My bunny’s “exciting” evening(first emergency vet visit)

[Holland13]

I apologize, but if you are reading this, it will be a long story.
To start my story off, I will tell you my bunny, Neville, is doing fine right now. However, a little over an hour ago, i was terrified my 5 month old bunny was not going to be okay.

Let’s start at the beginning… I come home from work and my bunny greets me at his cage door like he always does because he knows the moment I come home he gets to get out and run around. I noticed he was shredding a lot tonight, so I decided I was going to brush him. About half way through his brushing he starts licking me, which for him means I’m done getting groomed. I finish grooming him, and I go to give him a few pellets as a treat before his dinner. Normally, he would jump right on his treat, but tonight he didn’t want anything to do with it. I just brushed it off, like okay maybe he was just irritated about all the brushing. I put him in his play area and give him his pellets for dinner. He starts eating, and I start clean up a little bit. I give him a fresh litter pan, freshen up his hay feeder, and put his toys in his area. At this point, I noticed he stopped eating his pellets. He had maybe only eaten 1/4 of what I have him. I then got a little concerned. Then, I looked at him, and I was terrified. He was moving around like he was struggling with something. Then, he started coughing and gagging, his face was covered in drool and snot. Everytime he coughed, he would spite up and stuff would fly out of his nose. This happened for about five minutes.

The moment I noticed he was choking I ran out of my room and told my mom we needed to take Neville to the vet. She goes and looks at him and tells me to grab his carrier. ( I should mention that my 2 younger nieces are staying with me who are 4 and 5. They are in there PJs getting ready for bed when this all happens). My mom and I get everyone ready to go. I notice my bunny has stopped coughing, but his breathing is very slow, way to slow. At this point, I am terrified we won’t make it to the vets in time. I don’t even put my bunny in his carrier because I am to scared of what will happen.

As we pull up to the vets, I noticed he is breathing a little better, but it is still really slow. I see a few dogs in the waiting room, so I decide to put Neville in his carrier to keep him safe. The moment I check in they take me back. The vet comes in to the room and takes him out of his carrier and he acts totally normal. It was like he wasn’t just choking. He comes out and starts looking around being his curious little self. While I’m over here trying not to have a panic attack, he is like ‘what’s all the fuss about, I’m all good.”

The vet said he probably choked on one of his pellets and the saliva dissolved it enough to get it down. She said to watch him for the next few days to watch out for signs of pneumonia, but besides that he looked alright.

He is now at home resting and hiding out in his little cubby hole ( I don’t blame him after all of the excitement he had). I have kept in eye on him and will keep watching him, but as of right now he is doing fine.

So that is my story of how I almost had a heart attack.

[Doodler]

That had to be so scary! I am so glad it worked out on his own and that he is ok. It’s still good that a vet was able to examine him.

If he tends to eat quickly you may want to scatter his pellets to slow him down. I also know there is information online on ways to possibly help dislodge things if he happens to choke again. Hopefully you won’t ever need it!

[LittlePuffyTail]

That is scary. I’ve had a bunny choke like that. He, thankfully, was able to work it down and was okay. Very, very scary.

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