Is my bun shaking too much?

[bluedimplett]

I have a male holland Lop (weighs 2.5 lbs) he was neutered over two months ago and he is 10 months old.

Since the beginning my bun has always been breathing fast and when i took him to the vet the he said that it was normal for his size. So, recently (pretty much right after 2 months since the neuturing) i noticed that he was no longer nearly as active. The digging is at a minimal and he eats more hay and he spends ALOT more time in his litter box. He never wants to come out and run in his exercise pen.

The only way he will hop around is if i bring him out to my bedroom. Normally, when he comes to the bedroom after all the hopping/binkies he likes to hide under the bed for an hour. I no longer feel comfortable of him doing that so i put up a fence made out of the NIC and then i let him out to play. At first he was mad but then got over it. About 20 minutes later he goes to relax on the litter box and i noticed that his whole body was shaking. HIs head was bobbing quite a bit. I have seen this before. This is the third time i have seen him do this this week. The first time was when i groomed him and the second time was when he got his nails trimmed at the house of rabbit society.

So, is something wrong? I'm real worried because the last two nights i have dreamt that he has died suddenly.

 

[ra7751]

Hi,

That is usually a sign of stress. Has anything changed in his domain? Something different about his living arrangements or maybe the furniture been rearranged near him? We see some of our more skittish rabbits do that. I would keep monitoring him closely....and document when you see these episodes. Don't rely on memory. Note anything that could be related....time of day, something being done like cooking or cleaning...anything. By documenting in writing, it is easier to chart trends to see what is causing this. But it could be the settling of hormones as he starts to enter young adulthood. As long as he is eating, especially lots of hay (he should have hay in unlimited amounts) and there is no sign of pain or infection....I would just monitor him closely and keep stress levels to a minimum. If he does his after every exercise session, I might consider doing a full physical with blood panels to check the operation of vital organs....especially the renal and respiratorysystem. As unlikely as this might be, fluid build up in the chest cavity can also lead to these symptoms but it is highly unlikely in such a young rabbit.

Randy