bunny keeps shaking head

[victoria nicole]

hi everyone!

just now, i noticed my bunny keeps shaking her head? she sometimes does this when excited but its more like a quick shake and a jump. this time, she kept doing it at least 10 times and then continuing to bathe and scracth with her back foot. she is an indoor rabbit and doesnt have exposure to mites or anything that i know of. the only other animal in the house is my cat, and he is an indoor cat…her ears look spotless though. if this was an ear infection would it be obvious? she is eating and drinking just fine. all is normal minus the head shaking.

 also, does any one here get their rabbits vaccinated? shes only had one and that was years ago when she was baby to get rid of a tape worm.

 

[HappyHopper1]

Well, This Has happened to My BunBun once, and It Was All That I Gave Her To Many Treats. I Cut Her Off IDMEDIATELY, But She Turned Into A Junkie
So, If youre giving her to many treats, cut it off LITTLE BY LITTLE
If its not that, I REALLY Dont Know What To Say….
Hope This Helped!

[victoria nicole]

giving too many treats can cause head shaking? 😮 shes on a pretty strict diet, but sometimes my mom and boyfriend like to spoil her. the only 2 treats she has are oxbow barley biscuits and smaks treats pumpkin cookies. i only give her one a day unless my mom gives her an extra behind my back haha!

she also gets 2 papaya tablets a day from oxbow bc she is a long haired bun and then i give her an oxbow immune support tablet daily. also spring mix, 2 diff types of hay and pellets 2x a day. oh and floppers garden hay topper.

how did you find out it was all the treats doing that to your bunny? she seems to have stopped shaking her head…for now.

thank you for the quick reply, btw!

[LongEaredLions]

If he keeps scratching and shaking his head, I would go to the vet to see if he has an ear infection or mites. He doesn’t have to be “exposed” to mites to have them. Where did you get him? When they shake their head and jump up halfway, I call that a half-binky as my bunnies usually do it when they are happy, but I don’t know if that is really what it means.
Rabbits aren’t usually vaccinated unless they are required by law or live in a place where illnesses such as mixymatosis (is that how you spell it?) are common. All rabbits,(especially females) however, do need to be spayed/neutered.

[LongEaredLions]

Also, I don’t think too many treats can cause head shaking.(although a bad diet is obviously unhealthy)

[Rufus]

Vaccinations are mostly for the claici virus or Myxomatosis. It depends on where you live as to whether you need them. In Australia, only the calici virus can be vaccinated against and in the UK you can get both. Both of those viruses are spread by mosquitos. I don’t think you need to vaccinate at all in the US (although someone can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).

If hehad tapeworm, he would have had worming medication which is a bit different to a vaccination.

I agree with LEL that she might need a vet check. Mites are not easy to see although sometime you can see what looks like little flakes insider the ears but a vet will put a sample from her ears under a microscope.

[victoria nicole]

i got her at a pet store 2.5 years ago when she was a baby. she is a lionhead :3 she seems to have stopped doing it now since i moved the fan away from her. maybe it was tickling her or something idk but she loves to lay in front of it for some reason. shes just always been weird about cleaning herself. even if i pet her too much she has to bathe afterwards. its offensive haha.

since shes stopped for now, ill just keep an eye on her but if she starts back up again i will def call the vet tomorrow and ask them to check her out. the main thing i was worried about was an ear infection because i know they can lead to head tilt or even death :c

i live in america so im not sure if that illness is common? she is a house rabbit, but idk if that makes a difference and she was spayed about a year ago. the vet i take her to specializes in rabbits and hasnt mentioned vaccines yet. however, we are moving to hawaii in march and i will have to check if they require them. thank you for replying!

[LongEaredLions]

Nope, mxyi is not common in the US, so you don’t need to get her vaccinated.

[Lis]

There are also no available vaccines for rabbits in the US. None of them are approved.
Honestly, if she’s doing in while binkying, I wouldn’t be concerned. It almost sounds as if that’s the case. Additionally, my lionhead sometimes does the same to throw her mane out of her way. However, if she’s doing it constantly at strange times, I would take her in.

[Beka27]

Oooh! Moving to Hawaii! Sounds lovely!

Have you started the planning process for taking her with you? It is obviously not going to be as simple as putting her in a carrier and sticking her in the car. If you haven’t started the process, I would get going on that now! (You will also probably need a vet visit for her prior to the trip. Most airlines require documentation from your vet that the pet is in good health.)

