Sora choking - Could it be the hay? :/

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.

I'm not sure about it but the hay looks strange, like hair or something?!

Not very helpful I'm afraid but this should give a *bump* to someone else who might know

Yes- and that hay looks odd. Change it.

Thanks guys - I am so far just glad it isn't just me questioning what they are! If it's so odd I would contemplate contacting THE over it, I mean yes it was over £60 and I'm barely halfway through it, but also they should probably know in case it's in other boxes? :? I'm going to get a bag of other hay tomorrow regardlesd, maybe oat hay or orchard grass, staying clear from Timothy hay til I get to the bottom of this!

That hay does look very strange but a month ago Julie choked on her Oxbow Timothy hay twice in one week. I changed her hay to farm timothy hay. I actually saw her choke. The box of hay has always been long strands of hay but the last box had short pieces and Julie would take a huge mouthful instead of a strand at a time. She did start off sneezing but sneezed out gobs and gobs of clear mucus witch then started pouring out of her mouth too. It was the most scary thing. She started jumping and running with all this mucus pouring out of her mouth and nose. Her nose was bubbling mucus and she was having trouble breathing choking on the mucus. We cleared as much of the mucus from her while rushing her to the closest vet. That is what happens when a bunny is really choking. Mucus comes pouring out. She was okay by the time she got to the vet. The vet said to not give her hay for about a day as it poked her and could irritate her. Right after we gave her hay back she did it again so I hand pick out only long strands of hay for her now and she has not choked since. The place that I buy the oxbow hay stopped buying it as it seems to be undependable lately and gets farm hay instead.