Craig 1965
Warren Veteran
I'm taking Henry to the specialist vet today as a (hopefully) final follow up from his paw incident. His paw appears to be perfectly fine now, and has been for a couple of weeks, so I'm not expecting any issues. His blocked tear duct is a concern - I'll be requesting a flush for that to see what happens.
But I have a question for you all following a strange behaviour incident with Henry very late last night. O/H woke me up at 11pm, in a flap about Henry.
She reported that Henry was lying flat out, on his back, paws in the air, in the kitchen/diner area where they go to bed. I came straight downstairs and Henry was off his back and generally on his side.
Now, on it's own, this behaviour is not at first glance, alarming. But we all know our rabbits and what followed, was, for me, not really Henry behaviour.
I reached over to Henry, lying half on his side, half on his tummy, and stroked him. Now, this normally wouldn't happen in this situation. He would normally straighten up and sit up. I've not known a rabbit feel comfortable being stroked whilst just finished what could only be described as a DBF. But it got weirder.
Henry seemed 'restless' and kept wanting to flop on his side all the time, rolling on his side. I figured he might just either be tired or just quite content.
But - when I looked at his chest, it was going up and down at an alarmingly fast speed. So fast it was impossible to count. When you felt his chest area, his heart beat was just super fast. I offered him a cranberry - which he flatly refused - and that is certainly not normal.
He eventually pulled himself up and ran into the living room and proceded to perform the same splat/DBF under the table. He seemed restless and kept trying to lye on his side, stretch his back legs out with his chest and apparent heart rate just so incredibly fast.
Then the strange and worrying bit. I picked him up to see if there was something wrong and when I picked him up, his whole body was just limp. There was like no resistance. He just stayed in the stretched out DBF position. Normally when you pick him (or any bun) up, you feel muscle resistance but Henry just had none.
So I sat him on my chest and lay on the sofa for an hour with Henry just lying on my chest, relaxed but really not wanting to move. It was all very surreal. I felt his chest and tummy and his heart beat appeared to have slowed back down and his nose was going normally. After about an hour, Henry regained some degree of awareness - he was looking round and looking to move off me and at that point he hoped onto the floor and ran normally to the kitchen where he then sat in an upright position and cleaned himself quite thoroughly. I offered him a cranberry again and he scoffed it straight down so I put some chopped celery leaves and stalks near him and he started eating that (although Lillian shoved her big face into the same helping). So his eating/appetite returned.
This morning Henry appears normal. He's alert, sitting up and a little quiet but no sign of last nights behaviour.
Obviously I'll report all this to the vet, but has anyone got any thoughts or views or observations on this please?
But I have a question for you all following a strange behaviour incident with Henry very late last night. O/H woke me up at 11pm, in a flap about Henry.
She reported that Henry was lying flat out, on his back, paws in the air, in the kitchen/diner area where they go to bed. I came straight downstairs and Henry was off his back and generally on his side.
Now, on it's own, this behaviour is not at first glance, alarming. But we all know our rabbits and what followed, was, for me, not really Henry behaviour.
I reached over to Henry, lying half on his side, half on his tummy, and stroked him. Now, this normally wouldn't happen in this situation. He would normally straighten up and sit up. I've not known a rabbit feel comfortable being stroked whilst just finished what could only be described as a DBF. But it got weirder.
Henry seemed 'restless' and kept wanting to flop on his side all the time, rolling on his side. I figured he might just either be tired or just quite content.
But - when I looked at his chest, it was going up and down at an alarmingly fast speed. So fast it was impossible to count. When you felt his chest area, his heart beat was just super fast. I offered him a cranberry - which he flatly refused - and that is certainly not normal.
He eventually pulled himself up and ran into the living room and proceded to perform the same splat/DBF under the table. He seemed restless and kept trying to lye on his side, stretch his back legs out with his chest and apparent heart rate just so incredibly fast.
Then the strange and worrying bit. I picked him up to see if there was something wrong and when I picked him up, his whole body was just limp. There was like no resistance. He just stayed in the stretched out DBF position. Normally when you pick him (or any bun) up, you feel muscle resistance but Henry just had none.
So I sat him on my chest and lay on the sofa for an hour with Henry just lying on my chest, relaxed but really not wanting to move. It was all very surreal. I felt his chest and tummy and his heart beat appeared to have slowed back down and his nose was going normally. After about an hour, Henry regained some degree of awareness - he was looking round and looking to move off me and at that point he hoped onto the floor and ran normally to the kitchen where he then sat in an upright position and cleaned himself quite thoroughly. I offered him a cranberry again and he scoffed it straight down so I put some chopped celery leaves and stalks near him and he started eating that (although Lillian shoved her big face into the same helping). So his eating/appetite returned.
This morning Henry appears normal. He's alert, sitting up and a little quiet but no sign of last nights behaviour.
Obviously I'll report all this to the vet, but has anyone got any thoughts or views or observations on this please?