Any general thoughts on this please?

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?

How worrying for you! Could Henry have been dreaming. You mention a cat came in and scared them, maybe he was dreaming he had been caught by said cat? It's only an idea and hopefully it was nothing more serious.

Re the flopping and fast heartbeat - I've seen this with sudden onset gas episodes, especially with Elijah. He would constantly flop and was less aware of his surroundings (I suspect extreme pain response). The 'not really with it' for an hour is not like anything I've seen so that kind of debunks my first thoughts ... but of course, each rabbit's response to pain is different. Elijah had many similar episodes but once the obstruction had moved he was back to normal like flicking a switch. Not necessarily gut related but maybe a response to pain that resolved itself?

How worrying for you I've no idea what might have caused it, but I think it was good that you had a vet appointment booked. Have you been? What did the vet think?

Bunny Buddy said:

Re the flopping and fast heartbeat - I've seen this with sudden onset gas episodes, especially with Elijah. He would constantly flop and was less aware of his surroundings (I suspect extreme pain response). The 'not really with it' for an hour is not like anything I've seen so that kind of debunks my first thoughts ... but of course, each rabbit's response to pain is different. Elijah had many similar episodes but once the obstruction had moved he was back to normal like flicking a switch. Not necessarily gut related but maybe a response to pain that resolved itself?

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I agree. Toby would roll on his sides, DBF and appear restless when he gas. Maybe have a little look into Henry's diet. Is there anything that could cause gas?

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loobers25 said:

I agree. Toby would roll on his sides, DBF and appear restless when he gas. Maybe have a little look into Henry's diet. Is there anything that could cause gas?

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Thank you everybun for your helpful replies. Gas seems to be a common suspect although I didn't hear or smell anything during the episode. Maybe he managed to relieve the gas later that night. I'm not aware that he had eaten anything out of the norm. Unless he scoffed something in the garden during his sunday out. He seems ok today but it's doing little for my stress levels. Thank you all again for reading and advising - it really is appreciated.
Craig

Craig, do you have an update on this please? :wave:

Hello everybun. An update has been requested - so here it is. The vet wanted footage - which there was none. He presented as normal with the vet. She considered EC but that would require bloods which she didn't do as he was not presenting as anything other than normal.
Since the episode a few weeks ago, there has been no repeat that I have witnessed. Obviously if something happens during the night or at day when we're at work, we won't be any the wiser. Henry is bright and alert every day, zooming up and down stairs, playing his own mind games when he is upstairs, doing mini zoomies and exploring and working out a route ahead of his next zoom. He sits out in the garden when the weather allows and just sits in the loaf of bread and is perfectly content.
So there's nothing other than this. I'll be keeping a close eye on him - I'm off work for the next few days so will be around and see how things go. He has to go back to the vet on thursday for another tear duct flush and he's on anti inflamatories to see if that will help with whatever is obstructing his tear duct.
Thank you all again for your wonderful and helpful advice. As always it is very much appreciated.
Craig x

Craig 1965 said:

Hello everybun. An update has been requested - so here it is. The vet wanted footage - which there was none. He presented as normal with the vet. She considered EC but that would require bloods which she didn't do as he was not presenting as anything other than normal.
Since the episode a few weeks ago, there has been no repeat that I have witnessed. Obviously if something happens during the night or at day when we're at work, we won't be any the wiser. Henry is bright and alert every day, zooming up and down stairs, playing his own mind games when he is upstairs, doing mini zoomies and exploring and working out a route ahead of his next zoom. He sits out in the garden when the weather allows and just sits in the loaf of bread and is perfectly content.
So there's nothing other than this. I'll be keeping a close eye on him - I'm off work for the next few days so will be around and see how things go. He has to go back to the vet on thursday for another tear duct flush and he's on anti inflamatories to see if that will help with whatever is obstructing his tear duct.
Thank you all again for your wonderful and helpful advice. As always it is very much appreciated.
Craig x

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Well no news is good news! I am glad to hear all this

If it had presented again I would have had a few suggestions to make, but until and if it does, I shan't because there is no cause for alarm.

Lovely to hear how he is doing his rounds and so much exercising - the leg/foot is also better?

Glad to hear that there has not been a occurrence of the worrying signs sending gentle nose rubs for Henry.

MightyMax said:

Well no news is good news! I am glad to hear all this

If it had presented again I would have had a few suggestions to make, but until and if it does, I shan't because there is no cause for alarm.

Lovely to hear how he is doing his rounds and so much exercising - the leg/foot is also better?

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Indeed it would seem so. He is using it fully although the vet did a simple restriction test (gently) to see what ability/power he had, and determined that he is still weak in that leg, which she suggested could be just muscle memory/loss. This should be regained during the coming weeks as he continues to build up his energy. I've allowed him access (supervised) upstairs and he is very confident on the paw.
I'm still none the wiser (and never will know) on how the injury occured. I'm just pleased that he is over that incident and we'll hopefully have the tear duct resolved and then take it from there.

Hope all continues well with Henry. These buns know how to worry us!