Hi guys! How is everyone? I am officially perplexed with my Peter’s sudden change in behavior this week, and I’m not sure whether or not to be worried.
Four days ago, there was some sort of commotion in the middle of the night over by Peter and Little-Bit’s litter box, so I turned on the light to find he’d broken a nail that was bleeding and only dangling by the skin. I cleaned it off and put plain Neosporin (non plus) on it, and went back to bed.
Ever since, he has been extremely low-energy. He usually at least ‘explores’ the room once or twice a day at night, but now the only thing he gets up for is to eat hay (a lot of it), food, or drink water, then immediately hops back over to his spot and lounges. He’s still eating normal, pooping normal, drinking normal, he’s not laying funny or pressing his tummy to the ground, he’s not favoring any limbs, not grinding his teeth, not limping, not moving funny, not avoiding moving, has no second thoughts about hopping into his litterbox, and he’s not hiding. He chatters his teeth when I groom him and has no sore spots, and he still grooms and snuggles with Little-Bit. Absolutely nothing is abnormal about him except that he just seems a little more tired than normal. I think he’s been grooming his front legs and paws more often than normal, but I’ve felt all over them and they don’t seem sore.
At first I thought it was just due to the stress of the whole event and probably the pain from losing a toenail, but it’s been four days now and the situation has not changed. (Although fortunately it hasn’t gotten worse either.) I’m pretty worried, but I’m not sure whether or not I should be. He is getting up there in age -he’s around 8 or 9 now- and I realize that bunnies slow down as they get older, but this change seemed so abrupt.
I’ve never seen anything like this before, so I’m not really sure what to do here. Input from anyone would be loved!
Other info:
*I did put maybe 1cc worth of non-plus Neosporin on his broken toenail, which he promptly licked off. Could this have thrown his system out of balance?
*He is shedding profusely, and he had a gas episode a few weeks ago that resolved itself when I gave him an abdominal massage.
*The first day after he broke his toenail, he was pretty stressed out when I came to sit with him since I was guilty of whisking him away in the middle of the night and poking and prodding his painful toe, to the point where a few times he exhibited a nervous twitch in his hindquarters that I had not seen since I first got him and he was becoming acclimated to a new home.