Rabbit trancing, thoughts?

I hear its quite controversial, with some saying rabbits experience high levels of stress during the "trance". Just want to hear other peoples thoughts and opinions on the matter.

I don't think you're likely to find anyone who agrees with it at all on here.

Dr Anne McBride ( http://www.southampton.ac.uk/psychology/about/staff/amcb.page#background ) researched and published a paper on this. She demonstrated that rabbits do experience high stress levels, both psychologically and physically, whilst in a state of tonic immobility (the scientific name for 'trancing'). It is a 'play dead' fear response. There is no doubt about this fact, their bodies respond in the same way to tonic immobility as they do to highly stressful situations.

The ethics of it is a different matter - as with all ethics it comes down to morals. Some say it should never be done, others say it has its uses.

Personally, I think that it is very useful, but should only be used when necessary, and when doing so is the lesser of two evils. I don't think it should be used for everyday grooming or for fun, but I was happy for my vet to trance Barney in order to take an xray, as it meant he didn't have to have general anaesthetic. He has a respiratory illness and gut illeus, both of which make anaesthetic more risky.

I agree with Nessar.

I think in 99.9% of cases its unacceptable and I wouldn't allow Ludo to be tranced unless it was for an urgent medical reason.

Yes I have been reading about it myself, I saw a lady in pets at home do it in-front of customers and I'd never seen it before, or had any idea what was going on. But I agree unless its the lesser of two evils its an un-pleasant thing to do.

nessar said:

Dr Anne McBride ( http://www.southampton.ac.uk/psychology/about/staff/amcb.page#background ) researched and published a paper on this. She demonstrated that rabbits do experience high stress levels, both psychologically and physically, whilst in a state of tonic immobility (the scientific name for 'trancing'). It is a 'play dead' fear response. There is no doubt about this fact, their bodies respond in the same way to tonic immobility as they do to highly stressful situations.

The ethics of it is a different matter - as with all ethics it comes down to morals. Some say it should never be done, others say it has its uses.

Personally, I think that it is very useful, but should only be used when necessary, and when doing so is the lesser of two evils. I don't think it should be used for everyday grooming or for fun, but I was happy for my vet to trance Barney in order to take an xray, as it meant he didn't have to have general anaesthetic. He has a respiratory illness and gut illeus, both of which make anaesthetic more risky.

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^ This. There's been research to prove it, BUT sometimes benefits outweight the risks. If you have a rabbit that is impossible to handle for bum checks then it's better to trance them for a few seconds to check rather than risk something as horrible as fly strike. And it's better to trance a rabbit to quickly cut its nails than leave its nails to get overgrown because then the rabbit will suffer for much longer. But it definitely shouldn't be done for fun.

It is a bit of a strange area though. Like if you slowly start to turn a rabbit over to look at it underneith, at what point does it become tranced? And because I've either had my rabbits since i was young (when i thought trancing was fine) or they've come from show breeders (who do it regularly), they don't actually seem to trance like other rabbits, I can't just lay them back and expect them to stay there, they just carry on wriggling about or jump up as soon as i try touch them so it's almost like they've become immune to it. Some rabbits however do completely freeze and you can lay them on a flat surface and they'll just stay there :shock:

I agree with everyone else. I try very hard not to trance any of my buns, but I have done it in the past if I have needed to do something for them that is essential and nothing else has worked. I do find that most of my buns tend to relax when I cradle them on their back but with their head up - which I don't think is trancing. I can do bottom checks like this.

When I was nebulising my Bridge Bun Furby I held him on my lap in my arms on his back, but with his head up and the mask on and he seemed to like it and it meant I could easily check that the mask stayed on. He was a fantastic bun to treat though - never tried to bite and I had to do lots of hands-on treatment for him towards the end of his life.

I didn't know anything about trancing when I read this thread. Pretty sure a vet did it to my rabbit the other day though, she trying to check her tummy, she was struggling and the vet said something like 'naughty rabbit, you're supposed to be sleepy when I do this', i wondered what she was talking about :shock:

This is a really interesting thread. When i clicked on the link about Anne McBride it only came up with her background. I could not find anything about trancing?????????????

HappyHop said:

This is a really interesting thread. When i clicked on the link about Anne McBride it only came up with her background. I could not find anything about trancing?????????????

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This link should work. :wave: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/54860/ (Click the document on the page to download it)

I agree with the general consensus - it's not something that I would do for fun but it can sometimes be the lesser of two evils in some situations. The study concluded the same as well.

The conclusion was drawn that both the physiological and behavioural responses of rabbits to TI are indicative of a fear motivated stress state (Day, 2004). This confirms the previous assertion that the promotion of TI as a means to increase a bond between owners and their pets, because the rabbits enjoy it, is misplaced (McBride, 1998). It may be appropriate for veterinary surgeons, and owners to continue to use this method for minor procedures, such as nail clipping as it holds less risk than anaesthesia. However, the data suggests that rabbits should only be put into TI when necessary and owners and others educated appropriately.

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Thanks for the link, very much appreciated.
Nikki