If your rabbit is having a stroke, heart attack

I forgot which thread it is that one of you mentioned your rabbit has a stroke, so here's an idea if this kind of things happens:

Just the other week, I have watched "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", and he aired a story of a man, who improvised a rescue on his chinchilla by doing a CPR on a heart attack chinchilla, and it was a very successful rescue.

Now we know that Chinchilla and rabbit have similar features in their genes, so a CPR on a chinchilla can work on a rabbit. My 2nd rabbit back in 2000 died in a seizure, I don't know if CPR would have made a difference, but if I were to face with a heart attack, or seizure or anything I can do to make a difference via a CPR, I'll definitely give it one hell of a try.

The procedure is simple:

1) curl your hand in a circle to form a "hollow tube", and blow the air thru your curled hand, into his mouth

2) do the above two to three times, they use 2 fingers (index and middle finger) to press his heart two to three times as well.

3) repeat the above

The reason you can't blow all the air by doing direct mouth to mouth is because his lung is tiny, it can't stand all the air from your direct single blow.

In the end, the above procedure works and he saved that chinchilla successfully, I was very impressed with that story.

It can certainly work on small furies, I've heard of people try the same thing with rats

The trouble is what caused the problem in the first place. A apparent heart attack or seizure can mean there is a problem that just reviving the animal won't solve.

With something like a heart attack CPR might work with people because its a temp solution until the doctoors & fancy equipment arrive. Unfortunately that doesn't happen with small furies.

If the problem is cause they've choked or similar its more likely to work as they're not a problem with the major organs thats goning to prevent them getting better.

So although I guess you couldn't rule out a slim chance with your bun it's unlikely there would have been anything you could have done to make a difference.

It's certainly worth know though so thank you for sharing

Tam

I know what you mean.

But there are cases that it "just" happens. My 2nd rabbit, that furball is a weak species, she always grit her teeth, and always take deep breath for no reason since day 1. There is nothing that causes it, she was just born weak and it's in her genes. She only lives one+ year, but it was a very happy one year for her, lots of bunny treats, and I can tell she was really happy.

By comparison, my current rabbit, he never takes deep breath unless the weather gets really hot. And in the past 4+ yr., he rarely grit his teeth.

Hiya, thank you for telling us how to do CPR
I did this on a Bunny Called Angel who I found collapsed, blue and not breathing! Angel had three days recuperation, and has been well ever since :thumb:
As Tam says, it depends on the cause as to the success rate, but when it is a life and death situation it is worth having a go

I tried this on Evie during the desperate rush to the vet when she started fitting. I could hardly see what I was doing through the tears but as a qualified first aider it seemed autiomatic to try.
She had died by the time we got to the vet ( only about 20 mins after I found her gasping for breath). The vet himself did what looked like CPR, heart massage then really strong massage all to no avail and to be fair he said if we'd brought her round she would probably have had brain damage - but definately worth trying.

I agree. Rabbit are simple life species. As long as they can eat happily, drink water happily, I'll be happy. So even w/ some degree of brain damage, I can deal with it.

I wish I knew of this trick when my 2nd rabbit had that "seizure attack" 4.5 yr. ago, in which the above is definitely worthwhile trying.