Hey, it’s been a while since I’ve been on the binkybunny site at all, but due to recent events, I thought it would be good to give my thanks to the community in general for sharing all your bun knowledge with me. Also, I have an odd story to tell. It has a good ending (so far).
A couple nights ago, I gave Tiger her dinner as usual (kibble, and a bit of carrot as a treat). She was really happy to get it, and excitedly munched away as she usually does, execpt it only lasted a few seconds. She suddenly jumped away from it, and started making these gagging and spluttering noises. My immediate thought was “OH MY GOD SHE’S CHOKING”. I remembered some wonderful person here posted a video on how to the Heimlich for rabbits quite a while back, so that’s what I did. Except I wasn’t strong enough, or my arms were not long enough, so I ran her downstaris (which I never do, because we have a very large dog), and handed her off to my stepdad who took over for me. Her spluttering and gagging stopped, and she seemed ok, even though nothing came out. We put her back into her condo, and she sat in one spot, no longer interested in food. She started making noises as if breathing was interrupted by mucus – a soft gurgling sound in time with her breathing. I also found small puddles of a wet substance I had not noticed before on the flooring of her cage where she first started gagging and spluttering. At this point, I called the vet, and the vet said that it was my call at this point on whether it was an emergency, or a morning visit. It was 11:30 at night. During the call, Tiger quited down and stopped making any noise, so I decided to keep an eye on her at home and sleep for a bit. I woke up a couple times to check on her before morning. She spent most of he night sitting in one place, and ate nothing. Not even her treats. In the morning, I stuffed my girl into her carrier (which was easy because she was being oddly cooperative), and brought her to the vet. I left her there for the day because I had work, and what they had to say when I got back was moslty very good, but odd.
They couldn’t find anything wrong with her, except for the fact that she wasn’t eating. She had a clean bill of health. The only thing they could think of, was that she was in the early stages of stasis. Their best guess is that she really was choking, and ended up swallowing whatever it was. This is another odd thing though, because I have no idea what she could have chocked on. She was in her condo. Maybe she choked on some of her carrot? Anyway, they told me to bring her home because rabbits in the early stages of stasis are more likely to recover at home. As soon as I brought her home, she started eating and pooping again. Snacking here and there, rather than excitedly finishing off a bowl of kibble, and pooping frequent tiny poops.
This is already so much better than I thought it would turn out. She’s not drinking, but I think that’s because the vets forced a lot of critical care into her system already. I’m also thinking of offering her a small plate of critical care with applesause, and a bowl of water to continue to help things along. She ate almost all of her kibble last night, and ate most of her veggies too. I see lots of little new poops in her litterbox, and just outside of it. She also peed yesterday, and I think I heard her pee again last night.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on all this, but I moslty just needed to share this with some bunny people.