[Starah]

Any update on how your bun is today?

Just to add to something you said earlier about ear infections; I always thought that if a bun got an ear infection it would be obvious (I’ve read things about their ears being smelly and red) none of my previous buns had ear infections ever. But two weeks ago Patsy managed to catch one. She was running and playing as normal, eating, drinking and pooping just fine the whole time I was with her. Then I cleaned out the hutch, put her dinner in and she settled in for the evening. I was out that night so my Mum was watching them, and about two hours after I left Patsy was falling over and seemed confused and disorientated and apparently quite scared by falling so much. She stopped eating and drinking and was all wobbly whenever she moved. That was late at night so she didn’t get to the vets until the next morning, and the diagnosis was an ear infection.
It’s just crazy how completely her behaviour changed in the space of two hours. Her ear was never red or inflamed or smelly or anything like that, so sometimes it is just best to go with instinct-you know if your bun just doesn’t seem ‘right’ so if you are worried do give the vet a call, because like you said, ear infections can sometimes have pretty drastic outcomes!

Anyway, I hope your bun is fine, and was just protesting about the fan!

[victoria nicole]

hi everyone! thank you for all your replies! just to update everyone, she stopped the head shaking and is doing fine. back to her lazy self!

BEKA: mhm i got all the hawaii stuff in order! even a forum to pass her as an emotional support animal so she can sit with me on the plane however, i feel she will need more emotional support than me since she is a skiddish one. im hoping she does well on the flight. i already spoke to hawaiis dept of agriculture and thankfully she doesnt even have to be quarantined! i have to get the clean bill of health from my vet two weeks prior to travel. thank you for your concern! im nervous about flying so many hours with her.

STARAH: oh no! is patsy okay now? :c did the vet say how she got the infection? how was it treated? thats one thing i would change about bunnies if i could, how they show no signs until its too hard to hide them :c i guess that goes hand in hand with being a prey animal though. when fufsy had endometriosis, the vet said if he didnt spay her right away shed die :c she showed no symptoms of pain either. i just noticed something was up because she was leaving trickles of pee everywhere as she hopped around and the next morning she seemed to want my attention more than usual so we took her in, thankfully just in time. she thought she was pregnant for some reason and was ripping her fur out to make a nest. i hope she wasnt too disappointed it was a false pregnancy ha.

[Beka27]

That’s wonderful to hear that your travel plans are in order! Fortunately it doesn’t happen often, but we’ve had people come on and say something along the lines of, “Moving with my bunny next week! What do I need to do?!” I’m so, so glad you are prepared! I’m sure you will both do fine!

[Starah]

I’m glad to hear she is ok!

Patsy is fine now, thank you off asking
There was no ’cause’ as such – just one of those things I guess! My bunnies are indoor rabbits with no contact with any other animals except each other but Pascal didn’t have the infection and the vet said there was no risk that he would catch it from her.
Patsy was given an antibiotic injection and then five days of baytril. She made a good improvement almost immediately and was eating and drinking properly as soon as she came home, so there was never any risk of stasis. It took her a couple of days to get steadier on her feet so she spent most of the time wanting to sit on my lap and be fussed over. She’s completely better now, but possibly more likely to be prone to ear infections since she had it so young – but at least I know exactly what to look for in her and get her down to the vet straight away!
They are such worries sometimes! But so worth it!

Good luck with your move!

[Tokii]

Ohh, this explains alot. Thank you.

[Penny & Chuch]

I’m really worried. I have to new bunnies, one a lionhead and another a satin. The first day I got them, I didn’t notice any irregular behavior. I’m keeping them in my room for now. And all of a sudden they started scratching themselves. I saw little thing that looked like flea dirt. So I treated them with flea med. I cleaned my room completely and disinfected everything. They still keep scratching shaking their heads. It seemed to calm the scratching tho. Can it be mites? Because I don’t see anything.

[Wick & Fable]

Welcome to BB Penny & Chuch. This is an old topic, so in order to boost chances of getting responses and relevant experiences, I suggest creating your own topic under “Behavior” or the House Rabbit Q&A section. Hopefully members will be able to provide some insight. In your post, please mention whether you see flakes anywhere because that’d be a helpful detail to know.

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.

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