Mean Casper

Well, like the title says, really, Casper's been mean a lot to Sophie lately. They'll just be playing together or sitting together, or he'll even be washing her or she just comes near, and seemingly out ot of nowhere his ears go back and tail goes up and he nips her and chases her away. I'm not sure what's causing it. I wonder if he's maybe grumpy because he needs a dental, or because maybe his tooth roots are hurting and his current daily dose of Metacam needs to be higher, or if Sophie's not feeling well and he's seeing that as a reason to try to become top bunny. At the same time, he doesn't seem to be feeling bad at all. He's been binkying more this week than he has in a long time, and he's eating well.

Anyway, I have an appointment at the vet for them both this afternoon to see if something's going on with one or both of them, so we'll see...

As long as they are both happy and eating normally then perhaps it's nothing to worry about. Rabbits have some odd behaviours at times and the longer days can affect them. If you catch him being mean tell him off, this might help.

Hope you return to a happy warren soon.

I hope the vets appointment goes well and there’s nothing untoward going on.

tonibun said:

As long as they are both happy and eating normally then perhaps it's nothing to worry about. Rabbits have some odd behaviours at times and the longer days can affect them. If you catch him being mean tell him off, this might help.

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I hope it's nothing to worry about. They do both seem happy, but it's really out of character for Casper; he's never been like this, and he's doing it so much that Sophie's now sometimes wary about going near him. Maybe it's the longer days, though, yeah... I do tell him off, but he doesn't seem to care.

Cuthbert&Dillon said:

Hope you return to a happy warren soon.

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Thank you, C&D.

Zoobec said:

I hope the vets appointment goes well and there’s nothing untoward going on.

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Thank you, Zoobec.

I thought I'd give you all an update. We've been to the vets and the vet found two things that could be wrong. The first is that Casper has very small spurs, but since he's had very small spurs for a while now and they seem to be stable, the vet prefers to wait with a dental until it's clear that they're bothering Casper, since he's getting a bit older and she'd prefer to not sedate him unnecessarily. So, we've agreed that I'll just keep a very close eye on him and let them know if there are any changes in his eating or output or anything else.

The second thing is that Sophie seems to be having pain in her kidney area, as she reacted quite strongly whenever the vet touched her there, even if she only touched lightly. The vet said that if she'd have kidney problems or a tumour there then she'd be losing weight (she's not) and be noticeably ill (she's not) or have trouble peeing (she doesn't), except if the problem is just starting. So, we discussed it and I'd rather know for sure if something's going on, so she has blood tests and an ultrasound on Friday. I'm rather anxious about that, and I really hope they don't find anything, although if they do at least it won't be really bad yet.

She vet also checked out Casper's incisors (I'd mentioned here a while ago that I thought they looked weird and uneven) and she said they're fine, and she looked at the spot Sophie was overgrooming the other week, but didn't see anything wrong with the skin, so she couldn't see a clear reason for it, and since she's not overgrooming right now we didn't really talk about it more.

They seem to have recovered from their vet visit already, thankfully. Sophie is playing in her ball pit, and Casper was chewing some willow thing just now.

I hope it's something to treat, as nothing at all wouldn't necessarily be comforting!

keletkezes said:

I hope it's something to treat, as nothing at all wouldn't necessarily be comforting!

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Thank you. That's true...

I hope the scan doesn’t reveal anything sinister, fingers crossed for you.

Oh I hope the scan and blood tests don't find anything bad, sending lots of vibes for you and the bunnies xx

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Aww I hope the scan and blood tests go well for you!

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I hope that Sophie's OK.

Good luck for Friday and well done for spotting unusual behaviour with Casper. You know your buns well.

Thank you, all of you. I really appreciate it. I'll let you all know how it goes Friday.

I wonder if this is why Casper's been acting this way? That he noticed Sophie isn't feeling the best, and he's being like, "Now I'm going to be the boss bunny"? I'm also wondering if Sophie should be getting pain meds if she's having pain, or if she's maybe only sore when people touch her there...

I'm really sorry to hear of Sophie & Caspars health & relationship woes. I agree its wise to hold off with the dental while he is eating well. I really hope all is well with Sophie, & that her bloods & scan offers reassurance. Hoping they can be nice to each other too. What a worrying time for you

joey&boo said:

I'm really sorry to hear of Sophie & Caspars health & relationship woes. I agree its wise to hold off with the dental while he is eating well. I really hope all is well with Sophie, & that her bloods & scan offers reassurance. Hoping they can be nice to each other too. What a worrying time for you

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Thank you, j&b. I am very worried. Casper hasn't been chasing Sophie away since we got back, so that's good, at least.

a reader of books said:

Thank you, j&b. I am very worried. Casper hasn't been chasing Sophie away since we got back, so that's good, at least.

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waiting is hard. I'm glad your bunnies are back to being friends & hope that continues. Maybe that was their way of letting you know they needed to see the vet? I know that probably sounds insane. Boo used to need regular dentals & pretty much the only signs we'd get were she'd stop drinking & start grooming Bobs head at night. Try explainng to your vet its dental time because your rabbit is grooming your partners head :lol: Last year when Rudey was really poorly Mouse started looking distressed by it & started weeing on him. I have no idea what she was trying to say but clearly she was tring to say something.

I hope ulteasound and bloodtests all look good on friday! Fingers crossed!

joey&boo said:

waiting is hard. I'm glad your bunnies are back to being friends & hope that continues. Maybe that was their way of letting you know they needed to see the vet? I know that probably sounds insane. Boo used to need regular dentals & pretty much the only signs we'd get were she'd stop drinking & start grooming Bobs head at night. Try explainng to your vet its dental time because your rabbit is grooming your partners head :lol: Last year when Rudey was really poorly Mouse started looking distressed by it & started weeing on him. I have no idea what she was trying to say but clearly she was tring to say something.

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Waiting is definitely hard... I'm glad the vet could do the tests on Friday, at least, instead of having to wait until next week. You know, I actually wondered about that myself? If maybe this was Casper's way of saying something's wrong and needed to be checked out? I can see the difficulty of telling the vet it's time for a dental because your bunny is grooming your partner's head. :lol: Her grooming Bob's head, and Mousey weeing on Rudey, do seem to be their way of telling you something, don't they? I mean, they have to find some way of telling us something is going on, since they can't tell us in words.

They do seem to be friends again. Casper was chewing on a stick, and Sophie came and flopped right onto his stick, and instead of chasing her away he just started washing her tail and then flopped against her.

Walli said:

I hope ulteasound and bloodtests all look good on friday! Fingers crossed!

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Thank you for hoping, Walli.