to a bunny who isn’t used to being licked by dogs it’s of course terrifying.

Yes. She eats/drinks/poops fine. She has no problem eating hay and veggies either.

I guess maybe she landed wrong? She is a big rabbit (~11 lb). The force could be high when she was flying over a 4 ft panel.

[Minhua Xu]

Posted By hannaroo on 07/18/2013 01:57 AM
I’m glad you could share this with us and that your bunny seems to have made a full recovery. I agree with monkey bun and would keep them in separate rooms at night

Dogs are locked in our bedroom at night since yesterday. 

[Hazel]

Posted By Prada on 07/18/2013 08:00 AM

Dogs are locked in our bedroom at night since yesterday. 

Nice! I’m so glad she’s okay. We keep our pets seperated at all times if we’re not there. You just never know.

[Author]

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