Possible Hay Allergy

We adopted a beautiful baby house bunny (Oscar) back in October and he has settled in very well. He has the run of the conservatory in the day and sleeps in a home in the kitchen at night. Everything has been fine until 3 weeks ago when my son suddenly started developing allergy symptoms. I suspect it is to the hay rather than bunny. It seems strange that the problem has suddenly started given that Oscar (and his hay) has been with us since October but it does coincide with my son spending more time in the living room (which is next to the conservatory) due to homeschooling. It also coincides with us buying a fresh bag of hay which I buy from our local farm shop. They buy it from a local farmer and I don't know what type it is. I have tried to keep them separate to see whether it makes any difference but my son is 11 and frequently forgets! I am hoovering daily to remove any hay that escapes from his hay trough and have stopped my son giving Oscar his hay. My son doesn't have symptoms all the time - it's just a few times a day and he's fine in between. I wondered if anyone has any advice or experience of this? Oscar is now part of the family so I can't just give him up or ask him to become an outdoor bunny.

You can try different grasses, some are worse than others and there are companies who will send samples of different specific hays. I would suggest sniffing them directly but on different days.You can also try green oat hay instead as a staple. You could also use compressed hay blocks to minimise the dust etc, but these are possibly not quite so good teethwise for the bun, though it is still long fibre (type of fibre that makes up the grass, not the length of grass), just in shorter strands. Or try and substitute as much hay as possible for fresh grass each day, which might not be quite so triggering.
For me, the dust is the worst thing, so rigorous cleaning, letting others handle the day to day hay, and making sure there is plenty of ventilation on a regular basis helps a lot.
Allergies can develop at any age though, so it could just be time that has triggered it. Your other option is to speak to the GP and look at antihistamines as needed, but management is far better.

Hi Dollyanna, that's really helpful. Will give your suggestions a go.

Do you use woodshavings in your Rabbit's litter tray?

tonibun said:

Do you use woodshavings in your Rabbit's litter tray?

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I used the wood cat litter pellets.