Rabbits

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Clover gave us a real scare today. She got overheated and started shaking really bad. (i.imgur.com)

submitted 1 year ago by lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee to c/rabbits@lemmy.world

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The temperature in here gets higher than today regularly but it's normally really dry. Today has been very humid so I guess that must be why. Everyone needs to know the signs of overheating! Clover was visibly shaking and her ears were hot. We cooled her by turning on the AC and putting an ice pack on her. You could also touch the ice pack to their ears to help or spray their ears with a little mist of water then blow a fan on it to cool them down.

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[–] Koto@lemmy.fmhy.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

How scary, I'm glad you were you able to cool down Clover again, quick thinking!

As someone who plans to keep a bun as a pet in the future, your post has been very informative. Thank you for sharing the tips!

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

I'm glad to help! There is a lot to know about rabbits and they can be pretty fragile but they're so rewarding to have around!

[–] sandmesomesand@midwest.social 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry that a few morons are claiming your rabbit is obese even though there's literally no way to tell from this angle (have any of you ever seen a domestic rabbit loafing?).

Anyway, my buns also love it when I put ice cubes in her water bowl! Cold water does wonders for their tiny bodies!

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

Clover says that's a great idea too! She licked the frozen bottle and says it feels nice :)

[+] ThatWeirdGuy1001@sh.itjust.works -6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Probably due to her weight. You need to put this rabbit on a diet unless you're planning on eating her because she is way to overweight

[–] lagomorphlecture@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

You really can't tell that from a picture, but she's at a healthy weight. She weighs 7 lbs which is the correct weight for her size. She just looks round because she has that particular body shape. Her diet consists of about a tbsp of oxbow pellets in the morning and everything else is hay, a salad of lettuce or similar in the afternoon and a different kind of pellets made of nothing but Timothy hay. Also she just saw the vet a few weeks ago and the vet was initially concerned that she lost about 2 oz (but it turns out she hasn't and the vet just misremembered her prior weight). But if the vet is concerned about that snall of a loss it would be very bad for her.

Anyhow I want to reiterate that it's extremely difficult to judge a rabbit's weight from photos, especially with the 2 rounder body shapes.

Edit: what is wrong with you people jumping on haranguing me about my rabbit, who is at a healthy weight, being supposedly morbidly obese? I'm seriously at a loss right now. Here is a page that outlines the different rabbit body types. She has the commercial type, which makes sense given that she's mixed breed part Californian. https://arba.net/posing-and-evaluating-different-type-rabbits/

Seriously this type of stuff in rabbit forums is extremely unhelpful for people who are trying to learn and do better for their rabbits. Also, if I were new to rabbits and got these comments (which are entirely unhelpful, nobody is even politely outlining proper rabbit nutrition, just calling her obese and telling me to feed her less wtf) I might have put her on a diet and caused her stasis or something. JFC I can't even with those comments.

Another edit: also I want to reiterate that I posted this in part to help other people so they would a. know the signs of overheating and b. know what to do if their rabbit overheats.

[–] turtle550@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Rabbit mum here. Sounds like you are doing everything right by providing unlimited hay, topped up with some veggies and pellets. Thank you for posting about the signs of overheating. We've had some scares with our boy last year during the UK heatwave and it's really serious. We now keep frozen water bottles in the freezer during summer so we can preventively put them down if we know it's going to get hot. We tried cool pads but our bunnies don't like them!

[–] mapiki 1 points 1 year ago

I'm sorry for the hate :( It sounds like you're feeding her the proper diet and I appreciate the info. (And taking her to the vet and keeping her inside which is so much more than most of the people I've encountered know how to do!!) My bun refuses to come inside even when it's hot out. I have to chase her off the balcony every few hours to cool down.