Rabbit Choking Stories

ShaunaH. recounts her choking event with her bun Girl: " Our girl choked on pellets she more or less inhaled tonight. She sounded like she was vomiting but we know rabbits don't do that though. She was hiding behind the couch then was running frantically around, putting her nose in the air, pawing at her nose and face, snotting with lots of phlegm bubbling from her nose. We quickly grabbed her, wiped what we could off, googled bunny choking and as carefully as we could performed the bunny heimlich. extremely important to support their backs during this"

"She was still bubbling at her nose but less so and her lips appeared to be somewhat bluish still. The whole ordeal lasted about 10 minutes then a 12 minute ride to the vet and 15 mins in the waiting room for triage. She's home now and seems comfortable. She ate a piece of hay the second she got in the door. We gave her some greens too entice her to eat more so we could give her meds. The vet gave us Meloxicam and anti biotics. She's drank a little water and her bonded bun has helped her clean up a bit too."

" So first thing we'll change is that we won't give so many pellets at one time and monitor both of them as they eat (they mainly get pellets as a treat so they get super duper excited to eat them). Second thing is that we now know to use this bunny heimlich if we (Earth forbid) ever need to use it again. Have a read. It might save a bun. Thanks for reading." Thanks ShaunaH! Text & picture used with her permission.

/u/Okcool81 shares their choking story about Cadbury.

"As for the story: I heard a weird noise, saw she had mucus or something coming from her nose and mouth and noticed she didn't finish her food so something was definitely up. She was panicking. I picked her up and swayed her, tapped her lightly on her back and sides. She ran off and started cleaning herself. Watched her for a while and she seemed back to normal."

- Thanks /u/Okcool81, text & picture used with permission.

LynneL. shares her choking story about Ollie and how she used a "reverse version of CPR" as a technique.

"I would do anything to save my bunnies, so when my Ollie was choking on something this was the first thing that came to mind. I came home from work one night to find Ollie making a very loud gasping and wheezing sound. Every now and then, he would make a choking sound and then something like clearing your throat. Don't know if bunnies are capable of clearing their own throats. Ollie is a very calm and cooperative bun, so he was willing to let me try to help him. I Looked in his mouth and didn't see anything, so I basically just placed my whole mouth over his nose and mouth and sucked in quickly and forcefully. I did this maybe 2 or 3 times. Nothing came out into my mouth, but the vet thinks that I might have dislodged some hay that might have become lodged into the side of his throat. I did take him to see Dr. Harvey the following morning after a sleepless night. She squeezed him in before all her other appts 😍. Ollie still made the strange sounds while the vet was checking his throat. She noticed his throat was inflamed and irritated, thus the theory of the hay and me dislodging the discomfort. We went home with anti-inflammatory meds and made another appt for the following day in case the issue wasn't resolved and the Dr needed to sedate Ollie to check further down his throat.

Luckily by the next morning Ollie was at least 75% better. He still was making a very audible sound, not like his usual "buzzing" sound which he has made since a young bun. I brought him in for the follow up and the Dr agreed that he was in fact better because neither of us wanted to go down the sedation route. A few more days on the meds and he was back to normal." - Thanks LynneL., text & picture used with permission.