tigerangel
Warren Veteran
2 evenings in a row, Sora has started a sneezing/choking fit. I assume it's choking, I have never heard choking before but can only describe it as very distressed sneezing that goes into a sort of cough, not like the previous dust-up-the-nose sneezing I've heard before, and she's had one or both paws up near her mouth to try and sort herself out. Both times have thankfully been over within 30-40 seconds, but it's a scary experience nonetheless. She returns to normality very quickly afterwards.
She had a full health check just over a week ago, so this evening I've been looking for outside factors trying to find a cause of this, as 2 evenings running (and godknows what happens while we're out at work) all of a sudden sounds off to me. Both times she has been around the hay basket munching when this occured, so naturally my attention went there first.
I checked the hay (which came from the middle of a rather expensive box of Oxbow Timothy Hay I got from THE not so long ago) and found these, which I have never seen before in Oxbow hay. They are stringy and running a finger along one way they are smooth, but running a finger in the opposite direction they feel sticky and 'against the grain' if that makes any sense - if it got caught going down the wrong way in the throat, I can see very easily how it could get stuck :? I have checked the hay box and it seems that the middle layer of hay is absolutely full of these, and additionally when you touch them they fall to bits, so there is no way of seperating them out.
I know that there is a link between celery strings and rabbits choking, I'm wondering if the same theory applies here :? Does anyone know what this is? It doesn't look at all like the usual slim grass-tops that I find in Timothy Hay. For the moment I have pulled away ALL the Oxbow Timothy Hay and replaced it with cheap pet shop hay to be on the safe side, but if folk would be kind enough to lend their knowledge, I'd be very grateful
^normal grassy tops at the furthest right of the photo for reference.
She had a full health check just over a week ago, so this evening I've been looking for outside factors trying to find a cause of this, as 2 evenings running (and godknows what happens while we're out at work) all of a sudden sounds off to me. Both times she has been around the hay basket munching when this occured, so naturally my attention went there first.
I checked the hay (which came from the middle of a rather expensive box of Oxbow Timothy Hay I got from THE not so long ago) and found these, which I have never seen before in Oxbow hay. They are stringy and running a finger along one way they are smooth, but running a finger in the opposite direction they feel sticky and 'against the grain' if that makes any sense - if it got caught going down the wrong way in the throat, I can see very easily how it could get stuck :? I have checked the hay box and it seems that the middle layer of hay is absolutely full of these, and additionally when you touch them they fall to bits, so there is no way of seperating them out.
I know that there is a link between celery strings and rabbits choking, I'm wondering if the same theory applies here :? Does anyone know what this is? It doesn't look at all like the usual slim grass-tops that I find in Timothy Hay. For the moment I have pulled away ALL the Oxbow Timothy Hay and replaced it with cheap pet shop hay to be on the safe side, but if folk would be kind enough to lend their knowledge, I'd be very grateful
^normal grassy tops at the furthest right of the photo for reference.