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OH reacting badly to hay or megazorb?? Help!

Ozbun

Warren Scout
Oh dear, this is getting to be a serious problem, OH doesn't live with me but spends a lot of time here. Ozzie has his pen in the living room, there is nowhere else in the house that it can go & it is not safe enough outside as there is a public path. He free-ranges mainly in the kitchen as it's safer for him. OH seemed to be fine when Ozzie has lived here since October..

He (boyfriend) does have very bad hayfever and we worried about that but he seemed fine. However in the last few weeks he has been really ill, he point blank refuses to go to a doctor. This is not hayfever symptoms, it's a stomach thing. Every time he comes to my house, he has to go & be sick in the bathroom, due to the perceived smell of Ozzie's cage & pen. Now believe me, they are spotless! All I can smell is the faint papery smell that megazorb has & the fresh hay. On Saturday, I spent 2 hours cleaning cage & pen, mopping & cleaning the whole living room, scrubbing cage with vinegar, I bought a fresh bag of sweet meadow hay & put cage-fresh granules in the corners of the cage where Ozzie sometimes misses the litter :oops: I have asked friends to be honest and can they smell anything! They say no!

BF came in & went straight upstairs to be sick. i actually think he may have a bug or a stomach problem that is making him mega-sensitive to any smells, he keeps thinking I have loads of perfume on, when i havent. He has also gone off tea & coffee completely. However he has fixated on the idea of the rabbit pen being the cause.

The thing is that this is very distressing for us both, Ozzie is part of the family now and there is nowhere else for his pen.

Has anyone heard of strange throwing-up reactions to all things rabbity before?? :(
 
If he was a woman I would be asking if he was pregnant.

Is he sick elsewhere? Does he struggle with other smells in other places?
 
I did ask him if he was pregnant actually!! I really do think it's a stomach problem, I think he may have an ulcer or something. It's just convincing him that he's concentrating on the pen. I thought if I could tell him that nobody on RU had heard of this problem, he may realise it isn't that. I wish he'd go to the flippin' Dr but he absolutely won't!

He says it doesn't happen in other places, but i think it does. We had an unfortunate incident over Christmas where Ozzie jumped on BF & sprayed him :shock:... I think the memory of that may be enough to make him think that the bunny is the problem
 
Speaking as a man your OH needs to get a grip and go to the doctors, if there is something underlying they need to find it before it gets worse.

no offence intended
 
Speaking as a man your OH needs to get a grip and go to the doctors, if there is something underlying they need to find it before it gets worse.

no offence intended

May not be a man but this is seconded! Sooner he's seen to the quicker the problem is sorted:thumb:
 
Oh dear! It sounds to me like it's a bit of a psychological thing?! :? I hope you can get to thebottom of it!
 
BF came in & went straight upstairs to be sick. i actually think he may have a bug or a stomach problem that is making him mega-sensitive to any smells, he keeps thinking I have loads of perfume on, when i havent. He has also gone off tea & coffee completely. However he has fixated on the idea of the rabbit pen being the cause.
Well, it certainly sounds like other things are causing him problems; if he's actually had to give up tea and coffee he must have some sort of awareness that something has changed in him. I would keep pointing this out to him, that it's not just the rabbit cage.
I'm not sure just telling him to man up etc is helpful (though yes, he really should see someone if it's not going away), and it could be something that doctors take a while to work out so you & he may need to work out a way of living with it until then. I wonder if it's something where there *is* a physical element of sensitivity but his anxiety over it is making the reaction even worse - but then occasionally people simply do experience an onset or worsening of allergies in adult life.

Have you tried moving the bun cage as a temporary measure (eg into a room where you can keep the door close when BF is there?) You could offer to do something like that and ask him, for his side, to start getting the problem checked out as he seems to be reacting to a variety of things.
 
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