Never, ever using a harness again!

[naturestee]

This morning, I tried a different type ofharness on Mocha- a little dog harness. I had tried one of thoseSuperpet ones that looks like a vest, but it scrunched his fur down andhe would keep trying to groom it off. So we tried the dog harness withthe stretchy leash from the Superpet one, and we let Mocha into ourbedroom to distract him. He's normally not allowed in there because hemisbehaves. As soon as he was on the ground he freaked a bit and dashedoff, pulling the leash from my husband's hand. He kept dashing around,getting more and more scared from the leash that was "chasing afterhim" and we couldn't catch him for a bit- not until he ran under hiscage door and the leash caught for a little bit. But then we had anabsolutely terrified little bunny thrashing around with his leashcaught :shock::shock::shock::shock: I had hoped to never hear a rabbitscream, but oh was the poor thing screaming! James managed to scoop himup pretty quickly and we got the harness off.

Mocha had gotten the harness twisted all around himself. He washyperventilating and was in shock. We petted him and talked to him forsome time, and then he moved a little bit into a corner and floppedthere for what seemed like hours. He's a 4 month old Netherland Dwarf-unless he's asleep in his cage he never flops for more than a second ortwo! We hadn't felt any injuries, but we called our vet's office andasked to have our vet call us back ASAP. I'm actually not sure what thevet said- I waited close to an hour but I work 3rd shift and needed togo to sleep. By that time, Mocha was moving about, washing himself, andcircling my feet again, looking for a petting. He doesn't seem to haveany soreness or to have lost any range of movement, and he startedeating just before I went to bed (lots of sleeping pills for me!).James is at class now so I don't know what the vet said, but weapparently are just supposed to watch him and be REALLY careful for acouple of days. I just checked him and he seems fine, here's hopinghe'll be okay! I know that affects from shock don't always show up inthe first day.

No more harnesses for this bun!

 

[cirrustwi]

OMG, that must have been scary!! I'veheard the rabbit scream from a wild bunny a friend's dog caught, yearsago. (They actually saved the baby bunny and kept it as a petfor years.) That is the most awful sound. I reallyhope to never hear it from any of my buns.

It sounds like he's doing fine and you did all the right things.

Jen

 

[rabbitluvr04]

I would have been so scared!:shock:

 

[LuvaBun]

Poor Mocha - you must have been so scared. Hesounds like he is doing OK - he probably flopped for so long 'cos hewas exhausted from running and trying to get the harness off. Both ofmy rabbits freaked when they had a harness on, and I never put on oneagain. - Jan

 

[naturestee]

Update on Mocha- he's doing well, he's just alittle apprehensive of us. He was playing for close to two hours lastnight and he even popped a binky. He did start a one-sided poop war inthe two spots where the baby gates are set up. I guess it's his way ofprotecting himself. He is currently begging to be let out, so I bettergo let him out!

 

[CMiska]

Poor baby. It sounds like it wasterrifying for him. We have the vest type and tried it on mylop, it was ok, he didnt freak out but he goes where he wants to andnot where I want him to so I have to be patient with him.Give the poor guy hugs and kisses

 

[Cheetos mom]

Its great to hear that Mocha seemed to recooperate rather well.

Rabbits remind me of children ; innocent and pure. All you want to dois shelter them from harm, and when you cannot do that the way youwould like, you pray that they will come out unscathed. Its sounds likeMocha is fine! You poor Mama!

 

[Ginbunny]

Poor Mocha,

I hope he's okay now. My rabbit of 9 years (rest in peace) alsoscreamed that rabbit howl you never want to hear when I too attemptedto leash her. I waited too late to train her to even wearacollar andshe was so traumatized. I am so sorry for Mocha.

I had started to train my new bunny to wear a leash and she was doingso-so, I just didn't keep up with it. More stress than itsworth I know.

PS: My first rabbit didn't die from wearing the leash. She lived a good long 9 years. Just wanted to let you know.

