Need Help :( Bunny can't get up nor move properly

Hi I'm new and hoping to find so people that may know what has happend to my Bunny Nibbles (He is 6 years old mind you) (Note: I am a very bad speller)

My Mom has been looking after my bunny since I moved out. She came home one day to find he didn't look the same. He can't get up and sit right and can't move right either. While he is lying down (almost always) his front legs stick out to the right of him (insted of in front) and his back legs stick out to the left. He can not bring them up under himself anymore it seams. When he trys to move his back legs seem to slip away from him and he falls and his front legs can only seem to push him around in a circle He can still eat but only fresh grasses. Never liked pellets only seads and now wont eat those. Wont really drink water either. Poops are smaller and darker and hasn't seamed to have urineated in a while.

My thoughts are that he may have had a stroke/seasure and twisted his spine out of wack.

Any thoughts, links to other help sites greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Monica (aka AuroraFlair)

Hi Monica :wave:
Did the Vet give you any ideas what it might be?

Sorry to say we haven't taken him to the vet yet. It's hard to find a Rabbit specialest in Halifax Thinking of taking him tomorrow (if we can find one). Mom is thinking we may have to put him down it hurts her to see him suffering (if he is). Last August we had to take our Chocolate lab in to the hospital for a very expensive, $3,000 opperation only to bring her home and she died that night. She doesn't want the same thing to happen when we don't have that kind of money anymore.

Oh dear poor Bunny
It really is urgent that he receives Veterinary attention, sorry to be blunt here but not taking him to a Vet when he is obviously suffering is really not an option. He may have had a stroke or he may have damaged his spine and therefore be in considerable pain It sounds as though his guts are closing down and that he has lost the ability to empty his bladder
Your Rabbit really does appear to be extremely sick

Are you in the UK ?

Please do try to get your Rabbit to a Vet

Janex

My Mom has been his care taker and because of money problems has been and still is double thinking of taking him to a vet. And she is fearful of the same thing happening to him that happend to our dog (because he is 6) and her paying alot to have it not help in the end. I live in Halifax Nova Scotia. We are thinking of taking him tomorrow (right now its 2:11 am). Me, even though I have my own money problems, I will use my Master Card if nessasary (its already high but I don't care).

Sorry to hear about your bunny - but he really does need a vet, even if it is to put him out of his suffering - which wouldn't be that expensive to do I'm guessing. I do understand not having enough money but if it were me I'd use my credit card for a vet assessment and if extensive treatment is not an option financially, I'd ask the vet to put him to sleep - much better this than him suffering as he is. I would really urge you to take your bunny to a vet as soon as it opens, good luck

Oh God I do feel for you, but you must take him to the vet asap !!!

Rather than letting him die slowly without treatment it would be kinder to ask a vet to put him to sleep surely? That's not usually expensive - I was quoted about £15 ($20?) for an obviously dying guinea pig I had to take last week.

If you can't afford the treatment then contact the PDSA or other organisations that help people care for their pets properly when something happens, I'd also recommend insurance in future. I haven't insured my bun yet and not sure whether I will but I do have an emergency credit card incase he does ever need expensive treatment. If he isn't eating properly and/or urinating then he at least needs that to be taken care of by the vet. I was in a similar situation with my cat, he had a tumor on his jaw and came in in the morning looking really poorly, it had gone unoticed until then and he appeared happy and healthy, he was taken to the vets straight away and the option of expensive surgery was given, if it would've prolonged his life significantly and not caused him a lot of discomfort then I would've gone ahead but the likelihood was it would give him a couple more weeks, I asked the vet what she thought and what she'd do if it was her cat, the answer-let him go, whilst it was extremely distressing it was far kinder and less selfish to end the suffering.

Thanks everyone. I'll keep you posted after the vet trip. I'm just hoping we get a vet who knows rabbits very well and is gentile

How did you get on at the vet?

Sad news

Hope you don't mind details.

A bit of sad news. I had to go to work while my Mom continued to the vet and met my Dad there (they are both very attached to him, he would run circles and figure eights around their feet and stay still for them to pick him up when he was well). I heard the vet was very gentile and kind. She found out that his stomic was hard and it should have felt soft like a bollon. He had
something wrong and the small poops weren't a good sign either. She said he
would continue to go down hill from that point and there was nothing they
could really do. I gess Mom cried. They then decided to put him down. Mom
also said he was grinding his teath a lot of the time (heard they do that
when they are in pain). Mom got to hold Nibbles before the vets then held
him to give him the injection. Then Mom said she and Dad kept patting him as
he past on. I am glad I went to spend the night with them the night before
and was there to hold Nibbles in the car on the half hour drive to town
before I went to work. When I was holding him he was doing a lot better than
he was sliding around in his cage. I worried every time his nose got planted
into some wood chips. But I fixed him on my lap only minitues after we left
the house and he stayed there for the rest of the trip. Before I got out for
work I put him back in the cage with a towel over the wood chips, put him
down and then he seemed to straghten up. I then tucked a cool blanket around him to keep him padded for the rest of the trip. Mom said he stayed in that spot till the vet took him out. I feel in some way (if he did have a
seizure) he sayed around so I could see him again. I'm sad but happy he is
no longer suffering. We are getting him cremated. I felt he was worth more
than just to join the back yard pet grave yard (mostly gold fish) The vet
told us we were lucky to have him so many years. He was a Netherland Dwarf
Rabbit and she said he was a senior at 4. He was 6 when he passed on and in
bunny years she said he would have been 90. I am happy he must have had a
long happy life. Thank you for reading and again I hope you didn't mind the
details. I thought if I was telling you in person this was along the lines
of what I would say. Thanks again.

Monica Higgins

(let me know if I should also post this else ware if others would like to see this)

Poor nibbles R.I.P

So sorry to hear about poor Nibbles, you obviously loved him very much.

It's certainly a good age to live to, and you can rest assured that he is now at peace.

Binky free bunny!

Carol x

So sorry
Binky free little one.

sorry for your loss, but at least he not in pain now and sounds like he had a good and happy life with you. you did the right thing xx rip.