Poppy goes wild.

Traceylynne8 · Jun 30, 2015

Please can anyone help, we have a sister & brother pair 20 weeks old, every thing has been fine until just recently. Twice after playtime when the 2 bunnies are put back into their cage the female goes absolutely mental running backwards and forwards from one end of the cage to the other, the first time it happened we think she could have winded herself as she became very limp when my husband lifted her out of the cage to stop her. It's not every time she's put back in, we thought the first time it was because her brother was not put in first, as she is very protective of him, but the next time it happened he was already in the cage. They are fed as soon as they are put back in and do get excited in anticipation, but this is very erratic behaviour and we are very worried she hurts herself. Tonight when she went mad my husband lifted her out and put her on the floor where she carried on running around madly, we need to hold her whilst she's struggling to try to calm her down so as not to harm herself. Any ideas ????? We have three other indoor rabbits and have never seen behaviour like this before.

parsnipbun · Jun 30, 2015

Are they both neutered?

AmberNikSee · Jun 30, 2015

IMO it sounds like it might be a neurologic issue. If you could get a video of the behavior that might be helpful to show your veterinarian.

Tamsin · Jul 1, 2015

A video might help.

It's sometimes tough to ID a behaviour from the description.

It could be she's getting worked up, either because she's going back in the cage or anticipating something e.g. if you feed her after they are back in. The going limp could be a normal bunny flop - sometimes they get worked up running about and then flop over like they are going to nap.

MightyMax · Jul 1, 2015

Traceylynne8 said:
Please can anyone help, we have a sister & brother pair 20 weeks old, every thing has been fine until just recently. Twice after playtime when the 2 bunnies are put back into their cage the female goes absolutely mental running backwards and forwards from one end of the cage to the other, the first time it happened we think she could have winded herself as she became very limp when my husband lifted her out of the cage to stop her. It's not every time she's put back in, we thought the first time it was because her brother was not put in first, as she is very protective of him, but the next time it happened he was already in the cage. They are fed as soon as they are put back in and do get excited in anticipation, but this is very erratic behaviour and we are very worried she hurts herself. Tonight when she went mad my husband lifted her out and put her on the floor where she carried on running around madly, we need to hold her whilst she's struggling to try to calm her down so as not to harm herself. Any ideas ????? We have three other indoor rabbits and have never seen behaviour like this before.

Unfortunately this sounds very like one of my own rabbits. I believe it to be related to some neurological problem, perhaps connected with seizure like behaviour.

She could well injure herself in a cage situation. I wonder if for a while you have a bigger safe area you can keep both of them in together, without cooping her up? Something that doesn't have any stimulus - I don't know where your current cage is, but if the 'bigger' area could be indoors, in a quiet room, or somewhere where she can't see out of windows.

Is that possible?

I would say take her to your vet, but I took my rabbit along to my vet twice and she had not seen nor heard of anything like it before, and we drew a complete blank.

tonibun · Jul 1, 2015

It could be, if they are not neutered, age related, and she could be pregnant and getting anxious with regards to where she is going to make a nest. Probably not but the behaviour reminds me of something which happened years ago.

Poppy goes wild.

Traceylynne8

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parsnipbun

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AmberNikSee

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Tamsin

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MightyMax

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tonibun

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