She THREW herself at the cage wall & caused injury. WHY?

[lilcourtski]

My question is WHY did she throw herself against the cage wall? How can I prevent future accidents?

She literally fractured her back. She hurt herself bad enough to where she can't use her legs, she is dragging them to the side. This happened immediately after the lunge, she freaked out for a minute but after didn't seem to be in pain, just looked confused. We took her to the vet this morning and the x-rays showed a slight fracture in her upper spine, like it popped out of place and went back in. They are keeping her for a few days to provide pain medication and relaxants so she can heal. She lunged herself very hard, but I only caught a glimpse of it.

A little info on my Luna: She is a 3-4 month old Lion Head. She's always been a little poppy bunny, but I've never owned a bunny before so I'm not sure if that's normal. By poppy I mean sometimes she like pops up and hits her head on the top of her hide box, and she twitches if you poke her somewhere she doesn't like lol.
Her cage is an XL dog kennel, with plenty of room with a hide box, litter box, and laying/play space. We let her out all day, and she loves to run around and sit on top of her kennel like the queen she is. I'm thinking maybe she is so spoiled with out of cage time, that last night she decided she wanted out and threw herself against the wall. I dunno.

So please help!

 

[majorv]

My first thought is that she was spooked by something. Rabbits who perceive danger or become startled by something will freak out. They can get hurt if they run into something when they freak out.

 

[PaGal]

I agree that she most likely was scared by something. I have seen my rabbits do this when something really scared the bejesus out of them. Luckily in my case none were hurt. The fight or flight kicks in and they just panic and want away from whatever has spooked them. Unfortunately I don't think there is anything you can do to prevent this happening in the future, buns being buns you just can't ever really know what might spook them.

Now if you do know of something that always spooks her you may be able to help. My buns get scared any time I carry any large items through the bun room. To avoid this I talk to them as I approach the room and keep talking until I am again out of their sight. It works. We have been able to move things as large as fridges and mattresses through their room with no more than them being extra alert. My Flemish who is almost bomb proof for some reason would freak out when I would remove/replace the window screens on the outside of our windows to hang Christmas decorations. Now I just don't hang those ones.

Other things I can do nothing about such as an owl hooting outside but whenever any bun gets spooked I go to the room and talk to them which usually calms them down, if that doesn't work I will give them a few pellets to distract them.

I hope Luna recovers quickly! Hopefully as she ages she will begin to feel safer and also to feel safer in her hide box or litter box and run into those to hide when frightened and not just blindly panic

 

[lilcourtski]

Thank you guys! I'm still trying to figure out what scared her, it was night time and we were asleep with lights off. Call me crazy but I'm really starting to think it might have been a spirit, because my dog gets spooked often and growls at thin air.

I built her a new princess cardboard castle hide box for when she comes home from the vet lol. I want her to feel safe, maybe i'll get her a night light as well.

Thank you!!

 

[Whiterabbitrage]

My first thoughts were that she got spooked. Rabbits get clumsy when they get spooked. At least Harvey does. She crashes into anything in her way to get to her safe place ASAP. I hope Luna will be ok!!

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Not so much clumsy, as being single mindedly trying to get away when scared and not really cognizant of surroundings. You might try confining to a "safer" space at night.

 

[Aki]

Thank you guys! I'm still trying to figure out what scared her, it was night time and we were asleep with lights off. Call me crazy but I'm really starting to think it might have been a spirit, because my dog gets spooked often and growls at thin air.

I built her a new princess cardboard castle hide box for when she comes home from the vet lol. I want her to feel safe, maybe i'll get her a night light as well.

Thank you!!

I don't think light makes much of a difference for rabbits. Animals generally see a lot better than we do in the dark. On the other hand, having hide outs is good. My rabbits have a two storey house made from old wine crates and two big carboard boxes which I change regularly as they like to dig the bottom part (it's important for the houses to have several entrances, I make one for every wall, so that the rabbit doesn't feel cornered). Animals hear a lot better than we do, so there might have been an owl outside, or a weird vibration... I've never seen a reaction as extreme as the one your bunny had but when I was living in Paris my bunnies used to stomp their feet a lot. I'm pretty sure they were feeling and hearing the underground even though we were on the second floor. Two weeks ago my buck started stomping at 11 pm and I couldn't hear or see anything, but he probably could...