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Rabbit Choking 101

Hi, thank you so much for the tips. My bunny nearly died this afternoon after choking on his food. He is barely 3 weeks old and it really frightens me when he suddenly jumping and rolling frantically gasping for air. I tried my best to remain calm, googled and found this! One thing though, can you provide a diagram to show how it can be done correctly? English is not my first language, and even though what I did before worked I have a feeling that I was doing it wrong. He seems ok right now and I hope that I'll never have to do it again. Nonetheless it is useful for me to know how to perform it correctly for the sake of the rabbit if (god forbids) it should happen again. Thanks a lot :)
 
ka5e said:
Hi, thank you so much for the tips. My bunny nearly died this afternoon after choking on his food. He is barely 3 weeks old and it really frightens me when he suddenly jumping and rolling frantically gasping for air. I tried my best to remain calm, googled and found this! One thing though, can you provide a diagram to show how it can be done correctly? English is not my first language, and even though what I did before worked I have a feeling that I was doing it wrong. He seems ok right now and I hope that I'll never have to do it again. Nonetheless it is useful for me to know how to perform it correctly for the sake of the rabbit if (god forbids) it should happen again. Thanks a lot :)
Click to expand...

Hi, I'm glad your bunny seems ok. But why do you have a bunny that is only 3 weeks old? Do you have his mother too? Bunnies should stay with their mother until they are at least 8 weeks old, 3 weeks is far too soon. He should still be feeding from her at that age, he could get all sorts of health problems as a result of being separated from her. Do you live in the UK?

You must get your bun checked over by a vet, because even if he seems ok, choking can cause them to get aspiration pneumonia, so you need to make sure his lungs are ok x
 
ripminnie said:
Hi, I'm glad your bunny seems ok. But why do you have a bunny that is only 3 weeks old? Do you have his mother too? Bunnies should stay with their mother until they are at least 8 weeks old, 3 weeks is far too soon. He should still be feeding from her at that age, he could get all sorts of health problems as a result of being separated from her. Do you live in the UK?

You must get your bun checked over by a vet, because even if he seems ok, choking can cause them to get aspiration pneumonia, so you need to make sure his lungs are ok x
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Yes, I have the mother too. I let the mother roam freely (inside and around the house) and she'll come back to her kits before night fall and I'll cage her up with the kits till the next morning. Occasionally I let the kits play outside the cage so they can nibble on some grasses (i do this because i saw them nibbling the mother's food in the cage). Yesterday, one of them found bits of left-over prunes and ate it... and it got stucked.. No, i dont live in the UK.

Yeah, I've brought him over to a vet. He did a check-up and said the bun is gonna be fine. And I found this link! http://www.bunspace.com/groups/topic?tid=9871
It shows photos of how a guy do a Rabbit Heimlich :)
 
Wish Id known this, last year jack was choking and he was pawing at face frothing at mouth and nose until he went rigid and his lips nose turned black, scariest thing ever ringing vet bundling him in car telling him itll be ok and ready to give mouth to mouth.
He did recover but omg what a fright!
 
Just wanted to add some information based on an observation I've made...

Arthur had an incident of near choking last night :( I know rabbits cannot gag or vomit as they do not have the reflex, however Arthur did do a move that looks similar to a gag, he opened his mouth and looked like he was trying to cough up something, his ears elevated from lop to horizontal in the effort and he kind of rocked forwards, then he coughed up a bit of chewed cabbage that he'd inhaled. He was a little freaked out but settled fast and after about 20 seconds was taking food back off of me :roll: (he's off to the vets this afternoon to check there's no teeth issues).

So although rabbits cannot gag as a reflex, I think they can make some conscious effort to dislodge something stuck in their throat, so if you see your bunny regularly doing this whilst eating it might be that they frequently inhaling their food and you might need to take measures to protect them from fully choking and get their teeth checked incase it is because they aren't chewing their food properly
 
I know I'm posting on an old thread but hope I'll get away with it as it's a sticky? :p
I just wanted to thank Georgeypudding, and whoever made this a sticky, for posting this. A few weeks back it saved my Maple's life. She's incredibly greedy and a few weeks back she choked on a pellet. It was early hours of the morning, no vet available, and she could barely breathe. If I hadn't previously read this thread and got my brother to look it up quick for instructions she probably wouldn't have made it. As it turned out we were able to get it loose and she is now fine :D

Just one thing that might help others in future, my Mum tried to massage under her chin around her throat area to try to dislodge it. That seemed to help and I think played a part in getting it loose, so might be another thing to try if someone else is in this situation. I hope we never have to go through it again - one of the scariest moments we've ever had! But thankfully it all turned out fine in the end.
Thank you so much for keeping this information here! It definitely helped save Maple's life :D
 
Thank you for this!!! Rarely, but esp. w/ hay, I find Mimi starts what sounds kinda like sneezing but I worry it's choking - she does paw around her face. Thank you again!
 
dbowes said:
Thanks Georgey. Jaspy has a wonky mouth following an ear infection. It doesn't bother him at such but he is showing signs of needing a dental and perhaps more likely to choke than before. Hopefully i'll never experience it but if i do I want to be ready.
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Hi everyone
 
I had a horrible choking episode years ago when one of my lionheads groomed her partner's mane too enthusiastically and got a huge skein of fur caught up in her throat. She was coughing and drinking water constantly from a bowl so her throat wasn't 100% blocked.

I didn't realise she'd swallowed fur and thought she was close to expiring with a death rattle, so rushed her to an emergency vet at midnight. £100 later, they had extracted the long clump of fur using dental tools and she was back to normal.

Very useful advice here.
 
Zarla said:
I had a horrible choking episode years ago when one of my lionheads groomed her partner's mane too enthusiastically and got a huge skein of fur caught up in her throat. She was coughing and drinking water constantly from a bowl so her throat wasn't 100% blocked.

I didn't realise she'd swallowed fur and thought she was close to expiring with a death rattle, so rushed her to an emergency vet at midnight. £100 later, they had extracted the long clump of fur using dental tools and she was back to normal.

Very useful advice here.
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Blimey, that must have been scary :shock:
 
Zarla said:
I had a horrible choking episode years ago when one of my lionheads groomed her partner's mane too enthusiastically and got a huge skein of fur caught up in her throat. She was coughing and drinking water constantly from a bowl so her throat wasn't 100% blocked.

I didn't realise she'd swallowed fur and thought she was close to expiring with a death rattle, so rushed her to an emergency vet at midnight. £100 later, they had extracted the long clump of fur using dental tools and she was back to normal.

Very useful advice here.
Click to expand...


Oh that sounds awful Zarla :shock:
So glad you got that sorted fast.
 
Beau

My rabbit for the past year has been every now and then renching, bringing up green slime and sneezing. Is this her choking as the vets don’t know what it is ? Her lungs sounds raspy. 20 minutes later she’s back to normal.
 
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