 

[kpc]

It's a very scary sound I have herd one of mybunnies scream before, never did find out why it was screaming it wasin its cage,it wasn't hurt that I could find by checking it from headto toe, it just screamed( scared my to death):shock:.
I hope your bunny is doing fine

 

[naturestee]

Luckily, Mocha is fine. We were really worriedthat he had injured his foot when he was thrashing around while hisleash was stuck (he favored one foot for a little bit) or that he hadbroken a rib or done some other kind of injury because of how badly theharness had twisted around him. For a while there I was in shock and Iwas convinced that I had killed my bunny.

 

[FrenchLopGirl1280]

I have heard a rabbit scream before. It wasreally scary. Hope bun is ok. Sounds like it wasn't a good idea to putharness on rabbit. Didn't before, was too big.

Cleo

 

[bunnee mom]

I'm glad to hear Mocha is all better. You must have been so scared.

I just bought Ellie a vest-type harness and leash the otherday. I had one of those choke collars but that scared me toomuch, I was afraid her neck would snap. She doesn't seem tomind wearing the vest, but I noticed a couple times after hoppingaround outside her front foot got misplaced. I think I justneed to tighten up the velcro around her neck (I'm afraid she's goingto bite me!)

 

[naturestee]

This wasn't a choke collar, it was a figure 8type harness made for chihuahuas. Mocha's so little thatnothing else would fit him. He was weighed at the vet'stoday- 1 pound 13 oz!

 

[Prizm]

My gosh, the poor little thing! I know you don'tever plan on using a harness again, but I'd like to share with you mysuccess story with Dusty and the newest little one, Narnia. I couldn'tmake the dog harnesses work for Dusty, because the material binding theneck loop to the back loop was too short for the back loop to catchunder his hind legs, so I hand made one out of thin material...thinkthin rope twine. I'd like to take a picture of this, but it is so thinthat the rabbit and the baby bunny doesn't seem to know it is on! It iswriggle proof too, as far as I can tell, although it is NOT bite proof(but I supervise them closely!) For the little one, I made her harnessout of an elastic string which was once a coat-string. It is nice andstretchy and is once again, light weight. The only time she goes alittle bezerk, is if the leash part (whichis also a string--avery long one so that if she sprints, the sprint ends before beforereaching the end of her "leash" and I can just scoop her up. Lianid,our cat, likes to play "tag" by stalkingand pouncing Narnia,before running away from the pursuing bunny.It's very cute!But, back to your bun's, it's so sad what happened, and maybe you'llnever harness her again, but if it helps, I *think* the reason myrabbits don't mind their harness is possibly because it is so lightweight.

 

[LittleMija2]

Wow, its so strange to see the differentbehaviors of rabbits. I know some wont tolerate a leash,butsome dont even notice it on. Mine couldnt care less about the leashbeing on and they sit quietly and sometimes even lick my hand as imputting it on them.They have " hertz" rabbit harnesses. Theyare made especially for bunnies and when my youngest was small she evenhad the ' hertz drawf size" rabbit harness. Mine run and drag me aroundlike a dog would, its quite cute. Im sorry your bun didnt like theleash idea.. thats too bad that she reacted so badly, hope she feelsbetter.

 

[FreddysMom]

i enjoy letting freddy run around my back yard,but b/c there are some small gaps under the fence i can't let him freeroam. I tryed to get that vest type leash but it was wayyy to big onhim. I finally found a harness small enough for him. Its actually aferret harness the brand of it is Hagen. super easy to put on too, itsjust two little clips, no pain in the buttbuckles.At first he wasn;t too crazyabout it, he'd put up a lil fuss, but i would hold him close to me andpet him and try to put it on as slow as i could so he wouldnt noticeand now he gives me no more problems and just sits there when i put iton him. I bought one of those dog leashes that extends to like 15ft sohe can go run and play. He likes to chase my little brother around theyard!

toodles,

tiffany

 

[chiquita090]

Awe, I hope Mocha feels better! O

As far as my buns and leashes...Calvin doesn't mind me putting it onhim too much but Jordan hates it. He's a nervous by nature, I don'tknow why. But once I get them both outside they always have a reallygood time! So I figure Jordan having a little discomfort with the leashat first is nothing compared to the wonderful time him and Calvin havewhile outside.